If medals were handed out for digging up links George would take the biscuit every time. Good luck for tomorrow. I’m Old Labour at heart but that doesn’t exist any more so I haven’t quite made my mind up. It’ll probably be LibDem though.

From the same article-

Angie Bray

Ealing Central and Acton Former radio broadcaster

‘I have introduced private clients for my lobbying company to political contacts. But I have always felt I was on the side of the angels’

Do angels pay well ?

They are not angels, they are angles.

To paraphrase Pope Gregory the Great (Pope 590 – 604)

As in “You’ve got to play all the angles” ?

It’s in their blood -

“Conservative activist in Peterborough arrested after alleged incidents of postal voting fraud.”

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/england/8662814.stm

Just came across this dreadful warning about the consequences of voting NuLab or Dum-Lib from the Poop Murdoch press:

“Save our daily tits:”

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/election2010/2959490/Save-these-girls-brfrom-dole-queue.html

Dear Craig,

Good luck tomorrow. I hope you get the result you want, and that everybodies hopes and dreams come true, and that real, substantive, change is possible, despite all the odds.

Getting out the immigrant vote, over and over again?

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/the-first-punch-came-landing-on-my-nose-sending-blood-down-my-face-1961464.html

The kiddie vote: more about immigrants getting out the vote.

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/article-23830791-fears-of-voting-fraud-grow-as-children-receive-polling-cards.do

But surely it’s better than being on the side of devils. I mean, she’s not got red eyes (except after being up all night) or an evil smile saying ‘I bankrupted you and your children and their children. Let me add another two generations to that lot.’

Be it known to all libel lawyers that I do *not* affirm either that Tony Blair has got red eyes (except after being up all night) or that Gordon has got an evil smile or that he has ever said ‘I bankrupted you and your children and their children. Let me add another two generations to that lot.’

After all, we know he believes in Values, like sending the right signal (by deporting luckless refugees who get caught working without a visa, for example). Important Value, that. The spin doctors might say that one can’t get power without it.

But I really do believe in Values. My Pa was a Minister who taught them to me. I got belted for using bad language at school. I have experienced sorrow and suffering. Why won’t you believe me? You are making fun of me, and I operated and worked to gain power and you won’t let me keep it. It’s not fair. Boo-hoo-hoo!

The Fallen Angels, perhaps?

wrt Page 3: surely it’s the rest of the Sun that’s the problem?

Paul Krugman has kinda endorsed the Liberal Democrats:

http://krugman.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/05/04/why-endorse-the-tories/

“If I were British, I might well consider voting Lib Dem.”

Or this one perhaps?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Exterminating_Angel_(film)

The film left a lasting impression on me.

and remember everyone Vote Early and Vote Often.

Mary: “..Vote Often”

Is that one according to conviction, one postal one to the neighbourhood extortionist, one in exchange for a curry banquet (till the police stop the proceedings)..

Just kidding

There is not one iota of difference between the three main parties. Jack Straw, as a pay off from Nick Clegg, whose leadership campaign he ran last year, asked to have the local Lib Dem choice of candidate Bushra Irfan, she had an application to run in Blackburn for them, disappeared. he did not want to face her, what he didn’t recon with was that she would resign and run as an Independent with her own party.

It was admitted by the local Lib Dem candidate Paul English, live on a Ummah TV debate between the four main contenders.

Tonight Jack Straw send his agent to another live debate, as a spoiler to the Independent candidates Janis Sharp, who did not come, Grace Astley and Bushra Irfan.

Thanks George – you done us proud – Bravo

The riots in Greece and the murder of ordinary Greek workers threatened with cuts in pay while the privileged and the corrupt thieves sit pretty is a powerful reason for the astute British public to vote tactically for a ‘hung’ parliament.

A fitting conclusion for a parliament that has lied and stolen from us, taken our souls in illegal wars, killed our young servicemen and women from lack of equipment, allowed known terrorists to murder our commuters and used our country for torture and rendition.

DO NOT UNDERESTIMATE THE BRITISH RESOLVE

DO NOT CHEAT US AGAIN

SAY SORRY TO THE IRAQ PEOPLES

REPAY THE MONEY YOU HAVE STOLEN

BE WARNED WE ARE WATCHING THE VOTE COUNT

NEVER

EVER

TREAT

BRITONS as IDIOTS again.

Remember this is not revenge – this IS our duty to God and country.

@ Alfred

I think we will see some “unexpected” results from Thursday’s poll.

If there is clearing out to be done, then the sooner the better, let’s get onto it.

You’re all pathetic losers. New Labour is going to get a landslide, the Libdems haven’t a hope and afterwards we’ll make you all get ID cards and put you under control orders if you don’t. And I’ll be King. Hah hah hah!

PS. Anyone who doesn’t ralise that the previous message was a joke and taking the PS. has real problems..

On the previous thread I argued for tactical voting for a hung parliament. Technicolour asked me how we could know which candidate should get such a vote. The answer is that we can’t know for certain. If in doubt, the safest vote for a hung parliament is generally Lib Dem. The unknown size of the Lib Dem surge makes this even more likely.

George Dutton is indeed a fine hunter of good links, but my thanks also go to Mary for her consistently excellent research.

Just before I laugh and cry at your stupidity in believing ANYTHING will change come Friday, and if empowered (to what ever degree) that the liberals will stop the wars against Iraq and Afghanistan, I’d like to appeal to another (hopefully not similarly suicided) part of your sense of reason…

A lot of links are given out here, it takes a LONG time to check them all out and so on. Please, could you briefly summarise what one may find in the links you post a bit like what Vronsky did on the previous thread. Thank you.

Now… You guts are really stupid if you think ANY of these parties in whatever combination will stop the filthy and murderous policies ALWAYS done by UK PLC. Your vote will be your stamp of approval for future killings. You are totally ignoring history and human decency. Why?

DONT VOTE.

Just an observation – children have their irises scanned to obtain school dinners – no identification is required to vote in a British election!

Very apt comment undecided, indeed, control freakery and the middle stages of Orwelles visions of a future society.

Whatever happens in Blackbunr today, the electoral commission has never been here for teh count of at polling stations, its rotten and uncontrolled.

Vote everyone, vote and be disappointed.

It was verynice of you to say that Clark.

I have just said on Dissident Voice (one of my favourites with Craig and Medialens)

aa

Lance Corporal Joe Glenton refused to fight in Afghanistan. He has just lost his appeal against his jail sentence. Note the inhumanity of the ‘punishment’ with the asinine handle ‘One Bravo’. ‘Humiliate the b*****d’ said the Sergeant Major.

http://stopwar.org.uk/content/view/1829/268/

Poor brave young man.

There has been a cruel bloody silence on the war by the politicians and the media in the election campaign of course. The lust for the blood of ‘foreigners’ remains as high as it always has been in our history.

aa~

I would vote for a hung parliament except that I do not believe in Capital Punishment even for these idiots and traitors.

Not only the Country, but the Whole World has been robbed blind.

ALL the Politician’s solutions is to impose Poverty and Destitution on the Very Poorest throughout the World which will result in a complete breakdown of society.

