Intersting little tool for identifying which party matches your personal beliefs

[BobG]

Have a go at this link. It doesn't take long. It's really quite interesting. It gives your best match nationally, and in your own constituency. It's shocked me too. I thought I knew who I was best matched with. I was wrong. Turns out it's the Green's that best reflect my opinions. Handy that.....

https://secure.38degrees.org.uk/page/m/74c07ffe/2d5d8b99/44a346ca/463419c6/3839151291/VEsF/

As an aside, the results from across everyone who's used this in my constituency show the LibDems on a whopping 7%, Green Party leading on 32% (which leads to some interesting thoughts) and UKIP on 24% (which also leads to some interesting thoughts). Tories are a long way behind the Greens and UKIP - but this is one of the safest Tory seats on the planet so that's a reflection of hope rather than reality.

BobG

[jucyberry]

81% Green, 63% Labour 45% Liberal democrat...

I did one in the Guardian the other day and I came out more towards the green side of life too. I guess if you believe in fairness and decency you do score like that... 

[Hounslowrover]

I did 38 degrees too. Also came out for the Greens, but no hope in my constituency.  At least it gets me on the correct political spectrum.

[IC1967]

 It's no surprise to me you are all coming out as greens. I'm not surprised you didn't know you were greens. Most people on this forum are from the hard left and don't have a clue about economics. Hence why you are greens.

I came out 91% UKIP.

Get in.

[jucyberry]

It's no surprise to me you are all coming out as greens. I'm not surprised you didn't know you were greens. Most people on this forum are from the hard left and don't have a clue about economics. Hence why you are greens.

I came out 91% UKIP.

Get in.

I'm so sorry Mick.. What a horrible result..Bless your heart.

[LongbridgeMGRover]

Thanks for this, I came out Green too, but am not surprised as I am a proper Liberal, not a Lib dem I hasten to add!!

I guess my sandals, unshaven appearance and veggie lifestyle are also clues.

Trouble is I live in Solhull where the greens are of the nimby variety rather than lentil lovers.

And IC1967 is only 91% UKIP, I guess he is a bit green too as he likes recycling his views.

[Dagenham Rover]

"The current predicted chance of Plaid Cymru winning in Don Valley is less than 1%"


I've a feeling I might have worked that one out   

[scaley back rover]

73% ukip for me,though interestingly on a personal level was thst I showed at 51% for both Labour and Tory. One of these are likely to get into power and based on the results of the quiz it wouldnt make much difference to me which one gets in overall

[BobG]

If anyone has the time, I'd love to know what the LibDems score in your constituency from those who have done the poll. It's easy to find: just click on the 'consituency' button. I know this is no way a scientific sample, and probably isn't even statistically significant yet, but I'd like a chance to gloat at the fin de siecle foolishness of their leader.

As I said, in my constituency, they score 7%. Is that typical?

BobG

[Mr1Croft]

88% Conservative and 51% Liberal Democrat!

As we were then!

[hoolahoop]

If anyone has the time, I'd love to know what the LibDems score in your constituency from those who have done the poll. It's easy to find: just click on the 'consituency' button. I know this is no way a scientific sample, and probably isn't even statistically significant yet, but I'd like a chance to gloat at the fin de siecle foolishness of their leader.

As I said, in my constituency, they score 7%. Is that typical?

BobG

Bob you really ought to let this drop, its like an old gramaphone record. He has done NOTHING different from many other leaders and their parties who have committed the same sins I.e over promising and not being in a fiscal position to deliver....do you think he would have thought that he and his Party would ever have to share power with the Tories. Labour cocked up by not taking them seriously ; they genuinely would have preferred to work with a minority Labour Govt.
Give it up it is puerile .

[IC1967]

This hatred of Nick is totally illogical. What his haters quickly forget is that he was in the minor party in a coalition. Does anyone seriously think that in this position he should be able to implement the whole of his manifesto? Of course not. He dropped the tuition fees pledge. So what. He got plenty of his other policies through such as massively raising the threshold before you pay income tax. He has punched well above his weight. I say well done to the the bloke. He put the country first before political gain. He should be knighted.

Do any of you leftie haters really think that if Labour manage to form the next government with the help of the SNP that the SNP should be allowed to have the whole of their manifesto implemented? Get a grip for ffs.

