British thread

[SortaCreative]

It's been an interesting night. Here are the main points i'm taking away:

Labour failed to gain the confidence of the public. The fear of the Labour/SNP coalition may have caused undecided people to vote for a "safe" Conservative option. Labour lost a lot of key positions, including Ed Balls who was touted as the next Chancellor of the Exchequer if Labour won.

The SNP routed Labour north of the border. Because of this, they may have inadvertently made the Conservative win that little bit easier. The truth is, even if Labour won every seat in Scotland, they still needed to perform better than they did in England.

The Liberal Democrats have been utterly ravaged. They hemorrhaged votes and seats. They have less MP's in Parliament than in '92.

UKIP made some significant gains in a few areas, gaining one seat.

A combination of the Liberal Democrat bleed out, the Scottish question and in a few areas the surge of UKIP support split the vote and allowed the Conservatives to hold and gain seats.

The SNP victory is the biggest point coming out of this election. The potential for things to swing one way or the other is threatening stability. How will the SNP be able to work with a Tory majority after vehemently opposing them. Will a spin of the SNP/Labour coalition cause people to blame the SNP for the shocking Labour defeat? It played a part. Ultimately, is David Cameron the last Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. With such SNP support, is another referendum on the way?

Whether they intended to or not, Scotland has knocked the entire country for six. It's a really interesting time, another five years of Cameron. ... yay.

[SlightlyJames]

^ Like you said, if Labour took every single SNP seat they still wouldn't have been able to beat the Tories. If Labour hadn't shit the bed down south there would have been a coalition. As it is now, Scotland might be sheltered somewhat from Tory bullshit by securing some measure of devolution with our 95% SNP seats.

Whether or not another referendum occurs depends on a few things. 5 more years of Tories would certainly lean in the direction that there would be but it really depends on whether or not the SNP explosion brings any more powers to Holyrood. There's also been some talk over the EU referendum, where the question has been raised that if England votes to leave the EU and the rest of the UK doesn't, do we get dragged along or does that decision bring further cause to part?

[SortaCreative]

^ Like you said, if Labour took every single SNP seat they still wouldn't have been able to beat the Tories. If Labour hadn't shit the bed down south there would have been a coalition. As it is now, Scotland might be sheltered somewhat from Tory bullshit by securing some measure of devolution with our 95% SNP seats.

Whether or not another referendum occurs depends on a few things. 5 more years of Tories would certainly lean in the direction that there would be but it really depends on whether or not the SNP explosion brings any more powers to Holyrood. There's also been some talk over the EU referendum, where the question has been raised that if England votes to leave the EU and the rest of the UK doesn't, do we get dragged along or does that decision bring further cause to part?

Yeah. Like Is said, as big as the SNP routing of Labour was. They failed to make any significant gains in England. Whether that's because the scaremongering about the coalition (I was actually hoping for the coalition) or other reason's who knows.

If the SNP explosion translates to more powers for Holyrood, I think a referendum is likely. I think if the Conservatives put forward the referendum about the EU and the vote is yes. Scotland will leave the United Kingdom, almost 100%.

[SlightlyJames]

Yeah. Like Is said, as big as the SNP routing of Labour was. They failed to make any significant gains in England. Whether that's because the scaremongering about the coalition (I was actually hoping for the coalition) or other reason's who knows.

If the SNP explosion translates to more powers for Holyrood, I think a referendum is likely. I think if the Conservatives put forward the referendum about the EU and the vote is yes. Scotland will leave the United Kingdom, almost 100%.

The thing is, the more devolution happens the less necessary it becomes to leave the UK. If things like taxation and public spending and the ability to get the nukes out of the Clyde all come our way then the risk of exiting the union becomes less attractive. As far as the Europe situation goes I'm not sure what the options will be. If they want to leave the EU and we don't I think you're right in that we would leave the UK if the option presented itself.

Nick Clegg has just resigned, not a surprise at all, his party got beasted, must be an embarrassing time for him. Seems Miliband will be going the same way in an hour or so.

[SortaCreative]

I wouldn't call it embarrassing.

At the end of the day. The Liberal Democrats paid a hard price for actually securing government in the last election. They sanded the hard edge to the Tory government and managed to put through some fair policy. I don't think it's fair that the Liberal Democrats paid such a price for "jumping into bed" with the Conservatives.

What kind of position were they in?

People either said, we won't vote for you because you'll never be in power. And then when they did get some form of power, to show their worth, they were punished. That's the two party system gobbling them up. I would call it tragic, not embarrassing. I argued before the election that in a perfect world, a five year Liberal term would be what this country needed. To fight against nationalist lurching north and south of the border. To steer the country through a fair, centrist line while we sorted out what needed to be sorted out.

[SlightlyJames]

They brought it on themselves really, even disregarding the previous coalition that definitely did hurt them a lot. In a campaign where popular opinion was that Labour is just a less extreme brand of Tory, Clegg positioned the Lib Dems as the middle ground between those two. That's why I referred to the three as the Goldilocks parties a couple of pages ago. Daddy Tory is too hard. Mummy Labour is too soft. But Cleggylocks is juuuust right.

It was a moronic bit of maneuvering in my view that they paid for dearly.

And that's Miliband officially resigned there. A good thing for Labour I'd have to say, he's the furthest thing from inspiring.

[PorkChop]

Clegg, Farage and Miliband are gone. Cameron has an overall majority. Did not expect this.

