JJ

I'm not sure what Mako is getting at with foreign aid. We've watched 5 years of the Liberal Democrats getting absolutely fingered by the Tories, so how can you assume that UKIP would hold all the power in the negotiations? Plus, not to be pedantic, 242 + 82 = 324. The slimmest working majority possible with Sinn Fein not sending anyone to Westminster.

I counter with Hangin Tough by New Kids on the Block. "Ohhhh, ohhh, ohh weeey oh!" Would be ace.

Not that I would get to choose, but I've always been quite fond of Jerusalem.

What is Cameron actually going to get from Europe? It seems that all he wants is to be able to control immigration and repatriate more powers. Both will be rejected. What in the hell is he going to get?

Dave will get a good deal in the next 12 months? Dave will get nothing.

The best argument I can make in favour of First Past The Post is that it's funny as fuck when an odious arse loses their seat. That's literally the only good thing I can say about it. PR would make sure people's views are represented properly. If it had created a Tory/UKIP coalition? So be it. That's what was voted for.

My only worry is that the scare tactics up here during the referendum led to people asking "what the hell is the UK actually doing for us?" There's no denying that Scottish independence, while a few years ago a fringe movement, is now a mass movement that is close, but not quite, at a majority. The reason it makes me worry about the EU referendum is that we're already not that far away from an Out Vote. Scottish Independence at the start of the campaign sat at between 25 and 30%. Any shift of momentum towards an Out vote asking "what does Europe do for us?" could propel us out the exit door.

Oil was 15% of the economy. By the time all of KCG's scenario was played out, who knows where it would be? To be honest, the result of the EU referendum depends on how quickly the campaign to stay in gets off the ground and actually is effective. If they continue to allow the EU debate to be dictated by UKIP, the more chance there is that there'll be an Out vote. I personally think there'll be a narrow In victory. Narrower than the Scottish referendum result.

The Tories are going to spend the next two years kicking lumps out of each other about Europe. Last time they did that they turned a slim majority into a landslide defeat. CT needs to stop pretending it's all a one way street.

To be perfectly honest it's about time the Unions started to disaffiliate anyway. It's been years in the making and it's more fraught than ever. Might aswell make the break. There are the Greens which a few of them support. And of course, the STUC. Both would make far more sense than the Labour Party, and there's probably a few parties I'm forgetting.

Labour's biggest problem was that they never challenged the Tory narrative as the article says. They made some vague "Tories are bad" comments, but positioned themselves on a lot of issues as "we'll do the same as them, just not as bad." and I don't think it pulled anyone in. There's been a bit of debate based on Labour being too right wing for Scotland and too left wing for England, but I don't think it's as simple as that. Labour in it's strategy for 2020 needs to forget about Scotland and concentrate on winning back England (obviously not putting it in an us vs them or making it about flag waving) as I believe it can only win back the confidence of Scotland by putting forward a strategy good enough to win back England. Labour's anti-Tory message in this campaign was terrible. They could have talked about how Ian Duncan Smith's welfare reforms have bordered on the manaical, but instead they have Rachel Reeves saying "we're not the party of people on benefits." It was good to see Labour doing so well they didn't need the votes of the disabled and the out of work. They talked about the Tories with the NHS, but never ever gave figures specific to the problem and somehow every time they talked the NHS, somehow managed to justify in their own minds PFI contracts. They also never talked about repealing the Health and Social Care Act which was the worst piece of NHS legislation of the past 5 years. They talked about how we need the living wage, and then proposed the minimum wage in 2020 would be 15p higher than what the living wage is in 2015. The truth is they never gave anyone a good enough reason to vote Labour except "we're not the Tories" and never properly undermined the awful coalition government. It was a failure of a campaign both in putting out a concrete message, and inspiring people to know that things can be different. There were too many PR disasters (the pink bus, the Ed stone, the immigration mug) which were all so easy for the press who were all for the Tories to just destroy. Labour have two choices. They can either take full responsibilities for their own failures, or they can blame the electorate being spooked by the SNP. In our experience up here since they lost Holyrood, Labour never ever learns their lesson and instead ends up slagging off the electorate and not taking responsibility for what they need to do better. Labour as it's currently constructed will never ever win an election again. They need a full scale overhaul. Whatever direction the take, the message must be clear and the direction must be coherent with what the people want and need. I don't think even the most hardcore Labour voter can say they were clear and concise this time round.

I do tend to agree with this actually. It's very possible the scrutiny of their figures around the EU is a possible downfall.

The next 5 years of UKIP is hard to predict. Assuming Cameron doesn't balls up the EU Referendum (in that he for once actually keeps a promise) an Out vote ends UKIP's relevance and is the death of them. An In vote however might have, as mentioned before, an SNP-esque effect on them. They are nicely poised with all their second place finishes to get a fuckload of seats in 2020 if the referendum happens and we vote to stay In. Of course, a lot depends on what they do as a party between now and them. All their self-destructive behaviour hasn't dented their support so far. If they do end up with a new leader (I still think Farage will run for leader again and win, for what that's worth) then there's a good chance they could end up on the downward spiral anyway regardless. It's tough to see what the future holds for them. The rise of the SNP I don't think is reactionary or temporary either, so I think it would be extremely foolish to assume that UKIP have peaked.

Aye I know him. He ran the Yes Scottish Borders campaign for the referendum. Good lad. He'll do well. Really pleased he got elected.

