UK general election

Due on 7th May.

Result appears extremly unpredictable. Current polls show that neither the Tories or Labour will be anywhere near an overall majority, and would need support from one or more other party to form a government.

Talking points:

• The Scottish National Party are on course to win almost every seat in Scotland, at the expense mainly of the Labour party.
• The Liberal Democrats, the current junior party in government are on course to suffer significant losses, with Nick Clegg their leader and the deputy PM potentially losing his seat.
• UKIP, the right-wing anti-immigration, anti-EU party have significant support in England, but due to the voting system will win at most a handful of seats (itself a first).
• The Tories will probably lose a few seats and Labour will win a few. Which is the largest party will be important from the point of view of public perception, but Labour seem to have more chance of forming a government as other parties seem more likely to do a deal with them.

Overall, I think the trend away from the 2-party system towards a multiparty system is unmistakeable.

I'm not familiar with where SNP stands on issues beyond the eponymous. Who would they most likely ally with for coalition purposes?

They despise the Tories, and would like to ally with Labour.
Labour, on the other hand, have to be much more stand-offish towards them given their seperatist desires.

Good! Maybe that will catch on across the pond. Both parties are on cruise control over here.

A Miliband led government in coalition with the SNP is a scenario that gives me nightmares. Almost enough to make me consider leaving the country.

I don't know why @RickDeckard cares though. Not his problem.

As are an alarming number of your electorate, who have seemingly stagenated into the intellectual laziness of "this is my position because it's the right wing position" and vice versa.

They have no issues that would benefit the UK. Their primary mission is to break up the union and therefore it will be a consideration in whatever policies they have. Any cunt who votes Labour, knowing that it could result in the SNP being in government, is guilty of nothing short of being a traitor. It's like voting Sinn Féin into government.

Would you accept such a statement about yourself regarding interest in the US election?

As much as I would like to see UKIP make gains, I don't see LibLabCon dominance waning anytime soon.

No, because the US election has a direct impact on my country.That said, how often do you see my posting in the US election threads?

Besides, my comment was a sarcastic dig and his flipflopping between being British and Irish.

Then you're a fucking idiot.

Says the bloke who no doubt uses The Guardian as a wank rag.

I'm a Tory voter, which your limited brain should have deduced from my comments above. If you think that The Guardian is a Tory papers, well, there's no hope for you.

See, over here it's possible to be economically and socially conservative without having to be a homophobic, racist, xenophobic, pro-life, gun obsessed, religious nutjob.

With your Chup of Arabia shtick, I wouldn't trust you to guard the Kingdom's Scour-Pad-That-Scrapes-the-Royal-Shite-from-Her-Majesty's-Shitter, much less have Britain's best interests at heart.

Both parties - they know their fan base well enough to tell them what they want to hear. So all they can do is try to get the undecided fence riders. Often it's "the lesser of two evils" for the voters.

And what is the "Chup of Arabia schtick"? Can you explain it to me? Or it it just based on the strawman nonsense you've been reading on here for years that you've converted into fact in your small mind?

Britain's best interests aren't served by UKIP anymore than they are served by cunts like the SNP. A complete unilateral withdrawal from the EU is a ticket to economic turmoil and would destroy countless British businesses. Our relationship with the EU and it's structure need reform. Just pulling out is shortermist idiocy. I'm not even going to start on the fact that their voters and party is littered with ex BNP supporting racists.

We'll put this obvious conflict of interest aside for the sake of argument.

The EU is ultimately a means to suck capital from productive members to its bottom feeding stagnant members. You can attempt to pull a burqa of free trade/movement over it, but it is what it is. Welfare for the lazy cunts.

Not surprised it took post #2 to pull the racist card. It's a common fallback of the UK establishment talking points. Heaven forbid anyone actually acknowledge that the UHS is overburdened enough from the inside much less outsiders from countries that would rather send them to you than fix their own problems (e.g. Mexico).

We'll put this obvious conflict of interest aside for the sake of argument.[/quote] Translation, "I have no answer and am trolling for the sake of it".

Which is why it needs to be reformed into a looser trading association, exactly as it was originally meant to be. That isn't what UKIP want.

If you don't think that UKIP's support, and many of it's members, are racist, then I suggest you do a two minute Google for "UKIP racist" and you'll find plenty of articles debating this with, more importantly, plenty of soundbites. A discussion on the rate of immigration, it's benefits and burdens, is one thing and is a legitimate debate. But there have been countless stories of UK members and supporters of UKIP making overtly racist remarks. It isn't "pulling the racist card", it's the reality of UKIP - and Farage knows it, which is why his own language is so inflammatory. It's designed to appeal to the bigoted, ignorant, tabloid reading little Englander.

Which it never will be. Which is why it's a nonstart and Britain should pull out before some Brussels beauracrat decides the UK owns several billion because reasons.

I could Google "MLK Racist" and find many, many articles. The opposition to UKIP is so intent on crying racism that it's long past backfired. Worry not, as the I've no illusions that UKIP is the majority of the country anyway.

It's also ironic that you bash the little Englander as xenophobic, yet it is he who fervently favors continued unification in regards to the SNP.

Um, you realise that nobody in England voted in the Scottish Referendum, right?

I of course was talking about popular opinion and not a referendum that was widely publicized as being closed to ex-pats, much less non-Scots.

The nicest thing I can think of to say about Britain's politics is that France's are worse. So who cares which loser party gets in, you'll still be mostly one of America's best allies and generally lick Obama's crack on cue. And on the other side, your domestic policies are fucked so who cares (poor or worse, sadly its greatness reduced to socialist police state with twist of Eurabia)?

Has the current coalition made any clear intentions known about wanting to continue their cooperation? Are their campaigns running against or with each other?

Has the current coalition made any clear intentions known about wanting to continue their cooperation? Are their campaigns running against or with each other?

No Scots are able to make it across the border to take advantage of jobs and opportunities? Surely some of them have used fake identities to establish a new life down south. I mean, you're up to your ears in Pakistanis, but no Scots?

I've asked you before to give evidence of this "flipping", and you have never come up with anything. I spend quite a lot of my time in Northern Ireland and my family live there, so it does affect me. And I would be interested in any event, the same way that I'm interested in US politics, European politics and middle-eastern politics. But I remain Irish and not British.

And just to add, your comment that Labour voters are traitorous is pretty ugly. When you start labelling the opposition as such in a democratic system, that can't lead anywhere good.

They've been campaigning seperately, including by having a go at each other, which is borderline bizarre since they're still in government together.
They also would like to continue together, but are unlikely to have the votes to do so.

The UK would be far better served by tighter integration with the US. I would offer four states, but depending on how SNP does, we might have to go with three.

Yep, disgusting. I've mentioned this before, but I had every intention of registering as a Republican when I reached voting age, then George HW Bush ran a campaign on that same despicable platform, and that was the end of any such notions. Since then, the Republicans have only gotten worse, and I'm sorry to see that British conservatism has similarly rejected the notion of loyal opposition.