The next election, and YOU...

[sp1814]

This question is NOT based on any current news story - but as the News section has more politically aware posters (AOG, New Judge, Youngmafbog, modeller, bazwillrun, Gromit, em10, naomi24, Zeuhl, Jake-the-Peg etc), I think this forum fits...

On current performance, who do you think is likely to win the next election?

This question comes from a conversation I had a work earlier today...I've never voted for the conservative party, and probably never would - but if you said 'David or Ed' to me - David wins hands down.

I accept that this makes me shallow, but am I unique? Is anyone else swayed by leadership as opposed to the detail if policy?

Feel free to bash Labour and or the coalition - I'm genuinely interested to see whether personal traits have become as important in British politics as they obviously have in the US.

[woofgang]

Well I don't know about personality but any party that chooses an idiot to lead it....

[maggiebee]

Sooner Scotland get Independence the better.

[Kathyan]

Definitely wouldn't be the Labour party, but I would like to see what the Conservatives would do if they weren't in a coalition.

[sp1814]

maggiebee

If Scotland gained independence, would we need to show our passports when visiting? I love Edinburgh (despite the year round chill in the air) and having to go through passport control would really bug me!

[maggiebee]

No sp1814, no passport control for British citizens. We are a very civilised country, just want to run our own affairs.

[sp1814]

maggiebee

Well I for one support you...but frankly, you can't trust me - I'm a 'lefty' who likes Cameron!

[seadogg]

Its a bit of a poser. Many were surprised that Labour's good times were so debt fuelled. Yet the cuts being made by the present administration seem to many be an odd way of achieving the growth necessary to enable us to reduce the overall deficit. In addition we could be dropped right in it by the shambles which seems likely in the Euro zone, which is our main trading partner with strong financial links. I only wish that Cameron was an old style "one nation" Conservative as we never needed a good leader more in peacetime.

[askyourgran]

I wouldn't vote Labour considering their performances on previous stints at running this country. Particularly now that Ed Miliband and Ed Balls and Yvonne are in the forefront. I had high hopes for slick Dave but he seems to be turning into a smarmy soothsayer aka Tony Blair. I'm annoyed that Clegg is so wet and formless, he has no political weight about him. And I do believe the Lib/Dems are holding the Government to ransom to achieving better results. At the mo it seems that there isn't a decent party to look to, the lesser evil has to be Dave, but I wish there was a better choice. I did even toy with the idea of UKip but shelved it as a desperate choice.












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[shaneystar2]

Totally disillusioned with the lot of 'em .Clegg has sold the Lib Dems down the river. I would never vote for them again . They also sold the best man they ever had, Charles Kennedy, down the river too .
Never been fond of rich Tory boys ...Labour ....hmmm .....
Depends really on what they all come up with come the next GE .

[mazie]

I'm afraid if it's an election based on personality none of em would get my vote. I'm convinced they have no idea how real people live and struggle on a daily basis. It's about time the Women of this country had the chance to form a government

[sp1814]

Here's a proposition - is the underlying issue the fact that we don't believe any of our leaders?

Back in the 80s, whatever you thought of their ideology, Thatcher, Benn and Foot actually believed in the principles behind what governered their policies?

Have we entered a period where politicians are either 'slightly left' or 'slightly right' with real convictions left to the BNP and the Socialist Workers Party?

Is centralist politics....boring?

[Duncer]

Am also disillusioned, but could never vote for the Wallace and Gromit creature that is Ed Milliband. It really is bad when I prefer a men who leaves his children in pubs.

I would advocate voting for people with personally held beliefs within a party structure, rather than parties themselves, but the party whips are so efficient these days that personal beliefs are few and far between. They are all a well schooled pool of shallow robotic responses. I don't think of being attracted to the person rather than the party as shallow, more indicative of the level of trust I have in said individual.

[sp1814]

mazie - you've hit upon something that I heard on a BBC4 documentary recently - our leaders are 'career politicians', who have never succeeded in business, the forces, or any institution outside politics.

Their motivation comes from focus groups and opinion polls rather than the belief of monetary or social convictions.

Would you say that's true?

[Duncer]

sp1814, you pretty much have it in one there.

Back then I may not have agreed with the figures in charge, but I believed them and believed in their integrity.

Now we have a Tory leader who isn't a Conservative and a Labour leader desperately backtracking to attract the middle vote, and I have no faith in either.

[shaneystar2]

You don't get a good "thundering " politician these days .
It's all soundbites and think tanks .

[jno]

The Tories will win, more than likely without the LibDems. The British electorate has shown no recent enthusiasm for turfing a government out after one term of office (indeed, they even voted in John Major, in a feat of mass optimism which sadly went unrewarded).

But governments usually get out of touch with voters after two or three terms, and the current government seems to be getting that way already - remaking a significant number of policies in the face of opposition that a more adept regime would have seen coming. So my guess, based on the way things are at the moment, is the Tories next time, Labour the election after that.

[Duncer]

With little change from either, that's the problem.

All smiling career politicians who are very adept at doing the Tony Blair "hand gesture, insincere smile, eye contact, another hand gesture" routine while peddling sound bites. Why Cameron even has his own little invisible box that he shows us when gesturing.

[mazie]

Yes I would sp1814. I find it really difficult to get my head around the fact that these people have never functioned in a working class world (labour included) they profess to know how to run a country from Ivory towers. I doubt most of them could run a household let alone a Country!

[jno]

John Prescott had had a real job. All it got him was endless sneers - from the public as well as other politicians - about being a jumped-up cabin boy. It seems the British public actually want a bit of posh, and that's why the parties all choose them.

[Mick-Talbot]

I just won't to keep (AOG, New Judge, Youngmafbog, modeller, bazwillrun, Gromit, em10, naomi24, Zeuhl, Jake-the-Peg etc), of the first page.