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 .
If the quiz was to be the closest, then of course Person 1 has won.

But I didn't say that, I asked how much it held.

There are any number of ways you could score such a competition, but the worst way would be to go for a pure "who is the closest method", if you want people to guess accurately.

The furthest you can be away by guessing under, is 100%. There is no upper limit on how far you can be away if you guess over.

Exactly, so Person 1 who was clearly a mathematician and the smartest person in the room, recognized his or her lack of knowledge about estimating volumes and went for the smart choice. My hero. ;)
 
You may not be a cnut, but you're being one at the moment. Diane Abbott is someone's mother, daughter, sister, wife, etc. She's genuinely ill and you're here trying to score political points by belittling that fact.

OK....If she's genuinely ill, then I hope she'll make a full recovery from whatever it is that she's suffering from....

A truly awful post, absolute awful.

I'm not sure why that's awful....That's how this seems to several million people....Maybe if she was to come on TV or radio herself and explain....

You may not be a cnut, but you're being one at the moment. Diane Abbott is someone's mother, daughter, sister, wife, etc. She's genuinely ill and you're here trying to score political points by belittling that fact.

Agreed about mother, daughter, etc....If she is ill, then sad and worrying for them - but I'm not belittling her for her illness, just her frequent displays of incompetence and shocked outrage OVER THE YEARS, not just this past couple of weeks....

If you feel that I'm being overly critical on here, you should read what those who are trying to defend us from terrorism / Putin / etc have to say....

And then tell me again that I'm unsensitive.

https://www.arrse.co.uk/community/threads/dianne-abbott.259211/
 
In defence of those questioning whether she is ill:

- She was on Sky News yesterday
- There have been lots of rumours that Corbyn was under pressure to remove her.
- On Sky News yesterday, she was repeatedly (like 10 times) asked if Corbyn was about to remove her, whether she had been gagged with by her own party, whether she ran her bookings past her own party first, whether the party was exasperated by her not running her own bookings past the party and making a fool out of herself...
- It's the day before the General Election
- She said she wasn't planning on stepping aside yesterday
- She said she didn't know if Corbyn would pick her as Home Secretary

Questioning her is fine. Questioning the diagnosis of her having a long term illness isn't ok and simply makes the person in question look like a complete... *insert word here*.
 
Worth pointing out that severe stress can be a pretty debilitating illness of itself.
 
As a Eurosceptic of some years standing, i must beg to differ. The EU Con, Lisbon Treaty and resultant lies over referenda, played a significant role in the sovereignty argument. Moreover, holding a vote back then could've lanced the boil if you will.

There was also the total fiasco of accession states to the EU, with Labour estimating that just 13,000 would move to Britain. The ensuing debate then became dangerously polarised and the government lost the trust of many voters.

That's largely irrelevant as a reply to the post above. That's not to say that these things aren't important drivers of euroscepticism, but that the electorate as a whole cared little about Europe until the Conservatives got in to power. Throughout their time in power Europe became a bigger issue but levelled out as a relatively fringe issue: https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.n...rs-Issues(2)-Most-important-issues-280415.pdf (The increase in July 2011 coincides with the European Act 2011)

Although there was a dedicated and vocal minority that cared deeply about Britain's relationship with Europe and made a lot of noise about it it wasn't a mainstream opinion until the right wing fringe of the Conservative party kicked up enough of a fuss to worry Cameron into offering a referendum to try and kick them back down. You may well argue that that was a good thing for the reasons you've outlined above, but that doesn't translate into Europe being an issue that the electorate as a whole really cared about. There wasn't really a boil to lance (to borrow your analogy) until one was created years after those events. Like it or lump it the general electorate rarely cares as much about the issues that we care about until they are told to.

