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Post by leftieliberal on Dec 9, 2023 22:32:06 GMT
Labour publish list of non-battleground seats in England where they have not selected candidates so far. According to Mark Pack there are 211 of these. It should be useful for other Parties in encouraging tactical voting. Some of them will be Lib Dem targets, but by far most are not. Which raises the question, if the MRP polling is to be believed a large number of these will be won by Labour with almost no campaigning. For those experienced in elections, do you believe this?
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steve
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Post by steve on Dec 9, 2023 22:46:24 GMT
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oldnat
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Extremist - Undermining the UK state and its institutions
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Post by oldnat on Dec 9, 2023 22:47:50 GMT
Well that's the odd thing. Obviously your comments and those of other SNPers here will have zero effect on especially Scottish voting intention so one wonders what the point is of propagating the stock SNP 'Labour same as tories' line on here over and over. Carry on for sure, but just find it odd is all. Not many votes to be won for the SNP on here I'd have thought. Not really sure what I'm supposed to be in ignorance of except in failing to recognise that Scotland is the centre of the universe and none of us should ever be ignorant of anything that happens in that teeny nation of 5 million. Also, if I read the word 'outwith' once more, I think I might scream. |
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domjg
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Post by domjg on Dec 9, 2023 22:52:12 GMT
Well that's the odd thing. Obviously your comments and those of other SNPers here will have zero effect on especially Scottish voting intention so one wonders what the point is of propagating the stock SNP 'Labour same as tories' line on here over and over. Carry on for sure, but just find it odd is all. Not many votes to be won for the SNP on here I'd have thought. Not really sure what I'm supposed to be in ignorance of except in failing to recognise that Scotland is the centre of the universe and none of us should ever be ignorant of anything that happens in that teeny nation of 5 million. Also, if I read the word 'outwith' once more, I think I might scream. Just like you then, perhaps minus the self importance and very easy recourse to high handed, dismissive, personal insult which is your extremely unappealing speciality. |
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Post by crossbat11 on Dec 9, 2023 23:02:13 GMT
Jeremy Corbyn, Sir Keir Starmer, Crofty, Jay-Z, Piers Morgan, Sir Denis Compton, Hugh Lawrie, Bertie Mee, Terry Neill........your boys took a hell of a beating at Villa Park this afternoon.
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oldnat
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Extremist - Undermining the UK state and its institutions
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Post by oldnat on Dec 9, 2023 23:04:31 GMT
oldnat “… on any political axis, there is a continuum of opinion which transcends party affiliation.“ This is a fair assumption, given that most human characteristics follow such a continuum (I.e. a normal distribution). But politics, surely, is about power and wealth. And against just about any criterion, the distribution of these is NOT a continuum but is grotesquely malformed. A small number of individuals possess the far greater share of these and do so to the extent that there is a huge gulf between this small minority and the rest. This matter must surely be of prime consideration to any political party. This seems inescapable to me.
For example, anyone who supports the continuation of the murderous Israeli strategy in Palestine, is supporting the "grotesquely malformed" concentration of military and political power.
I can understand Starmer's wish to distance his party from the allegations of anti-semitism directed at Labour under Corbyn, but allowing that to outweigh humanitarian beliefs does betray a huge moral vacuum in Labour's current leader. I find it hard to comprehend anyone who supports his stance. |
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Post by mercian on Dec 9, 2023 23:07:39 GMT
“The obstetrics and gynaecology clinic inside the vast Singapore General Hospital is unlike any ward in the UK. There are no counters or rows of staff waiting to take patients’ details. Instead, their appointments have already been registered via a mobile phone app and they sign themselves in using touchscreen kiosks.
…
Labour’s shadow health secretary Wes Streeting is a fan. “This is a system that is designed around patients,” he says. “The NHS is perfectly capable of arranging appointments in a way that maximises the convenience of patients — it just often chooses not to, or the system isn’t wired to think about that.””
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“What a contrast to back home, where I think patients in hospital don’t really know what’s going on,” he said. “I definitely think there is an institutional and structural problem in the way the NHS works. It claims to be patient-centred, but it really isn’t,” he said.
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“People need to hear the truth about the NHS,” he said, adding: “It is not the envy of the world, it is not delivering the quality of care that any of us want and unless it changes, it’s not going to survive.”
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Referring to the government’s targets for GPs, he says: “If you’re measuring 55 things, you’re really not measuring anything at all. You’ve got to have some sharp priorities and I’m happy to be guided by GPs about what measures they would drop to redirect the money.
