General Election 2017 | Cabinet reshuffle: Hunt re-appointed Health Secretary for record third time

How do you intend to vote in the 2017 General Election if eligible?

  • Conservatives

    Votes: 80 14.5%
  • Labour

    Votes: 322 58.4%
  • Lib Dems

    Votes: 57 10.3%
  • Green

    Votes: 20 3.6%
  • SNP

    Votes: 13 2.4%
  • UKIP

    Votes: 29 5.3%
  • Independent

    Votes: 3 0.5%
  • Plaid Cymru

    Votes: 2 0.4%
  • Sinn Fein

    Votes: 11 2.0%
  • Other (UUP, DUP, BNP, and anyone else I have forgotten)

    Votes: 14 2.5%

  • Total voters
    551
  • Poll closed .
While the manifesto isn't entirely friendly from an accessibility standpoint, i've been doing some searches and coming up empty in some interesting policy areas. Solar is one such. Contrastingly, it would seem that events like Copeland have prompted a more pragmatic approach to civilian nuclear, which is welcome.


Both seem like solid policies, don't you agree?

Guardian did an excellent article on the horrifying impact of FOBTs a couple of years ago (warming, very long read):
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2016/may/31/big-gamble-dangerous-british-betting-shops
That's excellent news, they bring misery to thousands.


A government deciding on the number of seconds between spins? Has it really reached that point?

The betting shops near here always seem empty; no idea how they manage to justify their existence.
 
The problem with that argument is that yes, I do think some companies will move on to other countries if such a manifesto was enacted, particularly in the finance sector where there are several options (Asia, New York, Dublin rather than Paris and Frankfurt). And particularly when we're decimating our main trading relationship at exactly the same time, the combination could be fataly

Don't forget that 15% tax on financial transactions in The City. A policy McDonnell admitted is 'a gamble'. The City is responsible for 12% IIRC of our GDP and is going to take a significant hit from Brexit.

Labour's manifesto is stupid frankly, entirely indicative of why people don't trust Labour with the economy.
 
Brilliant!

You laugh but he will get a lot of young voters.
All he needs now is the Stormzy fan club to get in on it too.
I'm still a big grime fan so I think this is great, winning over young voters is really the only to Labour can avoid a huge defeat and maybe a surprise victory.
Have you met commuters on a strike day?!
I know :(
 


Be nice if the Greens overtook UKIP


Most interesting thing here is the Lib Dem figures: for all the talk of a revival they're not only failing to bridge the 10% gap like many expected them to, but aren't improving on their previous election result at all as things stand. Which is incredibly, incredibly poor for them when considering that Brexit has given them a massive opportunity...and Labour's own arguments on Brexit have been confusing at best.

33% is also funnily enough a decent number for Labour without considering the Tory vote if we compare it to 2015...it's just the problem is that UKIP voters are presumably floating back to the Tories, and Labour are failing to win over Tory voters themselves.
 
100% of the rolling stock is owned by private companies and leased to the franchisees, the whole lot was sold by the Tories at massive discount to their mates, and would need to be bought back. Freight companies too aren't franchises, they're fully private and would need to be bought.

Re-nationalising the railway may or may not be a good idea, but anyone proposing it should at least have put out a professional estimate of the cost to enable people to decide. Not doing so leaves voters thinking the idea is amateurish and not to be trusted.

The rolling stock could be leased by the now public train operating companies, like the east coast mainline did. They could over time buy new stock and feck over the lease companies as they age.

I don't think the freight companies are part of the nationalisation, they could continue to run as now on the publicly owned network rail
 
A government deciding on the number of seconds between spins? Has it really reached that point?

The betting shops near here always seem empty; no idea how they manage to justify their existence.

Yup - small numbers of "high quality" customers, meaning addicts who lose thousands on the FOBTs each year. Lessening the amount customers can lose on those, or at least their addictive nature, is critical.

To give a bit of balance, the Government already announced a review back in October, so Labour are reiterating what is already in process:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-37750115
 
What the feck are people on about it making sense to re-privatise the trains? The last time the Government was in charge they were shite, that's why they could wait to find some idiot to sell them off too.

The Government are awful at running services.

They make profits because they are run as businesses, not as wasteful Government bodies.

Look up the story of the East coast mainline
 
The fees are obviously a joke, but worker unions should just create an independant legal representation insurance that also covers tribunal fees. If they can get a significant amount of people to sign up the fees would be affordable. To make it even cheaper the govt. could introduce an individual mandate to completely erase adverse selection.

