Westminstenders: 10 day count down

[RedToothBrush]

10 days to go...

... Wake me up when the shit show is over.

The schoolcuts website is now showing the difference between what the Tory and Labour manifesto promises mean for the budgets of every school.

I’ve tried inputting a few schools and the vast majority seem to have more money in 2020 under Labour and less with the Tories, when compared with 2015.

schoolcuts.org.uk/

Anyone watching the news tonight? I just really really do not understand. A woman who can't afford to heat her house. A woman and her son made homeless in October. A couple relying on a community food store and others relying on food banks.

All of them asked about who has their vote and not one, not one!, says 'Labour'. One impoverished man said he had always voted Tory (!!) and maybe this time he wouldn't.

I'm not saying that I am a big JC fan or even a big Labour fan (more Green), but these people ought to be the natural constituents, impoverished, homeless, relying on benefits, for the Labour party. And yet they're not... why not? . Can anyone tell me why they wouldn't see this?? God, why would they vote for another decade of austerity? [shakes head in despair]

And yet they're not... why not?

Free Sun with a purchase in Spar and other shops

Max Gapes
@maximiliangapes
·
40m
BREAKING: Senior sources at Conservative party HQ have leaked details of approaches made LAST WEEK by representatives of the Lib Dem leadership who contacted them to discuss a potential coalition in the event of a hung parliament.

Do you think all the leaflets will win it for them?

No.

I stopped reading them after about number 5.

Now they are pissing me off.

Worse still they are pissing off DH who is concerned over their legality with regards to expenses and how much money they are pissing up the wall pointlessly.

I had already decided I couldn't vote for them, but DH was considering it.

I don't think the number of leaflets will decide dhs vote, but I think it is contributing to him having a rising disillusionment in the LDs (which include self ID, Jo Swinson and just general extremism and lack of liberalism within the party - not dissimilar to me but to varying degrees of hostility - I'm very angry whilst he's mildly annoyed)

Overall I think it's a strategic error on the party's part. I think they've been guilty of far too many of those in the last 2 years and that's ultimately why they won't capitalise on the situation now. I would not be surprised at Swinson losing her seat and the LDs having an awful election in many areas they hoped to do well and this will come as a shock to them.

Just I suppose you're right. Just so depressing when polls tell us that a majority are centre/centre left/left and yet due to a split vote and FPTP it'll be another bloody Tory government. Only even worse this time.

You know - I don't actually believe that (and I don't have a particularly high opinion of the LDs). The Conservatives are just trying to destroy Lib Dem support because they are losing too many one nation tories to them.

US tech firms want access to £10bn NHS health data

https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/us-tech-firms-want-access-to-10bn-nhs-health-data-zpqwkj6pp

A leading trade economist has warned that NHS patient dataa_ may be exploited by US technology companies under a trade deal with America.

Alan Winters, director of the Trade Policy Observatory at Sussex University, said
clauses on data sharing and algorithms that US negotiators want inserted into a deal could be used to capture the value in NHS patient records, estimated at £10 billion a year.

A leaked cache of official government files on the private discussions released by Jeremy Corbyn last week revealed “the free flow of data is a top priority” for the US in any trade talkss_.

US negotiators also urged the UK to dilute data privacy rules after Brexit and “to avoid forcing companies to disclose algorithms”.
....
"These digital chapters in US trade deals are written in Silicon Valley.

You could end up where the UK is unable to analyse its health data without paying a royalty to Silicon Valley to use an algorithm"

mobile.twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1202337298265837569

Lewis Goodall
@lewis_goodall
Just went to youth arts event in Digbeth (Brum). V young audience, nearly all under 25, mix of white middle class and largely BAME working class. It may already be priced in, they may all live with in the wrong seats but they were virtually all voting Labour. Real excitement.

@lewis_goodall
They all said they were or knew of people who had registered for the first time to vote in this election: “we know how important it is” said one. When I asked what they thought of the Boris Johnson, or had thought about voting Conservative, they looked at me as if I were mad.

thanks cat

Dirty tricks department of the Tory Party at it again

Even if they write it on the side of a bus I'm not believing that.

