Dear old George Osborne basically handed me five grand yesterday. What a splendid chap he is.

[Berni]

I hope nobody tells him I was going to vote for his team anyway.

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

If that spineless communist discovered his balls we might achieve some real change. As it is thing tinkering with detail is doing nothing to address 70 years of ingrained entitlement, that great gift of socialism.

There's no way I'm voting for those leftists next time.

[Classic Jorge]

It's much easier to bribe people than do stuff they promised to like cut the deficit and immigration numbers.

[Berni]

what you can get. Tinkering with stuff is the only way to get re-elected and - when all's said and done - they're vastly preferable to any of the alternatives.

[Berni]

The electorate only ever wants to be bribed. Nobody gives a **** about immigration other than in so far as they perceive it to be hurting their pocket. Same goes for welfare and everything else. Every side bribes their core vote. It's just that for the tories it's tax breaks and for Labour it's handouts. Same difference.

[Luis Anaconda]

I thought oh f**k - we aren't getting Pal Lydersen back again are we

[Classic Jorge]

And as for immigration, ashcroft polled it as the number one reason people were switching to UKIP pretty much everywhere.

I'm amazed that Osborne hasn't been taken to task more on his pisspoor performance against the 'cut the deficit by 2015' promise. He seems to have got away scot free on the basis of saying it will be halved by next year using some of the most optimistic figures possible.

[Classic Jorge]

[Berni]

owning them. This is perceived as being somewhat fairer than Labour's proposal. It's good politics.

Both immigration and the deficit are issues that are still largely perceived as being Labour legacies - they are therefore not particularly prioritised since they can be used to beat the other side. This is about getting re-elected, j. And it's working.

[Snin]

for years from when it was cheap argument..you only pay if you move therefore are still upwardly mobile etc..wd inbred moonface cokehead on this one imo.. not so much on the rest but this one not so bad..though of course I am today siding more on no taxation no benefits Ron Paul extreme survivalist freedom politics..that of course may well change by lunchtime

[Classic Jorge]

Though a nightmare Tory/UKIP coalition would be my tip, c**ts squared basically.

I see what you're saying about the stamp duty thing, though it's taxing a completely different set of people completely differently on a completely different basis. It's also just going to load more emphasis on the already ridiculously overheated housing market as an economic driver. It may be good politics but it's awful policy.

We're in the strange position that we don't have a single party fit for government, scary times indeed.

[Berni]

option. And that is quite clearly the tories. Miliband is clearly unelectable, the Lib Dems are going to be wiped out and the UKIP vote will melt in the heat of a general election. The tories will emerge on top of the pile.

[Classic Jorge]

I'm struggling to think of a single area of success, even with my most even handed assessment

[Pokster]

[Pokster]

and he come across as even more useless than most 'normal' MP's

[Classic Jorge]

[Pokster]

as it is, your tory/ukip coalition looks a strong possibility... we are slo in the position where the SNP might be the power brokers, which is quite spooky as they will control nearly all Scotland but be able to decide what happens down here

[Classic Jorge]

[Pokster]

[Classic Jorge]

[Sir Charlie of Nicholas]

MY FRONT ROOM DEMANDS AN INDEPENDENT PARLIAMENT!

[Classic Jorge]

If you combine the proposed northern block it's the size of holland, in population terms.

There's more people in Yorkshire alone than there is Ireland, Denmark and Norway.

There's certainly an argument for it. I wouldn't favour it though, I'd prefer a federal republic of semi-autonomous states.

[Berni]

since England simply wouldn't stand for it.

[Pokster]

so it either means a new GA soon after, or someone has to jump into bed with the Scots

[Luis Anaconda]