proof?
UK General Election 2015 | Conservatives win with an overall majority
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No Labour voter 'at heart' would vote Tory even if the party was led by Rasputin. Odd reaction to Milly to - I can understand him being criticised for being a bit of a wanker.
I don't mean I'm a staunch Labour supporter, I just mean that in a vacuum I'd generally find myself leaning more towards them than any other party. Anyway, it's all academic because I won't be voting.
Now we've got talks of a potential Grand Coalition between the Tories and Labour to stop the SNP.
Not at any high level though... Miliband's speech at Scottish Labour Conference today was promising. Sounded increasingly like a Sturgeon speech, particularly on the impact of austerity and importance of House of Lords reform - and in no way did he rule out an informal pact or co-alition with the SNP. I voted for him as Labour leader based on him being to the left of his brother, and you get the feeling he could handle, or even be quite happy to be nudged to the left without taking the heat for it.
Tories seem to be losing the plot, what with Cameron saying he won't go on the telly and this coalition with Labour bollox.
It's true - I'd rather vote for Rasputin than Cameron. More chance of Rasputin turning up for the debates too.
Unless we're at war, not gonna happen. On the subject of the SNP vote though, I wonder if it would stay so strong if the Tories began to creep ahead into a lead in the polls. As they currently stand, the tories have next to no chance of forming the next government due to the parliamentary maths. Get another couple of percent though, and a partnership with the Lib Dems, DUP and even UKIP becomes a possibility, bolstered by the likelihood they'd be the largest party. Are SNP voters just completely done with Labour, or would they return if the hoped-for SNP check on a Labour minority looked increasingly unlikely?Now we've got talks of a potential Grand Coalition between the Tories and Labour to stop the SNP.
If the Tories get their predicted swing toward them in the last two months I'd expect it to save Labour somewhere between 10 and 20 seats in Scotland, but no more. A big part problem they face now is that the individual candidates in the previously safe Labour seats (which are now the battlegrounds) have become polarising figures despite being in opposition after taking prominent roles in a campaign fought alongside Conservatives. Meanwhile the SNP candidates they are up against are unknowns, with no record to defend and all the promises in the world to make.
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You also get the sense that SNP figures feel liberated right now, whilst Labour equivalents are more defensive and nervous (understandable given that almost all of their Westminster MPs' seats are under severe threat). Sturgeon can go on Question Time and happily mention that she's in favour of unilateral disarmament, whereas someone in Labour wouldn't dare.
On a related note, amazing how disingenuous the Tories can be in calling for Labour to rule out an SNP deal post-election. They campaign for a United Kingdom and talk about how they love Scotland, but want the will of the Scottish people kindly excluded from the business of government.
haha oh, so some speculative report!
from the horse's mouth:
The National Health Service
– UKIP will ensure the NHS is free at the point of delivery and time of need for all UK residents.
– We will stop further use of PFI in the NHS and encourage local authorities to buy out their PFI contracts early where this is affordable.
– We will ensure that GPs’ surgeries are open at least one evening per week, where there is demand for it.
– UKIP opposes plans to charge patients for visiting their GP.
–We will ensure that visitors to the UK, and migrants until they have paid NI for five years, have NHS-approved private health insurance as a condition of entry to the UK, saving the NHS £2bn pa. UKIP will commit to spending £200m of the £2bn saving to end hospital car parking charges in England.
– We will replace Monitor and the Care Quality Commission with elected county health boards to be more responsive scrutineers of local health services. These will be able to inspect health services and take evidence from whistle-blowers.
– UKIP opposes the sale of NHS data to third parties.
– We will ensure foreign health service professionals coming to work in the NHS are properly qualified and can speak English to a standard acceptable to the profession.
– UKIP will amend working time rules to give trainee doctors, surgeons and medics the proper environment to train and practise.
– There will be a duty on all health service staff to report low standards of care.
source: http://www.ukip.org/policies_for_people
Yes. That's pretty much the gist of it. Some would turn back admittedly, but a lot just can't be arsed with a Labour party who keep coming out with something different each week to try and appease to voters who they have a habit of patronising.
Yeah trust that abut as much as I do the tories policy towards the NHS which pretty much plays the same but forces money out to private contractors. My nurse friends have had to move to an agency to get work which they find ridiculous as they get paid more and the agency takes a fee. Something that would have been cheaper had they just been given a payrise and kept on the NHS staff.
Horses Mouth eh?
meh - not gonna lie, I genuinely think the NHS in it's current form is unsustainable anyway (long term).
You don't need to lie - just tell us how privatisation (which obviously requires a return on investment by shareholders) provides a more cost-effective service. All privatisations achieve is shafting either staff or customers (usually both - see Royal Mail).
Funny thing is if people who could afford it would go private they would receive a better service for 90 quid a month than the Americans receive for thousands they pay each month. If we follow suit then all we're going to see is the same deal. It will start out well intentioned but once the profiteering starts we'll all be crying out for the nhs again. If we stopped the bullshit with the NHS and the forcing of money out to private contractors then there wouldn't be anywhere near the problems we currently have. Even with these problems we still receive an incredible service. I lived in the USA and the healthcare issue is one thing that stops me moving there permanently. We need to cherish the NHS and protect it.
