The General Election Thread

[Damocles]

I'm going to downsize this (considerably!) by relating my experience at the library tonight.
There is a new swipe machine that checks your books in and out; it's been there about 6 months. There are hardly any library assistants left (2 instead of the usual 4). Progress of sorts; I don't have to wait for one of them to serve me and I like being left to my own devices. Being an avid book reader I also have misanthropic tendencies, so I enjoy not being bothered by other people when I'm on a good book finding venture.
Apart from the fact that the stupid machine thinks I checked a book out some weeks ago called '50 Knit and Crochet Projects' (as if??!!!). It now also reckons I owe 6 quid.
So, whilst I know humans make mistakes, I also know computers do.

Computers don't make mistakes. Programmers make mistakes. There are already computer programs who can find and fix bugs at a greater and more accurate rate than humans can. We in the software development industry are stupid enough to be building the software that will make us obsolete, a recent reality that sort of started my worrying in this direction.

Is there a computer to paint and wallpaper my house? Change the fuel filter on my car? Rip up wooden flooring and lay tiles? Or do you think they will be available with a handful of years?

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XxWaqhwdLAI[/video]
[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=njlqxafip8E[/video]

It's somewhat primitive sure, but we're talking about another 30 years of development. Whilst not putting people out of work at the minute, this is a robot that is actually out there and performing that task now. The tiler will be available commercially within months.

I think we have veered well and truly off topic and interesting diversion perhaps thread worthy in it's own right

Yeah I suppose. I do think however that this is the truly big challenge that will face us in the future and one of those things that we will only notice once its too late to do anything about it. With those sort of issues, like climate change in the 90s, you tend to look for any party who even has looked at the problem as a potential person to vote for.

 

[Ifwecouldjust.......]

To be fair the same thing has been said (in different ways) for many years, we are now meant to have more leisure time than ever before as well as power to cheap to metre not to mention holidays on Mars and hover boards (all predicted), the way I see it all economies need consumers, if the consumers can not earn money through work then there can be no economy henceforth no need for robots

This is different. These things were said when you had crap robots on Tomorrow's World and the average computer had 16 megabytes of RAM.

Now we have self driving cars, computers that write computer programs quicker than humans do, computers that can scan terabytes of data and make correlations that no human could possibly do and computers that can essentially remember and cross reference an almost limitless amount of data in seconds.

Computers are now writing symphonies, painting pictures, giving excellent economic forecasts, diagnosing patients and performing operations, building houses and landing planes. Most of the time they do this quicker, better and cheaper than workers do it. They've achieved this in around 30 years. In 30 years time they'll be ubiquitous.

Let's take a single example there and look at the new self driving cars. These are legal on British roads in 10 weeks time. They have already driven hundreds of thousands of miles and shown to be safer than normal people driving by a huge amount. They are quicker to react to developing conditions, they never break the speed limit, always know whether or not they can make it to the next petrol station and can see and react to a crash in 100 times the rate of humans. They need no breaks and no wages. Give this technology 30 years and tell me where that leaves the long haul trucking industry or even the short carrier service? We've already shipped out workers from the warehouses due to automated systems, the ones in the cabins are the next to go.

Where will the bus and coach driver go? What about the average white van man?

Due to a single new technology that is here RIGHT NOW, that is a source of employment that will no longer exist in a decade or two.

Think who we would have replaced in 30 years.

I'm going to downsize this (considerably!) by relating my experience at the library tonight.
There is a new swipe machine that checks your books in and out; it's been there about 6 months. There are hardly any library assistants left (2 instead of the usual 4). Progress of sorts; I don't have to wait for one of them to serve me and I like being left to my own devices. Being an avid book reader I also have misanthropic tendencies, so I enjoy not being bothered by other people when I'm on a good book finding venture.
Apart from the fact that the stupid machine thinks I checked a book out some weeks ago called '50 Knit and Crochet Projects' (as if??!!!). It now also reckons I owe 6 quid.
So, whilst I know humans make mistakes, I also know computers do.

