Too many RIGHT WING APOLOGISTS out there.

AV was rejected in 2011, it is not the only form of PR available

As a former student of Politics, I can assure you that AV is not classed as PR.

Was going to say. I'd never heard it described as a form of PR, as it's another form of a majority voting system.

The EU issue is a massive problem for Cameron to negotiate. The Conservative Party is far from unanimous on the issue. I think it is fair to say there is widespread distaste and even loathing for the many deeply questionable and even openly venal practices the EU engages in but doesn't mean everyone thinks it is best to leave, what you don't find is any facile apologetics about the EU project, some may think it is worth wearing a peg on one's nose for but they're not pretending it's a fashion statement. I think a sizeable chunk of the party are desperately hoping for some willingness to reform from within the EU, even if it's just token gestures, but the realists know it is unlikely to happen as the problems are so deeply culturally ingrained that the patrons of the regime will not give them up.

The referendum has to happen, but it will cause a terrible split between those Conservatives who will argue that Britain needs to put a peg on its nose and look the other way as it gets a deal because the alternative of coming out is even worse, and those who will be morally outraged at the wetness of the other side. And for the avoidance of doubt I started to move to the wet side a few years ago on this and will be wearing a peg on my nose when I vote to stay in the EU.

I'm sick and tired of thick, economically illiterate tories claiming success in terms of this bubble economy essentially based on debt financed consumption - the exact same model that the Thatcher created by destroying the country's productive capacity along with her '86 Big Bang which was the embryo which resulted in '08 financial crisis.

We've had Cameron claiming to have reduced the debt (yes debt not deficit) after he's DOUBLED yes DOUBLED the national debt in only 5 years and chohorted with a central banker (who left Canada with a worse housing bubble than the US prior to the financial crisis) by printing money to reduce the budget deficit - yes the tories reduced the "deficit" by printing money - you know the same policy that failed in Zimbabwe???

Along the way the idiot Osborne duplicated the US's failed government back mortgage scheme that created the '08 collapse but calling his "help to buy" so the sheep que up to buy an over-priced property only to end up getting repossessed again.

There are already mainstream institution fund managers (not to mention the big time traders elsewhere) with short positions against UK Gilts and Sterling in preparation for the bond market collapsing. When this happens interest rates go to 15-20% in a matter of days and the country will default.

The great thing about when this happens, it will be on Cameron's watch and then we'll see what the him and Osborne think of their "strong economy" then...

Now that's an interesting one and it'd be fascinating to know if Labour had their ears to the ground.

It's been pretty clear for a long time Labour's working class vote was on the wane, for a number of reasons.
- The tradition of voting Labour "cos me dad always did" is slipping. Mainly because:
- The unions are dead. That traditional association with Labour is increasingly dying out as older generations pass. Newer generations simply don't have that connection. On that note it always fascinated me you could sit in a working class pub and hear conversations that would make Nick Griffin's toes curl, but those same people would then go out and vote Labour - cos that's just how it was.
- Rightly or wrongly immigration is a huge issue, with complaints of immigration driving wages down and not a small amount of often vocal zenophobia. Bearing in mind Labour opened the doors in 1997, UKIP and the Tories seem the most likely to do something about it. In fact anti-Tory rhetoric seems to have been outweighed by anti-immigration feeling.

On another note I was with a number of staff from the Chambers of Commerce of major city last night, as well as many significant business figures (a mix of entrepreneurs, SME and large/global corporates). Almost without fail they were hoping for a Tory or Tory-Lib Dem government. Definitely not Labour. In economic terms Labour were seen as bad news, moreso if the SNP were pulling the strings.

My understanding of Gilts is that they are sold at a fixed interest rate - selling them short only changes the relationship between the face value and the interest rate not the government's ability to pay as the face value remains the same? If the government issues 10n at 5% it repays 10.5bn back regardless of market sentiment. Are you seriously suggesting that the UK will default on its debt and that it will not be able to borrow unless the bonds have a % 15-20%!!

The short positions themselves won't have a direct monetary affect on the solvency of the country, they're simply a way of cashing in on the consequence of the bond market collapsing though as sentiment grows for these trades, those who are long will go short which will accelerate events.