“I think that’s the same approach we should take to the NHS actually; let’s get rid of the stupid stuff that is holding the system back.”
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He wants to get maximum use from the NHS app so patients can see which GPs are performing best on certain conditions and switch to the top local performer. They would be able to book appointments, self-refer to some specialists without seeing a GP first, and order prescriptions.
The app should also give patients an outline of the care they should receive for conditions such as asthma and diabetes — including what scans, tests and follow-up appointments they should be having so they can hold the NHS to account if it doesn’t happen. He also believes all patients should be able to access their medical records and that parents should be able to see their child’s records and help co-ordinate the care of elderly relatives.”
A lot of good sense in all of that. Some of it was supposed to happen when I worked in the NHS nearly 10 years ago now - e.g. patients having access to their records. Attempts to make the system more efficient were circumvented. Some services (podiatry was one example I remember clearly) had a limit imposed on the length of waiting list they could have. I think it was 100. The result was that there was a huge pile of paper records in folders waiting to be entered on the computer system. In effect they were waiting to go on the waiting lists, but didn't count as waiting. A few years later I had to go to the spanking-new QE2 hospital in Birmingham as a patient for some reason. There is a big atrium with many doors off to different departments. Near each door there were a few rows of chairs. On arrival I put my name in via a touch screen and it appeared in a queue on an overhead display. Brilliant! I thought it was a great system. When my name reached the top of the list I went through the door expecting to see a doctor. All that happened was that I went through to a normal waiting room where a person behind the desk took my name again and told me to take a seat!  I had to wait for ages. What was the point of having two waiting areas? Were they afraid of making the receptionists redundant or something? All that new technology was effectively pointless because of the way it was used. I'm sure these experiences weren't unique. Unless someone takes a proper grip of the management most money thrown at the NHS will be wasted. The management career in the NHS is too safe, like the Civil Service. People go in and have a comfy job for life and great pension even if they're useless. They need to get some hardass people in from private industry. It started to happen in my bit (data analysis) shortly before I left, in preparation for hiving it off to a private business. I don't know whether that ever came to pass. I'm not sure whether getting GPs more involved will help much. When I was there they took over commissioning for the local Trust - i.e. deciding what services were required from the local hospitals and other services such as District Nurses. I think it was a national thing. I attended the management meetings to present performance data and so on. The GPs treated it as a bit of a jolly. They were paid £70 an hour for attending, and refreshments were provided by drug companies who were allowed to give a short presentation on their latest products. The meetings were very formulaic and I don't remember anything of any significance being discussed, let alone decided. For instance there were several hospitals in the area but there was never any discussion of relative performance in different specialties, or any steps to address shortcomings. Sorry. Rant over. |
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Post by mercian on Dec 9, 2023 23:11:26 GMT
A dream ticket of Boris and Nige! Imagine if they won - the moans and groans on here would be highly amusing. I'm smiling just thinking about it!  |
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Deleted
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Post by Deleted on Dec 9, 2023 23:25:12 GMT
A dream ticket of Boris and Nige! Imagine if they won - the moans and groans on here would be highly amusing. I'm smiling just thinking about it! Well it seems a fairly improbable scenario to me, but they'd surely both want to be Top Banana, anyway? Perhaps they could each be PM on alternate days. I'm sure that would work. |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Dec 9, 2023 23:32:14 GMT
I deserve a medal. I somehow managed to read that whole ridiculous article to the very end. It started off pretty ridiculous and then deteriorated further and further into Narnia-esque fantasy. If the writer hasn’t made up a whole load of quotes then some of these Tory MPs haven’t just lost touch with reality - they’ve lost their minds. Crossbat, Mercian : delighted for you both. Your boys are doing you proud. Not another ‘Leicester’ year surely? Mine are doing alright too. Champions of Europe obviously 🙂, and doing well in it again. In the league we played Spurs in the first half on Thursday night and then Spursy in the second half. My least favourite team smited by the (other) mighty claret and blue. ⚒ |
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pjw1961
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Post by pjw1961 on Dec 9, 2023 23:48:14 GMT