F*ckin hell..................your library is still open? Ours was shut down at the start of 'we're all in this together'

 

[mackenzie]

This is different. These things were said when you had crap robots on Tomorrow's World and the average computer had 16 megabytes of RAM.

Now we have self driving cars, computers that write computer programs quicker than humans do, computers that can scan terabytes of data and make correlations that no human could possibly do and computers that can essentially remember and cross reference an almost limitless amount of data in seconds.

Computers are now writing symphonies, painting pictures, giving excellent economic forecasts, diagnosing patients and performing operations, building houses and landing planes. Most of the time they do this quicker, better and cheaper than workers do it. They've achieved this in around 30 years. In 30 years time they'll be ubiquitous.

Let's take a single example there and look at the new self driving cars. These are legal on British roads in 10 weeks time. They have already driven hundreds of thousands of miles and shown to be safer than normal people driving by a huge amount. They are quicker to react to developing conditions, they never break the speed limit, always know whether or not they can make it to the next petrol station and can see and react to a crash in 100 times the rate of humans. They need no breaks and no wages. Give this technology 30 years and tell me where that leaves the long haul trucking industry or even the short carrier service? We've already shipped out workers from the warehouses due to automated systems, the ones in the cabins are the next to go.

Where will the bus and coach driver go? What about the average white van man?

Due to a single new technology that is here RIGHT NOW, that is a source of employment that will no longer exist in a decade or two.

Think who we would have replaced in 30 years.

I'm going to downsize this (considerably!) by relating my experience at the library tonight.
There is a new swipe machine that checks your books in and out; it's been there about 6 months. There are hardly any library assistants left (2 instead of the usual 4). Progress of sorts; I don't have to wait for one of them to serve me and I like being left to my own devices. Being an avid book reader I also have misanthropic tendencies, so I enjoy not being bothered by other people when I'm on a good book finding venture.
Apart from the fact that the stupid machine thinks I checked a book out some weeks ago called '50 Knit and Crochet Projects' (as if??!!!). It now also reckons I owe 6 quid.
So, whilst I know humans make mistakes, I also know computers do.

F*ckin hell..................your library is still open? Ours was shut down at the start of 'we're all in this together'

It's just about hanging on. It's lost over half of its floor space though .

 

[Daz_Blue]

Do they still have those cars driving round with a loud speaker on top telling you how to vote ....I remember the Conservative cars were often bricked in Wythenshawe....all the people inside wore helmets :)

 

[malg]

The Scottish Labour has stood down, saying that some of their MPs are dinosaurs. Not good news for Ed.

'Johann Lamont has quit as leader of the Scottish Labour Party after accusing the UK party leadership of treating Scotland as a "branch office".

A Scottish party source said Ms Lamont had "had enough" and felt she did not have the support of the UK party.

She also voiced anger at the removal of a senior Scottish party official.

BBC correspondents said that Labour faced a strong challenge from the SNP and its tally of Scottish MPs in a general election might be at risk.

Ms Lamont also described some Labour MPs as "dinosaurs" who failed to recognise that "Scotland has changed forever" after September's referendum.

BBC Scotland understands that Ms Lamont, who was elected leader in December 2011, has been unhappy for some time about the direction of party strategy.

Ed Miliband was given very little notice of Johann Lamont's decision to quit. He didn't try to talk her out of it.

In recent weeks, she had been pressing for more autonomy for the Labour party in Scotland and for the Scottish leader to have more power over MPs at Westminster.

 

[TGR]

The Scottish Labour has stood down, saying that some of their MPs are dinosaurs. Not good news for Ed.

'Johann Lamont has quit as leader of the Scottish Labour Party after accusing the UK party leadership of treating Scotland as a "branch office".

A Scottish party source said Ms Lamont had "had enough" and felt she did not have the support of the UK party.

She also voiced anger at the removal of a senior Scottish party official.

BBC correspondents said that Labour faced a strong challenge from the SNP and its tally of Scottish MPs in a general election might be at risk.

Ms Lamont also described some Labour MPs as "dinosaurs" who failed to recognise that "Scotland has changed forever" after September's referendum.

BBC Scotland understands that Ms Lamont, who was elected leader in December 2011, has been unhappy for some time about the direction of party strategy.

