JJ

I know it's not a new argument, but with the only argument put forward for First Past The Post is it "creates strong governments" then I hope when we get another hung parliament in May it means that electoral reform comes back to the forefront. I was at the Radical Independence conference yesterday in Glasgow. Really pleasing to see the left finally coming together in Scotland. We need a strong left all over the UK to fight off the purple headed monster.

The biggest argument we always got about the First Past The Post system was that it produces strong governments. We've obviously still got 6 months to go, but there are no signs anyone is getting a majority again. Surely the argument for electoral reform will be right back on the table, and taken seriously this time. Not nonsense like AV (which I did vote for incidentally) which was only slightly better, but hardly any good.

Nice. Reckon you should boot us out the Union and make us go it alone. That'll show us.

Nicola Sturgeon has planted the seeds for constitutional crisis and a second independence referendum today if Scotland votes to stay in but are dragged out by the larger electorate. She suggested Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should have a veto to the result if they as nations vote to stay in, even if the overall result is an Out vote. It's a preposterous claim by Sturgeon to be honest about the nation veto, but it's obvious what she's doing it for. Cameron answered the question today at PMQ's that it is a UK wide referendum and majority wins, but in truth, he's absolutely right and couldn't say anything else. The SNP are going to use this as an excuse to hold another referendum. I obviously if it were to happen would vote Yes, but they as a party (which I don't support) have to be careful they don't become an absolute one policy party going forward and show some patience. I knew these seeds would be planted, but I'm surprised it's been planted just 6 weeks after our referendum.

I like him. He makes a lot of good points and has been involved in some good activism recently. I think he's stuck in purgatory a bit right now though. It's clear he wants to do something revolutionary (well, duh, title of the book and all that) but it's not clear that he's figured out either what he wants to do or how he wants to achieve it. But I like his intentions.

The media have created the UKIP phenomenon and it's disingenuous to suggest anything else. It started in 2012. It got out of control in 2013. Farage is on Question Time more than anyone other than David Dimbleby. The growth in Euroscepticism gave Farage a constant voice in the media, and with that over exposure comes increased support. The same thing happened up here with the Greens. The Greens got barely any coverage until the Green Yes campaign was launched, and the growth in Green membership has been incredible. It was far from the biggest reason, but was one of the many reasons I voted Yes in the referendum. There's a growth of far right politics in England (I'm not saying we're exempt as we did elect a UKIP MEP, though barely) as the growth of UKIP is bad enough, but it's largely helped pull the Conservatives even further to the right, which is a scary prospect. David Cameron has flip flopped in recent times about his position on Europe till the last couple of months where it became apparent he had to embrace the anti-Europe position to try to win back defecting support. I don't think it's a position he's particularly comfortable with, but the Tories have always put party before people.

It is one of life's simple philosophies that is unlikely to fail.

The thing that annoys me the most is immigration isn't the problem at all in this debate. Immigrants are net contributors to the UK. But unfortunately, for those who want to see an Out vote they feel the need to appeal to the lowest common denominator, so they need to focus on Johnny Foreigner. They should be focusing on the bureaucratic and undemocratic problems with the system. Unfortunately, the UK media doesn't want to talk about the undemocratic side of it due to their desire to protect the House of Lords from any potential reform. And the In argument is pretty weakly put forward too, centered around rhetoric instead of the benefits of being part of the European Union. Overall I'm not exactly sure what I'd vote in a referendum. But I know the debate will not be centered around what actually matters.

Check Bridget's link, which is more than sensible (just the one thing) and then click "previous" for Stephen Phillips. That guy is making a mint.

Woo hoo

I'm well up for a Christmas piss up. Was thinking of coming down for the Mackem game, but let me know what the plans are and I'm in.

Past it tbh

And to add to the sentiment, I hope I looked much better than the photo from 2003 when I was a pissed Uncle Fester!

Was good to catch up! Will definitely need to do it again soon. Had an ace day!

Raise the 45p tax rate back up to 50p and reintroduce the 10p tax rate, while pushing the tax thresholds up a bit so as not to stop people having the opportunity to earn more, but being hampered too easily by going up a tax bracket and essentially getting hardly anything for it. Reform how corporation tax is collected, to essentially close all the loopholes. Sometimes a law needs ripped up and started again. It's predicted that the reduction in the 50p tax rate along with the corporate tax loopholes costs the UK about £110 billion a year. Obviously it'll be a little less with the extension of when income tax will begin to be paid and my proposal to raise the thresholds a little, but both measures would make massive inroads into the deficit and help stop this ideological attack on the poor for the crimes of the rich under the banner of "Austerity."

In 2011 the SNP profited big time from the collapse of the Lib Dems and the complacency of Labour. The Lib Dem collapse left literally hundreds of thousands of votes to be won. The SNP campaigned hard to give those old Liberal Democrat voters a home, whereas Labour just assumed they would naturally gravitate to them. Even after the election Labour spent the whole time blaming the Lib Dems instead of actually figuring out why they didn't capitalise on a large chunk of the electorate just sitting there waiting to be won over. Holyrood could be controlled by the SNP for a long long time. They really need to figure out their direction though. They are a real broad church when it comes to views and policy. But with the continued collapse of the Lib Dems and the erosion of support for Scottish Labour, it's theirs to control for as long as they don't screw it up. Ironically, the only unionist party who won't take a hit from the independence referendum will be the Tories. All indication is that there were a higher percentage of SNP supporters who voted No than Tories who voted Yes. I don't see them ever coming to prominence any time soon in Scotland, but there's an opportunity for them to do a little better in the future.

Aye as much as there needs to be a real breakup of the two establishment parties, UKIP is definitely not the answer. There's nothing funnier than watching Nigel Farage paint himself as anti-establishment. I'm not worried they're going to win a boatload of seats, but at the same time, I worry that there might be a few constituencies where they get in via protest vote where the Labour and Conservative vote aren't particularly strong. As a Green voter, I was pleased the Greens beat the Lib Dems in Clacton, albeit both comfortably lost their deposits.

More concerning was the result in Heywood and Middleton. UKIP were supposed to be no hopers there, and they nearly won the seat.

A kind Scotsman just took you past the £750 mark. We're normally tight arses too.

The majority of UKIP supporters should be voting Green. While the Greens aren't full on Euroskeptics like Farage and his BNP with A-Levels brigade, the Greens support an EU referendum in 2017. There was a survey done on UKIP members and it found that the majority of them believe in left wing policies, but support UKIP for a referendum they could get voting Green.

Red Ed is already bordering on unelectable. Their flagship economic policies set out at the conference are looking like a repeat of 1992.

Aye the EU will be a particular sore point, especially if Scotland votes In and the rest of the UK votes out. These horrible arseholes in George Square can't be classed as No voters. They are the horrible face of Loyalists. They're not out to celebrate. They're out to provoke.