[Donnywolf]

"The current predicted chance of Plaid Cymru winning in Don Valley is less than 1%"


I've a feeling I might have worked that one out   

Yes and also the SNP are at less than 1% to win as well

[BillyStubbsTears]

Hoola

Sorry mate but you are missing the point about Clegg and the LDs.

In May 2010, we had an era-defining choice. Did we go for hard Austerity and reducing the size if the State, or did we go for something much less rapid?

That wasn't a minor policy detail. It went right to the heart of what your core beliefs were. It's about what kind of country you want your grand kids to grow up in. Because the decision made in 2010 was going to have that length of effect.

There were principled, honest arguments to be made on both sides. There was no absolute "right" and "wrong".

The LDs campaigned hard on one side of that argument. And then, within days of the Election, they ditched the lot and signed up to the other side. Clegg himself is on record as saying that he "changed his mind" in the last few days before the Election. But he didn't tell anyone until afterwards.

You CANNOT DO THAT and retain any credence as a serious political party. You can't! You can renege on detailed policies. You can u-turn on less strategic stuff. But you cannot campaign on core philosophical issues, then argue afterwards that your philosophy was wrong and you've changed your mind.

THAT is why the LDs support suffered an utterly unprecedented collapse in the first 6 months after the Election. That has never, ever happened before to a party joining Government. That was the sound of 3million people asking themselves "What the f*** have I just voted for? What does this party actually believe in?"

The Tuition Fees issue is emblematic of the problem. It is the distillation of the "they say THIS but do THAT" criticism. But if it were just that one thing in isolation, it would be easy to ride out. All political parties jettison some things they've promised (although not many are so stupid as to video themselves signing pledges to do something, then do the opposite - that was really f**king dumb!) What no party ever does (and retains credibility) is to jettison their core belief. It happened to Labour under Ramsey MacDonald in the 1920s and it took a generation (and a World War) for them to regain credibility.

I said in May 2010 that the LDs were facing an existential crisis and that is exactly what we have witnessed for 5 years. It'll be another 30 before they get back to being taken seriously again, if they ever do.

[bobjimwilly]

I was surprised to see I agree with Green Party more than Labour too?

83% Green
53% Labour
41% LD
22% Cons

Little point in voting for anyone but Labour in Barnsley East I might add 

[IC1967]

Hoola

Sorry mate but you are missing the point about Clegg and the LDs.

In May 2010, we had an era-defining choice. Did we go for hard Austerity and reducing the size if the State, or did we go for something much less rapid?

That wasn't a minor policy detail. It went right to the heart of what your core beliefs were. It's about what kind of country you want your grand kids to grow up in. Because the decision made in 2010 was going to have that length of effect.

There were principled, honest arguments to be made on both sides. There was no absolute "right" and "wrong".

The LDs campaigned hard on one side of that argument. And then, within days of the Election, they ditched the lot and signed up to the other side. Clegg himself is on record as saying that he "changed his mind" in the last few days before the Election. But he didn't tell anyone until afterwards.

You CANNOT DO THAT and retain any credence as a serious political party. You can't! You can renege on detailed policies. You can u-turn on less strategic stuff. But you cannot campaign on core philosophical issues, then argue afterwards that your philosophy was wrong and you've changed your mind.

THAT is why the LDs support suffered an utterly unprecedented collapse in the first 6 months after the Election. That has never, ever happened before to a party joining Government. That was the sound of 3million people asking themselves "What the f*** have I just voted for? What does this party actually believe in?"

The Tuition Fees issue is emblematic of the problem. It is the distillation of the "they say THIS but do THAT" criticism. But if it were just that one thing in isolation, it would be easy to ride out. All political parties jettison some things they've promised (although not many are so stupid as to video themselves signing pledges to do something, then do the opposite - that was really f***ing dumb!) What no party ever does (and retains credibility) is to jettison their core belief. It happened to Labour under Ramsey MacDonald in the 1920s and it took a generation (and a World War) for them to regain credibility.

I said in May 2010 that the LDs were facing an existential crisis and that is exactly what we have witnessed for 5 years. It'll be another 30 before they get back to being taken seriously again, if they ever do.

What planet are you on? We haven't had hard austerity. This government has borrowed more than all the previous Labour governments put together. The national debt has doubled in the last 5 years. Austerity? What austerity?

Let's also ignore the fact that darling's plans were virtually the same as the Tories.