Ed Miliband was given very little notice of Johann Lamont's decision to quit. He didn't try to talk her out of it.

In recent weeks, she had been pressing for more autonomy for the Labour party in Scotland and for the Scottish leader to have more power over MPs at Westminster.

The Tories didn't need Independence to kill the Labour vote in Scotland as Labour themselves have done a damn fine job of it in pretty short order!
The Labour vote in Scotland at the next general election will be shredded. A loss of +20 seats is easily on the cards.
Just how long will it take for them to realise that Red Ed is a complete & total liability?
Labour should be all over the Tories as the opposition this close to the election but they are going backwards at the rate of knots.
Amazingly it is starting to look like that the Tories could nick a working majority which 12 months ago wasn't even on the horizon.

 

[Damocles]

The Scottish Labour has stood down, saying that some of their MPs are dinosaurs. Not good news for Ed.

'Johann Lamont has quit as leader of the Scottish Labour Party after accusing the UK party leadership of treating Scotland as a "branch office".

A Scottish party source said Ms Lamont had "had enough" and felt she did not have the support of the UK party.

She also voiced anger at the removal of a senior Scottish party official.

BBC correspondents said that Labour faced a strong challenge from the SNP and its tally of Scottish MPs in a general election might be at risk.

Ms Lamont also described some Labour MPs as "dinosaurs" who failed to recognise that "Scotland has changed forever" after September's referendum.

BBC Scotland understands that Ms Lamont, who was elected leader in December 2011, has been unhappy for some time about the direction of party strategy.

Ed Miliband was given very little notice of Johann Lamont's decision to quit. He didn't try to talk her out of it.

In recent weeks, she had been pressing for more autonomy for the Labour party in Scotland and for the Scottish leader to have more power over MPs at Westminster.

Scotland is, by definition, a "branch office" of any party standing in the United Kingdom elections.

What a strange remark.

 

[hilts]

The Scottish Labour has stood down, saying that some of their MPs are dinosaurs. Not good news for Ed.

'Johann Lamont has quit as leader of the Scottish Labour Party after accusing the UK party leadership of treating Scotland as a "branch office".

A Scottish party source said Ms Lamont had "had enough" and felt she did not have the support of the UK party.

She also voiced anger at the removal of a senior Scottish party official.

BBC correspondents said that Labour faced a strong challenge from the SNP and its tally of Scottish MPs in a general election might be at risk.

Ms Lamont also described some Labour MPs as "dinosaurs" who failed to recognise that "Scotland has changed forever" after September's referendum.

BBC Scotland understands that Ms Lamont, who was elected leader in December 2011, has been unhappy for some time about the direction of party strategy.

Ed Miliband was given very little notice of Johann Lamont's decision to quit. He didn't try to talk her out of it.

In recent weeks, she had been pressing for more autonomy for the Labour party in Scotland and for the Scottish leader to have more power over MPs at Westminster.

The Tories didn't need Independence to kill the Labour vote in Scotland as Labour themselves have done a damn fine job of it in pretty short order!
The Labour vote in Scotland at the next general election will be shredded. A loss of +20 seats is easily on the cards.
Just how long will it take for them to realise that Red Ed is a complete & total liability?
Labour should be all over the Tories as the opposition this close to the election but they are going backwards at the rate of knots.
Amazingly it is starting to look like that the Tories could nick a working majority which 12 months ago wasn't even on the horizon.

I think whoever finishes third could be very important

 

[Gabriel]

The Scottish Labour has stood down, saying that some of their MPs are dinosaurs. Not good news for Ed.

'Johann Lamont has quit as leader of the Scottish Labour Party after accusing the UK party leadership of treating Scotland as a "branch office".

A Scottish party source said Ms Lamont had "had enough" and felt she did not have the support of the UK party.

She also voiced anger at the removal of a senior Scottish party official.

BBC correspondents said that Labour faced a strong challenge from the SNP and its tally of Scottish MPs in a general election might be at risk.

Ms Lamont also described some Labour MPs as "dinosaurs" who failed to recognise that "Scotland has changed forever" after September's referendum.