Union membershipis falling
 
*holds hands up*

Okay, okay, 600,000 is a fair number of people and more than i imagined. But won't these people just move online if the FOBTs in shops are too limited (£2 stakes)?
 
Don't forget that 15% tax on financial transactions in The City. A policy McDonnell admitted is 'a gamble'. The City is responsible for 12% IIRC of our GDP and is going to take a significant hit from Brexit.

Labour's manifesto is stupid frankly, entirely indicative of why people don't trust Labour with the economy.

Its 0.5%
 
Sounds like Corbyn dropped a major bollock at the launch by declaring that benefits won't be frozen. Have they left it out of the manifesto because it means they can't balance the book with that level of spending in? He sounded like he was blindsided too!


It still makes the City less competitive at exactly the time when what it needs is to be as competitive as possible.
 
It's shameful you don't think this is a good thing

If you say so. Personally, i'd ascribe that sort of description to the waste in Labour's manifesto, not only the vast amount of money spent, but the missed opportunity to push genuinely innovative and new policies. It doesn't take a very special type of left-winger to nationalise a tonne of stuff while forgetting the maths.
 
If you say so. Personally, i'd ascribe that sort of description to the waste in Labour's manifesto, not only the vast amount of money spent, but the missed opportunity to push genuinely innovative and new policies. It doesn't take a very special type of left-winger to nationalise a tonne of stuff while forgetting the maths.

Yes, let the bookies continue to profit from human misery, it's the Tory way
 
The rolling stock could be leased by the now public train operating companies, like the east coast mainline did. They could over time buy new stock and feck over the lease companies as they age.

I don't think the freight companies are part of the nationalisation, they could continue to run as now on the publicly owned network rail

Then it would be a part-nationalisation, which might or might not be a good idea, but the honest thing to do would be to say so instead of leaving it to guys on the internet to guess. The same goes for cost, do they believe they can carry out this (possible) part-nationalisation at zero cost, or if not then how much? I'm not expecting precise detail, but if they want votes they need a bit more than some vague wish-list with no costings.
 
Yes, let the bookies continue to profit from human misery, it's the Tory way

Partly down to a lack of awareness on my part. A bit like yourself yesterday, when stating that you didn't think many employers kick up rough over staff absences.
 
Then it would be a part-nationalisation, which might or might not be a good idea, but the honest thing to do would be to say so instead of leaving it to guys on the internet to guess. The same goes for cost, do they believe they can carry out this (possible) part-nationalisation at zero cost, or if not then how much? I'm not expecting precise detail, but if they want votes they need a bit more than some vague wish-list with no costings.

The rail franchises run out of contract and automatically come into public ownership, cost 0
 
They're gonna need more civil servants, certainly.
 
After talking with one company owner just last night, and personally being aware of numerous cases where people were quietly eased out of their jobs, i wholeheartedly disagree.

I thought company bosses were good people? At least that's what the Tories keep telling us. Now you're advocating we legislate to make them behave like humans. Amazing.

The policy doesn't help a lot of people, that was the point I was making. Wealthy Tories can afford to take a year off work, the plebs can't. And what if your mam takes more than a year to die?
 
The rail franchises run out of contract and automatically come into public ownership, cost 0

Well amidst the guesswork the one thing we can say for sure is that it wouldn't be cost 0, because they are proposing to cap fares, build new trains, increase freight provision and improve accessibility, all of which in railway terms are damned expensive.

Now as a railway supporter I would love all this, however desirability isn't my point, what is my point is that the promises are completely uncosted, along with much else in the manifesto, so how can I have any faith in the ability of Labour to actually deliver them whilst managing the national budget successfully?
 
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I missed this in all the chat about nationalisations earlier. In short, they put free degrees in business stuides and railway renationalisation ahead of Osborne's cuts. Super prioritisation there guys.


The policy doesn't help a lot of people, that was the point I was making. Wealthy Tories can afford to take a year off work, the plebs can't. And what if your mam takes more than a year to die?

I don't think that happens to be true, nor is this about wealth. Let's consider a few examples shall we? In-home care and rehab immediately following surgery, accompanying a loved one to radiotherapy, filling in the lag time between diagnosis and commencement of council supplied carers e.t.c.

Then there was the leave for bereavement; companies generally consider 2-3 days to be a fair obligation.
 
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^ Not a chance. He's had big crowds before but it has never translated into votes. He's unpopular with the majority of the electorate.