None of this is necessary, but virtually none of the Politicians understand basic economics. The few that do will not institute the policies that are necessary to prevent the breakdown of society, because they are controlled by those exceedingly rich people who have caused the problem.

Money is like fresh water and its as if the world has been sucked dry of it and it is all being held in personal private reservoirs so that the elites can go fishing. As far as they are concerned the rest of the human population can starve to death.

Professor William Mitchell of Newcastle University in Australia is one of the few Economists in the World who actually understands how modern economics work and how Governments could, if they wished take back control from these economic terrorists.

It is all quite simple, but it requires a few weeks of study of his writings.

The problem is that almost the entire population has been so dumbed down that they can only now communicate in text messages and tweets consisting of no more than about 100 characters. If the entire message is not contained within one sentence then it is beyond most human comprehension.

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/

Maybe they will finally get it when they are swinging from the lamp posts, and Mad Max explains that oil is not a fossil fuel as he prepares the human feast.

Tony

Tony, never a truer word.

It’s like conservation of energy. The money hasn’t disappeared – it’s just been siphoned off by the real “criminals”.

btw (this may be a UKIP MEP’s blog but it tells a tale):

http://www.ashleymote.co.uk/?p=3036

Absolutely agree.

And..if anyone believes the LIB DEMS will make one bit of difference I say not so before the results are in. They are simply all the same. Very bad at government.

“Posted by: tony_opmoc at May 6, 2010 9:48 AM”

I like it!

My, the moral superiority of Liberal Democrats is something to behold! It takes your breathe away.

How about taking £2.4m in donations from a donor who, subsequently, was discovered to have been trading fraudulently and is now on the run? What about his creditors – yes, those ‘little people’ who were owed money by this shyste..sorry, charlatan?

Oh, thought so. To a Lib dem, that doesn’t count. We’re much too moral to do something like that, aren’t we.

I believe that it’s the duty of every good citizen to vote. It’s a chance to share in the power of the country’s rulers and do something that will have an impact. Democratic privilege shouldn’t be taken for granted. Lots of people would envy us the chance to vote freely at such elections. They remain the glory of the free and democratic world even when they are flawed by fraud. We should be grateful for the privilege and use it!

Abe, you’re right. Even in the context of ‘business/ war parties’, etc., we should still vote. This may sound paradoxical, but it’s not. If no-one except the rich had voted in the first election following the Great Reform Act of 1832, we would still have only the rich elegible to vote.

A young child I know said to me yesteray that she was afraid of elections because “in Pakistan, when there are elections, people get killed”.

I reassured her that thankfully that did not happen in UK elections. God forbid.

It made me sit up though.

One ought never to take any sort of democracy – even limited, corrupt, imperfect democracy about which we are deeply critical and skeptical – for granted. People died for it – and elsewhere they continue to die for it.

Abe Rene,

In principle I agree with you, but none of the candidates where I live represent my views. They are all extreme right wing authoritarian idiots.

I have no one to vote for.

So I will go for a long walk in the Countryside instead and hopefully see some bluebells.

This way hopefully I will avoid a string of idiots knocking on my door asking me to vote for their fascist parties.

Tony

Ingo, what do you mean, Jack Straw masterminded Clegg’s leadership campaign? I mean, did you mean that? How?

Although I call on people to abstain from voting, it is quite sick to see obviously NeoLabour fascists or Smarmy Tory Sleeze buckets (both of which have PROVED BEYOND ALL DOUBT to be utterly corrupt) come here to try and rubbish the lib dems purely for party political purposes. I’d just like to say a big f u to those writhing worms

Yeah, and the BNP. ‘Time for a clear out’ indeed.

Watch the news pictures from Greece.

Western capitalism is going through a major phase-change and Greece is just a dry run for what the New World Order has planned for the rest of us in the Domino Group of Portugal, Spain, Iceland, UK, Ireland as the next bunch. Bullies pick on the weakest, and here we are.

Cameron is their man and a vote for him will bring it closer, that is why the Murdochs of this world are so anxious to get him in with a clear majority. I remember the London Poll Tax riots and it would not surprise me to see more trouble here. The banks got away with their big initial cash robbery, and the next instalment of their power-wielding will arrive soon. The Tories will never stand up to them and show plenty of signs they are relishing the economic cuts to come to put the middle classes back in their place. The Osbornes, Camerons and Blairs will be fine with their fat bank accounts and their powerful friends.

Tony (opmoc)

Even if the candidates are all unsatisfactory from your point of view, by voting you make it more difficult for the worst of them to get in and easier for the least bad. Therefore it’s still worthwhile exerting your influence. You’ll still have several hours to do it, when you return from your rendezvous with the bluebells!

tony,

Whilst I largely agree, the UK is still a Soveriegn Country because we didn’t join the Euro. We can escape the plight of the rest of Europe as it collapses around us. The Debt is NOT a problem and in fact could all be paid off tomorrow. The effect would not cause any hyper-inflation, but would avoid the worst effects of major deflation, stagnation and impoverishment. The Government whatever flavour it is will have to take control back from the Powerful elites or have it taken from them by the rioting masses.

The mistake most people make is in assuming that Governments that can issue their own fiat currency are in the same position as private individuals or companies. It doesn’t work like that.

Greece needs to go back to the Drachma like yesterday.

All the main parties want to drag us into the Euro, but by the time they get the chance it will already be defunct.

The important thing is to get everyone doing useful work. That is what money is for.

Take a course in economics at Newcastle University in Australia. Professor Bill Mitchell is the only Economist who is making any sense

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/

Tony

Abe,

If I go to the pub and all the beer is off, I demand my money back and walk out.

I then complain to the brewery about the landlord.

Tony

@Tony and @lwtc247 – if you don’t believe in voting, go spoil a paper today. You’ll be lumped into the “don’t care, can’t be bothered” category if you choose not to.

Do they count spoiled ballots? If so totally agree with Jon. You two do care. So prove it

Tony

From this ‘beer’ there is no escape – because MPs have the power to pass laws and to compel you to obey them so as you live in the country. It’s either stand as an independent, become a party candidate or vote for a candidate on offer. If you don’t vote, you’ve effectively gone for the third option and had no say in the process.

MI5 files will keep new MPs in line…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z6vIbt-9hm4

Tony (_opmoc): thank you very much for the link to Billy Mitchell’s blog. I’ve only had a cursory look so far but have already found one fine insight:

“…given (1) control of a central banking system and (2) an inconvertible currency, a sovereign national government is finally free of money worries and need no longer levy taxes for the purpose of providing itself with revenue”.

Mitchell didn’t write that, but he found it in an old paper written, surprisingly perhaps, by the Chairman of the Federal Reserve in the 40s.

I don’t understand that, MJ? How would the ‘sovereign national government’ pay/fund itself, without taxes? Or hospitals, or anything?

Washington, D.C., May 5, 2010. Army Lt. Col. Terrence Lakin, is being court-martialled by the Army for refusing to obey orders to deploy to Afghanistan.

This high ranking American army officer will be interviewed and broadcast live and unedited from CNN’s New York City studios on May 6, 2010 at 10:00 p.m. eastern time, 3:00a.m. GMT.

Jon.

Spoiling a vote is good too.