I'm not sure whether getting GPs more involved will help much. When I was there they took over commissioning for the local Trust - i.e. deciding what services were required from the local hospitals and other services such as District Nurses. I think it was a national thing. I attended the management meetings to present performance data and so on. The GPs treated it as a bit of a jolly. They were paid £70 an hour for attending, and refreshments were provided by drug companies who were allowed to give a short presentation on their latest products. The meetings were very formulaic and I don't remember anything of any significance being discussed, let alone decided. For instance there were several hospitals in the area but there was never any discussion of relative performance in different specialties, or any steps to address shortcomings. That system was the result of the Lansley 'reforms' and never worked. It was quickly dropped in favour of specialist commissioners with token GP oversight, but now that has gone too. The purchaser/provider split and commissioning have been quietly buried and replaced with the integrated care system model. That is a good model but isn't working due to the gross under funding of local authorities, primary care and the NHS generally, with demand vastly exceeding resources. |
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Post by bedknobsandboomstick on Dec 9, 2023 23:54:06 GMT
I deserve a medal. I somehow managed to read that whole ridiculous article to the very end. It started off pretty ridiculous and then deteriorated further and further into Narnia-esque fantasy. If the writer hasn’t made up a whole load of quotes then some of these Tory MPs haven’t just lost touch with reality - they’ve lost their minds. Crossbat, Mercian : delighted for you both. Your boys are doing you proud. Not another ‘Leicester’ year surely? Mine are doing alright too. Champions of Europe obviously 🙂, and doing well in it again. In the league we played Spurs in the first half on Thursday night and then Spursy in the second half. My least favourite team smited by the (other) mighty claret and blue. ⚒ As an act of charity to enable others to not have to read it, the thrust of one of the plans appears to be: 1. Make Patel PM; 2. Win an election based on Johnson's manifest popularity as PM; 3. Make Johnson PM as he is now an MP again after the above election win. Has anyone seen the bootstrap paradox as a political strategy before? |
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Dave
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Post by Dave on Dec 10, 2023 0:08:14 GMT
Bedknobs - you’ve performed a heck of a civic duty there, in order to save others from reading what our eyes and brains had to cope with.
My favourite paragraph was the one that said that Johnson’s stock had risen (no, really) as a result of his performance at the covid enquiry. It went in to say a supporter said that his performance showed he could be, wait for it, serious and had “an eye for detail”.
Literally and figuratively beyond belief.
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Post by mercian on Dec 10, 2023 0:45:22 GMT
I'm not sure whether getting GPs more involved will help much. When I was there they took over commissioning for the local Trust - i.e. deciding what services were required from the local hospitals and other services such as District Nurses. I think it was a national thing. I attended the management meetings to present performance data and so on. The GPs treated it as a bit of a jolly. They were paid £70 an hour for attending, and refreshments were provided by drug companies who were allowed to give a short presentation on their latest products. The meetings were very formulaic and I don't remember anything of any significance being discussed, let alone decided. For instance there were several hospitals in the area but there was never any discussion of relative performance in different specialties, or any steps to address shortcomings. That system was the result of the Lansley 'reforms' and never worked. It was quickly dropped in favour of specialist commissioners with token GP oversight, but now that has gone too. The purchaser/provider split and commissioning have been quietly buried and replaced with the integrated care system model. That is a good model but isn't working due to the gross under funding of local authorities, primary care and the NHS generally, with demand vastly exceeding resources. Thanks for the more up to date view. I worked in the NHS from around 2003-2016 and in that time it was reorganised 3 times if I remember correctly. You say that it has been reorganised twice more since then. That's 5 times in 20 years. I wonder whether the various political parties will eventually realise that reorganisations won't work unless the fundamental culture changes. I note that you didn't comment on my examples of wasteful practices. Another one from my time was the automatic moving up the pay scale every year on top of the headline pay rise. It didn't happen for those at the top of a scale of course, but I never heard of anyone who didn't move up a step apart from that, however mediocre their performance was. IMO moving up a step on a scale should only happen if your performance is better than average at least. |
