Be Excellent To Each Other

Yeah, but it's not the hope of a decent result, it's the hope of catching a sighting of the lesser sozzled Lohan.

Plus of course being off work the next day and not having to leave the house until 1pm. I'm going to need a liver transplant come Sunday.

https://www.channel4.com/news/could-bel ... flip-again

More excitement in the "Bellwether" constituency. It got on the news!

More informative than the actual interview

Yeah Theresa May is not nearly that good at impersonating an actual human being.

I am conflicted over who to vote for.

In the 2010 GE, the Conservatives got 52.8% of the vote in this constituency, Lib Dems got 32.8%, Labour got 6.7%
In the 2015 GE, the Conservatives got 54.3%, fucking UKIP cunts got 14.9%, Lib Dems 13.5%, Labour 12.3%

I don't want to vote Conservative or UKIP (obviously) but it was such a close thing between LD and Labour, tactically I'm not sure who best to choose. Not sure the Lib Dems have done enough to regain their lost ground this time.

The Lib Dem candidate this time is the same one from 2010, but it was someone else in 2015, and I'm not sure how much that will have affected votes.

I've always identified most closely with LD policies but am not really swayed by either LD or Labour this time round.

Any polling data for your constituency? Alternatively, take a look at the odds at the bookies.

I would say it matters not one jot. The Tories will get in there regardless. Vote with your conscience.

I've just found this which suggests Labour might be the best choice out of the two
http://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/cgi- ... eat=Ludlow


My conscience says hibernate til it's over.

Hmm

What an interesting site. Surprised I haven't come across it before. I like the demographic breakdowns. Here's my seat.

In other election news, I found out recently that the Tories are proposing to scrap the supplementary vote system at mayoral elections and replace it with First Past the Post. This is exactly the kind of technical issue I find in manifestos that annoys me greatly, but that I never hear discussed.

stopthetori.es suggests that we should vote Lib Dem in our constituency.

It's almost certainly going to be Tories in ours, unless the Lib Dems can pull a blinder in the next few days. Our local LibDem candidate, the splendidly named Tessa Munt, seems to be popular so she may well do better than last time, but I don't think she'll win.

Sadly, all the local Lib Dem posters say things like "Vote Tessa!" not "MUNT".

It'll probably be Tories round here the way it's looking, although we have a Labour MP currently so it could be close.

All the posters I've seen are Labour except on the way to work when I cross over into the next constituency where there's loads of vote Tory posters with this fucking wingnut leering out:

I know that, but it's methodology is flawed. It's based on the LD's previous lead over other parties, which (as I said) was so small in 2015 as to be negligible IMO.

Jem, what's the sense been like on the street? Are there more Labour or Lib Dem posters up? Has one party bothered to contact you? If you're really stuck between them, reward the party that's putting the effort in. And if they're doing that, it suggests they think they are in with the chance. Similarly, the party that's not doing the work has decided to put its resources elsewhere.

Good point. I've only *ever* seen Labour canvassers at my doorstep.

In the channel 4 video I linked to up there, the Labour guy shows Raikonnen levels of indifference to the election.

i have not seem much, other than the odd vote tory or labour posters

Seen quite a few Labour posters locally, and one Conservative poster. This ward has heavy Labour support anyway (looking at vote breakdown) and that's been reflected in previous years too.

I've not spoken to a single canvasser - nor in 2015 for that matter - and as I work from home so chances are high I'd have seen one if they'd been round this side of Broseley. (The Lib Dem candidate knocked in 2010 although I was a die hard LD voter then anyway.)

The facebook bubble for local mum friends is showing a lot of Labour support. How many of them will get off their arses and vote though?

Not seen any canvassers, but the Conservatives seem to be doing a hell of a lot of advertising. So far I've seen ads on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and now Snapchat. Plus my local paper has had a special outer cover advertising them, making it look like they're endorsing them (maybe they are). And I've also had a couple of letters through the door too.

This is a surprise. Jeremy Corbyn is sounding really confident on TV right now. Far more direct and secure in his responses than Mrs May was earlier.

He's struggling when pressed on the use of nuclear weapons once he got past the 'we'd work to avoid that situation' stage.

It's stupid though. If it gets to that point we're all fucked anyway.

Other than the defence question, which no doubt the Tories will be playing on loop in their targeted attack ads, I think Mr Corbyn came across far better than the Prime Minister. For starters, he came across as actually wanting to be there and engage in the discussion. If only he'd been doing stuff like that from the start.

It absolutely baffles me that apparently the 'right answer' is, "I will gleefully slaughter millions of innocents in a pre-emptive strike that will almost certainly bring about the end of humanity".

Title

It's my go-to answer when speed dating.

Of course, nuclear deterrents and the MAD doctrine only work if nobody actually asks politicians penetrating questions about whether they'd press the button.

I think Corbyn was very good over the London attacks, and is right to point out that May has presided over massive cuts to police numbers.

She was home secretary - (when she specifically accused the police of 'scare-mongering' that her cuts increased the risk of terror attacks) - and now she's prime minister.

I would so fucking love for this shower of cunts to get kicked out in less than a week's time.

I thought doing it in front of (and behind) the campaign slogan was in pretty poor taste, but maybe he had nowhere else to, er, stand.

The Oxford Mail clearly hasn't run out of election stories:

Residents outraged after Tory posters vandalised

I always thought that playful defacement or removal of candidates' signs was fair game at election time, akin to a form of fox-hunting.

I noticed a Conservatives poster in Shrewsbury earlier had "stealing your nan's house" scrawled across it. I was most amused.

That's got to have been The Sun.

Boris was being an absolute twat on R4 this morning. Horrid.

Didn't hear it. Was he trying to avoid awkward questions about security, Mr Trump, and the missing £350 million?

In town yesterday, I could see more people than usual sheltering from the crappy weather. I could see that some of them were campaigners of some sort, but didn't think too much of it. Turns out it was Steve Coogan doing his bit for Labour.

"People are fed up of this freedom of speech stuff."

"Increasing police numbers only takes the focus off blaming the criminals."

Superb.

Brilliant

This is clearly the biggest election news in the old city:

'Jubilant' young woman spotted tearing down Conservative posters before jumping in getaway car

Where's Inspector Morse when you need him, eh?

A vote for Labour is a vote for jubilance.

This "remove human rights laws" stuff has really irked me. Like the death penalty, people who side with it never want justice, they want revenge.

The UK is really good, generally: we've got universal healthcare, education, an independent judiciary, and we've put equal rights into law, along with human rights. The government has said "OK, UK, you crack on and don't be a dick, and we'll do the same, but if we do, then there's this lot to sort us both out". And removing these laws makes it less great.

Keir Starmer was brilliant on R4 this morning, on it.