I know. I needed a few days away after the last few months so decided to head down Friday-Monday. Game may end up gallows humour.

On my way down your way now. As if the Tories winning wasn't bad enough, I've got a ticket for the match tomorrow.

What utter shite at the top of that list. Can you imagine any of them being any good?

Tories are opposed to it, so I have no idea what the hell you are going on about. Unless you think the Smith Commission is devolving full fiscal autonomy. Which it's not, and isn't close.

Mhairi Black is a hell of a candidate. You'll end up liking her. I guarantee it. SNP will need to be held to account. We've been sending a ludicrous amount of Labour MP's for decades now. Now it's an even more ludicrous amounts of SNP MP's. Well done to them on a ridiculous result, but it's not healthy. An excellent argument for proportional representation. Then we can stop this nonsense of getting one vote every five years and using it to vote for someone we don't want to make sure we don't get someone we hate.

Ed Balls losing is funny as shit

Hi guys. I managed to raise our vote in my constituency by 50%. And still came last. Dire result for the UK. The gap between rich and poor will be bigger than ever before. And for those of you who believe in the Union, this is possibly a killer blow in the medium term. Still don't understand why people vote to become poorer. But hey, Caroline Lucas pissed it in Brighton Pavillion. So life is still somewhat decent!

It's funny actually talking about how much your upbringing matters to your voting habits. I have the opposite experience. I grew up with parents who didn't give a shit about politics, but me and my sister got interested in it, and ended up taking completely opposite paths. I vote Green. She votes fucking Tory.

I agree with pretty much everything Dimpleboy said in the last few pages, and then wondered why the hell he voted UKIP, but to be fair it sort of makes sense. I personally don't see immigration as a problem, even on the scale it is, but that's just a difference of opinion. The Tories economic plan has been utterly dreadful the last 5 years. It'll be an utter disaster if we have to put up with them for another 5 years. The only hope if they do squeak through is that there is a myth that we have to vote Tory because they are the party of "fiscal responsibility" when we all know they are the party of irresponsible ideology. The next five years would hopefully blow that out of the water. That being said, if the polls are correct, then it'll be very hard for them to get a Queen's speech passed. I still suspect they will have a handful more seats than Labour, but Labour will end up forming a minority government. I know the right wing press will cry foul and call it illegitimate, but the problem won't be the outcome. The problem will be the constitution. Regards the SNP, they won't have as much influence as people think in this scenario. There's not going to be a formal deal. But when it comes to mansion taxes and the 50p tax rate and extra NHS funding and anything else seen as progressive, Labour will get SNP support to pass the motion. When it comes to things like austerity and Trident the SNP will vote against them, but they'll get support from the Tories anyway so it won't matter what the SNP say. Labour in minority can conceivably get at least 90% of their manifesto implemented with the SNP having no influence except in support. I'm sure that frightens people because they think Labour are bringing some form of socialism with this manifesto, but it couldn't be much more different to the reality. Not much will change regardless of who is Prime Minister, but at least if it's Ed Miliband the economic plan will be less ideological. Of course I wish everyone was voting Green, but oh well. Maybe next time.

Especially when the argument is "judge us by our record." Then surely we can judge that the deficit elimination plan will fail?

Tactical voting is already happening in Scotland between Labour and the Tories. I guarantee you. Yes the majority will have principle, but there's still a fringe who are voting where the opposition is strongest to stop the SNP. I'm sure your folks are being hardcore about it (and good, I'd rather people voted for what they believed in) but trust me when I tell you there are Labour people tactically voting Tory (and vice versa) in Scotland. The Tories only real shot at relevance in Scotland is in Dumfries and Galloway and the Borders, and I'm standing against the only Tory in Scotland. David Steel was the MP for my area before Michael Moore was, and then the boundaries were re-drawn and we were thrown in with a constituency that returned the only Tory in Scotland. DCT has always had a Tory (since the new constituency was set up in 2005) but remember Scotland was a Tory free zone after the 1997 and 2001 election. I obviously support Scottish independence as you can tell from the fact I've been too lazy to change my avatar for months, and I think the SNP are kind of rabble rousers, but there's not an anti-English sentiment in the SNP apart from a small minority which you can never legislate for. SNP are far more anti-Westminster than anti-England. You could argue in that sense they are anti-English because of the way England votes, but in truth, it doesn't really matter that much to most people if England votes Tory or Labour. As Sturgeon said in one of the debates to Ed Miliband, they don't say Labour aren't different to the Tories. They say that Labour aren't different enough, which I think is fair. I think Ed Miliband himself is different, but when we end up in Scotland with a Labour leadership of Jim Murphy, which his special advisor John McTernan, how different are they really in that sense? Labour still has that stench of the Blairites that is hard to shift. And your last point about Scotland taking itself out from the rest of the Labour voting UK. The best reason to vote Labour is because they aren't the Tories. That's not good enough anymore. Many people in Scotland now see a more viable alternative (and I wish people were voting Green instead of SNP, but alas) and until England has either a much stronger Green Party or a proper left alternative, the Labour Party will always pick up de facto anti-Tory votes. It's just the nature of it. Until we move to a more proportional voting system, people aren't going to be properly represented, and I'd argue a more proportional voting system would demand Labour become more bold as they can't rely on the anti-Tory vote as much.