But I don’t really care what group someone would falsely lob me into. Things like that kind of demonstrate my point. The system’s broke mate.

Respect to Craig who has allowed me to canvass for you’re “no votes” to date. Openness and bravery like that are partly why Craig as an Honest Man garnered my support previously.

MJ.

Remember the most devestating lies mix fact with fiction. Not everything that comes from the fed is bollocks. A significant majority maybe, but not everything (please don’t ask me for when they don’t. I admit, I’m supposing)

To be fair to tony_o, He did say it takes careful and long reading. Be patient. I actually did that test too. I only scored one, LOL. and statistically that it was a 50/50, but I must admit I was puzzled by some of the answers too.

technicolour: it’s certainly counter-intuitive. Probably best that you take a deep breath and read the whole article: http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/?p=9281

Cheers, MJ. So state & local governments need to tax (which answers my question about hospitals) but a national government doesn’t.

Mmm.

Ade Rene at 12:26 and Suhayl Saadi at 1:00,

well said, I agree wholeheartedly. To all the “Don’t Vote”ers, get out there, vote tactically and

HANG THE DAMN PARLIAMENT!

(because that’s what you’re really arguing for, anyway!)

Remember, even not voting send a message:

“I don’t care, do as you like”.

@technicolour, yes they count spoiled ballots. Though they do not separately count deliberately spoiled papers, a spike in spoiled numbers indicates that politics has become less relevant or more frustrating for people.

@lwtc247 – you should care what group people place you into. You’ve really thought about it, and care about politics, and yet by not voting you are registering as “don’t care”. Which is entirely fine with the elite groups and deep state that you rightly rail against.

Imagine if a substantial minority rebelled and spoiled their paper – it only takes a single spark to ignite it – it might change things in this country for the better. Sure, elite interests would battle against it, but they’re organised against us – we can hardly afford to throw in the towel.

Great rant from Penny Red; concludes:

“Turn in your internet license, you’ve got no more business ranting at empty cyberspace if you can’t put your shoes on and engage with hard copy the one time it matters.

Which is right now.

Get your shoes on, get out of the house and vote. Put the internet away. This is it. Game on.

Go.”

http://www.newleftproject.org/index.php/site/blog_comments/For_fucks_sake_vote/

Let’s hope that if the LibDems get one hand on power in a coalition they will be able to force a change in the system so that our votes matter even if we aren’t fortunate enough to live, like Craig, in a marginal constituency. It’s still far better to spoil your ballot paper than not vote at all though, because abstaining helps the party activists to get their own people elected and argue that those who didn’t vote must be happy with the status quo.

It’s funny to hear those, (Conservatives mostly), who argue that a coalition would be OK in normal circumstancees but would not be up to the job of coping with the current crisis. Have they forgotten “our finest hour”?

@ Clark ad Jon

No. You are falling head long into the spin factory. IMHO the WHOLE process is a scam. It must be rejected in its entirety. Legitimizing the forthcoming different scales of mass murder is NOT going to STOP mass murder. It’s people who falsely spin the meaning of no votes and who pander to that spin, undermine those who refuse to vote. Cheers.

But as I said before, a spoilt vote is also a way to register protest too, but allow me to put a counterfeit pound coin in the spin factories electricity meter and see what it comes off the production line…

The spoilt votes means x% of the voters were incompetent/didn’t understand how to vote/were confused as to the info displayed on the ballot paper/need assistance on how to vote properly/ etc etc etc

Do you really think that say, if 80% of people didn’t vote that ANYONE could get away with saying “those people can’t be arsed to vote.” When most of the entire country in the pubs, churches and mosques proudly declare their didn’t vote for the very reasons I’ve been mentioning so far? I think not.

I am not voting because NONE of the Candidates are representing the Fundamental Interests of LABOUR VS CAPITAL.

CAPITAL is in Such Complete Control, not just of all the Parties, but of all the media and what people actually THINK. The control is so absolute, that CAPITAL is almost Certain to Destroy Itself. There always has to be a balance, and currently there is None. LABOUR is unable to defend itself, and I am NOT talking about the Labour Party, which for all intents and purposes No Longer Exists.

Sometimes it takes someone outside of the system to view it objectively to see how rotten it is…

I will again quote the Australian Economist Professor Bill Mitchell who wrote this today…

“…the UK goes to the polls today and the polls are suggesting “sweeping gains” for the conservatives who are unfit to govern and will drive their economy even further backwards if elected.”

“the UK Labour Party are also not fit to govern ?” which just demonstrates how damaging the neo-liberal onslaught on our polity has been over the last few decades. All political parties have started to attract conservatives who just “badge up” with Labour/Liberal/Tory/Democrat/Republican ?” as career moves and learn to mindlessly recite the mainstream macroeconomics dogma about deficits, public debt, and the rest of it.”

“As this process of selection has developed, our political parties look more and more alike and the voters have very little real difference.”

“Like lambs to the slaughter!”

“So, sadly, I suspect the election in Britain will deliver a very anti-people outcome. Maybe the damage the Tories cause will see them jettisoned from office at the following national election. And in the meantime, maybe the Labour Party will have expelled all the fiscal conservatives and developed a real plan of action to advance public purpose. Pigs might fly!

“But, today ?” if you were a British voter ?” who would you vote for? The choice is a no-choice. The neo-liberal onslaught has eroded democracy.”

http://bilbo.economicoutlook.net/blog/

Tony

According to Google Translate, this means ‘the Greeks have been shafted by the IMF’. There is no Greek word for ‘shafted’ apparently!

?? ?????e? ????? shafted ap? t? ?”??

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/8664161.stm

lwtc24/7,

it’s not unusual for 60% to not vote as things are. 60%, 80%, what will it take? I’m convinced that the Big Two parties hang on to the “Winner Takes All” voting system with such determination precisely *because* it disillusions people and puts them off voting. Those not put off are either on their side anyway, or their (our) votes get split between candidates with no hope of individual election, let alone actual power. The real conspiracy is, as always, in plain sight.

Allowing yourself to be put off voting and failing to vote tactically is to let them win.

Tony_opmoc,

I hope your economist is wrong about the “sweeping (Tory) gains”, but yeah, if they get in and fuck up (as seems inevitable, economically) and get thrown out, that’s a pretty decent scenario. Here’s hoping, eh?

David Cameron – He is like C3PO made out of ham

Tony_opmoc

“LABOUR is unable to defend itself”

Exactly.

There seems an almost universal indifference about, or even contempt for, the 20% of British workers who are on the dole, who are unemployed and have given up the search for work, or who are working part-time when they want and need full-time work.

Such attitudes are sometimes evident even on this web site, where any suggestion that the 1.6 million newly created jobs that went to immigrants during the last ten years could, and should have, been filled by British workers is dismissed as racist nonsense.

But if anyone were to address the plight of unemployed labour and the millions of workers who do the most unrewarding work for lousy wages, as brilliantly documented by Polly Toynbee (Hard Work: Life in Low-pay Britain (2003) ISBN 0-7475-6415-9), what solutions could they offer?

How do poorly educated, often socially inept and physically unfit British workers compete with Microsoft employees in China who receive 34 pence an hour and work 15 hour shifts when so required?

