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Recent political stuff:
- The vote to see if Britain should adopt Alternative Voting has failed.
- Lib Dems lose lots of councils and councillors, whilst Labour make the majority of the gains in England.
- The Scottish National Party do really well in the elections.
A link to the BBC politics page containing relevant information.
Edited by Mrph1 on Nov 3rd 2023 at 11:15:30 AM
![[up]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/smiles/arrow_up.png "[up]"){kind=icon}
It's why they need to mature a bit: their manifesto is too narrow to be a goer. But, when it comes to trying to influence politics, going party is a rather useful means (and, also, a lot of slog). So, good on 'em for having the guts to play the hard game. 
edited 3rd Oct '12 3:55:36 AM by Euodiachloris
V
- West Coast Main Line deal scrapped after contract flaws discovered: Do the Rail Francise ''again!''
- Spring petrol sales decline despite lower forecourt prices: Not good news for the Government, it appears.
"We've heard talk of the government finding a real struggle in getting the revenues in that it was expecting and this dramatic drop won't help them one iota," he told BBC Radio 5 live. "It will make them a bit desperate, perhaps looking towards road pricing again or looking towards squeezing more out of the tax disc that we all pay for."
So that's what this does
I am getting more and more tempted to make a serious go of standing for the loonies and encouraging the apathetics to show how little the available parties represent them by voting loony, because if the loony comes third then whichever party landed in fourth place will get a serious telling that they need to start listening to the public again.
Don't laugh, that was the final nail in the SDP's coffin.
I live in the safest Labour seat in the country.
Strangely enough, down the road is Birmingham Edgbaston, a swing seat, and down the other way, is Birmingham Yardley, a bellweather seat. And up north, is Sutton Coldfield (the home of Mitchell), as we all know, strongly Tory.
/pointless
Anyway, I really do wish we had better parties. The parties are different, but they're different in ways that don't particularly make a difference to anyone who isn't a political anorak.
-sigh-
A good rule of thumb is that the BNP are a foreigner-hating Labour and the UKIP are foreigner-hating Conservatives.
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)
So that's what this does
That probably worked better when you could tell Labour and the Conservatives apart.
Humiliating climbdown number, I dunno, yonty million for the Con Dem Nation.
http://www.itv.com/news/granada/2012-10-03/north-west-rail-franchise-u-turn-by-government/
http://www.morningstaronline.co.uk/news/content/view/full/124629
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-19809899
Heheheheh. Civil Servants getting the blame again. Biggest rail franchise sale in recent history and it has been a total balls up.
V
Although I wouldn't be suprised if both the BNP and UKIP haven't already showed signs of moving towards the Centre in order to appeal to a wider electorate...
edited 3rd Oct '12 11:18:07 AM by Greenmantle
Keep Rolling On
<image of planets colliding goes here> ![[lol]](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/lol2v12_4863.png "[lol]"){kind=small}
House Lewis: Sanity is Relative
I'm delighted about the railways, I can't stand First Group (I have to endure First Scotrail) and have always found Virgin better in every way.
My name is Addy. Please call me that instead of my username.
I think the reaction may be much more explosive.
Virgin > Chiltern > First Rail
edited 3rd Oct '12 11:54:28 AM by Inhopelessguy
House Lewis: Sanity is Relative
Fixed that for you.
My name is Addy. Please call me that instead of my username.
What bugs me is the sheer cost of the cock up. And, being civil servants, people will manage to dodge head-rolling thanks to procedural shields.
Trust me, the ones who'll get axed? Won't actually be the ones responsible for the major oversights.
I happen to quite enjoy the First Great Western journey from Swansea to Paddington :/
So that's what this does
The main difference between this government and the last is that the last one would have insisted that they made the right decision and used the cost to justify not revisiting it, forcing us to live with crappy service, whereas this one admits they made a mistake and gets us to pay for it.
Not that either of them are good for much.
Edit: To clarify, the last lot made us suffer for their fuck ups, this lot make us pay to fix their fuck ups.
edited 3rd Oct '12 1:35:43 PM by Michael
V
@ Hopey, Hopey:
The reality is:
...and apparently, even the Experts think it's a systemic problem:
Here is Rooooobert Peston:
First it unfairly discriminated against the incumbent, Virgin, by attaching far too great a probability to the projections by the rival bidder First Group that its revenues in the later years of the contract would be much bigger than Virgin's. This mistake was compounded in the department's own internal forecasting model, which also attached too little risk to the possibility that passenger numbers and inflation would be significantly different from what First Group was projecting after 2021.
As a result, the government demanded too little guaranteed money for taxpayers from First Group.
But perhaps all this can be forgiven as an unfortunate technical error. What is perhaps more shocking is that Virgin has been complaining about the flaws in the bidding process for months, and yet the government pressed on with awarding the contract to First Group.
I'm sure we'll find out more from the Rail Magazines in the next week and months.
West Coast fiasco exposes skills gap
edited 4th Oct '12 5:24:25 AM by Greenmantle
Keep Rolling On
... Not again.
Good job they found the fucking thing. And that no-one got hurt removing it.
The only questions are what nutjob group planted it and why?
And, no phone-in... seems good old intelligence work got there.
Proper sleuthing, following black footprints with a magnifying glass.
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)
So that's what this does
Seems like Hamza is finally on his bike after all.
I bet his bike only has a handlebar on one side.
edited 5th Oct '12 9:52:06 AM by TheBatPencil
And let us pray that come it may (As come it will for a' that)
So that's what this does
Oh, be nice to his fellow amputees.
V
- Abortion limit reduction favoured by Jeremy Hunt: In an interview in The Times, the Health Secretary announced he supports a reduction in the time limit for abortions from 24 weeks to 12.
- BAE Systems-EADS merger: Conservative MPs voice fears:
edited 6th Oct '12 5:35:32 AM by Greenmantle
Keep Rolling On
edited 3rd Oct '12 3:53:00 AM by deathpigeon