Poll: General election voting intentions poll

Voting intentions in the General Election - only use the poll if you intend to vote

  • Alliance Party of Northern Ireland

    Votes: 2 0.3%
  • Conservative

    Votes: 287 42.0%
  • Democratic Unionist Party

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Green Party

    Votes: 67 9.8%
  • Labour

    Votes: 108 15.8%
  • Liberal Democrat

    Votes: 25 3.7%
  • Other party (not named)

    Votes: 15 2.2%
  • Plaid Cymru

    Votes: 2 0.3%
  • Respect Party

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Scottish National Party

    Votes: 36 5.3%
  • Social Democratic and Labour Party

    Votes: 1 0.1%
  • Sinn Fein

    Votes: 4 0.6%
  • UKIP

    Votes: 137 20.0%

  • Total voters
    684
  • Poll closed .
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Soldato
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Do you mean in terms of his manner and how he carries himself or purely ability to do the job?

You are right about his brother, I think most people think he would have been the better choice, that is a lot of baggage to carry with you.

There have been plenty of reports that Labour MP's wanted Miliband out, they just never had the Balls to do it.

In politics, your manner and how you carry yourself has a massive impact on your ability to do the job. Ed does not come across as someone who can lead or inspire his own party, never-mind the nation.

I think Labour backed the wrong horse, but then I do think that strategically they were right to look for someone to the left of New Labour. I am not sure David Miliband could have escaped comparisons to Blair and he'd probably have alienated the old school Labour voters.
 
Caporegime
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He lost because of the unions, basically! He'd convinced the MPs/MEPs and Labour Party members...

In other words, he didn't win enough support from the right people and lost as a result. Like it or not Labour are set up the way they are, the rules are clearly stated up front and it's up to the candidates to get the required number of votes.
 
Soldato
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I like David Cameron from seeing him with his family but I think Labour's policies sound better but I don't like Ed Millband...

Only ones left really are Liberals but I don't know enough about them and I don't like the idea of someone 'liberal' as you need someone to back up their decisions instead of letting everything slide which is a very liberal thing to do.... I'm just not sure.

Please don't vote based on how much you like the look of the party leader, or even worse, what the name of the party sounds like! :eek:

I hope this isn't the way most people vote but have a suspicion it might be :(
 
Caporegime
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'The best candidate', but only won the contest because of the unions. The parliamentary party and the members of the Labour Party both preferred David, with Ed in second place... then the affiliated members switched it around.

So, in other words, he won the election under the rules it is conducted under.

In what way is this possibly a criticism of him?

You might say Ed was the best candidate, but the MPs/MEPs and Labour Party members thought David was the better candidate.

By a small margin, whereas nearly 50% more of the affiliated members (who are, incidentally, the largest group) backed Ed.
 
Soldato
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Quick, everyone vote Ed Miliband: Katie Hopkins will leave the UK if we do!

** Link removed, swearing in the comments **
 
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Soldato
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Only in your head, the polls all disagree with you

Not only in my head despite the poll: http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/2015/03/26/who-won-the-election-deba_n_6951852.html

Clearly Labour can take some comfort from the fact that most people would have thought the debate to have been a landslide for Cameron and that Milliban would be a pushover when he wasn't. This must be quite worrisome for the Tories who have staked 50% of their election strategy on trying to demonize and depict him as a hopeless noob. I can see this backfiring on the Tories in the event there there is no major setback for Milliband.
 
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Soldato
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I don't know how anyone can say Ed 'wasn't that bad'. I was cringing watching it and even the studio audience were laughing at him, hand over their mouths to hide embarrassment etc.
 
Soldato
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I don't know how anyone can say Ed 'wasn't that bad'. I was cringing watching it and even the studio audience were laughing at him, hand over their mouths to hide embarrassment etc.

He wasn't that bad at all. He came across as both humorous and human: and by that I mean passionate, well intentioned and fair. I saw those people laughing in the audience and they simply struck me as those types who were prepared to laugh hand over mouth regardless. More fool them for underestimating him .
 
Man of Honour
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Iv asked 3 times already - where is the option for 'NO VOTE - democracy is an illusion'

It's all a load of rubbish, shame in this 'democracy' doesn't give people an option to refuse and not be heard

The poll is closed so no new options or votes can be added, it would need to be done in a new thread.

