Dis-United Kingdom General Election campaign officially kicks off

Incidentally, it is impossible NOT to enjoy the irony of the Westminster parties whining up how UNFAIR, BOO-HOO!!!!! first-past-the-post is in elections.

The SNP have been saying that for years, but the Unionists thought it was just wonderful, provided it was always them that was FPTP.

Now it's all going wrong for SLab and co, they've done a complete U-turn on the matter.

How quickly they forget! From 2011:

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/politics/cameron-under-av-brown-would-still-be-in-power-1.1085885

The PM will use a keynote speech in London to bolster the No campaign while, in Leeds, Coalition partner Nick Clegg will be making an equally impassioned argument in favour of ditching the traditional first-past-the-post system for AV.

The parliamentary passage of the Bill to set up the referendum on May 5 -- the same day as the Holyrood count -- is complete. The two camps will now increasingly use high-profile speeches and events to influence voters.

Mr Cameron will argue that AV would make politics less accountable and make it harder to kick out governments.

He will say first-past-the-post is often decisive and has a “habit of rising to the occasion”, while AV would make a hung parliament more commonplace.

“Now, it won’t surprise you to hear me say that is not necessarily a bad thing,” the Prime Minister will tell his audience. “As happened last May, it can bring parties together in the national interest.

“But let’s be clear, when there are more hung parliaments there will be more haggling and horsetrading between politicians both before and after elections.”

He will say that parties will try to stitch up second preference votes in different constituencies, which could produce a “second-choice government”.

Mr Cameron will add: “If the last election was under AV, there would be the chance, right now, Gordon Brown would still be prime minister ... any system that keeps dead governments living on life support is a massive backward step.”


*chuckle*

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/29/ukip-mep-david-coburn-banned-wikipedia-indefinitely

Ukip MEP David Coburn banned from Wikipedia indefinitely
Online administrator blocks user account of ‘David Coburn MEP’ over attempts to alter article about the Ukip politician 69 times in six days

Ukip politician David Coburn has been indefinitely banned from Wikipedia after attempting to alter an article about himself 69 times in six days.

The ‘David Coburn MEP’ user account was blocked by an administrator at the online encyclopedia last month after repeatedly trying to make edits to the website’s article on Coburn, who has a reputation for making controversial comments.

Coburn, the Ukip MEP for Scotland, told the Guardian he had directed one of his staff to make the changes in order to clear the page of “garbage” and “nonsense”.

“David Coburn MEP” began altering the page on 1 April this year, removing a passage stating that Coburn had allegedly muddled the name of SNP candidate Tasmina Ahmed Sheikh repeatedly during the 2014 European parliament campaign.

Sheikh had accused Coburn of calling her “Pashmina, Jasmine and Tamzin before eventually settling on a combination of ‘love’, ‘dear’ and ‘honey’,” and that she had found the remarks to be sexist and possibly racist. At the time, Ukip’s Scottish chairman denied Coburn had repeatedly mispronounced Sheikh’s name, saying he had only mispronounced it once. Coburn told the Guardian that Sheikh’s allegation was “nonsense”.

Three minutes after Coburn removed the passage it was reinserted by another user. One minute later, Coburn removed it again.

These were the first of dozens of changes over the following six days encompassing a number of factual disputes, including whether Coburn lived in Edinburgh or London, whether he attended the High School of Glasgow or a high school in Glasgow, and whether he had said ever stated he would “work closely with the so-called London elite” (Coburn says he did not). He also repeatedly tried to add a statement that there was “no material difference” between civil partnerships and gay marriage to his article.

The MEP’s edits were interpreted by other users as breaching one of the site’s rules on conflicts of interest, defined as when users alter articles to make them more favourable to themselves.

Wikipedia also prohibits users from engaging in “edit wars”, in which different users repeatedly delete each other’s contributions. During one particularly intense dispute, Coburn was accused by another user of getting into an edit war with himself and repeatedly deleting his own changes.

Coburn left a number of notes on the website complaining that other users were disregarding his own account of his life......more whacky UKIP fun at link.

George Foulkes @GeorgeFoulkes · 12h 12 hours ago
George Foulkes retweeted Effie Deans
My Bill proposes a body to regulate polls & their publication. Recent events have underlined the need for it.

SLab peer (£300 a day + expenses) wants to clamp down on opinion polls that don't say SLab are the best thing since sliced bread.

Who on earth wanted free speech to begin with?

I am holding off celebrating till, oh, the early hours of Friday the 8th, Lily, I can't believe there is really going to be such a clean sweep of the boards as the polls are suggesting.

But - if Scottish Labour keep up this utter arrogance - especially Labour peers - it could just happen.

Wise move, Bonny.

English Sun:



Scottish Sun:



I didn't expect that, I thought the Scots edition would toe the London line. That's actually quite remarkable news.

Cameron's lying to the electorate? Shocked I am, deeply shocked!

Bl**dy disgraceful.

I am still amazed at that. I don't kid myself for one minute that Murdoch has done it out of the goodness of his heart, there will be some ulterior motive, but it's a huge boost. Apart from the Sunday Herald and the National, ALL the Scottish media has been pro-Westminster till now. Also, Murdoch isn't known for backing losers....

This might help in understanding why....

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Murdoch_family

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11550469/Has-no-one-bothered-to-explain-the-basic-rules-of-politics-to-Nicola-Sturgeon.html

Has no one bothered to explain the basic rules of politics to Nicola Sturgeon?
Fraser Nelson is baffled by the SNP leader's bizarre decision to mix with members of the public

That's funny.

OMG!



We now have a Holyrood-1!

Excellent!

I actually bought a copy of the Scottish Sun today, to see what had brought this about. They continued the Star Wars theme, with Cameron as Darth Vader and Alex Salmond as Yoda.....

But it was a well-argued, well-written two page piece. The gist of it was that the staff regarded Scotland as a different country, and that they didn't agree with the SNP on everything....but the SNP were best placed to represent and fight for ordinary Scots.

There followed a long list of the excruciating behaviour of the SLabs and others here. Oh, and that Westminster needs a kick up the ar@e and a full shake-out.

It was actually quite a good bit of writing, level-headed despite the Star Wars stuff.

They certainly do need a shake out and we would appreciate they continue it over here.  

So all good then?

Yup, all is set fair, Lily. Oh, and the English Sun explained that the main reason they were backing the Tories was because Cameron is promising a referendum on Europe.

I confess, I think there should be more referendums, as in Switzerland, instead of politicians taking this lofty attitude that they know what's best for the plebs.

Though I can do without any more as nasty as the last one, I hasten to add......

Hope he doesn't renege on that?

He'll try to, Lily.

There's a sort-of debate on just now - just the three main Westminster parties being asked questions by the public. Cameron isn't going down terribly well so far....

Oh, he's just said a referendum on Europe is a 'red line'.....that could really tie him in knots when he doesn't win a majority, as the LibDems won't agree....

Did he consult with our guy first, since he has mentioned a red line?

It's liable to come back and bite him, Lily.

Milliband is on now, with various voters arguing with him about Brown selling off the gold, etc. 'Trust me' isn't really going down too well....