Posted on 04/26/2015 8:47:46 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
Campaigning in Renfrewshire, he said the nationalists want an SNP vote in the general election in order to "force" a second poll.
Launching the SNP's "women's pledge", Nicola Sturgeon said this election was "not about independence". Meanwhile the Lib Dems set out plans for green laws and the Scottish Conservatives focused on jobs.
As the penultimate weekend of campaigning got under way, SNP leader Ms Sturgeon joined female activists and actor and campaigner Elaine C Smith in Glasgow to launch the party's women's pledge, which commits the SNP and its members to delivering policies that promote equality...
As part of its women's pledge, the SNP said it would:
- Support women into work by increasing free childcare, raising the minimum wage, ending zero hours contracts, and ending the gender pay gap
- Invest in women by continuing free education and increasing apprenticeships
- Ensure that no girl grows up or woman lives in fear of abuse and violence
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.com ...
As an American, I don’t find the concept of independence from Great Britain particularly frightening :P While it certainly be best if it can be done peaceably, I somehow have some doubts as to the sincerity of the English in acquiescing to Scottish independence, especially if they are the ones counting the votes.
> Farage has always ruled it out.
As noted he’s stating he’s willing to lead UKIP into a coalition with the Tories if there’s a referendum on the EU.
Farage is in a real spot, as you said, there are members who say they will dump UKIP if they join a coalition. If UKIP isn’t in the next gov’t, it will fade out like many an insurgent party has in the past.
The Toxic Miliband Factor That Will Swing The Entire Election... My Predictions For 2015
Bill Coles
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/bill-coles/general-election-predictions_b_7187604.html
[snip] I know the polls are wrong. Lord Ashcroft and the media outlets may be spending millions and millions on poll after poll across the whole of the UK. Well I am cockily going to put my head on the block and say that these polls are utter bollocks. The polls say — over and over again — that the Tories are neck and neck with the Labour party. They say that the Tories might just nudge it, but even if they go into coalition with the Lib Dems, they still won’t have a majority. That’s what the polls say. And I’ll now explain why these polls are not even close to representing the election results that we will see on May 8... I believe that Miliband is the primary cause of the Scots Nats’ predicted whitewash in Scotland... Just because diehard Labour fans won’t be voting for Labour on Thursday, that doesn’t remotely mean that they’ll be telling that to the pollsters. No Sirreee! When they’re asked about their voting intentions, they’ll say what they’ve always said: they’ll be voting Labour... In England and Wales, it’s more difficult to call. My guess is they’ll either go to the Tories or the Lib Dems... There’s one last thing that’s skewing the current polls: a lot of people won’t ever, ever admit to voting Tory. But they will vote Tory. If you look at the predicted polls for the last five general elections, going all the way back to John Major’s “against all odds” win in 1992, the Tories have consistently performed better than predicted in the polls. [/snip]
They promised a referendum and they lied. Pure and simple.
(archives)
Reuters Opinion Columnist Bill Coles Gives His (Highly Personal) Call On The Referendum
http://live.reuters.com/Event/Scottish_referendum/127252607
There was a Scottish vote on separation.
Nick Clegg set to lose seat in election - poll
Thu Apr 30, 2015
http://uk.reuters.com/article/2015/04/30/uk-britain-election-polls-ashcroft-idUKKBN0NK1W620150430
> A separate Lord Ashcroft constituency poll of Thanet South, where UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage is running for election, suggested the Conservatives would hold on to the seat.
They promised a referendum on the EU
The Scottish vote was pointless, they’d still be ruled by Brussels
Oooh, looky! The leftist pro-suicide newspaper in Israel is pulling out a pathetic meme.
Will David Cameron win the U.K. election using ‘Bibi tactics?’
By Anshel Pfeffer | May 1, 2015
http://www.haaretz.com/news/world/.premium-1.654497
I love the paranoia, and Arab-style conspiracy nuttery in this op-ed.
