UK Election

It's fine as you long as you declare it to the Authorities. How many biscuits did you take? Come on... the truth now....

Wait, wait. Who are 'the authorities'? Because if you are and you're taking biscuits then that could compromise the entire thing and produce a conflict of interest. Should we ask for independent biscuit adjudication?

Oh, and I only took one. Also do sparkles count? I mean Sara hands them out to everyone on an unbiased basis.

I'm a firm believer in equal opportunity sparkles. *nod nod nod*

And cookies. *more nodding*

Whatever flavor strikes your fancy.

(Also, please don't let the mod interventions derail the conversation, if you want to continue - there will be enough cookies for everyone. And sparkles. )

Me? The Authorities?

There's AW mods have a collective heart attack right now........


I'm kidding, I'm kidding!

Anyway... you've declared your biscuit so we're all fine. Sparkles are free under the Sparkle Non-Restriction Act of 1864.

To get back on-topic....

Just found this on the BBC:

Reality Check

Be useful for finding answers in one place.

And this is a blog that gathers together a lot of comments and editorials

I found this neat little site designed to help you choose who to vote for based on policies only.
The idea is simple - you are shown the policies of each party, by subject, and you choose which you agree with. The kicker is that you aren't told which party each policy belongs to until the end. So, you are choosing based solely on the policies, and not on any preconceived notions you might have about the politicians or parties involved.
My results aren't too surprising to me. 40/40/20 Labour/Green/Lib Dem, but it's not all that helpful either when it comes to choosing...

My policies are 60% Green and 40% Lib Dem. The latter surprises me. But TBF I don't know what their policies really are as they don't get them across to the public very well.

Plus I wouldn't trust them to fulfill their promises after the Student Fees debacle of last time.

Helix said:

I'll be watching South Thanet.

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I meant to ask you about this... why?

mirandashell said:

My policies are 60% Green and 40% Lib Dem. The latter surprises me. But to TBF I don't know what their policies really are as they don't get them across to the public very well.

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And this speaks to one of my major objections to the system as-is. It's not about who would be best for the country, it's about who is best at convincing people they would be best at running the country. Or as Douglas Adams put it "...anyone who is capable of getting themselves made President[SUP]1[/SUP] should on no account be allowed to do the job.”



[SUP]1[/SUP]Or PM.

I agree. But I'm not sure there is any way of getting around that other than forcing people to read manifestos.

But at least the site takes out the parties and lets you see the policies you're actually interested in. That site is a good idea. I'm glad you found that.

Vito said:

How about a Tea Party? You'd think that there would be a Tea Party in England, 'cause they drink so much tea. Also, because their p.m. meal is called "tea time" -- you know, when everyone sits down to eat those miniature sandwiches. And those little cakes, and that bottle of brown sauce...

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Earl grey, black, no sugar please. (And no brown sauce in it.)

About UKIP.... you know that meme where there's that aliens obsessed dude saying how everything's because of aliens... http://i2.kym-cdn.com/photos/images/facebook/000/158/329/9189283.jpg this one...

... they should do one like that, but with Nigel Farrage and the word "immigrants"

Is 'manifesto' an Italian word?

Thinking of voting tactically in my local council election to help keep out useless councillors. Will have to vote UKIP to do it. Am descended from immigrants. My principles will only go so far.

Also, I have the parliamentary election, council elections and a mayoral election. Each one has a different voting system. Nuts!

ooh that's a tough choice. Don't think I could do it.

mirandashell said:

Is 'manifesto' an Italian word?

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Apparently so. My Penguin says

"Italian manifesto: denunciation, indication, from manifestare: to manifest, from Latin manifestus: manifest "

Under manifest it states manifestus: that is grasped by the hand.


Fascinating stuff language.

Ah thank you. I thought it must be because 'manifestos' looks weird.

mirandashell said:

Ah thank you. I thought it must be because 'manifestos' looks weird.

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It says that acceptable plurals are 'manifestos' and 'manifestoes'. Both of those look wrong to me and I would be tempted to go with manifesti which the dictionary doesn't list. I think those 'I' endings are disappearing these days, even on Radio 3 now they call the plural of concerto, concertos which quite frankly drives me insane. If I were elected I would do something about it.

Does anyone know if the Monster Raving Looney Party still exists?

I'm wondering what would happen if a group independents stood got a sizeable minority or majority and Sinn Feinn style refused to take their seats.

Part of me thinks you should take your seat if your voted in by your constituency but ... it was one of those bizarre thoughts that crossed my mind as I was listening to Jeremy Vine today.

As you can tell I'm paying so much attention to this General Election that I'm trying to sabotage the next one. (and I have read the manifestos)

For some reason I've been singing a certain Beatles song all day - I wrote an exam essay on it when I was about 17 or 18.

aliwood said:

Does anyone know if the Monster Raving Looney Party still exists?

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Apparently so. Their HQ used to be in my constituency - the Dog and Partridge pub in Yateley. They aren't standing here though.

That's reassuring to know.

Really happy that this thread returned from the dead -- thank you very much, mods! <3

I wound up looking at the Scottish Green Party the other day -- despite my slight reservations about the Greens, they have some really excellent policies and I was quite impressed.

Unfortunately, the only reason I was looking them up was because I didn't think the Greens were running up here -- I've heard literally nothing about them until I used JimmyB27's policies-only quiz. They really don't seem to be bothering to promote themselves up here.

As it is, I'll be voting SNP -- I like Green policies, for the most part, but they don't have a chance of getting a seat up here and SNP's policies are excellent as well (they actually care about the arts! Be still, my jaded-by-other-parties-scrapping-local-arts-schemes heart.)

I would like apologise to David Cameron.


I see from the news this morning that Ed Milliband visited comedian Russell Brand late last night.

Mr Cameron has been reported this morning as calling it "a joke".


I've spent the last few years thinking Dave had no sense of humour. Sorry Dave, I obviously had you all wrong.

I've really been enjoying the headlines abbot it. "Ed Milliband seen leaving Russell Brand's house." Oo-er!