Ed Davey as Leader of the Opposition is SO CLOSE

[noblegiraffe]

The final MRP poll from Survation puts the Lib Dems and Tories within a gnat's whisker of each other.

Sam Freedman says:
'“If any doubt arises as to which is or was at any material time the party in opposition to Her Majesty’s Government having the greatest numerical strength in the House of Commons, or as to who is or was at any material time the leader in that House of such a party, the question shall be decided for the purposes of this Act by the Speaker of the House of Commons, and his decision, certified in writing under his hand, shall be final and conclusive.”

So if one party is clearly ahead then their leader is LOTO. But if it’s more complex - say, the Tories won 75 seats and the Lib Dems 73, and then two Alliance MPs from Northern Ireland said they’d sit with the Lib Dems - well the Speaker will have to get involved and make a call.'

The thought of the Tories losing so badly that they don't even get to be the official party of opposition is within our grasp.

I've heard that the Lib Dems now think they have a chance of winning places like Witney where they didn't think they had a hope at the start.

https://tactical.vote tells you who to vote for to get the Tories out and make them irrelevant.

Just in the interests of factual accuracy, for most students who took out loans between 2012 and 2022 they are not really a loan but a graduate tax, as most of them will not end up paying them back.
That has changed slightly since the term has been extended to 40 years from 30, but still it functions far more like a regressive graduate tax than a loan.

https://www.theguardian.com/money/2023/may/13/martin-lewis-graduates-student-loans-finance-graduate-tax

Yes. I don’t know about you, but when I look at Badenoch, I think, what a people person, what a unifying force, what a listener!

Vote Badenoch to bring the crumbs of the right wing together and make a small biscuit

Every time I read one of your posts today @Champagnesocialismo I do a little snigger or a full on snort laugh.

Yes and guess who's going to be footing the massive bill every year as more and more loans are written off?

The amazing thing with this "system" is that it costs students alot through their working lives, and many universities are still likely to go bust this year.

Got to love the Tories.

A graduate tax would have actually been much fairer because graduates who go on to earn very high salaries would continue paying it throughout their working lives rather than paying it off by the age of 30, leaving people on OK salaries paying off far more over their working lives due to compound interest.

Really can't stand the Lib Dem's. Never forget they are the reason tuition fees are what they are

So you'd rather have the fucking Tories as Opposition with their record? Make that make sense.

I don't trust any poll that doesn't require people to get out of their homes and down the local community centre in the wind and rain in order to register their intentions.

😂

It would indeed, but for most except the very richest graduates that is what they have. Hence it is regressive.

Oh fuck no. Haven't we suffered enough.

But Jeremy Corbyn
Keir had a beer
A donkey
Angela's house
What is a woman.
Friday night dinner

And on and on.

😂that bungee jump genuinely worried me

Lib dem can form the opposition, NOT Tories, if we vote tactically. "StopTheTories.vote" - article in The Guardian by Carol Vorderman on using this website, and similar tactical voting websites, that will prevent the Tories getting in and consign them to third 😃 . After this comes proportional representation. Vote tactically 😃 and get rid of them for good! Next time, all of our votes could count, whatever the party is. There's a plan. Read the article.

Well exactly. If you're going to have a graduate tax then have a graduate tax and then what graduates pay has a direct correlation with how much they earn (i.e. how much financial benefit they've got from their education). The current system means that people who get a university education but then earn peanuts pay off little or nothing, very high earners pay off the full amount but pay it off fast, and mid range earners such as teachers and civil servants pay off the most because they pay off more than the investment bankers and corporate lawyers do once 40 years of compound interest are added. There's a big bulge affecting the squeezed middle, who are probably also being squeezed in all other areas.

That's why I will vote Tory tomorrow. Squeeze the middle, don't want them getting ideas above their status.

@Saschka maybe. But I’m not sure Davey is fit to be on the Privy Council. He’s an oaf.

Ed Davey was appointed a Privy Councillor on 8th February 2012, I am sure at some point in the past 12 years if he was unfit for the role, some evidence of that would have emerged.

Since when has being an oaf disqualified anyone?

Boris Johnson

I would rather have the Tories as opposition because I think they are better placed than the Lib Dems to hold Labour to account for the things I think Labour will specifically need to be held accountable for. Namely all the gender nonsense. The Lib Dems won't do that because they're massively in favour of it, and in other policy areas they're not noticeably different from Labour anyway. In fact it's not entirely clear what the Lib Dems do actually stand for at the moment, other than "it's unkind to misgender convicted sex offenders".

By Friday we will know for sure whether knowing what a woman is, is a key consideration of voters, because surely if it is the CP will be massive winners.

No, by Friday we will know just how desperate people are to get the Tories out at any cost.

People could do that by consistently voting for a party that has had a clear policy on gender though surely?

Gender nonsense! what will the Conservatives do? Declare they have had a hard think over 14 years and one day and now they have a policy?

Maybe they are stupid enough to try and rebuild an entire party on gender battles. Assuming Labour are stupid enough to give them one, which is another matter

Such as?