You really don't have a clue what you are on about.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Having Mick on Ignore has many benefits. I highly recommend it.

One of the best ones is that, every time I see that he's contributed to what is otherwise an intelligent and reasoned discussion, I'm reminded of Harold Wilson's wittiest quip.

He received a memo from Tony Benn about economic policy when Wilson was PM in 1975. Benn asked for Wilson's opinions about his proposals. Wilson wrote a memo back. "I haven't read your proposals. I don't propose to do so. But I disagree with every aspect of them."

[IC1967]

Having Mick on Ignore has many benefits. I highly recommend it.

One of the best ones is that, every time I see that he's contributed to what is otherwise an intelligent and reasoned discussion, I'm reminded of Harold Wilson's wittiest quip.

He received a memo from Tony Benn about economic policy when Wilson was PM in 1975. Benn asked for Wilson's opinions about his proposals. Wilson wrote a memo back. "I haven't read your proposals. I don't propose to do so. But I disagree with every aspect of them."

Hahahaha!!! It's nothing but leftie propaganda when you contribute. The level of debate is raised considerably when I get involved.

How on earth you can claim we've had hard austerity for 5 years when the government has doubled the national debt during this period is laughable in the extreme and just shows how financially illiterate you are. They borrowed more in their first 3 years than Labour did in their 13 years in office!

Hard austerity my arse. A government has never borrowed and spent so much.

[big fat yorkshire pudding]

no shock, all Tory for me.  Still no idea who'll end up pm. I believe it'll be Milliband in a hung parliament despite polling less than the Tories.

[Glyn_Wigley]

Having Mick on Ignore has many benefits. I highly recommend it.

One of the best ones is that, every time I see that he's contributed to what is otherwise an intelligent and reasoned discussion, I'm reminded of Harold Wilson's wittiest quip.

He received a memo from Tony Benn about economic policy when Wilson was PM in 1975. Benn asked for Wilson's opinions about his proposals. Wilson wrote a memo back. "I haven't read your proposals. I don't propose to do so. But I disagree with every aspect of them."

Hahahaha!!! It's nothing but leftie propaganda when you contribute. The level of debate is raised considerably when I get involved.

How on earth you can claim we've had hard austerity for 5 years when the government has doubled the national debt during this period is laughable in the extreme and just shows how financially illiterate you are. They borrowed more in their first 3 years than Labour did in their 13 years in office!

Hard austerity my arse. A government has never borrowed and spent so much.

The austerity was the cuts they made. Because they then pissed away the savings they made instead of bringing the deficit down with them doesn't mean the austerity didn't happen.

[BillyStubbsTears]

Glyn

Bang on. We had really quite severe fiscal tightening in 2010-12, in particular on the capital budget. It was economic lunacy, and Osborne finally accepted that when he stopped the tightening in 2013, with the result that growth has come back.

But then it was never about the economics. Jeremy Warner, the economics editor of the Telegraph gave the game away after he'd been torn to pieces in an exchange about Austerity with Simon Wren-Lewis. He said he was sick of the economic arguments. Austerity was actually about cutting the size of the state. And that you can only do that in a crisis, when people are prepared to take hard medicine because they think it's good for them.

THAT is what Clegg did. He signed up for that agenda. And THAT is why he has finished off his party as a major vote-winning force for a generation.

[IC1967]

Having Mick on Ignore has many benefits. I highly recommend it.

One of the best ones is that, every time I see that he's contributed to what is otherwise an intelligent and reasoned discussion, I'm reminded of Harold Wilson's wittiest quip.

He received a memo from Tony Benn about economic policy when Wilson was PM in 1975. Benn asked for Wilson's opinions about his proposals. Wilson wrote a memo back. "I haven't read your proposals. I don't propose to do so. But I disagree with every aspect of them."

Hahahaha!!! It's nothing but leftie propaganda when you contribute. The level of debate is raised considerably when I get involved.

How on earth you can claim we've had hard austerity for 5 years when the government has doubled the national debt during this period is laughable in the extreme and just shows how financially illiterate you are. They borrowed more in their first 3 years than Labour did in their 13 years in office!

Hard austerity my arse. A government has never borrowed and spent so much.

The austerity was the cuts they made. Because they then pissed away the savings they made instead of bringing the deficit down with them doesn't mean the austerity didn't happen.