But what would it achieve to add a no vote option? Your choosing to abstain counts exactly the same on here as it does in any election. You've already got the right to refuse to vote (either in this poll or in the election) and not to be heard - that's your democratic right.

Out of interest though what would you replace democracy with?
 
Soldato
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It would be nice to have a followup vote, to see if peoples attitudes have changed, maybe in a couple of weeks, and then again just prior to the election.

Ed the milliband today stated he would cap private companies profits when they work for the NHS, I wonder how he plans to achieve this.
What is a profit?
All dental practices are private contractors to the NHS. In this, they are not employees, they are either incorporated or self employed contractors.

If you afford them 5% profit, that might enable a take home of 5k-10k per year. Policy doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. Typical Ed the Milliband. Policy which suggests a headline, but doesn't stand up to any scrutiny.
 
Caporegime
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It would be nice to have a followup vote, to see if peoples attitudes have changed, maybe in a couple of weeks, and then again just prior to the election.

Ed the milliband today stated he would cap private companies profits when they work for the NHS, I wonder how he plans to achieve this.
What is a profit?
All dental practices are private contractors to the NHS. In this, they are not employees, they are either incorporated or self employed contractors.

If you afford them 5% profit, that might enable a take home of 5k-10k per year. Policy doesn't make the slightest bit of sense. Typical Ed the Milliband. Policy which suggests a headline, but doesn't stand up to any scrutiny.

Value for Money clauses, where profits on services provided are capped at a certain percentage, are reasonably common in the public sector and are enforced with audits. I would also guess that by the time this got to the white paper stage there'd be several exclusions including dentists and other existing NHS contractors.
 
Soldato
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Just walked past Ian Duncan Smith who was canvasing with what looked like insufferable hipster teenagers handing out leaflets outside my station on the way home. He's uglier in real life!
 
Soldato
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Value for Money clauses, where profits on services provided are capped at a certain percentage, are reasonably common in the public sector and are enforced with audits. I would also guess that by the time this got to the white paper stage there'd be several exclusions including dentists and other existing NHS contractors.

Yes, in other words, complete fictional fabrication, made up drivel designed to grab headlines and votes.
Rather like BBC reporting today of documents prepared for potential benefit cuts. The civil service prepare documents all the time, means nothing, look at Northern Ireland, barely a policy implementation in five years yet we've 200000000 civil servants preparing documents every day.
 
Man of Honour
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It would be nice to have a followup vote, to see if peoples attitudes have changed, maybe in a couple of weeks, and then again just prior to the election.

Happy to re-run polling in a week or two just to see if there is any difference in voting intentions. I don't think adding an option for "democracy is an illusion" adds much though I'm willing to listen to arguments to the contrary.

Modified Technocracy, or dictorship, or Singapore, or Caliphate are being tried around the world currently.

Are these systems that you want to see replace democracy or are these simply alternative options that exist? Are any of these options working well?
 
Soldato
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Singapore works well. The others are madness driving from some versions of theology, either made up centuries ago, or in the case of north korea made up recently and continue to be made up.

Modified technocracy would be a perfect solution if it wasnt for humans ;)
 
Caporegime
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Singapore works well. The others are madness driving from some versions of theology, either made up centuries ago, or in the case of north korea made up recently and continue to be made up.

Modified technocracy would be a perfect solution if it wasnt for humans ;)

I made a post about Singapore in SC this week, following the death of their founding father. I do acknowledge that they've done very well over the last 50 years with their system, but I do worry that they just had a bit of a benevolent dictator in charge. This is probably the best kind of government imo but the big problem is that you can't really design a political system to ensure it. Sooner or later you'll get a not-so-benevolent dictator.

What do you regard as a modified technocracy and which country uses it in your opinion?
 
Soldato
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no one uses it, not that I am aware of anyway.
Best people for the role, assigned the role for as long as they remain the best.
Countries with long-term plans, not five year pamphlets.

I completely agree with you, I think he was a benevolent dictator, and pretty much all the Singaporeans I know would feel the same, and were quite happy for the most part to have him/them/their system.
There was complete outrage when it was shown one of their officials had accepted bribes, as they thought their people above such things, as they were and are paid sufficiently well that such things shouldn't be necessary.
 
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