“don’t appear in a direct debate with your opponent — so as not to confer the status of potential leader upon him. You are a known quantity and have higher personal approval ratings. He is the one who has to build his image and has more to lose, so let him run around, overexposing himself, giving interviews to every wandering microphone, and making the inevitable mistakes... Build up an axis of evil around your main rival, portraying him as a weak and gullible figure, easily manipulated by dark forces eager to sabotage the country’s strategic interests and which will lead to its eventual destruction.”
“Labour Party leader Ed Miliband. Cast in the Isaac Herzog role?”
“The potential for growth is on the far-right, where those who think you are not radical enough can be scared into voting for you, for fear of letting in those forces of darkness lurking on the left.”
“SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon. Allowing Cameron to play the nationalist card?”
“UKIP leader Nigel Farage. Siphoning votes back to the Conservatives?”
Hmm, looks like some classic rope-a-dope:
Clegg opens the door to Miliband government backed by SNP
http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/news/politics/article4428836.ece
Ed Miliband: I won’t have Labour government if it means deals with SNP
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/apr/30/ed-miliband-snp-opposition-question-time-election
UK’s Miliband: I’d pass on PM job rather than do deal with Scots nationalists
http://www.todayonline.com/world/uks-miliband-id-pass-pm-job-rather-do-deal-scots-nationalists
In that case, no, they didn’t “lie plain and simple” or at all.
Proposed referendum on United Kingdom membership of the European Union
> In January 2013, British Prime Minister David Cameron promised an “in/out” referendum on British membership of the European Union in 2017, after a period of renegotiation with the EU, if the Conservative Party wins an outright majority at the next general election, on May 7, 2015.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proposed_referendum_on_United_Kingdom_membership_of_the_European_Union
But if Scotland *had* voted themselves off the island (55-45 to stay in the UK), the EU might have thrown them back.
lol
[May 2014 ] The Eurosceptic party’s victory marked the first time in modern history that neither Labour nor the Conservatives have won a British national election.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/may/26/ukip-european-elections-political-earthquake
[Oct 2014] Yesterday Ukip’s group in the European Parliament collapsed after the departure of Latvian MEP Iveta Grigule, which left it bereft of the minimum seven countries needed to qualify as an official parliamentary grouping.
http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/10/ukips-european-parliament-group-has-collapsed-what-does-mean
[Oct 2014] Ukip has struck a deal with a Polish MEP whose far-right party leader casually uses racial slurs and questions the Holocaust following fears that its grouping in Europe would lose millions of pounds in taxpayers’ funds.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/oct/20/ukip-does-deal-with-far-right-to-save-european-grouping
> UKIP has two Members of Parliament, three representatives in the House of Lords and twenty-three Members of the European Parliament, making it the largest UK party in the European Parliament.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/UK_Independence_Party
> “This proves how powerless the European Parliament is,” says UKIP MEP as French president insists parliament must go on sitting once a month in Strasbourg. Hollande insists parliament will “never” stop its L82m monthly shuttle between Brussels and Strasbourg, another reason for UK to leave EU says UKIP.
http://www.ukipmeps.org/news_1024_Brussels-Strasbourg-shuttling-will-never-stop-says-Hollande.html
Let's analyse it. One million Scottish voters, out of a total electorate in the UK of just under 50 million, could basically destroy my country. I live in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland. If Scotland opts out, the United Kingdom ceases to exist, and there's nothing I can do about it. I don't get a say, I don't get a vote, I don't even get asked my opinion. And this is democracy in action? How would you feel about it if a section of America were to do something like that? Well we know how - there is no Confederacy any more, is there?
I’m not so sure it will fade away. It needs to make a good showing in this election, thats for sure, but being in the government as a junior partner isnt all its cracked up to be. Ask the Liberal Democrats. You basically get all the blame while the major partner gets all the kudos.
SNP join the conservatives? Highly unlikely - they are almost opposite political idealogies. It would do immense damage to their appeal in Scotland.
It would give them more power in the UK than anything that has happened since James was crowned.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.