Even then, I would argue that the electorate as a whole is not eurosceptic in the way you would like to portray it and that the Brexit vote was largely driven by issues that are not EU specific, but as part of a general anti-establishment/anti-immigration tilt based off of (misguided) economic concerns
 
That's largely irrelevant as a reply to the post above. That's not to say that these things aren't important drivers of euroscepticism, but that the electorate as a whole cared little about Europe until the Conservatives got in to power. Throughout their time in power Europe became a bigger issue but levelled out as a relatively fringe issue: https://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.n...rs-Issues(2)-Most-important-issues-280415.pdf (The increase in July 2011 coincides with the European Act 2011)

Although there was a dedicated and vocal minority that cared deeply about Britain's relationship with Europe and made a lot of noise about it it wasn't a mainstream opinion until the right wing fringe of the Conservative party kicked up enough of a fuss to worry Cameron into offering a referendum to try and kick them back down. You may well argue that that was a good thing for the reasons you've outlined above, but that doesn't translate into Europe being an issue that the electorate as a whole really cared about. There wasn't really a boil to lance (to borrow your analogy) until one was created years after those events. Like it or lump it the general electorate rarely cares as much about the issues that we care about until they are told to.

Even then, I would argue that the electorate as a whole is not eurosceptic in the way you would like to portray it and that the Brexit vote was largely driven by issues that are not EU specific, but as part of a general anti-establishment/anti-immigration tilt based off of (misguided) economic concerns

I'd agree. If you'd asked the majority of the electorate, both Remain and Leave, what the Lisbon Treaty entailed, I suspect a solid half of them would've probably never heard of it before. Similarly, I expect a very, very large portion of the electorate would be unable to describe/explain the inner workings of the EU.
 
Was optimistic that the Lib Dems could take back my constituency of Cheltenham from the Tories tomorrow, but having seen the views of many young people here they're refusing to vote Lib Dem instead of sticking with Labour, so I'm struggling to see it happening.

Labour have no hope here. They have never won here. These people are living in dream land.
 
I full expect a Tory majority still but what a clusterfeck that last couple of weeks have been for the Tories. Corbyn will have picked up votes merely for not being a robot politician who can actually talk to people. May has hidden away with a couple of 3/4 word slogans. Pathetic.
 
Let's say you get 3 people in a room, and gave them all a quiz question.

Question: How many Litres does this tank hold

ht-100m3-ssh.jpg

It's a hard question. The human brain does not deal with large numbers well at all, and the cylindrical shape makes things more difficult. There is also little sense of scale. Still nonetheless, everyone gives it their best shot.

Person 1 goes first. He has no idea what a litre is, so says 100 litres. Everyone else laughs.
Person 2 goes next. He thinks about it for a long time and then says 1 million litres. Person 1 goes a bit pale in the face.
Person 3 divides the two and says 500,000 litres, confident that Person 1 was over, but not way over.

The quiz master reveals the answer; 100,000 litres.

Everyone stops to think for a second before releasing that Person 1 has won. He's only 99,900 litres out. Person 3 is next closest being 400,000 litres out.

But if you stop to think about it, it's obvious that Person 2 and Person 3 were a lot closer than Person 1. Person 1 had no concept of what a Litre even was.

There are two ways to deal with this; percentages and orders of magnitude.

As a percentage, Person 1 was 99.9% out. Person 3 was 80% out. But Person 1 argues Person 3 wasn't 80% out, but 400% out.

The better way to deal with this is with orders of magnitude. Person 1 was 3 orders of magnitude out, Person 3 less than one order of magnitude out (0.69)

None of this has anything to do with the General Election, other than to say, Diane Abbott's an idiot. I try to defend her, we all have off days, (Barack Obama said he was a Muslim when he had a cold). But there is a non insignificant difference in saying something costs 50000 times less than it will do, and getting a single digit wrong.
:lol: I love robocop.
 
Not sure you have to be the world's most cynical person to find the timing and vagueness of the explanation of the Diane Abbott story interesting.
 
Was optimistic that the Lib Dems could take back my constituency of Cheltenham from the Tories tomorrow, but having seen the views of many young people here they're refusing to vote Lib Dem instead of sticking with Labour, so I'm struggling to see it happening.

Labour have no hope here. They have never won here. These people are living in dream land.

Must admit i'm in a similar position here. I have to vote Lib Dem given they're the closest challenger to Tory but at the same time I want to vote Labour. Tough choice to be honest.
 
I'd agree. If you'd asked the majority of the electorate, both Remain and Leave, what the Lisbon Treaty entailed, I suspect a solid half of them would've probably never heard of it before. Similarly, I expect a very, very large portion of the electorate would be unable to describe/explain the inner workings of the EU.
And even those that do understand what the European Parliament is, probably don't know what the council of ministers is (which really should have been it's name). I've had people complain to my face that the EU isn't a democracy because the European Council has all the power... despite members of the European Council or Council of Ministers also being elected.
 