BBC Scotland understands that Ms Lamont, who was elected leader in December 2011, has been unhappy for some time about the direction of party strategy.

Ed Miliband was given very little notice of Johann Lamont's decision to quit. He didn't try to talk her out of it.

In recent weeks, she had been pressing for more autonomy for the Labour party in Scotland and for the Scottish leader to have more power over MPs at Westminster.

The Tories didn't need Independence to kill the Labour vote in Scotland as Labour themselves have done a damn fine job of it in pretty short order!
The Labour vote in Scotland at the next general election will be shredded. A loss of +20 seats is easily on the cards.
Just how long will it take for them to realise that Red Ed is a complete & total liability?
Labour should be all over the Tories as the opposition this close to the election but they are going backwards at the rate of knots.
Amazingly it is starting to look like that the Tories could nick a working majority which 12 months ago wasn't even on the horizon.

Have to agree with your analysis. In a rather perverse way, the old adage of Scotland voting differently and getting a Tory government is precisely what is likely to happen again. Surely an SNP/Tory coalition would be the icing on the cake. :-)

 

[TGR]

The Scottish Labour has stood down, saying that some of their MPs are dinosaurs. Not good news for Ed.

'Johann Lamont has quit as leader of the Scottish Labour Party after accusing the UK party leadership of treating Scotland as a "branch office".

A Scottish party source said Ms Lamont had "had enough" and felt she did not have the support of the UK party.

She also voiced anger at the removal of a senior Scottish party official.

BBC correspondents said that Labour faced a strong challenge from the SNP and its tally of Scottish MPs in a general election might be at risk.

Ms Lamont also described some Labour MPs as "dinosaurs" who failed to recognise that "Scotland has changed forever" after September's referendum.

BBC Scotland understands that Ms Lamont, who was elected leader in December 2011, has been unhappy for some time about the direction of party strategy.

Ed Miliband was given very little notice of Johann Lamont's decision to quit. He didn't try to talk her out of it.

In recent weeks, she had been pressing for more autonomy for the Labour party in Scotland and for the Scottish leader to have more power over MPs at Westminster.

The Tories didn't need Independence to kill the Labour vote in Scotland as Labour themselves have done a damn fine job of it in pretty short order!
The Labour vote in Scotland at the next general election will be shredded. A loss of +20 seats is easily on the cards.
Just how long will it take for them to realise that Red Ed is a complete & total liability?
Labour should be all over the Tories as the opposition this close to the election but they are going backwards at the rate of knots.
Amazingly it is starting to look like that the Tories could nick a working majority which 12 months ago wasn't even on the horizon.

Have to agree with your analysis. In a rather perverse way, the old adage of Scotland voting differently and getting a Tory government is precisely what is likely to happen again. Surely an SNP/Tory coalition would be the icing on the cake. :-)

A Tory / UKIP coalition is more a real possibility. UKIP have a good chance of getting 20+ seats now and could make all the difference.
I don't think it will be a formal coalition like we have now with the Lib Dems.
However, UKIP will support the Tory's for a referendum on EU membership immediately.

 

[cibaman]

I think it's very unlikely that ukip will get more than 6 or 7 seats, their votes will be spread too thinly. The snp could pick up a dozen or so seats.

The lib dems will probably see their share of the popular vote slashed. But they will still end up with about 30 seats, easily in third place.

I expect it will be a hung parliament but without either of labour or the Tories able to form a coalition with one other party. It will be a minority government limping on for a year before the next election

 

[TGR]

I think it's very unlikely that ukip will get more than 6 or 7 seats, their votes will be spread too thinly. The snp could pick up a dozen or so seats.

The lib dems will probably see their share of the popular vote slashed. But they will still end up with about 30 seats, easily in third place.

I expect it will be a hung parliament but without either of labour or the Tories able to form a coalition with one other party. It will be a minority government limping on for a year before the next election

I think you seriously under estimate both the SNP and UKIP.
They both have momentum and are very dangerous to the established political parties.
Fun times!

 

[Gabriel]

I think it's very unlikely that ukip will get more than 6 or 7 seats, their votes will be spread too thinly. The snp could pick up a dozen or so seats.

