Why the Tories Won

Shakethedisease

Generali wrote: »

Do you really believe that the value of 56 SNP MPs returned from Scotland is greater than 56 Conservative MPs returned from the South East of England?

The Conservatives definitely did during their campaign. They built most of their campaign round it in fact.. That SNP MP's may not be legitimate on a UK basis.

There weren't many in Scotland who viewed any MP as less valid than any other based on where they were elected from. The Conservative's however, kind of pushed the view, very prominently, that that was indeed the case.

There's no point trying to turn things round now. The damage has been done. Those SNP MP's have been returned nonetheless. Sadly though, possibly not as equals in terms of 'UK MP's.. but rather as a 'problem' to deal with in the Tories eyes. I guess the Tories will just have to try and solve that problem now. My guess is they'll just try and ignore it as much as possible... which will just exacerbate matters.

Generali

Shakethedisease wrote: »

The Conservatives definitely did during their campaign. They built most of their campaign round it in fact.. That SNP MP's may not be legitimate on a UK basis.

There weren't many in Scotland who viewed any MP as less valid than any other based on where they were elected from. The Conservative's however, kind of pushed the view, very prominently, that that was indeed the case.

There's no point trying to turn things round now. The damage has been done. Those SNP MP's have been returned nonetheless. Sadly though, possibly not as equals in terms of 'UK MP's.. but rather as a 'problem' to deal with in the Tories eyes. I guess the Tories will just have to try and solve that problem now. My guess is they'll just try and ignore it as much as possible... which will just exacerbate matters.

Why would the Tories do anything other than ignore a bunch of MPs that didn't even get 5% of the votes?

patanne

Maybe the SNP should re-brand themselves and begin standing in the northern counties of England. Now THAT would make politics interesting again. They would probably get a greater percentage of the votes as they already have a greater percentage of the seats. Lets remember that our current government wanted to keep first past the post, they should complain about getting what they asked for. Always remember to be careful what you wish for, you may get it!

Generali

patanne wrote: »

Maybe the SNP should re-brand themselves and begin standing in the northern counties of England. Now THAT would make politics interesting again. They would probably get a greater percentage of the votes as they already have a greater percentage of the seats. Lets remember that our current government wanted to keep first past the post, they should complain about getting what they asked for. Always remember to be careful what you wish for, you may get it!

It would decimate the Labour vote and keep the Tories in near-perpetual power.

patanne

Maybe at first, but as they spread further south, labour (my preference by the way) would be replaced by the new party. As I said it would make politics interesting again. It has not been interesting since Maggie's no such thing as society.

Generali

patanne wrote: »

Maybe at first, but as they spread further south, labour (my preference by the way) would be replaced by the new party. As I said it would make politics interesting again. It has not been interesting since Maggie's no such thing as society.

It would make things interesting however, the British haven't voted for a hard left PM since Atlee.

antrobus

Moby wrote: »

Point taken but I thought one of the main issues in the campaign was how the tories were going to find the money to fund their promises to the NHS....what was it again 8 billion extra a year?

All parties face the question of how to pay for their promises.

But the Labour Party is the party of Big Government. And you can't have Big Government without Big Taxes. And that's the problem that they have. Unless you are prepared to put up taxes, there is not a lot you can do that is any different from what the Tories are doing.

antrobus

Generali wrote: »

It would make things interesting however, the British haven't voted for a hard left PM since Atlee.

I don't think it would be correct to characterise Attlee as being 'hard left'. For one thing Bevan (who you could call hard left) hated him.

P.S. A Quite Interesting Fact is that Attlee's grandson (the Earl Attlee) is a Conservative. Abandoned Labour on the grounds that grandad would have been horrified at what it had become.

Generali

antrobus wrote: »

I don't think it would be correct to characterise Attlee as being 'hard left'. For one thing Bevan (who you could call hard left) hated him.

P.S. A Quite Interesting Fact is that Attlee's grandson (the Earl Attlee) is a Conservative. Abandoned Labour on the grounds that grandad would have been horrified at what it had become.

Well for a start he nationalised vast swathes of industry. That's pretty hard left.

CLAPTON

Shakethedisease wrote: »

The Conservatives definitely did during their campaign. They built most of their campaign round it in fact.. That SNP MP's may not be legitimate on a UK basis.

There weren't many in Scotland who viewed any MP as less valid than any other based on where they were elected from. The Conservative's however, kind of pushed the view, very prominently, that that was indeed the case.

There's no point trying to turn things round now. The damage has been done. Those SNP MP's have been returned nonetheless. Sadly though, possibly not as equals in terms of 'UK MP's.. but rather as a 'problem' to deal with in the Tories eyes. I guess the Tories will just have to try and solve that problem now. My guess is they'll just try and ignore it as much as possible... which will just exacerbate matters.

MPs from Scotland are welcome in London

The issues (rather than minor politics) is the two question

-fairness and justice for all the people of the UK in terms of money available for regional spending
-fairness and justice for all the people in the UK in terms of voting on issues that affect them

Sadly there are some sections of the new UK parliament that won't agree about equality or fairness but believe in Thatcherite self interest.