The UK General Election 2005 Thread

Steve, I am proud of you me mate <sniff>

Quite astonished that I should have moved a Prince to tears.

Perhaps I should have gone into politics afterall.

You were missed all right last week end Mr Prince (is that ok or can we still call you by your first name?)

In fact most at the A2K meeting talked about nothing else but you and what you might be doing. Even those who had never heard of you still wanted to express an opinion.

You made me just again , Steve!

oh dear, seem to be having quite a lachrymose effect today...hope it was nothing I said.

But it is very sad when our Dear Friend Mr Prince is away

<Might well be, he has got excellent changes in the coming cabinet shuffle, still sniffing Walter thinks>

U mean to say that there are people who havent heard of me

Prince - one or two just-hatched ones

Really really must go and Vo...

OK got a better I idea.

Calling all a2k'ers. You have a rare opportunity to participate in the British election. Even if you are not British or have never even heard of Britain, you can help decide the future government of the country.

Simply give me your suggestion as to which way to vote, and I'll do it!

Even if your choice isnt standing, he or she will get my vote, promise.

Vote against Labor - that is what matters.

LOL

Hey, you know where I stand. Vote Libdem.

No, wait. What district you in? That's kind of crucial information, isn't it?

If your constituency is a safe seat for any of the three parties, vote Libdem (you might as well). If Lab and Libdem are neck-to-neck, vote Libdem. If the Libdems are neck-to-neck with the Tories, vote Libdem. If it's a three-way race with a realistic chance for each winning, vote Libdem. BUT if Labour and the Tories are in a close race with each other, with the Libdems clearly behind, by all means vote Labour!

I only have the one vote, (except the 20 postal votes sent off last week) so as Nimh is first with the choice...

To the tune of the Beatles "I Saw Her Standing There"

A one, two, three, four!

Tory MP:
Well since I was 17
you know what I mean
at 10 Downing Street
I've wanted to live there.

But plans, I have had to make others
whoa...
all because of Tony Blair.

George W. Bush:
Well, he turned to me
and I, I could see
that Iraq's the place
I hoped he'd join me there.
He took that chance, in the gutter
whoa....
he's my friend, that Tony Blair.

Tony Blair:
Well, my heart, it sank
when the planes and tanks
got hit with bullets and mi-i-i-i-nes...

Conservative Leader Michael Howard:
Well, a chance lost tonight
and my future isn't bright.
And before too long
like Hague, I'll pull out my hair.
I'd be in charge if I had my druthers
whoa...
but we've still got Tony Blair!
(Tories scream!)

(instrumental break)

BBC Commentator:
Well, the whole U.K.
made their voting play.
It's a partial change of mi-i-i-ind...

Exchequer Chancellor Gordon Brown:
Well it seems, here tonight
that my future's looking bright
and in the next go-round
Number 10, I'll be there.
Three terms, says he won't seek another
whoa...
and I'll succeed Tony Blair.
And I'll succeed Tony Blair.
Yeah, well, I'll succeed Tony Blair.

http://www.amiright.com/parody/60s/thebeatles1075.shtml

and finally

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/vote_2005/england/4524491.stm

Most probably, if a certain person, had delivered more leaflets instead of ... whatever, and his wife had voted 'pro' as well , well ...

I voted LibDem, as I had previously stated, and managed to have no contributory effect on the results in my contituency:

Share Change
Labour 46.9 -5.4
Conservative 24.4 +0.9
LibDem 21.8 +4.0
Green 4.5 +1.4

So Labour slipped a little and the LibDems took up most of the swing. Not very exciting, eh?

?
I oppose Abortion and Homosexual Marriage, but I also opose the War in Iraq. I also do not like crooked Politian's like Bush. I'm against Union's and World Organization's. So, if I was a Britt, who would you think I'd vote for?

Re: ?


Tricky. I don't think any of the parties are anti-abortion, but I would imagine that the Conservatives are anti-gay marriage. The Liberal Democrats were anti-war, but the Conservatives supported it (generally). The Conservatives are more against the European Union than the other main parties, but the UK Independence Party is completely against it. All-in-all, I reckon you would have voted for the Conservatives. I think they are generally seen as being the British party nearest to the Republicans in the US.

That's really tricky, what CG asked.

Althought the Conservatives aren't the closest friends of the unions, you can't really say that tzhey werte against them. (Well, THEIR life would be much easier was less rights for normal people, though.) But they definately are pro-UN (I doubt that you can find outsite the USA someone, who is against the UN and other world organisations).

'British National Party' or 'National Democrats' I would think.

Re: ?

UK Independence Party? It's a bit of a marginal party out there on the rightwing fringe, but it would probably mostly fit the bill...

They want the UK out of the European Union. They want it to withdraw from the U.N. Convention on Refugees. They want Britain to stay in NATO, but "without committing Britain to joining the United States in any future military adventures". I don't know what position it took on Iraq but its Manifesto states that "British armed forces [are] to be deployed only when this is clearly in the national interest. Our forces are not world policemen or international social workers."

Of course this leaves us with abortion and gay marriage. The UKIP doesnt seem to spent much thought on such issues. Nothing on their website about either issue, though there is the press release in which the UKIP's London mayoral candidate "disliked seeing police officers of the same sex in uniform walking hand in hand at gay parades. [..] What kind of an example this is to young children growing up in an already confusing society."

Walter's right, British Nationalist Party definitely seems a better fit. They do have clear-cut views on abortion and "the 'gay rights' lobby", as they call it.

For example, Tony Wentworth, the BNP Students Organiser, rails here against "the legalised murder we call abortion". In the same sentence he asserts that "the teaching of homosexuality in schools is wholly unnecessary", decrying sex education classes as coming down to that, exactly. He laments the abolition of "Section 28, which protected children from homosexual propaganda in schools" and calls "the alleged "homophobia" in schools" "a complete non-issue".

Elsewhere on the site you can find an essay by current BNP leader Nick Griffin in which he decries "Spiritual filth, such as abortion on demand and genocide through integration; cultural filth, like MTV" and (oddly) "physical filth, like fast foods which have no nutritional value whatsoever."

The BNP, too, wants the UK to withdraw from the European Union, which its 2005 manifesto calls "an aspiring super state which would deprive the British people of their right to democratic self-government"; it sees a united Europe as "the number one threat to Britain's national independence".

The Bush government is seen as a necessary evil: "however much we may dislike the present American regime, and see the need to resist American cultural imperialism, we still need the USA as a counterweight against a European super state". The BNP wants the UK to withdraw from NATO, though. It also wants to "withdraw all British troops with immediate effect from Iraq": "We will never again involve British troops in any more American 'wars for oil' or neo-con adventures on behalf of the Zionist government of Israel." Note the party's trademark anti-semitism.

As for the UN, oddly, in its 2005 Manifesto the BNP states that "under present circumstances we would abide by our obligations under the 1951 United Nations Convention on Refugees". (Kind of eerie to realise that even the BNP has been passed to its right by the Tories and UKIP here.) But elsewhere BNP news items deride "the would-be One World dictatorship known as the United Nations" and "the anti-patriotic United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees".

One of those items also again highlights the BNP's opposition to the Iraq war: "the BNP has little further to add to our opinions about Tony Blair's messianic vanity and his campaign at the heels of George Bush to make the Middle East safe for US oil companies and for the war criminals running the Israeli government. This is an unjust and unwise war".