I’d really like to know how you think the problem can be solved.

All of those firms – and hundreds of others hiring MPs like taxis – clearly hope to get more business and more profit out public services trading on the MPs’ connections.

http://www.coventrysocialists.co.uk/blog/

“How do poorly educated, often socially inept and physically unfit British workers…”

Sounds like far right propaganda. The workers I know are pretty fine people, thanks very much.

Otherwise, China has corporate communism, which, like nationalist socialism, is plainly to be avoided. The answer is not to compete, but to keep building better structures.

Clark,

A decent scenario will be if we avoid total economic collapse, mass unemployment, mass housing repossesions, civil unrest, and an enormous increase in crime.

At least the UK public is highly tolerant of adversity and is not tooled up to the eye balls.

In my view the Revolution will start in the USA sometime over the next few years and be an appalling bloody mess.

Incidentally, I believed in the concept of peak oil for a few days around 7 years ago and was totally shocked at the implications. However, I don’t actually believe it is true. The problem is, most Governments and Elites do believe it is true, and thats what the resource wars are all about in the Middle East.

If you are in such a position of believing something is true, then it is very easy to turn that belief into a reality by using military force to fight for and hoard the remaining resources even if no actual shortage exists.

If you are convinced that Peak Oil is true, then you have every right to be totally depressed about the future. The reason for this is that it takes a certain amount of energy to pump oil from the ground. The argument is once it takes the energy equivalent of a barrel of oil to pump a barrel of oil from the ground, then the economics and cost of it is irrelevent and oil production will stop. There is no point in using a barrel of oil to pump a barrel of oil from the ground.

The logic is perfectly sound if you believe oil is a fossil fuel and is rapidly running out.

The result will be a massive die off, the details of which can be found on this website.

http://dieoff.org/

It is however all lies, but if powerful people believe it is true, the result will be the same as if it were true.

Tony

O.K. Techie,

Re: “How do poorly educated, often socially inept and physically unfit British workers…”

“Sounds like far right propaganda,” you say.

So if the 8 million unemployed are all highly educated, socially skilled geniuses, it makes it even more of a mystery that Britain needs millions of immigrants to do the work the Brits can’t do for themselves.

But you don’t wish to discuss that do you. That’s why you’re so irrelevantly waving the far right racism flag.

I still hope to hear from Tony. The question I raised concerns a profound economic challenge. Let’s see it addressed for what it is, and not be side-tracked by the settler interest.

A friend who is not a Conservative has received these e-mails earlier.

*******,

This is it. As I write these words Gordon Brown should be teetering on the edge of the political oblivion he so richly deserves.

One shove, one nudge, one tiny prod in the right place -and we will at last be rid of this bankrupt embarrassment of a Labour government. Just one last push and this great country will be spared another five years of Gordon Brown.

We will avoid the drift and dither of a hung parliament. We will give a Conservative government the chance to offer dynamic and energetic government and by tomorrow morning we will begin the work of undoing the damage done by Labour.

Who is there left to administer this final judicious kick to the Labour Party’s ample posterior?

It could be you, *******.

If you have yet to vote – and you have five minutes to spare – I urge you and all your family and friends to get down to the polling station and play your part in history.

In an election this tight, your vote could be decisive. The boot’s on your foot. For the good of our country – I urge you to use it.

Boris Johnson

______________________________

FROM: David Cameron

TO: ******

SENT: 06 May 2010 14:52

SUBJECT: ******* – vote Conservative today, get change tomorrow

Dear ******,

Today, we have a once-in-a-generation opportunity to turn our country around.

This one day will decide Britain’s future at a crucial time for our economy, our society, and our politics.

We all know that it’s time for change, after thirteen years of this Labour government. But there’s only one way to bring change – and that is to vote Conservative.

Any other vote could mean we are left with another five years of Gordon Brown – and the uncertainty of a hung Parliament could kill the recovery.

Earlier this morning Sam and I voted in our constituency. Watch this video to see why I believe it is vital that you vote too.

******* – there is so much at stake today.

Only by voting Conservative today will Britain have a fresh government tomorrow that can roll up its sleeves and start to clean up the mess.

So please take the time to vote – and please do pass this message on to your friends too.

Together, we can bring the change our country needs.

David Cameron

______________________________

Cameroon’s signature is legible. Boris’s is a squiggle.

I was watching bbc News 24 earlier today, there was a reporter out in the sticks where a pub was being used as a polling station. Eager to get some reaction from the public, the reporter engaged with a local enjoying his pint, peace and quiet and minding his own business. “Have you voted yet sir ?” “I don’t vote” came the reply. “Why’s that then?”. “Well I don’t wish to be associated with crooks and criminals!” came the unexpected and unwelcome answer on a live tv interview.

I live in a Labour heartland, even though the previous whore resigned because of expenses, I’m sure the faithful will put in another one in the mistaken belief it will be good for them. My vote would not matter much one way or the other, however given the stunt pulled by Mr Farage this morning I decided I would lend it to UKIP this time round. Given the crisis in Greece and the chance of similar heading this way and the fact Mr Farage survived I am prepared to go with them.

Pity few others will but that’s life as Ester R used to say.

“Well I don’t wish to be associated with crooks and criminals!” – Goodman!

One less person that will be an accomplace to the forthcoming crimes of the looming diseased govt.

Farage’s stunt. Lucky it escaped the “hard landing” that some planes and rather more helicopters seem prone to in the DU soaked battlefields formerly known as Iraq.

Dear Craig,

While I am a new-comer to this site, I did notice your today’s announcement and would like to extend my own well-wishes to you and Nadira.

These are steps of assertive self-determining your future between two people.

In a democracy, our voice in the democratic process should also be real and I also extend my hope that you will also be rewarded at your local riding level.

Not to detract from these well-wishes but to raise as a word of caution, not unlike the quote “when an accident waiting to happen, happens; is that an accident?”. If the UK 2010 election results are disfavourable to the majority of Brit’s is that an accident?

Towards underlining this real probabilty I provide the following which I copied to several Canadian media outlets yet while the polls were still open

May 6, 2010 A.D.

In addition to the National, those receiving this directly from me via bcc, you may forward further, though I would ask you first delete my addresses above including email address.

What is the qualitative nature of the 2010 UK election outcome?

And can this be accurately predicted before the outcomes are known?

Before the 2010 UK election polls close, its a real crap-shoot whether only one of the conspicuously prominent party partisan leaders will have control of the majority MPs in parliament.

However, what can be stated predictively with almost near statistically certainty yet prior to the close of the 2010 election polls, is that on a local MP by MP basis, and this somewhat more so in this election but not unlike other recent elections,

is that the majority of Britains will end up having as their MP, one for whom the majority of citizens did not endorse with their vote!

To repeat even more plainly, the majority of the individual MPs that will be declared elected will most likely not be endorsed by their local majority of citizens who actually voted!

This factual reality can not or ought not be unknown to Brown, Cameron or Clegg.

Yet in stark contrast to this undemocratic reality, to what extent has any one of Brown, Cameron or Clegg drawn attention to this highly probable undemocratic outcome where one party, two or even all three of them stand a very good chance of being the undemocratic beneficiaries of a single-mark ballot electoral voting system which systemically and routinely in a multi-candidate situation is very vulnerable to vote-splitting and will reward one, two or even all three of the prominent parties with an over-inclusion of seats in relation to their popular vote while the majority of voters will be left out in the cold without a local representative for whom they voted?