Yep, exactly. It would start of small scale, but companies would gradually increase prices and it would become less and less affordable for the average person. Any system in which the default is for healthcare to be run for profit is completely unacceptable in my eyes, whether or not the NHS is currently sustainable.
Yes because BUPA & co leech off the NHS. If they were the sole providers healthcare costs would rocket.
so we cant see who voted for who huh?
I know no one's advocating this, but what's wrong with charging, say £5-£10 for each GP visit (except for most vulnerable obviously) to ensure the NHS isn't hijacked by people just because it's free (I know quite a few people that spend every week with their GP for, frankly, mundane things just because they can)
I think the biggest concern is that this will delay people going to the Doctor's to report their symptoms and hence worsen outcomes. I know it sounds like a trivial amount, but sometimes it take a fair while for me to get round to going to the Doctor's with something anyway. That would probably be even longer if I had to fork out, not because it's a huge amount but just the principle of it and feeling it could just be money down the drain pushes people towards the 'it's probably fine' school of thinking.
Secondary issue is that, similar to pensions, people will react by saying 'I've paid my taxes so why am I having to top this up by paying for the services I receive?'
I completely agree there's a big problem with people using the system when they don't need it, but charging for services seems too widely punitive for me, as well as being against the fundamental principles of the NHS. I don't know how you'd get round the issue though, perhaps an annual cap on number of GP visits for unrelated conditions before a charge kicks in.
There is actually not too much wrong with this, but if you're close to the generation that couldn't go to the doctor because they couldn't afford it then you might take a different view. Before the war the lower paid had literally no spare money at all, everything went on rent, food and heat, and the memory of that is still around. Maybe in a few years it will be a votable proposition though.
For once I have to agree with @peterstorey. I'm a believer in private business, but healthcare should not be one of them. It's sacrasanct and should remain in the public domain, along with education and the military. Privatising it is a fecking awful choice that never works. Yes, quality of care goes up for those that can afford it, but it disappears entirely for those that can't.
I don't know if it remains the case but i believe that such a system used to exist in New Zealand.
In principle i nominal fee could be a good idea, although as with many proposals the implementation would be key. If the proceeds were directed solely towards preventive medicine say (likely one of the most important facets to future health policy), rather than going into the general NHS pot, it might be more readily accepted.
Farage has come out and said that racial discrimination laws are outdated and would scrap them
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31846453
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-31846453
Nigel Farage would axe 'much of' race discrimination laws
UKIP would scrap much of the legislation designed to prevent racial discrimination in work, party leader Nigel Farage has said.
He was speaking in a Channel 4 documentary to be shown next week.
Downing Street said his comments were "deeply concerning", while Labour branded them "shocking".
Mr Farage told the BBC his remarks, recorded last autumn, had been "wilfully misinterpreted", saying he was talking about nationality not race.
Speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today Programme he said he was making the point that employers should be able to discriminate in favour of British workers.
"I didn't mention race at all. There was no part of that interview which I ever said it at all.
"What I said was that I do believe there should be a presumption for British employers in favour of them employing British people as opposed to somebody from Poland. That is exactly what I said," he added.
The Channel 4 programme makers say they have not misrepresented Mr Farage's views.
"He was asked a direct question on whether there would be a law against discrimination on the grounds of race or colour and he replied no," they said.
'Colour-blind'
Mr Farage's original comments came during an interview with the former head of the Equalities and Human Rights Commission, Trevor Phillips, for a Channel 4 documentary called Things We Won't Say About Race That Are True.
He said that while concern over preventing racial discrimination in employment "would probably have been valid" 40 years ago, it is not today.
"If I talked to my children... about the question of race, they wouldn't know what I was talking about," he was reported to say.
He also said he would get rid of "much of" existing legislation.
And when asked if he would retain a ban on discrimination on the grounds of race or colour, he said: "No... because we take the view, we are colour-blind. We as a party are colour-blind."
Criticising recruitment laws, he said: "I think the employer should be much freer to make decisions on who she or he employs.
"I think the situation that we now have, where an employer is not allowed to choose between a British-born person and somebody from Poland, is a ludicrous state of affairs.
"I would argue that the law does need changing, and that if an employer wishes to choose, or you can use the word 'discriminate' if you want to, but wishes to choose to employ a British-born person, they should be allowed to do so."
What are the race discrimination laws?
- The 1965 Race Relations Act was the first legislation in the UK to outlaw racial discrimination in public places
- It forbid discrimination on the "grounds of colour, race, or ethnic or national origins" in public places and covered both British residents and overseas visitors
- The law was tightened up in 1968 when racial discrimination was extended to include employment and housing
- It was further extended in 1976 to identify direct and indirect discrimination and establish the Commission for Racial Equality
- The Equality Act 2010, begun under Labour and introduced by the coalition, simplified and strengthened the law
- It makes it unlawful for an employer to discriminate against employees because of race, colour, nationality, ethnic or national origin
- There are four main types of racial discrimination: direct, indirect, victimisation and harassment
- Positive action is only allowed if a particular racial group suffers a disadvantage, is disproportionately under represented or has needs that are different from those of other racial groups in the workforce
- Employers can only take positive action if it is a proportionate way of tackling the under representation of a particular racial group, without discriminating against others
- Positive discrimination, which can be regarded as preferential treatment of member of a minority group, is different, and is illegal in Great Britain.
