The General Election Thread!

[Psycho]

I vote not to overreact and feign outrage.

I also vote not to sing racist songs.

I vote not to allow one piece of scum to stop me from engaging in political discussion.

There is a vast difference between not campaigning and embracing the political process of democracy which these murdering scum seek to undermine.

Or homophobic comments.

[pgbee]

And Question Time is from Barnet next Thursday, a chance for some in this thread to ask a question....

[DerekRocholl]

first voted at the notorious Brecon and Radnor bi election of 1985.
went to hustings- read all available literature- came to the conclusion they were all crap
at the polling booth, looked down and saw the words Screaming Lord Sutch- irresistible


over thirty years later, the great man has gone and I stand by that conclusion

Being pompous alert !

The great thing about democracy is that when we vote we all have a say in how our shared resources (aka taxes) amounting to more than £800bn a year and >40% of GDP, will be spent.

The bad thing about our democracy is the number of people who don't seem to understand that this is what it is about and either don't vote or waste their vote by doing stupid things like voting for Screaming Lord Sutch.

The even worse thing about our democracy is that a very large number of people get it wrong and vote for someone who wants to take the shared resources that we give in taxes and give it to people who trouser it for their own benefit.

[John_c]

I'm swaying towards spoiling my paper like Ricardo, although I was going to draw a penis on it

Cautionary tale: http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/weird-news ... is-5661773

*makes note to draw penis across all candidates*

[Psycho]

Apologies to people on here for my overreaction a couple of days ago. At the time of my post Britain was a frightening place to be on critical terror alert with these evil vermin brainwashed. However, to say I feigned outrage was very insensitive. I hope we can move on now and be united against terror and remember the 22 that very sadly lost their lives.

[Berlinbee]

If you can excuse the ramblings of a cynical 69 year old pensioner, my thoughts of this general election.
Vote Tory, the slogan party. Strong and stable. So strong that they change their mind every time they realise they are going to lose votes.
They've managed to piss off pensioners (the only ones who vote regularly). Very stable.
Vote Labour, with a leader whose past has him cuddling up to some of the most hideous people in the world. And the name Diane Abbott, God forbid! (and that shadow chancellor, the backer of the IRA).
Vote Liberal, who couldn't wait to get into bed with the Tories and drop all their policies and then got what they deserved from the public at the next general election.
Vote UKIP, managed to persuade the country to get out of Europe (not sure what the youngsters will think about this in a few years time). Now Farage has gone UKIP has a leader who I suspect has leanings towards the BNP ideals and tells a few porky pies.
Vote BNP, I don't think there's much to say here.
So that leaves the Green Party and the Monster Loony Party and a few Independents.
I suspect for the first time in nearly 50 years of voting I shall write at the bottom of my voting paper "None of the above".
Good luck with your voting intentions.

I'm a lifelong Labour voter. Although am struggling to vote Labour this time round. I don't think Jezza and his cronies are up to the job. Say what you like about Blair, but he knew how to win an election.

But don't start me on the Tories. They're destroying the country bit by bit.

I'm swaying towards spoiling my paper like Ricardo, although I was going to draw a penis on it

And seriously? The faux outrage at the nerve to put the poll up? Calm yourselves.

Refusing to vote for Labour because of Corbyn is like refusing heart surgery because you don't like the surgeon. Don't get carried away by the billionaire-run mainstream media. The Labour manifesto is good, it is costed and the policies are common sense and also commonplace in much of Europe. All this nonsense about Corbyn being a Marxist-Leninist, he's a centrist politican in Germany! The economics are also Keynesian, not Marxist.

[buzzinbee]

A Labour government will work with train operators, broadcasters and football clubs to stop fans being left with worthless train tickets and having to buy new ones when games are re-arranged at short notice, he will say.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40069110

[buzzinbee]

And Question Time is from Barnet next Thursday, a chance for some in this thread to ask a question....

at East Barnet school

[Joss]

From John McDonnell's Facebook page:

The party's manifesto commits Labour to:
• Put fans at the heart of their clubs – by legislating for accredited supporters trusts to be able to appoint and remove at least two club directors and to purchase shares when clubs change hands. We will also review fan participation in sports governance more widely.
• Fix the broken ticketing market – by enforcing anti-bot legislation and implementing the recommendations of the Waterson review to ensure fair opportunities for fans to buy tickets.
• Improve access provision for disabled sports fans - by ensuring that rapid improvements are made and by prioritising action to make clubs comply with obligations under the 2010 Equality Act.
• Ensure that investment and support is given to grassroots women’s football so as many women and girls as possible can benefit from participating in football

[ninestein]

This is all very well at the top, giving people of all circumstances opprtunities to buy tickets, but once again it's pussy-footing round the problem.

Ticket prices are high because the players are being paid too much money. This is a culture which has got out of control primarily because if TV revenue, and has now filtered down the divisions. No political party is ever going to have the means to deal with this. It's a football problem and one which the FA should be dealing with.

Flexible travel tickets... again, why is the FA not taking the lead here? We should not be basing an election campaign on the problems within one sport. As much as i admire the tbought gone into this and the acknowledgement that there are issues in our game, the parties should be focussing on more important issues right now,

[ShankBee]

This is all very well at the top, giving people of all circumstances opprtunities to buy tickets, but once again it's pussy-footing round the problem.

Ticket prices are high because the players are being paid too much money. This is a culture which has got out of control primarily because if TV revenue, and has now filtered down the divisions. No political party is ever going to have the means to deal with this. It's a football problem and one which the FA should be dealing with.

Flexible travel tickets... again, why is the FA not taking the lead here? We should not be basing an election campaign on the problems within one sport. As much as i admire the tbought gone into this and the acknowledgement that there are issues in our game, the parties should be focussing on more important issues right now,

I kind of agree, I think it's also worth remembering that since the introduction of the Premiere League the FA have affectively become toothless. They don't really hold any power anymore and so frankly, it does take someone with a bit of power to do something about it. Also, they are in an election battle and traditionally, football fans, working class back ground equals labour. Obviously demographics have shifted in both football and politics but I imagine part of this football manifesto is about attracting those traditional football fans who have been priced out of the Premiere League.


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[Joss]

1) Labour have policies in pretty much every significant area of interest. The Tories only really have smears, but Labour (and others) have policies. I only chose to post their policies on football because this is a football forum. It seemed relevant...

2) The most interesting policy for me is taking 5% of TV money and distributing it to the grass roots / facilities. Everyone who plays amateur football (getting changed on the side of the pitch, playing on un-drained bogs, experiencing postponement after postponement) will know our facilities aren't up to scratch. Those people would stand to benefit from this policy.

[ninestein]

It would take a lot more than 5% of TV revenue to sort our grassroots facilities out. The experience of Barnet playing fields 5 weeks into the season convinced me to play in a different league. No drainage, ruts, uneven fields, dog crap and rubber johnnies. No wonder sport at that level is all about which side has the biggest centre forward and not about being comfortable on the ball. But once again, surely the FA should be responsible for TV revenue and how it gets distributed within the game. If Theresa May had not called this election we wouldn't even be discussing all this.

[letchbee94]

Not going to vote for Tory or Labour because then when it all goes wrong for whoever wins at least I can say ... well I did not vote them in.

[Afrobee]

Fabulous performance by Jeremy Corbyn tonight. My bet is that he has won many over. The good thing about tonight was that millions will now get to see the real man rather than the image fed by the mainstream media!