From an abuse of power and vested self-interest position by each of the conspicuous party partisan leaders, is it not plainly revealing that this undemocratic reality is muted while Cameron’s greatest expressed concern is not about a lack of democratic representation for the people but xxb a “hung parliament”, one where he does not have control of the majority of seats in parliament? And what of the other partisans, who instead of exposing this reality, in effect cozy up to one another, play the good cop bad cop routine, and thereby collectively help detract attention from this undemocratic reality?

And where exactly is the hole in the electoral system that helps hide this reality?

The single-mark ballot system, frequently and deliberately misnamed for what it clearly is not, that of ‘first-past-the-post’ ballot system! This may be shown by a district of 9 voters where a clear majority of 5 voters split the vote between two similar candidates so that A gets 2 votes and B 3. While the majority of 5 may clearly not want C, but in our system if C gets the remaining 4 votes, then C who the majority has not endorsed is declared elected!

This vote-splitting vulnerability is easily eliminated by instead of having a single-mark ballot in a multi candidate field but by allowing voters to mark their ballot preferentially, that is marking their ballot 1-2-3… for as many of the candidates as the voter is willing to rank. This small step revision would turn our present ballot into an honourable and honest ‘first-past-the-post’ ballot system.

Coincidentally, this simple and easily implemented solution would also bring an immediate end to the level of over-inclusion of seats where any one party, or collection of parties could no longer mathematically achieve the majority of seats with a minority of popular vote!

Since none of the major parties has any real interest in empowering the citizen with democracy, the citizens by conducting their own preferential vote123… pre-election straw vote poll, could then, armed with this information actually empower the majority to elect the one candidate that had the confidence of the majority of local citizens.

Eduard Hiebert

Here are three problems with PR:

First, you get Nick Griffin, and others representing views repugnant to the great majority, elected on 6% of the vote, as in the EU Parliamentary election.

Second, every government decision will be a more or less wishy-washy compromise. There will never be real innovation or reform because all the vested interests will be powerfully represented in government.

Third, you will never see a real turnover of those in power. It will be Cam, Clegg and Brown for ever: which might make you want to throw up.

The corruption of government increases with the passage of time. It is highly desirable, therefore, to kick the rascals out periodically, even if they are replaced by another bunch with the same policies.

The real problem today is that the three main parties are bought by the same interests, and so are prone maintain the same corrupt rackets whatever change in government occurs.

Alfred,

The UK, especially the South East of England is one of the most densely populated places in the world. High levels of immigration results in significant cultural change and major challenges with regards to housing, and infrastructure. There is also the fundamental need for the protection of land and sea required for growing food, providing water and energy.

Despite all these constraints, the net effect of immigration is still marginally positive on UK society, for the simple reason that immigrants are likely to be the most highly motivated, intelligent, hard working and better educated of both the societies they left and the society they have come to.

If we are to avoid a return to the dark ages, then the only way we can achieve that is through the development of new technologies that can only be developed by the best educated and most highly motivated people.

The issue with regards to competition with slave labour rates in places like China is not actually that important in the long term from the UK’s point of view. It is of course a major issue for the Chinese, as is their high levels of pollution that we have effectively exported to them.

But at the end of the day, everyone wants to live in a clean, safe, sustainable environment that is fair in terms of offering equal opportunities to all human beings, such that they can live a good quality of life and be confident of the future.

The Developed West is going through a Major Crisis, because we have lost all sense of value, of what life should really be about.

We have become rats on a hamster wheel, where much of the work we do is of no real benefit to ourselves or the planet we live on, and much of it is unnecessarily destructive.

We build things not to last, but to fail (just after the guarantee has expired) – so that we can throw them away and buy another – and repeat the process – just in order to maintain the company’s profit.

It is the complete insanity of Capitalism gone Mental.

Most of the things we buy and throw away could be Engineered to have more than 10 times their current lifespan, but the economic system we currently “exist” in would mean that any company that actually built things to last, thinks they would go bust, because there wouldn’t be any repeat customers for over 10 times their products current lifetime.

So we create mountains of waste – which pollutes, whilst doing 10 times more mining than necessary that pollutes even worse.

Most of the things we do, we can do far more sensibly to minimise pollution and waste if we develop new technology. Even our current landfill sites should provide us with a wealth of useful material which can be processed and re-used – in a similar way that water is.

Unless we change, drastically, we are all doomed to destroy ourselves and our planet.

If we design a new society sensibly, we can actually minimise human work and maximise human leisure. Most essential things can be done by machine.

We only need such enormous “caring” resources such as health, justice, police etc because we have made ourselves “sick” by our insane lifestyles.

We need to address the root of our problems, but that is exceedingly difficult because our society is so corrupt that people lie about almost everything. We attempt to fix non-existent problems whilst ignoring the real issues that are causing our potential extinction.

How we move from where we are to a better future, involves massive cultural and educational change.

We need new leaders to inspire and motivate us to achieve our full potential.

At the moment we have a bunch of totally ignorant Psychopaths as Dictators in Control.

How we get rid of them and replace them with Brilliant Inspirational Leaders of Integrity is anyone’s guess.

These things tend to evolve as a matter of survival.

Tony

No, with STV and a 10% baseline you are unlikely to get the BNP. We’ve had PR in Scotland for a decade. It’s not been perfect but that’s partly because of the lack of fiduciary power of the Parliament. The SNP is different from Lab-Lib.

Suhayl,

The English did not become a great nation by following the Scots. The Scots achieved greatness by following the broad high road to London and taking advantage of all the benefits of civilized life that England provided. PR with any threshold you care to mention, was not one of them.

As for whether Nick Griffin can or cannot get ten percent of the vote, we’ll see later today.

Welcome Eduard – I agree government downsizing, outsourcing, economic and security harmonisation are all part of the Conservative strategy for deep integration with the US – alas a powerful media prevents this fall into oblivion that will present itself after noon tomorrow.

Who’s got the popcorn ?

“Have just read an article in a Danish newspaper in which a professor from the Copenhagen Business School is warning about a pattern in which the financial markets make HUGE amounts of money from weak and vulnerable countries like Greece. First they increased the interest rate massively on Greek government bonds and then as expected the EU have rescued Greece at the last moment from bankruptcy and have in that way, secured the value of the bonds.

The professor warns that the financial markets will do the same to Spain and Portugal ?” making MASSIVE profits from these countries then, once they have milked them dry, basically ‘handing them over’ to the EU’s control.

In his words:

There is an increased risk that the financial markets will push a new country over the edge in the hunt for a quick profit. So it could spread for example to Spain and Portugal but there is enhanced speculation that they could also try this against a Northern European country with a big foreign debt’.

Hm. Northern country with a big foreign debt? Any guesses?”

The polls close in about 10 minutes. Those of you who haven’t voted, this is your last call to go to your polling station. If you don’t go, you will have lost your last chance to participate in what could be a historic election. An exciting night of drama could be about to begin and you will have left yourself out. Instead of sitting and complaining, get out there NOW and do your duty as a citizen, while there’s time!