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Post by ptarmigan on Dec 10, 2023 0:56:17 GMT
My jury has been out on Biden- sometimes thinking he does or says something good and sometimes bad and always being aware that he has a difficult political system to navigate. Unfortunately after America became the only country to veto a ceasefire call at the UN (even the Tories abstained) I think he will go down in history as yet another American president who put American regional interests ahead of lives and in this case ethnic cleansing. Never seen the UN so definite about the Israeli government's abuses against international law and that Israel is heading down a path of displacement of an entire population, ethnic cleansing and genocide. America still providing Israel with arms. People might say a vote at the UN doesn't make any difference and Biden staying on good terms with Netenyahu will allow him to moderate Israeli actions but it's very clear that that hasn't happened. By his inaction and support for the Israeli government Biden joins the rogue's gallery of US presidents- if anything he's become the worst because at least "fighting commies" or "war on terror" had some clearly defined argument that they were defending the free world even when the consequences made things worse for the people of those countries. Agree. Obviously Israel can usually count on the support of the US but the seemingly unqualified support that the Biden administration has offered a tyrant like Netanyahu in the face of the ongoing carnage in Gaza looks to me like a catastrophic misjudgement with serious long-term ramifications. There's an article on the Guardian today reporting a study published in the Israeli newspaper Haaretz about the astonishing scale of civilian casualties in Gaza: "In the first three weeks of the current operation, Swords of Iron, the civilian proportion of total deaths rose to 61%, in what Levy described as “unprecedented killing”. The ratio is significantly higher than the civilian toll in all the conflicts around the world during the 20th century, in which civilians accounted for about half the dead." Just find it utterly unconscionable that most of our political leaders seem to be ok with this. |
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oldnat
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Post by oldnat on Dec 10, 2023 1:09:14 GMT
Just some idle musings about the meaning of centrism in British politics and the mixture of bafflement and outrage that often greets the realisation that politicians who gravitate to this political position quite often have much in common with political opponents. Opponents as in politicians who are members of other political parties but who who happen to share many of the same views about politics, economics, our democracy and, well, life in general. This is inevitable, isn't it, and why on earth should we be worried about it too? Centre-left parties like Labour, Lib Dems, Greens, SNP, Plaid Cymru etc will all have politicians within them who are really only separated by the trivia of small differences. Members of different political parties by accidents of birth and upbringing. Bound by vaguely similar notions of how society should be. Our centre right party will have politicians cut from the same rock too. Marginal political differences but belonging to a different tribe. And the electorate is very similar. They largely congregate in the political centre, holding a collection of views that blur political party differences. A belief in well run public services, a benign but not intrusive state that provides a safety net, managed capitalism, fair but not punitive taxation, strong defence and security, law and order and freedom to live one's life as prosperously, securely and happily as possible. I believe most are keen too to have a thriving democracy. They value honesty and integrity too. I have met few socialists or neo-liberal free marketeers in my everyday life, but lots and lots of slightly confused people who believe in a good deal of the above but have no clear idea about which group of politicians can get them there. Party voting loyalty has crumbled in many respects I now find. So the spoils at the next election go to the group of politicians who can persuade enough of this majority section of the electorate that they occupy this vast and often neglected political terrain. Starmer is dragging his party there I think. Some are kicking and screaming, and jumping ship as he does so, but he is reading the room better than any other politician in the UK right now, I think. The voters are gathering around his flag now and hearing his calm voice above the ever madding crowd.
The opinions of those in "this vast and often neglected political terrain" aren't, and haven't been, "neglected". They have been assiduously and constantly cultivated and moulded by those that control the dominant media.
If "the room" has been created by the rich and powerful wishing to reinforce a political structure that they control, then reading that room and simply agreeing with that set of attitudes, is not the approach of those leaders like Atlee or Thatcher that he likes to imply he is one of.
He is remarkably fortunate in that the other major English party has been captured by extremists who don't even recognise that "the room" exists.