This country's so called "strong economy" is dependent on liquidity to keep the bubble inflated whether that be low interest rates, quantitive easing (money printing to you and me) and "Help to Buy" etc. but the laws of mathematics mean you can only do this for so long because the velocity of money eventually slows. The government can keep printing money to target inflation but this devalues the currency and exceeds the interest rates on the bonds or deflation kicks in and the economy grinds to a halt and revenues dry up - either way the bonds markets goes under.

When the bonds go, the currency goes with them which compounds the need to raise interest rates further (Russia recently had to raise interest rates to 17% to protect the Ruble) and there's absolutely nothing that can prevent this scenario from unfolding because 35% of the bond market are foreign buyers so it doesn't matter what anyone thinks.

When Thatcher said the market will have the final say she was right - this country will go under as a result of her time in office because when you turn the economy into a service economy like ours which is 70%, there's only so much financial engineering you can do before the chickens come home to roost.

The collapse of the country will be a good thing to wipe out baby boomer's pensions and their two holidays a year, and instead allow the young people of this country at least a fairer society - even though a poorer one.

The Tories know nothing.

I dont think the referendum was lost because the electorate wanted electoral reform but not AV. If any other form voting had been put to the electorate it would have received the same response, give or take a couple of percentage points. Largely because the campaign to retain FPTP tends to swamp the reformers.

Opinions such as this belong in the dark ages.

Typically predictable comment from a typical economically illiterate tory.

When I say a "poorer society" I mean in the context of it being an inevitably - not a desire, but because you have a picture of Thatcher, you won't have an understanding of how wealth disparity happens and understand that Thatcher's legacy is a country on the road to default.

It is fact that the biggest gain of wealth for asset holders happened from the late '80s up to the financial crash - a large proportion of these asset holders where obviously baby boomers gained their wealth through property prices and pensions with large holdings in UK Government bonds.

So this group of people with their "I've worked for what I've got attitude" lack the understanding that they haven't actually "worked for what they've got" they've simply fell into the "rentier class" as a result of loose monetary policy and wealth transfer schemes such as "Help to Buy" which means hard work young people feed asset prices so baby boomers can use their pensions to go on their two holidays abroad a year.

A collapse of the bond market will simply be the laws of mathematics taking the course of "reverting to the mean" so all these pensions will get wiped out and the country will have to start producing again which will create jobs for young people.

Make no mistake about it; there will be no reflation of the bubble economy next time round.

As so happens when I debate with Tories, they act as if they're smug and knowledgable with their stock phrases such as "we have a strong economy" and as soon as I start schooling them they disappear - I expect you'll be no different.

Yeah, I'm incredibly worried about a party which effectively exists within a vacuum, hyper-inflated by outside cash which can be withdrawn just as easily as it was injected in the first place, threadbare in terms of core infrastructure, policies etc. - not to mention meager ties to the establishment which, say, the Tories can boast going back centuries through blood ties. UKIP is just another in a long, long line of political implements meant to hoodwink the electorate into an expedient belief system. Like all implements it will be tossed aside the moment it has served its purpose.



Of course Labour saw it coming and if you seriously believe the grandees of the Labour Party went "all in" behind The School Prefect because they honestly believed he represented the best hope for the nation you're a fool. It was a job none of them wanted. So they gave it to the eager beaver kid who doesn't mind taking dirty jobs if it'll propel him three steps up the ladder of power.

This election has been a sick joke from the beginning. And the joke's on us.

Just like Labour you seriously have underestimated the public feeling on several core issues. 4 million people voted for Ukip amost twice as many as voted for the SNP and many of them switched from Labour.




The only fools here are those that cannot except that Labour was routed in Scotland and embarrassed in England because is was represented by oddballs and incompetents touting out of date rhetoric and unable to put up a serious case to deal with the important issues of the day.

Thats the really inexplicable thing - right wing party appears on the scene, further right than the Tories and attracts core vote from dirt poor traditional working class Labour supporters because of their Nationalistic jingo, borderline racism and absolute xenophobic policies, and will now quietly fade from the scene for another five years.

I call conspiracy theory...