Like the projections of the Tories vote, the photo’s I took of bluebells today are not very good. That was despite quite excellent conditions.

Next time I will take my tripod and my old Chinese Copy of a Rolleiflex which takes 120 film.

Analogue is still better for some things.

Tony

Seems in Clegg’s constiuency the station closed with hundreds shut out not able to cast their votes. Seems pretty poor organisation by the city council, so what’s new in the third world ?

If the Tories can’t win even with this hated authoritarian New Labour govt, then we badly need a new electoral system to reflect the wishes of the British people.

I hope the Lib Dems will shield their noses, join with New Labour and give us PR and a proper democratic system.

Tony_opmoc,

yes, of course it would be better to avoid economic collapse, but I was assuming that was impossible. Yes, I’ve looked around dieoff.org, and I know what ERIE is – Energy Return on Energy Invested. It still applies whether oil is a fossil fuel or “abiotic”, ie if oil has been welling up slowly from beneath, and has formed large pockets nearer the surface, but we’ve been emptying them faster than they fill, and now we’re having to pump from deeper and deeper.

Personally I’m not decided on (1) abiotic oil or (2) anthropogenic global warming, though I tend strongly towards “no” and “yes” respectively.

All you say about building things to last, the lunacy of consumer society and modern values being wrong I strongly agree with.

On second thoughts, I’m not *quite* so negative on economic collapse – I’m totally fed up with hearing nothing but engines all day and night, and the mad scramble for the latest, pointless tecnological toys, and all the waste, which sickens me.

I cut my own wood for my stove with a bow saw – it’s a chilly night, and the stove is alight now – I’ve had a couple of people offer me chain saws, and they can’t understand when I turn them down, but I’d hate the noise and only end up cutting my own leg off. I like sawing wood, it feels sort of honest and wholesome.

Do you know about the “Transition Towns”, and “Energy Descent Plans”? My friend Trish lives near Lampeter, which is a Transition Town; she’s made a video about it. She still takes photo’s on 35mm film and publishes them as calendars – bilingual, Welsh and English – her web site is linked on my web space, or you can use:

http://www.imagesofnature.co.uk

Tony_opmoc,

I’ve had poor photo’s of bluebells using a 5 megapixel digital camera under excellent conditions, too. The same camera I used for those Chilcot photo’s, but some years ago before the sensor had degraded as much. The colour looked false and the texture came out all wrong.

Of course traditional film is *much* more finely grained, it works at molecular sizes. And every shot is taken on a fresh piece of film, not the same old CCD sensor getting used over and over again, and getting pointed at the Sun occasionally.

Some news from Norwich North.

“UKIP regrets ‘blow up Iran’ quote”:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/election_2010/england/8660823.stm

Clark,

With regards to oil, you just need to look at how the Russians have developed their own oil fields – using their own technology based on the theory that it is indeed abiotic since WWII when they were stuggling – to become one of the largest exporters in the world. I’ve also looked at the physics, maths and economics of it. Basically for over 100 years Western oil companies have maintained the myth that its a fossil fuel and will run out and have engineered shortages so that they can charge whatever they like.

gasresources.net and even a UK company geoscience have detail about it if you are really interested.

Yes I know about Transition Towns and even the Totnes Pound which I think is a brilliant idea in theory. I have a great deal of sympathy and many common interests with people who adopt such a way of life, I know a couple who moved out to their own small farm in Cornwall, after previously running a commune in Wales before they had kids. I think what they are doing is fantastic, but it is an incredibly tough life because they are effectively living like peasants, dependent on their own well for water and not even having a reliable electricity supply.

I can understand some people wanting to live such a life, but it is simply not viable for over 90% of people who live conventional lives in towns and cities.

Without sufficient energy, towns and cities would rapidly descend into total and complete chaos – where nothing would work and their would be complete mayhem as people fought each other to survive.

Ten years ago pre Y2K I thought people who had such concerns were completely insane, but running out of energy is now entirely possible – even likely because Governments are not rebuilding Power Stations fast enough – and are not planning for the worst contingencies.

All the propaganda is about Global Warming, but there is a Very Real Possibility we could run into severe Global Cooling which would require significantly more energy very quickly, just to keep people warm in winter.

With regards to photography, well I have spells when I get very keen. I used to do my own colour processing and printing in the 1960′s, but my daughter is a much better photographer than me though she’s too busy at University to do much at the moment.

I’m learning guitar again for at least the 3rd attempt in well over 40 years and have played it every day for nearly 3 weeks since it arrived. I am still crap but have made surprising progress. Youtube is absolutely brilliant for learning guitar. I can now read tabs – “guitar sheet music” and play them slowly almost straight away. My fingers are still sore though, but are toughening up.

Despite the fact that I didn’t vote, I will not be happy if the Tories get a clear majority.

Tony

Yes. Deek Jackson of FKN Newz http://www.fknnewz.com/

was standing against Brown. A mass murderer won and the best man lost.

Spot on, Tony.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vJelid_QVb0

From Dr. Roy Spencer, former NASA scientist.

“The most obvious way for warming to be caused naturally is for small, natural fluctuations in the circulation patterns of the atmosphere and ocean to result in a 1% or 2% decrease in global cloud cover. Clouds are the Earth’s sunshade, and if cloud cover changes for any reason, you have global warming ?” or global cooling.

How could the experts have missed such a simple explanation? Because they have convinced themselves that only a temperature change can cause a cloud cover change, and not the other way around. The issue is one of causation. They have not accounted for cloud changes causing temperature changes.”

Link http://www.drroyspencer.com/2010/04/the-great-global-warming-blunder-how-mother-nature-fooled-the-world%e2%80%99s-top-climate-scientists/

Lembit Opik’s gone!

Fiona Bruce is UTTER crap at coverage.

lwtc247,

Deek Jackson has been one of my heroes for the last couple of years, and I would definitely have voted for him. 57 people actually did.

ScouseBilly,

Excellent video, but most people I know are “eccentric” – some people would call them insane.

I know someone who is a Jehovar’s Witness – the equivalent of a high priest. He is very authoritarian. He has got a very nice daughter who is in her 20′s.

She has however got into a habit of kind of “losing it” and running outside naked to seriously annoy her Father. He thinks she’s mad and gets her locked up and drugged up. I think she needs to escape and find someone to love her.

I don’t like what Jehovar’s witnesses do, though it may not be legal to write this, because of weird religious intolerance laws.

Tony

Jings.

Fiona Bruce is on again saying (again) AMOST EXACTLY what she’s been saying all night in her ‘slot’ but simply changing the number of declarations (which we already knew anyway) Get her off!!! I’m just surprised they haven’t wheeled out Ulrika Johnson yet.

Alistair Darling: WTTEO: “The govt remains in place until the results come in.” Oh really Darling, you gave the kween the V’s then when she dissolved it?

I’m glad the BBC keep tellimg me what time it is, as I had forgotton how to read the time.

Tony

Deek’s a geezer but I’m glad he didn’t win. I fear Westminster would suck out his soul.

Killer, liar, cheat, torturer and piece of filth Jack Straw Re-elected!

