Can Labour actually win the next election and make a difference?

[Ernest]

The Scotland independence vote (18th September 2014) is 10 MONTHS before the next general election (7th May 2015). If they vote yes, there is NO WAY Scotland would be allowed to return MPs to the Westminster parliament. That would be completely ridiculous.

Do you really think it will happen over night even if it is a yes vote ?

 

[Soulman]

The Scotland independence vote (18th September 2014) is 10 MONTHS before the next general election (7th May 2015). If they vote yes, there is NO WAY Scotland would be allowed to return MPs to the Westminster parliament. That would be completely ridiculous.

That would be a bonus then. The votes by the 110 MP's from the 3 other UK countries affected the outcomes of tuition and prescription fees in England.....they were quite happy for their own countries to get the freebies, but knew their budgets would be cut if we had a small slice of the pie.
With all this posturing about an independent Scotland, (which i think the Scots will vote no, they know where their bread is buttered) then i believe we should have a vote whether we still want them in, if the vote is no. If a manager is not happy at a club, touts himself around, then decides to stay.....then perhaps it is time he was moved on eh.

 

[somerset]

The Scotland independence vote (18th September 2014) is 10 MONTHS before the next general election (7th May 2015). If they vote yes, there is NO WAY Scotland would be allowed to return MPs to the Westminster parliament. That would be completely ridiculous.

Do you really think it will happen over night even if it is a yes vote ?

Of course it wont,... there wont be a Scottish general election until 2016,... so the yes vote in 2014 would simply say that's what they want, then the planning would start to work towards the 2016 election in Scotland, only at that point will the Scottish Westminster mp's get their marching orders.

 

[Soulman]

only then will the Scottish Westminster mp's get their marching orders.

And send them homewards....tae think again

 

[Titanic]

Of course it wont,... there wont be a Scottish general election until 2016,... so the yes vote in 2014 would simply say that's what they want, then the planning would start to work towards the 2016 election in Scotland, only at that point will the Scottish Westminster mp's get their marching orders.

It would a complete CONSTITUTIONAL HORLICKS if the Scotch MPs were allowed to take seats and hold any sort of balance of power in Westminster... for a few months and then bugger off up north. No way would that be allowed.

 

[Ernest]

Good speech by Ed Milliband so far

 

[Seagull over Canaryland]

I agree with the thrust of your post. But it is worth remembering that the Tories (especially under Hague) were arguing for further deregulation of the Banks at the time. Labour did a lot wrong, but I am not convinced that any of the other major parties would have made any better decisions.

It seems to me that Western culture from Governments all the way down to consumers was obsessed with buying things on credit.

I worry what will happen in 20-odd years time when all of the PFI initiatives run out. As I understand things, the majority of PFI hospitals were effectively bought on credit. Therefore future Governments will be forced to bear the cost and pay for hospitals that (by the time we actually have to pay for them) will be outdated. This, for me, was Labour's major financial irresponsibility from the 'boom' years.

As you can probably tell, I don't support any particular party!

I'm very mindful of the Tories similar attitude to deregulation and agree the political parties are all as bad as each other. But we cannot deny that the last Labour Govt was in power for so long that there is little credibility in them blaming others when they had the power and time to put things right, not least reining the banks in. Sadly in many cases they made things worse and we are still paying for the consequences of their actions / inactions.

Ed Balls might still be in Govt (and who knows even PM) if for example he hadn't had a say in scrapping the 10p income tax rate among his other misdemeanours. And that's before you get me going on PFI - what a financial millstone that will be for many public services for years to come.

 

[Herr Tubthumper]

Do you really think it will happen over night even if it is a yes vote ?

Quite. Has a time scale been decided? I'd imagine it will be at least one parliamentary term before everything is in place for them to break away.

 

[somerset]

No way would that be allowed.

No way it couldn't be allowed, they will be incumbent MP's, you couldn't legally throw them out until the Scots have their handover date, assuming that will be when the Scottish General election will be, in 2016 as already said.

 

[Buzzer]

Yes - they could win it - if they ditch Milliband, dunno who for though and/or they get a coalition with the Lib Dems.

Will they make a difference? Not a chance. A narrow social class replaced by a narrow professional class neither with any clue as to the problems that face the rest of us.

 

[sten_super]

Quite. Has a time scale been decided? I'd imagine it will be at least one parliamentary term before everything is in place for them to break away.

It's not just a question of timescales though, is it? With a clear end-date on the shelf life of Scottish Westminster MPs, they'd be sitting in and voting on measures which would only be applicable in Scotland for a short period of time (if at all) while continuing to affect the English population. There's no way that they should be able to vote on those issues when there's little downside to them voting for weird and wonderful policies - just think of how popular they'd be in Scotland if they started voting for say draconian taxation policies to 'screw over the English'.

 

[LargeHadronZugzwang]

Don't give a shite who gets in, they could elect nobody and the Country would be better run. This bunch of Plutocrats have to go; they've closed libraries, privatised Royal Mail, done nothing about escalating public transport costs, nothing re tax havens but continue to cosy up to their donors aka Hedge Fund Managers, instigated totally ruinous energy policy.....I could go on, but they make my fecking blood boil. They must GO full stop.