Interesting that despite a pretty bad Lib campaign they are still concerned.
A hopeful sign? I'm clutching at straws now.

Call me cynical but I don’t believe word the Tory party say, or leak or post. They clearly have no confidence in their appeal if all they can muster is dishonesty and deflection.

Re this article

m.huffingtonpost.co.uk/amp/entry/fears-over-incredibly-worrying-physical-attacks-on-would-be-mps-and-activists_uk_5ddede10e4b0d50f329bc619/?__twitter_impression=true
Alarm Over 'Incredibly Worrying' Physical Attacks On Election Campaigners
Activists have had ribs cracked, been punched in the face, and called 'traitors' – the word used by MP Jo Cox's murderer when he appeared in court in 2017

I'm aware of other incidents, not publicly known about which have been actively downplayed.

The police issued advice on how to canvas safely this election (do so in larger groups) which wasn't previously done.

It's frightening.

So much for the leafleting and the canvassing, what about the social media campaigning? Anyone seen any analysis of how that's going?

I've seen the twitter links here and most of that seems to result in the candidates receiving instant abuse.

@Piggywaspushed are you named after my favourite guitarist? :o I suspect not, but it's worth asking.

I'll be voting Labour even though I'm in an area that will elect a pile of dogshit as long as it has a blue rosette plunged into it.

I really want IDS to lose his seat, along with the odious McVile.

I was talking to a family member at the weekend who lives in Surrey. Apparently her 4 children who are all in their twenties are all very angry about everything and are all voting Labour. Two of them are at Uni in the south and south east. They have been persuading everyone they know to register and to vote. If young people are doing this everywhere there is hope yet.

Morning. I normally like a chart. I don't like this one though.

www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2019-50659248

Also for those still perplexed as to why even some food bank users are inexplicably voting for the Conservat/ERG party here's an explanation warning us from 2015. You can see how we echo the US voting patterns psychologically. My theory is that it is consolidated here by our class obsession. This means many voters accept their current role in hierarchy whilst aspiring for them or their DC to ascend to be closer to being ruling superiors themselves. It's the British version of the American dream.

" Republican party dupes people into voting against their economic interests by triggering outrage on cultural issues. "Vote for us and we'll protect the American flag!" say the Republicans.....Along the way we'll cut taxes on the rich, cut benefits for the poor, and allow industries to dump their waste into your drinking water, but never mind that. Only we can protect you from gay, Spanish-speaking flag-burners!"

"When working-class people vote conservative, as most do in the US, they are not voting against their self-interest; they are voting for their [lack of]moral interest. "

Guardian|article|voting|conservative

Like some others we are getting an enormous amount of Lib Dem paper marketing. All goes straight in the bin.

Interested in that Curtice BBC article with the bar charts. I see leave support for the Tories has increased over the past month. I wonder if leavers will turn up in the same numbers as they did in the referendum. It's a risky strategy given the 52% margin in 2016, and I don't know that the cold weather and timing might (hopefully!!) eat into that.

I heard somewhere that the majority of undecided voters are remain. How do we know this, and what can be done about it?!

And - the referendum wasn't via FTPT (was it?)
I wonder what the result would have been if it was

I heard somewhere that the majority of undecided voters are remain. How do we know this, and what can be done about it?!

There are a lot more undecided voters who previously voted LAB or LD than there are undecided former Tory voters. So it makes sense that a lot of them are Remainers.

It's not much of a hook on which to hang a hat though.

I get that there is huge uncertainty in polling but ...

And - the referendum wasn't via FTPT (was it?)
I wonder what the result would have been if it was

Assume you mean FPTP there ... in which case the answer is that a referendum held on a constituency basis would have resulted in a much larger Leave win.

Remain votes pile up in cities, where in some places nearly 80% of voters voted remain. But in FPTP in a two way race, every vote over 50% +1 is a "wasted" vote.

I don't know who this guitarist you speak of is, doctor but sounds fun!

My name is a deliberate 'stand up and shout out for the victims' name!

In that case I think we are looking at a fair Tory majority, aren't we.