[SortaCreative]

They brought it on themselves really, even disregarding the previous coalition that definitely did hurt them a lot. In a campaign where popular opinion was that Labour is just a less extreme brand of Tory, Clegg positioned the Lib Dems as the middle ground between those two. That's why I referred to the three as the Goldilocks parties a couple of pages ago. Daddy Tory is too hard. Mummy Labour is too soft. But Cleggylocks is juuuust right.

Surely somewhere in the middle when one side is being too hard and the other too soft is a great place to be? The Liberal Democrat party have been around the centre for a while anyway. How is that moronic maneuvering?

The lack of a left leaning vote isn't the Liberal Democrats fault. They're not massively left leaning. They left of centre sure, but the recent coalition budged them right of centre.

The Tory government is in power because of:

Lib Dems being punished. Rightly or wrongly, they were hit hard. They're in a horrible state and the Conservatives manages to cannibalize their seats and constituencies.

Labour's lack of a cohesive and brave plan to set out a viable program for the country. His "Tory-lite measures" when there were other measures and his failure to secure any semblance of footing in Scotland. His message was confused.

The SNP gambit. Nicola gambled when she outright asked Ed Miliband if he wouldn't be willing to enter into negotiations or a deal with the SNP if it meant kicking the Tories out of government. Ed Miliband bet the farm, the house and his kids on saying no and stating that if the UK wanted a Labour government, they needed to vote red.

What happened was the hint, the fear of an agreement with the SNP down south had a hand in swinging the undecided to a Nationalistic, one nation Tory view in Cameron. Up in the North the vote really was safe either way. Either you voted Labour and got Labour or you voted SNP and got Labour with the coalition/agreement. SNP does offer more scope for negotiations for Holyrood and the devolution of more powers. But ultimately, it was safe. What's interesting is David Cameron making good on his promise and talking about more authority in Holyrood. What form that takes is wait and see, but SNP are there to poke and prod until it's to their liking. Problem for them is that this isn't a Labour partnership but a Conservative majority opposition.

[AkydefGoldberg]

Fucking hell, what a day..

I was gripped by it all, especially in the morning, was working in between.

Fuck opinion polls - but Cameron must be chuffed, coasted to victory really. Then the three resignations, two of which were expected and Farage not winning his seat was utter lol and brightened the day up.

IMO, people just decided to vote for what they knew. Labour hadn't really been inventive or attractive enough with their ideas and vision and seemed to just jump on the immigration bandwagon. Lib Dems had 57 MPs in 2010, they now have single digits - it could be a journey they never recover from. Very bleak for them. Can understand the temptation of government lured them in but Tories have done them over for five years and got a majority and Clegg looked weak throughout the tenure.

In other news, Galloway got voted out from Bradford West and rightly so for being a shit MP but also for a nasty campaign against Labour there.

Difficult to feel any sort optimism atm.

[PorkChop]

Watching Britain's Got Talent. The standard of talent couldn't be much lower this year. No way does it not get scrapped in the near future.

[prophet]

Watching Britain's Got Talent. The standard of talent couldn't be much lower this year. No way does it not get scrapped in the near future.

Why would it get canned? It draws big ratings! Watched it though and I agree it was all just pure shite, not one of them stood out.

[Twister]

I wanted the Dad Dancers to win Britain's Got Talent

[PorkChop]

Everyone on 8/10 Cats does Countdown tries too hard to be funny. It really puts me off the show.

[Twister]

I love 8 out of 10 cats does countdown. I have such bad taste in TV shows

[Twister]

Anyone been watching that BBQ Champ show? It's like Bake Off but with BBQ food, it's fantastic. Not understanding the point of Myleene Klass being a presenter on it though.

[Twister]

Very British Problems, anyone watching? I can relate to so many of the things mentioned.

[PorkChop]

Very British Problems, anyone watching? I can relate to so many of the things mentioned.

Sheeeit, forgot about it as there's football on. I planned on checking it out. I'll probably get it on catch up or something.

As for the BBQ Champ show, I've seen one episode and it was quite entertaining. It's encouraged one of my friends to host one tomorrow night (weather permitting) so I'm quite grateful for that!

[Twister]

I love a good BBQ. I'm liking BBQ Champ so far, it's something different from your usual cookery shows at least.

[PorkChop]

I love a good BBQ. I'm liking BBQ Champ so far, it's something different from your usual cookery shows at least.

One of my mates hosts one every now and then but always burns the burgers to a crisp. He puts it on the grill and then gets a spatula and squishes all the juice out of it over and over again, then leaves it until it's black before serving it up. I'm grateful he hosts BBQs as it's always good to sit around on a patio drinking beer with your mates and having a laugh, but his burgers are a solid 1/10.

He hosted one a few weeks ago and while he was off doing something else I put a couple of burgers on the grill, cooked them and served them up for myself and a few others. He kept saying I'd undercooked them as basically they didn't look like a lump of coal and actually still had juice in them. He kept saying things like "it's not my fault if you get the shits, mate" throughout the evening.

Not tooting my own horn, but they were the best burgers we'd had all night. 8/10, would undercook again.

[PorkChop]

Casually having dinner with my grandparents when my grandad brings up the subject of immigration, instantly making everyone at the table uncomfortable. He comes out with the golden line of "I think Hitler had the right idea - not about killing the Jews, but about German jobs for German people"

Yes, grandad - just forget what he did to the Jews, we all make mistakes. I'm sure Hitler was a pretty cool guy aside from that whole Holocaust thing.