Whether Starmer is much aware of the other rooms in the UK, other than those in England's suburbia, much less able to read them, is another matter - but since that room is so overwhelmingly large, it doesn't really matter. |
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neilj
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Post by neilj on Dec 10, 2023 5:35:20 GMT
Well that's the odd thing. Obviously your comments and those of other SNPers here will have zero effect on especially Scottish voting intention so one wonders what the point is of propagating the stock SNP 'Labour same as tories' line on here over and over. Carry on for sure, but just find it odd is all. Not many votes to be won for the SNP on here I'd have thought. Not really sure what I'm supposed to be in ignorance of except in failing to recognise that Scotland is the centre of the universe and none of us should ever be ignorant of anything that happens in that teeny nation of 5 million. Also, if I read the word 'outwith' once more, I think I might scream. Outwith of that I think you like him really |
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neilj
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Post by neilj on Dec 10, 2023 5:44:15 GMT
Agree, but I just wish he said what he really thought of them
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neilj
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Post by neilj on Dec 10, 2023 6:01:22 GMT
Not sure I entirely agree with this, but it's interesting in the context of earlier discussions about continuum within parties and some Labour MPs would have fit into a Cameron type Government
Forbes with her socially and economically conservative views would also seem to me to have fit into Camerons Conservative Government if it wasn't for the issue of Scottish Independence (I appreciate that's a big if) and she's not the only one
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neilj
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Post by neilj on Dec 10, 2023 6:10:34 GMT
Tory infighting and sniping continues
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steve
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Post by steve on Dec 10, 2023 7:06:41 GMT
oldnatI think you are being a tad harsh on the current Labour leader. It's possible to object entirely to the war crimes being committed by the Israeli military and yet accept that a permanent cease fire isn't going to happen any time soon. Not least because neither Hamas or the Netanyahu government want one. The U.S. have actually gone far further than normal in criticism of Israel and it's highly likely that that criticism will reach a call for a de facto cease fire this year. While the Labour leader could call for an immediate ceasefire such actions would make no conceivable difference. It's possible but unlikely that the fact that his wife is Jewish and his children are brought up in the Jewish faith that this has some impact on his position. Personally I think he should join the consensus and call for a ceasefire , even though it's effectively just virtue signalling,but I can understand the case for arguing for the immediately possible instead. While this all seems far too nuanced in regards to the obvious immediate need given that the IDF won't cease operations until they are ordered to by the Israeli government even a unified opprobrium from the United Nations and Israel's traditional allies won't make any difference in the short term. Interestingly Netanyahu is incredibly unpopular in Israel, with just 19% thinking he should remain prime minister in a poll just last week and thousands demonstrating in Israel for his removal within the last few days. Political affiliations and party structure are fluid in Israel the most likely successor as prime minister to Netanyahu would be Benny Gantz who would be an improvement or Yair Lapid who would be a significant improvement.
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steve
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Post by steve on Dec 10, 2023 7:51:02 GMT
With all other internal and international immediate events it's sometimes easy to forget that next November could see the most significant U.S. Presidential election ever. If the traitor stands and if he wins it won't just be the most catastrophic result for the U.S. the world economy, climate change and fundamental principal of democratic government, it would highly likely be the last U.S. President election until after civil war or secession. youtu.be/ngyLJFer4UM?si=JS0UxlMOryHDCqri |
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Post by alec on Dec 10, 2023 8:11:08 GMT
Oh God! The Star Chamber is back. That much vaunted (not) group of 'brilliant' legal minds that signed off on the Brexit deal, saying that, yes, it guarantees UK sovereignty in all parts, only to then understand within a few weeks that, er, it doesn't. domjg - "Also, if I read the word 'outwith' once more, I think I might scream." That's remarkably prejudiced of you. Outwith basic racist/nationalist tendencies, I can't really understand why anyone would say such a thing. |
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Post by alec on Dec 10, 2023 8:44:04 GMT
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domjg
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Post by domjg on Dec 10, 2023 8:55:28 GMT
Oh God! The Star Chamber is back. That much vaunted (not) group of 'brilliant' legal minds that signed off on the Brexit deal, saying that, yes, it guarantees UK sovereignty in all parts, only to then understand within a few weeks that, er, it doesn't. domjg - "Also, if I read the word 'outwith' once more, I think I might scream." That's remarkably prejudiced of you. Outwith basic racist/nationalist tendencies, I can't really understand why anyone would say such a thing. It was said in jest but does sound intolerantly grumpy I grant you. Apologies for any offence. I didn't know it was a more generally used term and what grated a bit was it's (to my mind) contrived overuse by one poster, presumably in an attempt to underline their difference of origin, and it's use almost always being part of a sentence declaring that the addressee is ignorant of or doesn't understand what's happening outside their own milieu or dare i use that other word, polity. Tot ziens allemaal. |
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Dec 10, 2023 9:14:33 GMT
Currently the lead article in the Times: “Wes Streeting: NHS uses every winter crisis as an excuse for cash
Britain’s medical chiefs must accept that money is tight, says the shadow health secretary, and they can learn lessons from Singapore’s high-tech hospitals
Key points
Speaking on a visit to Singapore, Wes Streeting accused the health service of “waste and inefficiency”
He said he would bring back a family doctor system if he became health secretary
Patients would get more power to swap GPs via the NHS app, he pledged
He would push managers to perform better, regulating them like nurses and doctors”It seems the GP service is being privatised by stealth. Instead of sole doctors or partnerships, we have a growing model of companies operating GP services. If thats going to happen, then better the NHS itself operates practices and employs GPs directly. We should perhaps ban large companies from owning GP practices and operating them? |
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Post by alec on Dec 10, 2023 9:15:02 GMT
domjg - I was jesting also, but appreciate the clarification. It's common to hear 'outwith' north of the border, or at least, outwith areas to the south of the border. It's one of those things about the English language I guess. It's been developed and used by so many groups and nations that it's difficult to appreciate what is and isn't 'normal' language.