Asked about his remarks on Today, Mr Farage said: "My comments have been wilfully misinterpreted. I have made no comments about the Race Relations Act at all.
"I have made comments in favour of British people getting jobs over and above those from southern eastern Europe."
The UKIP leader said he was speaking up for Britain's unemployed youth "both black and white", saying the young black community had suffered the biggest rise in unemployment as a result of immigration.
He said Gordon Brown, as Labour prime minister, spoke of British jobs for British workers, adding: "Well I'm saying it and really meaning it."
'Strongly disagree'
Downing Street described Nigel Farage's call to scrap equalities legislation as "deeply concerning."
"Nigel Farage is wrong and desperate for attention. The laws are there to protect people from racial discrimination," Number 10 said.
For Labour, shadow justice secretary Sadiq Khan accused Mr Farage of "breathtaking ignorance" and said it was troubling to hear a mainstream politician make such comments.
He said signs saying "no blacks" or "no Irish" were regularly seen in the UK when his parents moved to the country but anti-discrimination laws had put an end to this.
"But to think we're in a state of utopia, where discrimination doesn't exist on the grounds of races or ethnic origin is ridiculous," Mr Khan said.
To repeal the laws could mean an employer choosing someone on the colour of their skin or a landlord choosing a tenant based on their race, he warned.
Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister Nick Clegg was asked about Mr Farage's comments during his weekly radio phone-in on LBC.
He told the programme he "strongly disagreed" with what Mr Farage said, adding that "discrimination laws are there for a reason."
He said the UKIP leader was "irresponsible" to conflate issues with employment legislation to problems like violent extremism and Sharia law.
Farage's ideas are outdated. Let's scrap those instead.
fantastic - ukip are a colour blind party
yet two years ago they had to ban the use of people referring to "bongo bongo land"
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-23597233
I think by colour blind party they mean that they hate white foreigners too.
And the blind. And parties too.
Neil Hamilton was all over the place when questioned on Five Live about Farage backtracking.
Question Time's been awful tonight.
The Labour MP Lucy Powell has been particularly dissapointing, she doesn't seem capable of arguing a point, and her comments re the SNP/ coalitions are nonsense. There's no-one at the front of Miliband's campaign team anyone could really admire, the election's going to be a mess.
Charles Kennedy is a complete mess too. Is he drunk?
The Labour MP Lucy Powell has been particularly dissapointing, she doesn't seem capable of arguing a point, and her comments re the SNP/ coalitions are nonsense. There's no-one at the front of Miliband's campaign team anyone could really admire, the election's going to be a mess.
Charles Kennedy is a complete mess too. Is he drunk?
We already have this system, it's called private health insurance with the likes of BUPA.
Yeah, it's really poor. Powell's summing up the Labour party right now. Wishy-washy, uncertain, unclear and just throwing out the whole "Vote SNP get Tory" line for the 1000th time again. Bennett has some decent social ideas and is kind of admirable to an extent, but the audience member showed again that the Greens don't really have a clue economically at the moment.
I agree. Powell is obviously not up to it. Conservative lady is a classic bully, I would think she has lost votes just by personality. Charles Kennedy does appear drunk, unfortunately. Hislop as ever is the interesting one, not as smooth as a politician, sometimes right, sometimes wrong, but at least honest and interesting.
Actually thought the Tory MP did well, but I'm judging her on much lower expectations. The Asian guy shooting her down was great though.
She reminded me of a caricature American politician, pandering to a fictional British voter who's going to respect her for patronising the military/ the police/ Hillsbrough victims/ families without saying anything at all of substance or answering the questions posed. But yeah, like you said, she's not alone like that in the Labour party.
Thought Charlie K appeared a bit sloshed when I was watching too, hope not as he's had problems with it in the past and he's one of the remaining few Lib Dems I have any time for. Agreed with the above on Powell too, crib sheet answers throughout.
I'm also amazed that this "Labour and SNP would break up Britain!" line is stated so much. For god's sake, do people not realise that the one thing that really will break up the UK is pissing the Scots off?! And what's the best way of pissing them off politically? Treating the popular will of the country with utter disdain! Saying stuff like having a party they voted for in large numbers involved in government is a "betrayal of the English"! Utterly clueless, and Labour are making a meal of the response as well (surprise).
I'm also amazed that this "Labour and SNP would break up Britain!" line is stated so much. For god's sake, do people not realise that the one thing that really will break up the UK is pissing the Scots off?! And what's the best way of pissing them off politically? Treating the popular will of the country with utter disdain! Saying stuff like having a party they voted for in large numbers involved in government is a "betrayal of the English"! Utterly clueless, and Labour are making a meal of the response as well (surprise).
Scottish Conservatives must be really impressed with the support they're getting from Cameron.