The lib dems will probably see their share of the popular vote slashed. But they will still end up with about 30 seats, easily in third place.

I expect it will be a hung parliament but without either of labour or the Tories able to form a coalition with one other party. It will be a minority government limping on for a year before the next election

I think you seriously under estimate both the SNP and UKIP.
They both have momentum and are very dangerous to the established political parties.
Fun times!

Think Rochester and Strood could be a turning point for UKIP. If it manages to take that seat, with the Conservatives throwing everything into the fray, then there is every likelihood that it will do better in May than some imagine.

 

[Malty]

Ukip's time is now, they won't get a better chance.

 

[Bill]

I think it's very unlikely that ukip will get more than 6 or 7 seats, their votes will be spread too thinly. The snp could pick up a dozen or so seats.

The lib dems will probably see their share of the popular vote slashed. But they will still end up with about 30 seats, easily in third place.

I expect it will be a hung parliament but without either of labour or the Tories able to form a coalition with one other party. It will be a minority government limping on for a year before the next election

you may well be right but it would be madness should the public not return a tory government in May, an awful lot of the hard work is done. even the loonie left must accept we have great strides towards a full recovery. the rest of the world do. to go backwards now and risk another labour run adminstration would be politicaland financial suicide. we should let Dave finish the very worthwhile job he is doing, for all our sakes.

 

[Len Rum]

I think it's very unlikely that ukip will get more than 6 or 7 seats, their votes will be spread too thinly. The snp could pick up a dozen or so seats.

The lib dems will probably see their share of the popular vote slashed. But they will still end up with about 30 seats, easily in third place.

I expect it will be a hung parliament but without either of labour or the Tories able to form a coalition with one other party. It will be a minority government limping on for a year before the next election

you may well be right but it would be madness should the public not return a tory government in May, an awful lot of the hard work is done. even the loonie left must accept we have great strides towards a full recovery. the rest of the world do. to go backwards now and risk another labour run adminstration would be politicaland financial suicide. we should let Dave finish the very worthwhile job he is doing, for all our sakes.

I always look forward to your Sunday morning wind up.

 

[tommybooth]

Ladies and Gents.

In a nutshell there are a lot of tory/labour voters who will never vote for the other party. UKIP gives people another choice as it is always a two ge ge race given that the lib's will sink without trace.

 

[Bill]

I think it's very unlikely that ukip will get more than 6 or 7 seats, their votes will be spread too thinly. The snp could pick up a dozen or so seats.

The lib dems will probably see their share of the popular vote slashed. But they will still end up with about 30 seats, easily in third place.

I expect it will be a hung parliament but without either of labour or the Tories able to form a coalition with one other party. It will be a minority government limping on for a year before the next election

you may well be right but it would be madness should the public not return a tory government in May, an awful lot of the hard work is done. even the loonie left must accept we have great strides towards a full recovery. the rest of the world do. to go backwards now and risk another labour run adminstration would be politicaland financial suicide. we should let Dave finish the very worthwhile job he is doing, for all our sakes.

I always look forward to your Sunday morning wind up.

can only be winding lefties up cos its on the money.
anyone, and i mean anyone can see the country is on the up. some prefer to to shout bollocks hoping people will listen rather than hold their hands up and say "you know what? he's done a grand job".

had the liars got it right 2 things would have happend.
1, Dave would have got nowhere near number 10.
2, i would have applauded their work.

not bitter you see, just a hard working lad who wants his country to do well.

 

[Gabriel]

The problem is that whatever recovery is being made, it is probably not visible to everyone and certainly not tangible. Moreover, the interconnectedness of the global economy means that whatever recovery the UK is seeing is so precarious and so susceptible to events elsewhere that progress can all too easily become undone.

 

[TGR]

The problem is that whatever recovery is being made, it is probably not visible to everyone and certainly not tangible. Moreover, the interconnectedness of the global economy means that whatever recovery the UK is seeing is so precarious and so susceptible to events elsewhere that progress can all too easily become undone.

How can the biggest fall in unemployment since records began not be visible?