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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Dolph said:
Profit is a structural driver for efficiency. Poor efficiency also means less money for the actual service.

If you can go, for example, from 20% inefficiency to 10% inefficiency and 5% profit, the service has still gained. Aiming to get 10% efficiency improvement without a structural incentive is unlikely to happen because there is no gain.
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Is "efficiency" a sensible target for healthcare? What does it actually mean in a healthcare context? Markets work very well in some areas: specifically where we can have real competition, easily measured outcomes and good customer assessment of what they want. None of these things are true of healthcare. Patients are extremely poorly placed to judge the quality of healthcare they receive or will receive from different suppliers.

In any case, the fact is that the NHS performs extremely well on efficiency measures by international standards, while the developed world's most free market, private, system - the US - does extremely poorly so why would we think that introducing private competition is going to help?
 
Mr Jack said:
Is "efficiency" a sensible target for healthcare? What does it actually mean in a healthcare context? Markets work very well in some areas: specifically where we can have real competition, easily measured outcomes and good customer assessment of what they want. None of these things are true of healthcare. Patients are extremely poorly placed to judge the quality of healthcare they receive or will receive from different suppliers.

In any case, the fact is that the NHS performs extremely well on efficiency measures by international standards, while the developed world's most free market, private, system - the US - does extremely poorly so why would we think that introducing private competition is going to help?
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Indeed, something which free market proponents tend to 'forget' (they know just ignore it).

Not everything worth doing is profitable, neither is it always the most efficient things to do to ensure all needs are met. To provide transportation to a remote area with a small population for example is rarely profitable or efficient, but it is required for the quality of life of the people who live in that region.

Judging everything by it's pure economic benefit if a very short sighted way of viewing the world.
 
"Now for something completely different" :D

A little website put together by 38degrees that illustrates the rate of loss of taxes due to avoidance under Osborne's command:

http://www.georgelostmytax.com/seconds

2cd90rc.jpg
 
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elmarko said:
Indeed, something which free market proponents tend to 'forget' (they know just ignore it).

Not everything worth doing is profitable, neither is it always the most efficient things to do to ensure all needs are met. To provide transportation to a remote area with a small population for example is rarely profitable or efficient, but it is required for the quality of life of the people who live in that region.

Judging everything by it's pure economic benefit if a very short sighted way of viewing the world.
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Can't remember where I read it but saw in an article the other day that re-introducing free (subsidised) eyesight tests in Scotland cost £400m, but that the savings made by improving quality of life and early detection outweighed this. The trouble is for the pen pushing accountants its hard to put a tangible number on this, so it's not seen as worthwhile to some.
 
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-32001383

Hooray - agreement finally reached over leaders' debates. Cameron and Milliband won't go head to head, but will have a Q&A session together hosted by Paxman. The Democratic boreathon is still on though with a 7-way party debate including the PM, and a 5 opposition party debate. Finally UKIP are excluded from a 3-way Question Time featuring Cameron, Milliband and Clegg.

This all sounds like a victory for Cameron's cynical tactics to get what he wanted, but I'm glad they are going ahead.
 
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Mr Jack said:
The definitive list of UKIP's racists, sexists, homophobes, Islamophobes, anti-Semites, paedophiles, animal abusers, and violent bullies.

Just for ease of reference :)
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It would take seconds to knock up a list of Lib Dem sex offenders. ;)

And then lets look at historical sex abuse by the "establishment", how many of them are UKIP members?

So, some UKIP members hold views that others don't agree with, it doesn't mean they are racist or homophobic, that is jus the narrative that LibLabCon have put out because they are terrified of losing votes but are too scared to discuss immigration.
 
Mr Jack said:
The definitive list of UKIP's racists, sexists, homophobes, Islamophobes, anti-Semites, paedophiles, animal abusers, and violent bullies.

Just for ease of reference :)
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Some of these guys are comic genius.

Said that Scottish people are “subsidy junkies” who “[whinge] like a trampled bagpipe as they wait for their next fix of English taxpayers’ money”
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Claimed that cutting carbon emissions is dangerous because plants need carbon dioxide to grow
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Said that same-sex marriage only matters to “some queen who wants to dress up in a bridal frock and dance up the aisle to the Village People”
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Called Tory MP Ruth Davidson a “fat lesbian” who looks like porridge, called former Scottish Labour leader Johann Lamont a “fish wife”, and claimed SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon has “mad scary eyes”
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I could keep going. I like them, they're wacky.

That website does take some semi okay points the wrong way however, but it is lefty twaddle I suppose.
 
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OldCoals said:
It would take seconds to knock up a list of Lib Dem sex offenders. ;)

And then lets look at historical sex abuse by the "establishment", how many of them are UKIP members?

So, some UKIP members hold views that others don't agree with, it doesn't mean they are racist or homophobic, that is jus the narrative that LibLabCon have put out because they are terrified of losing votes but are too scared to discuss immigration.
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I don't disagree with your narrative point, but isn't it faintly ironic and a little perturbing for you and other ukip supporters when one of their apparent selling points so far for ukip is they have been trying to sell themselves as something different and new, when the reality is they're just the same as all the others..? Just as likely to abuse their position as others, just as "establishment" as the others, just as corrupt as the others?
 
platypus said:
I don't disagree with your narrative point, but isn't it faintly ironic and a little perturbing for you and other ukip supporters when one of their apparent selling points so far for ukip is they have been trying to sell themselves as something different and new, when the reality is they're just the same as all the others..? Just as likely to abuse their position as others, just as "establishment" as the others, just as corrupt as the others?
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I'm not a UKIP supporter. :D

They are different, in the sense that they just come out and say what they think, lets ignore if what they say is right or wrong, that is another debate.

It is quite refreshing to hear people in the political realm just say what they think instead of just trotting out the party mantra.
 
OldCoals said:
It would take seconds to knock up a list of Lib Dem sex offenders. ;)
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How many current Lib Dem representatives or candidates would that list include? A great many of these are from people still in the party.

So, some UKIP members hold views that others don't agree with, it doesn't mean they are racist or homophobic, that is jus the narrative that LibLabCon have put out because they are terrified of losing votes but are too scared to discuss immigration.
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When those views are racist, homophobic or sexist then they're racist, homophobic or sexist. This isn't some grey area.
 
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