Harvest

Sadly this is usually the case with folk who run up unaffordable debt on their credit card then try to blame everyone else for the debt.

It was refreshingly honest of Ed Miliband at the leaders debate on ITV last night to put up his hands and appologise for the Labour Governments failure to regulate the banks and allow Britain to drop into the fiscal mire. ---------- Post added 01-05-2015 at 16:51 ---------- There was far too much easy credit. People were allowed to borrow ludicrous amounts to buy houses. This forced up the price of houses and when the crash came was known as toxic debt. The same happened in Greece where people were able to borrow money at low interest to buy stuff they didn't really need. It is all fine until someone wants their money back.

If you believe the bookies we are likely to have a second election late in 2015 or early 2016. I suspect that either Miliband or Cameron won't be leading their party into that one. Cameron has indicated he isn't looking at continuing beyond 2020 anyhow, so it is very likely that any election in 2010/2011 won't have either of them on the ticket.

Isn't that the way in South Yorkshire. Hillsborough, Rotherham grooming scandal, MP in jail for fraud. They just send out a different face with the same rosette and then try and blame it all on Thatcher.

Labour lost the election in 2010 when they let the unions impose Ed upon them as leader.

I fear the electorate of Rotherham will get the council they deserve. The red rosette dazzles them. They will turn out to disrupt a march protesting about the cover up of the grooming scandal. They will tut tut at the pub about the cost of the measures required because their council was UNFIT FOR PURPOSE, but they will probably still put their cross in the box to re-elect those who were behind the whole damned mess.

It will be interesting to see.

I don't know but the electorate will be able to cast judgement next Thursday.

It certainly is. If I lived in Rotherham I might consider a UKIP vote on the offchance it broke up the red insanity. But as I live in Hallam I will be voting for whoever stops the same madness engulfing Sheffield. So probably Libdems as things stand. Now when the next election happens in October 2015 it will be a whole new world and a completely different set of targets.

But the one thing they do all agree on is that that support won't amount to more than 2 or 3 seats. Won't you be discouraged when that happens?

On the contrary I think most folk who don't glue themselves to the opinion polls probably expect UKIP to emerge with 20 or 30 seats. That was certainly my opinion until I saw an actual projection of the seats each party was likely to win. Until then I had thought about voting UKIP, but as it is clear they have as much chance of winning in my constituency as Arthur Scargill I won't be bothering. That is the danger for UKIP. There are many around the country who expect UKIP to be a mojor voice after the next election. Some even expect a Conservative UKIP coalition, little imagining that UKIP could bring less MPs than Plaid Cymru. Once that particular genie is out of the bottle I think UKIPs goose will be cooked, just like similar parties in the past who enjoyed 15 minutes of fame.

I think you have missed the point, probably deliberately. That point is that many folk are expecting UKIP to take dozens of seats. The opinion polls are running out the numbers of 15/16% and many will see it as a way to dislodge Labour or Conservatives in their local constituency because they think UKIP is going to sweep the board and have no idea that they have little chance. However following the ballot on May 7th the polls will reveal the truth that UKIP have returned a couple of MPs and are not the new force in British politics that they imagined. Sure some will vote for them in a 2nd election, but rather like the other small parties that will be mostly restricted to seats where they are in with a shout. It will be far more interesting to see where the UKIP votes are cast in a second ballot, because that is more likely to return us to the 2 party system we are used to.

I wonder if UKIP will be around as a political force in 12 months time. Looking at the election forecasts it seems that we are certainly heading for a hung parliament with UKIP perhaps taking 12% of the vote. But this looks like giving them 2 seats to show for it. According to the latest polls it is predicted that we will have around Conservative 285 Labour 270 LibDem 27 SNP 48 UKIP 2 Green 1 DUP 8 Plaid 4 Others..around 8 or 9 Cameron as PM gets first dibs at setting up a government. The LibDems say they will give priority to the largest party to form a government. So I would expect a coalition of Conservative & LibDem after the election, propped up by whoever they can find to support them. No doubt the Labour Party along with the SNP will force a vote of no confidence as soon as they can and will probably bring the whole show tumbling down. But here is where life gets interesting. UKIP supporters have ploughed £millions into the party hoping for electoral success. 2 seats is hardly that. Similarly a million or so UKIP voters will have seen their votes wasted. So if we have a 2nd election in 2015 I would expect UKIP to concentrate on seats where it might actually win, and UKIP voters turn to other parties where it is clear UKIP have failed. i think a 2nd election in 2015 will bring a very different outcome from the first. But I doubt UKIP will take more than a couple of % of the vote whilst holding on to the seats they had.

Well the crash came whilst Labour were in charge. It came about because of their lax regulation of the financial sector. They didn't make any attempt to peg bankers bonuses or to clamp down on tax avoidance. What a shame they didn't take the initiative and make the sinners pay. Probably include themselves in those that screwed up the system & should pay to sort it out.