The UK Election!!!!

We are having a "general election"!! This means that we in the UK will be voting for the government that leads us through the next 4 or 5 years. This will happen on May 6th 2010.We are also having televised "presidential" (technically prime-ministerial) debates for the first time involving all 3 (yes - I said 3) main political parties. The first is this Thursday.So what do people think? Did our American cousins even know this was going on? Any advice re the televised debates? Any advice as to who to vote for?In general I intend this thread to be an update and comment thread on the forthcoming UK election with witty banter and hardcore principled ideological political debate (relevant to the UK - Let's not veer off down purely detailed US based issues) all very much on topic.I hope this thread doesn't just get ignored......

And you wonder why yanks have a rep for being insular and narrow minded... The fact is that everyone cares about American politics because it affects the whole world to a large degree.If you think the average Brit takes half as much notice of French or German politics as we do yours then you would be mistaken. Despite (in theory - sort of) this being far more relevant to our own interests.Oh well.

Televised debates are new to us. Do you would have some advice to candidates on how to tackle these based on your experience as a viewer of US televised debates?For example is it more important to not be wrong than to be right? What has caused previous (US) participants to lose or win these debates?These are general questions not just ones to Nwr.

Yes and no. Because the party with the largest number of seats in the house of commons forms the government and the leader of that party becomes the prime-minister. So even though we are theoretically voting for our local MP (member of parliament) we are actually voting for our prime-minister. In practise very few people actively vote for their MP as such. Almost all vote on the basis of party/leader and the MP this happens to vote in is all but co-incidental. No I don't claim it is a perfect or even good system.... Again yes and no. If neither the Labour nor Conservative (tories) win a mjority in the house of commons the third party will hold the balance of power and could be very influential indeed. The liberal democrats (i.e. the third party) stand no realistic chance of being the government but for the first time in a very long time things are close enough that this scenario may occur. Hmmmm. Unsurprisingly I have almost always voted Labour in any meaningful election (European and local council election provide opportunities for the dissatisfied to vote for relatively minor parties in protest or forlorn hope and I have taken that route once or twice).I would boil my own feet before voting conservative. Probably Labour. Maybe Lib dem but with severe reservation in all cases. Yeah I always vote. There is a common view (erroneous in my view) that all the parties are exactly the same. Whilst they certainly all seek to market themselves as being middle of the road and reasonable this is not necessarily the case in reality.It is the usual split of right Vs left even if (I suspect) shifted largely left of US politics. For example both Labour and conservatives have declared that public spending on health (i.e. "socialised medicine") and public eduction are immune from the cuts required to reduce the national debt bult up as result of recession and banking madness. So in that sense they are the same.But ideologically Labour has union roots and is broadly pro public investment and some degree of redistribution of wealth in the name of maximising the oppornuities for all to be productive members of society. That is the idea. After thirteen years in power the results are arguable at best. My own (rather pessimistic) outlook is that the other lot would have been monumentally worse.Conservatives are much more about personal responsibility, small government and anti the "nanny state". That kind of thing. Their main policies seem to be tax breaks to the wealthiest disguised as some sort of moral endevour and a rejection of Keynesian economic policies.Lib dems are hard to define. They are in many ways more left wing, progressive and radical than the Labour party but have the happy benefit iof being able to be more radical because they are not realistically hoping to form a government. They often sound very appealing because they can do so without really scaring anyone. I think the tories will take a slash and burn approach to public finances which would be socially destructive in the longer term and may well be financially irresponsible even in the short term.I kinda hope we get a hung parliament (i.e no overall majority) purely to see what happens. But whilst this may be intersting it may not be the best economic positio for the country.

Hello AZ Actually you do vote for the MP to represent you. Technically. But most don't even know who that is and basically vote on party/leader lines. So - Yes you are basically right in practise. I do know who my local MP is and will check out the candidates before voting. Because I am perversely interested in such things. But it is probably fair to say most don't have a clue or care.It probably should make more difference. But except in a tiny minority of cases where there is a high profile and charismatic independent or leader of a small party (e.g. George Galloway the guy who gave testimony to your senate on Iraq) people vote for the party and not the specific representative. The Monster Raving Loony Party is indeed still going and wil be fighting the 2010 general election. Many agree with you on that. It is usually retorted that he can say such things because he stands no chance of actually being the actual prime-minister. This, whilst true, doesn't mean that his turn of phrase isn't at times refreshingly unpolitician like. He recently described a conservative policy announcement patronising drivelAt the moment it seems quite likely. And indeed many seem to think it wouldn't be a bad thing.

I like you best when you are being a cheeky git. We'll just have our quaint little election and let you know the irrelevant little result once we are done. The tension mounts...... Specific policies no. That is just the UK contingent at EvC giving you a false impression in my view. Personalities? Your president may well be more recognised than the leader of our third party and def more than the German chancellor or French president.But then a scarily high number of people have no idea what a year is in terms of planetary orbit or which century the second world war was in.I guess that makes us at EvC an "intellectual elite" BWAHAHAHAHA

Well that is one way to describe national economic policy! And whilst true in the most general of senses those decisions can affect and even shape the lives of millions. There is indeed some truth to this. The media (specifically the printed press) seem to have favourites of the day and that does make a lot of difference to the current "trend". But who is ultimately making these decisions and on what basis?

You too!! Labour's loss of Scotland and Wales to the nationalist parties of those two countries has done the Labour party a lot of harm. But I can't say I blame anyone for defecting. Would that mean the queen was technically in charge of the country? Fuck that! I'd move to Scotland and become a Scottish nationalist myself.

I usually vote Green in the Euro and local council elections. And I identify with your sentiment of disenchantment and dissapointment more generally.

I had no idea. I am afraid that Dutch politics is about as much on the radar here as the outer Mongolian pygmy sumo wrestling championship. Well this thread can be dedicated to all the non_US elections around the world. I am sure EvC participation will be through the roof........ It is pretty shameful that we here in the UK don't have any clue about politics in much of the rest of Europe. Even those who consider themselves moderately interested in politics would struggle to say anything at all about any country other than Germany, France, Spain or Italy.In Holland are people more interested in such things?

An internal vote of the members of the party. In the case of the Labour party specifically this includes some complicated union voting that I don't understand.The public in general don't have any direct say at all for any of the parties. Which I guess was the gist of your question. It would be funny if it wasn't true.......

Aha! A fellow fan of international pygmy sumo wrestling. Who would've guessed?

Awwwwww! "This video is currently not available in my country".Obviously it is considered too funny for us to enjoy.

That has not gone unnoticed elsewhere in the world either.Watch this space for a forthcoming thread on THE world cup. Another Straggler sports spectacular with a following of not very many (but hopefully more than my cricket threads )

I must admit I do think your politicians consistently out loon ours. Nice analysis in general. But this specifically stuck out. Brown is very personally unpopular and it may well be the case that a requirement of any coalition is that he steps down and someone else takes over leadership of the Labour party. I think that should be a campiagn slogan.