 

[Titanic]

Quite. Has a time scale been decided? I'd imagine it will be at least one parliamentary term before everything is in place for them to break away.

They already have a parliament... I think the split from Westminster would actually (and desirably from all parties) be pretty rapid... perhaps with some of the legalities taking longer... their voting powers in Westminster should be removed on 19th September!

 

[ALBION28]

If Scotland vote for independence, losing 41 MPs would kill Labour's chance of a majority in Westminster for decades to come. Two birds with one stone?

I do hope the Scots break free taking their oil and superior education system with them. Their portion of national debt could be paid down in three years, should they make that choice. I think it likely that if they continue Proportional Representation a left of centre politic will develop similar to their Scandinavian neighbours . This will create extreme wealth and an equitable society. In contrast The English (of which I am one) will be stuck with Tory or right wing agenda (it started in 1979) and will continue it split of haves and have nots until change comes knocking at the door....could get messy.

 

[ALBION28]

Don't give a shite who gets in, they could elect nobody and the Country would be better run. This bunch of Plutocrats have to go; they've closed libraries, privatised Royal Mail, done nothing about escalating public transport costs, nothing re tax havens but continue to cosy up to their donors aka Hedge Fund Managers, instigated totally ruinous energy policy.....I could go on, but they make my fecking blood boil. They must GO full stop.

Agreed!!!

 

[34064 Fighter Command]

I'm very mindful of the Tories similar attitude to deregulation and agree the political parties are all as bad as each other. But we cannot deny that the last Labour Govt was in power for so long that there is little credibility in them blaming others when they had the power and time to put things right, not least reining the banks in. Sadly in many cases they made things worse and we are still paying for the consequences of their actions / inactions.

Ed Balls might still be in Govt (and who knows even PM) if for example he hadn't had a say in scrapping the 10p income tax rate among his other misdemeanours. And that's before you get me going on PFI - what a financial millstone that will be for many public services for years to come.

I've said this before but exactly what juristiction did Labour have to tell the banks not to invest in US TOXIC debt that was packaged as AAA rated risk-free investments. With the benefit of hindsight, anybody could have stopped the economic crises.

If you want to blame anyone, blame the banks themselves for failing to carry out the so called expert analysis of what they were buying in the first place. Expertise which they were better placed than anybody else to have. If they couldn't spot a sows ear from a silk purse, then it's pretty unlikely a career politician is going to.

I would have preferred to see a few banks go the way of Lehmans to make sure the City of London really did sit up and take notice of what a crap job they were doing, and then start to self regulate themselves properly. The whole Libor rate scandal just proves that they've learnt NOTHING from their mistakes.

1st rule of investing ' caveat emptor '....... Let the buyer beware. And the banks were the buyers, not a parliamentary political party, or government.

As for Labour getting elected - if we want to emulate German prosperity we need a Left - Right coalition exactly as Chancellor Merkel is trying to forge, to get this Country back on it's feet. If our politicians can't manage to achieve that, then THEY have failed the country. Coalition and a broad level of consensus for the last 50+ years has meant that Germany, even with all the financial overheads of reunification, has become the most stable and economically powerful European nation. and we would do well to ditch left - right party politics, and replace them with Governments of 'National Unity', that stop going on about GB interests or economic ideaology, but actually comes up with a realistic set of targets, in a realistic timeframe, and then go ahead and sets out to achieve them.

This Country has failed to have a purpose or identity for the last 40 years, and without one, it's just going to continue muddling through. Crikey, even the French and Chinese are better at long term planning than we are (and in the case of the Chinese who were a complete basket case for decades that really speaks volumes ) - just how humiliating does that have to get....... We can't even get HS2 off the ground when everyone else has had High Speed Rail for decades. Just how Sh!t do we want this country to get. Even the Russians now look at us as a laughing stock ( 25 years ago they were in terrible trouble )........

 

[seagullsovergrimsby]

With all this talk of coalition how will this work if the LibDems end up with 8 seats or less ? Voters this time around will be seriously thinking about the consequence of voting for a party which lets into power those who they dislike the most.

 

[Ernest]

With all this talk of coalition how will this work if the LibDems end up with 8 seats or less ? Voters this time around will be seriously thinking about the consequence of voting for a party which lets into power those who they dislike the most.

I think the protest vote next time will be not to vote at all and people know now if they do a tactical vote to keep the Tory out by voting LibDem they may well end up with a Tory government. I don't think Clegg has thought this through with all his talk about coalition, people have seen what happens.

 

[DavidinSouthampton]

I think the protest vote next time will be not to vote at all and people know now if they do a tactical vote to keep the Tory out by voting LibDem they may well end up with a Tory government. I don't think Clegg has thought this through with all his talk about coalition, people have seen what happens.

What we need is proportional representation. I am surprised no-one has suggested it..... Oh yes, I remember now.

But is at the next election Tory (or labour) + Lib-Dem seats together do not outnumber the rest, they would have to find other coalition partners, or run a minority government

 

[vegster]

Or is it more political lies, to fool the electorate once again?

Aren't there several other political parties that lie to the electorate ? Or are you suggesting some other form of government would be better ?