Must admit i'm in a similar position here. I have to vote Lib Dem given they're the closest challenger to Tory but at the same time I want to vote Labour. Tough choice to be honest.

I can sympathise not wanting to vote against the party you want to, but sadly here Labour just have no hope whatsoever, you may as well not show up. We are lucky enough to be in a position where we can take a seat off of the Tories though. I just always feel like you have to pick your battles and we do actually have a way to make a difference here.

Plus the Lib Dem MP candidate was our MP for many years previously and he's a good guy and knows the town well.
 
I can sympathise not wanting to vote against the party you want to, but sadly here Labour just have no hope whatsoever, you may as well not show up. We are lucky enough to be in a position where we can take a seat off of the Tories though. I just always feel like you have to pick your battles and we do actually have a way to make a difference here.

Plus the Lib Dem MP candidate was our MP for many years previously and he's a good guy and knows the town well.
If it is any concilation i am in the opposite position. Want to vote Liberal but have to vote Labour in a very marginal seat against the Tories.
 
And even those that do understand what the European Parliament is, probably don't know what the council of ministers is (which really should have been it's name). I've had people complain to my face that the EU isn't a democracy because the European Council has all the power... despite members of the European Council or Council of Ministers also being elected.


Ask them the name of their constituency MEP - almost nobody in the UK knows the answer.

But that's for a different thread....
 
Lib Dem vote share on the redcafe poll has declined from 15% to about 11% while the Tory vote has remained fairly flat. Help us bring it back up @RedSky!
 
The YouGov model has been updated.

https://yougov.co.uk/uk-general-election-2017/

Also the final call poll by YouGov for The Times will be out tonight.
Reminds me of the "mysterious powers of excel"
As much as oil and water, our lives are governed by Excel. As you read these lines somewhere in the world, your name is being dragged from cell C25 to D14 on a roster. Such a simple action, yet now you'll be asked to work on your day off. It is useless to protest. The spreadsheet has been printed - the word made mesh.

I still remember looking over a colleague's shoulder at a spreadsheet which had a button in the middle of it. A BUTTON! Raised above the plain of the worksheet like a ziggurat. Instantly I fell to my knees in worship.

Try it now - take some time to play with formulas and Excel will reward you generously, with magic. There are hundreds, from the simple IF, to the rather rude CUMIPMT, all the way to MIRR - the formula for operating a space station.

Of course, Excel will not always reward you. You may have made a mistake in the formula. Your hand may have shaken as you tried to remember if "col_index" was the one on the right or the left.

Excel won't tolerate this. It will send you packing, Worse still you may have a "circular reference" and you will get a lecture. Or you've inserted a chart where everything is zero apart from one thing which is infinity, and Excel will say nothing.

There are many unanswered questions, like what happens if you start everything from cell XFD-1048576? If you summed everything in a spreadsheet, where would you put the answer (ok, in another worksheet).

Excel fans are often treated pejoratively. "'You can't learn this is in a spreadsheet, kid,' said the old man, his weather-beaten face grimacing as he swiftly removed the caribou's entrails" is a line found in many books. But spreadsheets have a beauty all of their own.

They speak to a need deep inside of us to arrange things in rows and columns. Ever since the first town planners pored over drawings of grids in the Indus Valley, man has wanted to locate points by how far over and up they were.

This blimmin model of theirs better be moderately accurate
 
And even those that do understand what the European Parliament is, probably don't know what the council of ministers is (which really should have been it's name). I've had people complain to my face that the EU isn't a democracy because the European Council has all the power... despite members of the European Council or Council of Ministers also being elected.
Ask them the name of their constituency MEP - almost nobody in the UK knows the answer.

But that's for a different thread....

This is a problem with UK elections as well. Very few people can name their local MP (anywhere from 2/3 to 75% based on surveys. Although that number rises to 70% who can recognise their name if presented with it), many people are under the illusion that you vote for who you want as PM as opposed to who you want as your MP, what the civil service does, why it is important to have an indecent judiciary, what bicameral means and so on.