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Post by alec on Dec 10, 2023 9:24:06 GMT
I don't know enough about educational methods to be able to fully judge the merits of this view, but, given the slide in Scottish relative educational performance, there is likely to be something in this - www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/dec/10/scottish-schools-have-tumbled-from-top-of-the-class-this-is-what-went-wrongIntuitively, I tend to agree with Sodha's conclusions - that it is a false dichotomy to artificially separate fact based teaching with learning by methodology and the development of skills. Both surely go together, and it certainly looks like the switch is Scotland's approach has not gone at all well.
Edit: My other other thought - which again, is just some personal musing - would the obvious question about how relative performance is being assessed. If the PISA scores are based more on factual abilities rather than skills, then perhaps a new approach is failing only because the testing system is geared to the old approach, but then having said that, with something like maths, you're either right or wrong, so the PISA scores should perhaps just be taken at face value.
Either way, it's a big problem for the SNP, and whoever may take over education in Scotland in the future.
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Dec 10, 2023 9:34:15 GMT
“The obstetrics and gynaecology clinic inside the vast Singapore General Hospital is unlike any ward in the UK. There are no counters or rows of staff waiting to take patients’ details. Instead, their appointments have already been registered via a mobile phone app and they sign themselves in using touchscreen kiosks. Our local hospital uses touch screens to sign in. The GPs have internet services. Interestingly I looked up Singapore and it seems to be about the same area as the local NHS trust serving Eastbourne and Hastings. But with 5 million people instead of id guess 300,000. So you are presumably an awful lot closer to a hospital if you need one in a hurry. Or just want to visit someone or use services. Well being much closer to your hospital helps singapore. The NHS has deliberately concentrated services regionally away from where people live so as to maximise use of the resources it has. It believes having all services duplicated in both Eastbourne and Hastings costs more money. Whereas presumably with so many more people close together in Singapore, there are a lot more hospitals. The NHS puts the costs of travel, inconvenience of strange appointment times onto the patient so as to maximise its own resources. Sure we could fix that, but it would mean patients all wanting to come when its convenient for them. So maybe a sunday service, lost more after work appointments. Which obviously would mean employing doctors evenings and weekends, which they wouldnt like, and anyway they are already working weekdays. The stats over time show that when the NHS is given more money care improves, and when money is taken away it gets worse. It regularly gets high marks in international comparisons for delivering value for money. The problem is underfunding. At least , if what you want to do is provide more patient care. Obviously privatisation would require a good chunk of what is spent to be redirected as company profits. It could only mean less care. So I fine some GPs in scotland are really doing well. How does that help me? To switch metaphors a little because I happen to know more about them, all the local secondary schools are rubbish. So whats the point switching. I dont exactly know the current GP situation, but when I last paid attention 10 years ago, half the practices had been amalgamated because there just werent enough GPs. If one practice was doing better, and actually some were, they simply were not open to new patients because they were already full. Gee, no surprise, are we going to be given the right to throw out existing patients to replace them? Most can order repeat prescriptions. Probably all. Unless you mean write their own without doctors? Specialists would instantly be full of timewasters. There arent enough appointments to go round, so you cannot personally book them, otherwise once again they would all go to the worried well. This is junk. |
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Danny
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Post by Danny on Dec 10, 2023 9:39:02 GMT
if the MRP polling is to be believed a large number of these will be won by Labour with almost no campaigning. For those experienced in elections, do you believe this? Just how much difference does local campaigning make? I've never seen any real estimates? I suspect the answer is 'not much'? A sitting MP propbably tries to keep in the news for good things all year round, which I guess is campaigning and we reckon he will get an incumbency bonus. But thats distinct to actual election campaigning... |
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I had to wait for ages. What was the point of having two waiting areas? Were they afraid of making the receptionists redundant or something? All that new technology was effectively pointless because of the way it was used. I'm sure these experiences weren't unique. 