What a load of gobbledygook. So are you saying the austerity finished in 2013?

[Glyn_Wigley]

Of course I'm not. Do try and keep up even if it is a strain for you.

[wilts rover]

£11.3 billion is how much the Tories have cut from the public sector, at an estimated cost of 500 000 jobs and who nows how many services, day care centres, libraries, schools, bus routes, etc that make life better. And the national debt still has gone up. And they have still had to borrow a record amount. And you trust their economic competence!!!

http://www.unison.org.uk/at-work/local-government/key-issues/cuts-to-local-services/the-facts/

[BillyStubbsTears]

Glyn

Do you HAVE to quote his witterings when you reply? I'm enjoying being in blissful ignorance of the contents of his verbal diarrhoea. But when you quote him, I end up reading his idiocy and it has to be slapped down.

So yes Mick I AM saying exactly that. The numbers are out there if you were EVER interested in looking.



I'll explain it because I appreciate that you cannot see the bleeding obvious when it's right under your ignorant face.

The actual turn out of deficit reduction from 2010 to 2012 was much faster than the Govt had planned in June 2010. You'll remember what also happened in 2010-12. We had the worst recovery from recession for over 200 years, since the South Sea Bubble in fact.

Then you'll see a curious thing. In 2013, the deficit didn't come down at all. That's because Osborne started spending again. Because he knew he'd f**k the Tories chances in 2015 if the economy didn't get moving.


The economy got moving.

Osborne, being a consummate politician, insisted that he was sticking to Plan A.

Labour, being politically shit, didn't pick up on this.

A very small number of academic economists DID pick up on it. Simon Wren-Lewis, Jonathan Portes. They have screamed in their blogs about it and shown data from the OBR that demonstrates this unequivocably. The media, notably, has not shown the slightest interest. Wren-Lewis has had a long and vicious spat with Robert Peston about this.

And here's the rub. Osborne has won the political argument hands down. He claims that the recovery is DUE to deficit reduction. No-one in the media questions him. So NOW he says that the lesson is that we must have MORE Austerity after the Election.

It is political brilliance. Do B. Insist that you have done A. Claim that A has resulted in a wonderful outcome. Conclude that we must have more A.

And the REAL reason why he wants us to have more A is not due to the economics. That much is utterly unarguable, because A led to an economic catastrophe and we got no recovery till he did B. But A will achieve the political and philosophical aim of shrinking the state.

[IC1967]

So let's get this straight. You are saying austerity ended in 2013. Mr Wigley is saying of course it didn't. Which is it?

[BillyStubbsTears]

For f**k's sake, your idiocy doesn't improve with ignoring you does it?

Of course Austerity didn't "End" in 2013. Go and look at that f**king graph and use your brain.

It was temporarily put on hold in 2013, long enough to get the economy kick-started to give the Tories a fighting chance in May 2015. Deficit reduction is planned to be far harsher in 2015-20 than it has been from 2010-15.

Now f**k off and stop annoying the grown-ups.

[wilts rover]

Mick you appear to have missed my post. To help you along I have a couple of questions:

Do you believe we have had a period of Austerity?

If yes - then what do you think to the economic competence of a government who cut £11b of public services, most from the vunerable in society and 500000 public sector jobs - and still managed to increase the national debt?

If no - then how else would you describe the cut of £11b of public services and 500000 people's jobs?

[The Red Baron]

I have to say that the predictive bit at the end of the tool leaves something to be desired. It said that in Solihull the Lib Dems have 1% chance of winning the seat, the same as the SNP! The seat is currently held by the Lib Dems who, judging by the amount of bumf I've had through my letterbox, are fighting tooth and nail to keep it.

[IC1967]

Mick you appear to have missed my post. To help you along I have a couple of questions:

Do you believe we have had a period of Austerity?

If yes - then what do you think to the economic competence of a government who cut £11b of public services, most from the vunerable in society and 500000 public sector jobs - and still managed to increase the national debt?

If no - then how else would you describe the cut of £11b of public services and 500000 people's jobs?

We most certainly have not had a period of austerity.

I would describe the cuts you mention as a small step in the right direction but nowhere near enough to get us living within our means.

Look. It's simple. We've spent many years living well beyond our means. The party is over. We are going through the hangover phase. I'd like the hangover to be dealt with more quickly. You lefties want to carry on having a party.

It's time you all sobered up.