Basically a huge portion of the UK electorate are politically illiterate when it comes to our own political system. Regardless of whether the EU has a democratic deficit or not, the fact that it is both less important to our day to day lives and different has always been an issue.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but the lack of an informed electorate is a huge problem in UK politics and one no seems to want to address.
 
Competition Update:

- 25 responses
- Conservative majority median: 65
- Labour seats median: 240 (Quite high)

Still have until 5pm tomorrow to enter: https://goo.gl/forms/woYWxbuj3WVKli9L2
 
Ask them the name of their constituency MEP - almost nobody in the UK knows the answer.

But that's for a different thread....
Problem with that is we don't have one, we have 10

I could name 2 of mine; Dan Hannan and Nigel Farage. The rest I would struggle with.
 
This is a problem with UK elections as well. Very few people can name their local MP (anywhere from 2/3 to 75% based on surveys. Although that number rises to 70% who can recognise their name if presented with it), many people are under the illusion that you vote for who you want as PM as opposed to who you want as your MP, what the civil service does, why it is important to have an indecent judiciary, what bicameral means and so on.

Basically a huge portion of the UK electorate are politically illiterate when it comes to our own political system. Regardless of whether the EU has a democratic deficit or not, the fact that it is both less important to our day to day lives and different has always been an issue.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but the lack of an informed electorate is a huge problem in UK politics and one no seems to want to address.

Has to be something that you teach kids at GCSE level. But rather than making it a subject that has exams you simply put it together as a Public Skills lesson; Sexual Education, Politics, Basic Economics etc. A lesson which is stress free but allows kids to inform kids of valuable life skills for adult life. That would be a start.
 
Worth pointing out that severe stress can be a pretty debilitating illness of itself.
I said to a friend last night that after seeing her Sky interview I was worried because she looked unwell and I thought the stress had gotten too much for her. About an hour later we saw the reports about Corbyn saying she was indeed not well. It seems the obvious explanation, to me.
 
This is a problem with UK elections as well. Very few people can name their local MP (anywhere from 2/3 to 75% based on surveys. Although that number rises to 70% who can recognise their name if presented with it), many people are under the illusion that you vote for who you want as PM as opposed to who you want as your MP, what the civil service does, why it is important to have an indecent judiciary, what bicameral means and so on.

Basically a huge portion of the UK electorate are politically illiterate when it comes to our own political system. Regardless of whether the EU has a democratic deficit or not, the fact that it is both less important to our day to day lives and different has always been an issue.

I'm not sure what the answer is, but the lack of an informed electorate is a huge problem in UK politics and one no seems to want to address.
I could tell you all three of my local MPs, but couldn't name any opposition candidates.

For the local elections, I spent hours trying to find out information from the government website, but their website wasn't working... Basically voted blind.
 
Those two things aren't particularly compatible :lol:
It's pretty off but only by about 20/30 seats :nervous:

Plus the majority needs to be even...
 
I could tell you all three of my local MPs, but couldn't name any opposition candidates.

For the local elections, I spent hours trying to find out information from the government website, but their website wasn't working... Basically voted blind.

I turned up at mine having researched the candidates and then realised I lived in a completely different ward to the one I thought I did.
 
I could tell you all three of my local MPs, but couldn't name any opposition candidates.

For the local elections, I spent hours trying to find out information from the government website, but their website wasn't working... Basically voted blind.

I'm similar. I can vote in two constituencies. I know the the name of both incumbent MPs, but not the challengers (although I would recognise the conservative's name and could have a stab at it in one of them).

And thats the other issue. How many people can truly give an accurate breakdown between the roles and responsibilities between the various local councils? I'd say somewhere between zero and five percent of the electorate at most.
 
Are we not going to bother about the speaker, Sinn Fein and all that?
Nah, over-complicates things. Just assume they form part of 'everyone else'. So it's essentially how many seats more than 326 the Tories win, multiplied by two.

Did a quick data analysis, with projected figures for the other parties, looks like people are only on average 10 seats off a realistic majority + Labour seat count. An intelligent bunch, or just luck? Quite interesting to see who is the most accurate out the lot of you though...
 
It's pretty off but only by about 20/30 seats :nervous:

Plus the majority needs to be even...
Duality of the Caf - knows Tories will probably win big, still cannot help but predict Labour will do better.

I've also just remembered that Zac Goldsmith is probably winning his seat back on Friday, urgh.