I like Alex Salmond. He’s great at showing Paxman up when Pax dispatches out his unfounded sniping. Alex is a geezer too.

Hope Jon Ball does well Craig – you’ll have been a big asset to his campaign

Murderer, liar, cheat and piece of filth Jacqui Smith out. No more claims for porn videos for here then.

Daear oh dear Fiona Bruce is on again. The Interlude was far more informative. “Charles Clark as you’re hearing there has lost his seat” Well thanks for tellimg me what I’ve just heard Fiona.

Crikey this woman is deadful.

Here comes the bit where she says the voters turned away story. all the repition is suspicious. Wonder what time the call to Diebold will be made?

Never mind the election, what about this scenario…

This under-reported little item has the potential to kill us all within a year or two. That oil-rig explosion a couple of weeks ago which nobody thought too much about.

This is gusher – a traditional, straight up gusher – of unprecedented force and it’s sitting on the sea bed, three miles down. It cannot be stopped, it will deliver 60,000 barrels (nearly 1/4 million gallons) of crude into the ocean each day soon.

The force of this, after we’d drilled 13,000 feet into the Earth’s mantle, was something we could not stop – it blew every valve from the bottom all the way to the top of the rig.

If we do not stop it, all the world’s oceans will be destroyed, they will stop producing oxygen, and we will die gasping very soon afterwards.

The gusher is three miles down, with hundreds of tons of bust-up oil rig on the top of it. We’ve got to clear this out of the way (and it’s a bit murky down there with all this oil right now!), then cap it, without it busting out of the sides of the fissure we’ve made.

The capacity is enormous, we’re talking about Saudi-proportions. More than enough to kill the ocean many, many times over. Kill the ocean, and we will die very soon afterwards. Oil shortage? There’ll be an air shortage in which to burn it!

We will eventually try to use a nuclear bomb to stop it, but that will instead create a crevice 1/4 mile wide, and then it’s game over.

Could this be the proverbial “it” ?

Glenn,

Thank you for demonstrating crank magnetism.

However, when I started to read what you wrote, I thought I’d be treated to the conspiracy theory that Bush & Cheney took down that oil platform, just like they took down the Towers.

@ glenn

If what you say is correct, then it does seem a big potential problem. Talks of nukes thous are quite absurd. A simple proposal would be to place some sheeth over the reupting well and load up tankers for it to be processed elsewhere.

If the local oceanic environment is damages, no doubt Larry’s beloved ‘special forces’ will kill more yet more kids and families in foreign lands to steal their fisheryies. USans have little to worry about.

Larry the fanny

@ Clark I cut my own wood for my stove with a bow saw – it’s a chilly night, and the stove is alight now – I’ve had a couple of people offer me chain saws, and they can’t understand when I turn them down, but I’d hate the noise and only end up cutting my own leg off. I like sawing wood, it feels sort of honest and wholesome.

Me also Clark. I was sawing last weekend. I ended up with a headache yesterday as there was a chain saw going all day on the ghastly Leylandii hedge of a near neighbour.

My hate vibes were working overtime. Employer of chain saw user is retired from one of the big banks (do we love banks? No!) and has a son who is an officer in the Army currently in Afghanistan and the subject of a puff ‘our brave boys’ piece in the local paper.

Oh Christ! Be still my splitting sides. If we hadn’t already scraped the bottom of the barrel, we now have Tony Opmoc’s research into abiotic oil and Glenn’s 2012 Apocalypse fantasies.

Bad luck Craig. The BBC have just reported a Con win in your constituency but didn’t give the figures. They just said that the LD and Lab votes split the opposition to a Con vote.

What follows? A constitutional dictator in No 10 after a carve up/horse trading? What part will the Queen’s secretary play in the proceedings? What a farce of a democracy!

The Mirror had a brilliant front page. It captures the sense of distance between privileged and ordinary that is going to dog Cameron whatever happens today.

It also points to another challenge Cameron would face in power: he’s lost most of his novelty value.The idea of Cameron with his privileged past and comfortable future presiding over a government that is going to sack thousands of low-paid public sector workers and probably raise taxes for millions of the rest of us is potentially lethal.

Imagine how much more so if the response to cuts is as charged as it is in Greece.

The Sun’s image of Cameron as an Obama-esque hero is the flipside of the Mirror’s posh boy. Addressing the same demographic as the Mirror, the Sun would have Cameron as a kind of Messiah, with natural, Obama-esque leadership skills rather than the qualities that come as part of the privilege package. It is a sign of things to come. Today’s rival front pages are likely to be the opening round of a battle that will give a whole different meaning to the idea of being “one of us”.

Extracted from The Guardian

tony opmoc’s posts do exactly what they say on the tin – confuse & obfuscate any rational discussion.

Does anyone have any further info on the ‘_Inquiry into Blackburn postal vote ‘irregularity’_’

The council is co-operating with police

Detectives in Lancashire are investigating an allegation of postal voting fraud. The police inquiry centres on _Blackburn_ (Jack Straw’s constituency)

http://preview.tinyurl.com/284u8za

Check the results for Blackburn:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/3xo57bu

Jack Straw has received a healthy 5.7% increase in his vote!

At least conspiracy theorists did okay in the election:

Truther Caroline Lucas of Brighton Pavilion won!

And so did Hercule Poirot of Lewes!

Truther Dai Davies came SECOND in Gwent which is not bad given that he or she was a member of party called “People’s Voice”. Sadly – but clearly – not every people’s voice.

There may be a way out of the Matrix after all!

“There may be a way out of the Matrix after all!”

I like that angrysober – but the Oracle failed to provide answers and Zion was a mere simulation. A bit like debunking – tell us everything and nothing.

Jack Straw appeared on TV almost embarrassed that he had won today with such an increased majority whereas in most places Labour have been thrashed! Maybe the treating and frauding went over the top a bit. Any chance he and his electoral helpers may be investigated?

At least he won’t be booted up to the Lords just yet and hopefully won’t be in any position of power.

More on Jack Straw’s _’astonishing vote of confidence’_ & the _’extraordinary result’_ his words) from the Blackburn Citizen here:

http://preview.tinyurl.com/268c758

…[quote]

Counting at King George’s hall did not begin until around 1.30am as postal votes arrived from across the town.

National television crews had descended on Blackburn, sensing an upset, but the result became apparent as piles of votes were stacked up under Mr Straw’s name, with the election staff eventually running out of space.

Gleeful Labour activists took photographs of the piles on their mobile phones and Mr Law-Riding, who had been bullish beforehand about his chances, sat motionless at the back of the hall as Labour supporters congratulated Mr Straw before counting had even finished.

The scene was a complete contrast to the outer rooms, where Labour supporters watched glumly on television as the national picture unfolded.

…[/quot]

Did Cameron’s and Clegg’s dads make their millions at the same bank?

Bert,

I am not trying to confuse & obfuscate any rational discussion.

I am merely giving my points of view about a whole range of issues after deep research over the last 5 years or so since I’ve been retired.

I simply started with an open mind, but was prepared to explore the much deeper research of others by reading their articles and books. People who specialise and devote years of academic study should be explored.

