I also do my best to input information of that sort for the benefit of English readers who may wish to know more of the entirely different situation in Scotland and the need to interpret UK data with care so far as Scottish constituencies are concerned.

Beyond that I sometimes take the opportunity to rubbish partisan comments by others. That does not mean excepting the party which I currently expect to vote for in the next elections, and I have made it clear more than once that in my view their distinguishing policy is neither necessary not desirable, though I will vote it for it reluctantly.

As a Unitarian, I am opposed to faith systems of any sort, be they religious or political. I have never been a member of any political party.

Oh woe is you!

I mean, really!
How naive you are.

Yeah, yeah – “hey I know, i’ll set up an online polling site where anyone can leave comments, and no-one will ever leave partisan comments.”
[rolls eyes]

If you want a dry academic exercise, then set up a proper forum with membership and control and moderation and qualified membership… I suspect you decided you want the hit count to climb up the blog polls to gain status… fine – just don’t bitch about the sideeffects of it!

The internet is *public space*… you are like a street performer, and all the people who post round here are the audience – get over it!

you’re in the *public arena* – you know you’re a major source of info – and you want to be… plus you’ve got your mugshot up on YouGov, career building.

So don’t have the cheek to take a swipe at the punters who’ve helped you up by visiting and contributing – as though there are an angelic bunch of disciples who toadyingly follow your instructions to the letter, and the rest a neandertha riff raff who are kicking down your sandcastle and “wooining evwyfing, mummy”.

EVERYONE who comes here makes partisan comments, and MOST do it in moderation and have rational discussions that are usually about 80% to do with the polls – that’s reasonable… obviously people who come here to visit are interested in politics and have feelings and views about things, it’s entirely unrealistic and disingenouous to demand that they don’t – we’re not a research group in a university statistics/poltiics department, we’re mix of people from all walks of life with varied experience and qualifications.

Frankly, I think you’re throwing your toys out of the pram.

If you want to do it properly to filter out the sh!theads, go for it (not these silly nuisance bolt ons that you’ve stuck on) – I might even help (as an engineer), but don’t bitch and moan at your own audience – that’s bad netiquette – very bad!

tsk…

I kind of feel sorry for you all!

You don’t have to ‘become’ a party in order to engage with politics. Feel free to vote Labour, or whoever, but they are just a party, and not remotely worth labelling yourself or anyone else with. Life is best when we are as un-tribal as possible, and we are free to relate to one another as human beings, rather than the embodiment of some category.

“- Pensioners”

What planet are you on?????????????
Don’t come round here & say that-you’ll get luynched.

My point was that you cannot just say that you can’t understand why people would vote for Labour and i was giving some examples of people who might. I can completely understand why some people hate labour, i understand why some people vote Tory or Lib Dem or SNP. That is the difference i was (clumsily) trying to point out. I can understand that if you don’t like the EU, and place this as a high priority on your list then you will vote for the Tories or maybe UKIP. To be honest I couldn’t care less about the EU, so it’s not something that effects my decision!

“Oh …and as for public transportation – yes it was pretty screwed up for decades and the Conservative privatisation failed to make it any better but it did raise some dosh for us taxpayers that got mysteriously blown away since 1997. After 12 years of Labour it’s now fantastic … naturally! (I’m being sarcastic by the way)!”

My point was to demonstrate that i don’t think Labour has done anything on this. I don’t think it has got worse particularly, but it sure hasn’t got better. I do like teh fact that Labour gave the power over transport to the London major & Transport for London. Something that could be used in other cities perhaps?

Labour have done some good things, they have done some bad things, they have done nothing on some issues. The Tories will probably be teh same. Its just I trust Labour to have more things in the good things column, and less in the bad things column compared to the Tories. The Lib Dems as ever are irrelevant.

Nothing much changes

@ John TT
” Moley – very funny piece of satire – i rumbled you when you got to the minimum wage.

What’s scary is that a lot of people miss your satire and actually believe it is true!”

John ..Tell that to the people who don’t work for our firm any more, like a former colleague who used to use the cash from a low paid part time job to supplement her hubby’s wages to go on holiday once a year and hasn’t had one since. The NMW served to push all our costs up and as a result, prices. The result in our manufacturing firm? No more orders…”simples”.

When the economic bubble was at its bubbliest the NMW was inflation busting but worked for many, many people. Thus, with apparent good reason everyone decided they could do without low wage jobs. I happen to think they have their place and, via the benefits and tax system, can act as a useful and legal subsidy for manufacturing that would otherwise be done elsewhere in the world.

@ JACK CORNISH

The great achievements of Labour

“- Anyone using the NHS”
tell that to my son who has the same eye problem as Gordon Brown but has to have it followed in France since they want to wait ’til his retina detatches here in the UK. Anything to get him off the list and meet the targets. After all he’s not one of the elite.
“- Anyone in school, or sending their kids too school”
Tell that to everyone who can’t get their child into a decent school and are so desperate they feel obliged to deceive the system and become criminalised.
“- Pensioners”
Tell that to the pensioners who can’t afford to live and have been protesting about unending and unaffordable rises in their council tax, water bills and electricity.
“- Families with pre-school age children”
Tell that to my sister who is a pre school head and is tearing her hair out at the massive budget cuts they are trying to impose
“- Fathers wanting paternity pay”
An admirable objective but another nail in the coffin of small UK manufacturing & hardly a priority under the current circumstances.
“- LGBT community”
True. This is a lifestyle choice for a growing minority and a necessity for some. It would be nice to give the same freedom & recognition to people who live & work in the countryside instead of taking it away.
“- The homeless/vulnerably housed”
Thought they were going to “eliminate poverty” – they didn’t do it did they? They’ve had 12 years.
“- Women & Ethnic minorities in the workplace”
Except it’s far from a simple equation since we would have significantly less disparity if there had been any semblance of control over immigration.

You imply a person is arrogant for speaking of their own experiences and applying them to a point of view. Well of course it must be very arrogant to presume that the experience and opinions of one individual or those of the 40% or so of others who will vote to get rid of these people would matter for one single second in the eyes of our political masters.

Is arrogance not the speciality of political leaders & their supporters who continually fail to take responsibility for failure and harp on endlessly about the few things they actually got right?

Oh …and as for public transportation – yes it was pretty screwed up for decades and the Conservative privatisation failed to make it any better but it did raise some dosh for us taxpayers that got mysteriously blown away since 1997. After 12 years of Labour it’s now fantastic … naturally! (I’m being sarcastic by the way)!

“Under Labour everyone seems to have suffered “[=

I am not sure how you can qualify this statement. You seem to base it on your own personal opinion. If i do this then i can argue that teh following people are better off under Labour (using my own personal experience):
- Anyone using the NHS
- Anyone in school, or sending their kids too school
- Pensioners
- Families with pre-school age children
- Fathers wanting paternity pay
- LGBT community
- The homeless/vulnerably housed
- Women & Ethnic minorities in teh workplace.

It takes a particular kind of arrogance to presume that just because you haven’t been positively affected by the last 12 years that no one is better off under Labour.

Personally I don’t hate Tories (that much) and they have got better than they ere before. And I wish that Labour would focus more time on some of the issues that I care about i.e housing & homelessness, and public transport (privatisation was been a disaster, a Tory disaster) but all in all the Tories haven’t given me one reason to support them , and Labour have given me plenty (Gordon Brown not being one!)