It often involves changing your mind about a whole range of issues. It’s called learning. I’ve done it all my life.

If you never change your mind about anything, then you have lost the capability to learn. The first thing you need to be able to do is to admit that your current beliefs may be wrong.

Tony

Ready for that Cameron\Clegg deal, Craig?

To be fair to the Tories it was a strategic masterstroke to get a proper blue blood tory installed as leader of the Lib Dems.

The parliament is well and truly hung. Nick Clegg is willing to do a deal with the Tories, but may have to forgo electoral reform in order to have any share of power at all. With the discontent that such a coalition could create, I can see another general election being called soon, with Nick Clegg no longer in charge of the Lib Dems.

It woz we wot hung em.

Well done voters of Britain.

Now we might get proper electoral reform and a degree of humanity in the coming public sector cuts.

Much as I detest its inner cadre, is there any chance that we could see a coalition with Labour, with the proviso that Labour must choose a new PM to replace Brown? I fear Clegg made a major mistake in promising to do a deal with the winner – horsetrading with the Tories will dissolve anything progressive in the LD manifesto.

Debacle!

Too many Tories.

Straw re-elected (how?)

Fall in Lib Dem seats (how?)

Looks like a lot of cheating to me. Oh well, at least it’s hung. Now the real work starts…

There’s a People’s Parliament in Parliament Square – been there since Saturday 1st.

There’s a Fair Voting demo in Trafalgar Square 2:00 PM Saturday 8th.

38 Degrees have a “What’s Next” page:

http://labs.38degrees.org.uk/content/election-what-next

Someone encourage me; this is NOT my idea of fun, but I feel that it has to be done.

The upper reaches of the Lib Dems have been infiltrated by the Right in almost exactly the same way as Old Labour was with Blair and his mob.

Its about time activists of what was the Left, had a shave, cut their hair, bought a suit, went on a course of elocution lessons and did a bit of infiltration of their own.

Most Old Labour and even current Grass Roots Lib Dems would be absolutely horrified about them doing a deal with the Tories.

Of course it is all still highly tribal.

Tony

i/c of the horsetrading.

A good establishment type -

http://www.royal.gov.uk/LatestNewsandDiary/Pressreleases/2006/AnnouncementoftheretirementofSirRobinJanvrinTheQue.aspx

plus Sir Gus O’Donnell and two other civil servants.

Like some sort of board game?

You can’t blame the tories for looking at the lib dems as very junior partners in their upcoming electoral stitch up. After all the lib dems’ leader went to a slighlty inferior elitist boarding school than the tories’ leader.

@ Brian

+ 17 others, if Mr. Criddle was correct here, though probably not all ex-members of the Bullingdon Club.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/education/2009/nov/11/commons-private-education-old-etonians

So, what do we have?

A huge protest vote against NuLab, almost all going to the Tories.

A huge fear vote against Cameron, almost all going to NuLab.

The LibDems must finally be finished as a political force. If they cannot capitalise in these circumstances they never will.

If they are not dead now, they will be after they join Cameron in a coalition (Vince Cable for a junior Treasury post where he can be blamed for the carnage to come?)

The LibDems are damned now whatever they do. If they join a Cameron coalition with their collapsed vote they will have no bargaining power to demand PR. If they refuse to join without such an assurance they will be condemned for holding the country to ransom.

It is Nick Clegg’s fault! Get rid of him now.

The outcome potentially gives individual MP’s enormously increased power and influence, if they have the courage to use it.

The party whip system is one of the most undemocratic things in politics, effectively forcing MP’s to vote sometimes for measures that they are fundamentally opposed to -”OR ELSE”.

An individual MP in this situation can turn around to their WHIP when threatened and say

AND????

But are there that many left who actually have any Integrity or Conscience? I assume all the new recruits will be well trained party clones and do exactly as they are told.

Tony

tony_opmoc at May 7, 2010 12:51 PM

However, LibDems could not possibly work with NuLab given their consistent opposition stance re. Iraq.

Cameron is currently stating his intention to form partnership with LibDem.

The horse trading is underway….

Towel-whipping and high-fiving between AngryLarry aside, isn’t anyone else seriously concerned about this unfolding environmental catastrophe, possibly the worst ever:

http://blog.al.com/live/2010/04/deepwater_horizon_secret_memo.html

And maybe this is some whacked out “loon” conspiracy theory:

http://pesn.com/2010/05/02/9501643_Mother_of_all_gushers_could_kill_Earths_oceans/

These are worst-case scenarios. The best case scenario? “We’ve got to get that capped.”

Glenn, I honestly don’t know what to say. The guy who wrote the email seems to suggest there is nothing that can be done and that we’re all doomed!

“We’re humped. Unless God steps in and fixes this. No human can. You can be sure of that.”

He gives one piece of advice:

“The only piece of human technology that might address this is a nuclear bomb. I’m not kidding. If they put a nuke down there in the right spot it might seal up the hole. Nothing short of that will work.”

But that sounds counter-intuitive to me.

There is something I do agree with here, though:

“We’re so used to our politicians creating false crises to forward their criminal agendas that we aren’t recognizing that we’re staring straight into possibly the greatest disaster mankind will ever see.”

Yes, our politicians do create false panics about this, that and the other but they’re not the only ones.

At the bottom of your first link is a response from those who produced the memo that states a worst-case scenario:

“Smullen described the NOAA document as a regular daily briefing. “Your report makes it sound pretty dire. It’s a scenario,” he said, “It’s a regular daily briefing sheet that considered different scenarios much like any first responder would.”"

Anyway, Glenn. I’ve written a post for you.

If anyone wants to add comments then pleeeeeeeeeeease do. Please!

http://angrysoba.blogspot.com/2010/05/oil.html

Re: Mexican Gulf oil spill

They’ve got a funnel positioned over the main Deep Horizon leak, with a good chance of capturing most of the oil within a few days:

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100507/ap_on_bi_ge/us_gulf_oil_spill

Talking of a nuclear remedy seems premature.

Alfred: Saw that yesterday… it would be very good news, but it will only capture (according to BP) about 85% of the leak. If – as predicted – the rupture becomes worse, as the kinked pipe allows full throughput, we would see an order of magnitude increase. That will put us (even with the box) at 150% of the current leak.

I most certainly hope these disaster scenarios are overblown – what’s happened already is more than bad enough, even if it were completely stopped right now.

What does seem clear, is that these leaks (on a much smaller scale) are totally commonplace, and are simply accepted as standard working practice. Acoustic valves (or percussion valves) have to be in place when deep sea drilling in European seas, by regulation. Dubbya basically got his oil-industry buddies to re-write the legislation for the US, and a $500,000 piece of safety equipment was considered prohibitively expensive.

AngrySoba: Thanks for writing that blog entry, it’s very good.

What are the chances that blowing a ‘nuclear bomb’ size hole in the seabed would stop oil coming out of the existing hole ?

Richard: The link below suggests this is what the Russians did in a somewhat similar situation:

http://www.sfexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Should-we-drop-a-nuclear-bomb-on-the-leaky-oil-well–92789044.html

Thanks, glenn.

It all looks a bit “What could go wro … oops” (geology, fallout, etc), but I don’t know enough for an opinion worth having.