Cornish Steve

McCarthy. He's been given license to score in the last couple of games, and it's made a difference.

Do I still get points for correct goal scorer?

Nope.

I just wanted to he sure, but I still got it completely wrong.

You actually benefited from being late!?

Everton 1 - 0 Sunderland

 

Lukaku

 

Forgive me for being a bit late.

More than my job's worth, matey.

Our electoral system (from a couple of emails I've had today from organisations I belong to)...

 

"The Tories gained 36% of a 67% voter turnout. This equates to roughly 20% of the electorate dictating policy to the other 80%."

Not really. If one-third of the population chooses note to vote, they have absolutely no right to complain. Indeed, they should be dictated to.

Congratulations to MikeO for correctly predicting no Everton goals and a win for Sunderland. Managing to predict the correct number of Sunderland goals, I retain the lead for the month of May. Romey leads for the season. By being late (and therefore making no prediction), TonkaRoost managed to increase his lead for number of points per prediction. Talk about irony!

Boro won at Brentford.

This will be a test of just how much heart we have as a team. Sunderland will be desperate to win. Will we be?

I have another questions for you guys. With the SNP doing so resoundedly well, does this mean there will be another independence vote and it is more likely to pass? I'm not sure if they are able to vote on that I imagine parliament would have to allow it and am not sure of the Tories position of Scottish independence.

 

Also another question, this whole England removed from the EU business, was that merely a election ploy to get votes or do you think it will really happen and pass?

From the perspective of pure self-interest, Labour had to campaign against Scottish Independence - because many of its MPs were from there. No Scottish MPs in Westminster, and Labour suffers (as, ironically, they have now found out). Since Labour no longer benefits from Scotland, the cynic in me says that they probably couldn't give a flying rip any more whether Scotland is independent or not. IMO, if the SNP can repeat its success in regional elections, then there will be another vote for independence - probably in 2016. It's like other issues: They'll keep voting on it until the inevitable outcome is achieved - only then there will be no way back.

There's always been a split between the North and the South: The North (including Scotland) is more left-wing, whereas the South tends to be more right-wing. That is extreme right now, since SNP policies are more left-wing than even Labour's. That has to be a factor, too.

I'll expand.... Basically my family (fathers side) have always been labour voters. My mother I thought (until recently) was a labour voter too. Found out she's always voted conservative.

 

So for me it's always been taboo to vote anything but labour. I also like Milliband.... Not sure why but he's swayed me over the last 3-4 weeks. I always considered David a better Labour candidate than Ed before hand.

 

Labour for me represents my background more than any other. However, with running my own business I've found the conservative government to be ok - as my business has done fairly well (it could do better though). The area of work I am moving into has very "well off" clientele and as someone pointed out to me today it might be in my interest to vote conservatives as it may well keep that clientele spending.

 

I always remember an electrician saying to me in the wholesalers - "you've started at the right time, it won't ever be as bad as this". I started my company at the height of the recession 2010/2011. So I'm not sure what "good" is and if I've seen it yet. Yes I'm busy but I have quiet periods too. I suppose "good" would be expanding to the point of employing more people to keep up with the workload.

 

Basically which ever government can keep my business afloat is the one I should be voting for. I hope that's labour.

Rereading your post, isn't it a case of either voting with your head versus voting with your heart? I'm guessing that your heart is disappointed but your head is pleased right now.

Looking at the results, there were only two things that really changed: the SNP wiped out Labour in Scotland (but their policies are not that different anyway - save about Scottish independence); and the Tories wiped out the LibDems in England (who were coalition partners anyway). So, things will just continue as they were - except that there's more ill will all round.

Another email (from Oxfam)...

 

"The results are in, and as I'm emailing you the Conservatives are forming the next government. Now is a crucial time to influence and we need to make sure that tax dodging is at the top of the agenda.

 

Act now – Tell David Cameron to take action on tax

 

Email Cameron to let him know:

 

You care about ending corporate tax dodging.

 

You feel strongly about making sure the world's poorest countries don't lose out on funds that could pay for education and health care.

 

You want the billions of pounds lost to tax dodging to be put to better use here in the UK too.

 

It's not fair that developing countries are currently losing out on more than $100 billion a year by multinationals dodging local taxes – money that could be used to build schools and hospitals. And it's not fair that we're missing out on £3.6 billion that could be used to tackle poverty here in the UK, either.

 

By putting pressure on David Cameron at this crucial time, we can get him to commit to making our tax system fairer for everyone."

And if the government does this, can we honestly believe that the money saved would go toward fighting poverty?

It will take a while for Labour to recover because they no longer have any Balls.

Personal view - why Labour lost.

 

1. The Electorate don't like the thought of a 'geek' being Prime Minister. See also Kinnock and Michael Foot. (The fault lies with the Trade Unions who pushed for Ed over his brother.)

 

2. There were too many people in the Labour camp whose fingerprints were all over the financial crisis. (The fact that most were

'in denial' didn't help.)

 

3. Nicola Sturgeon's insistence that she would do a deal with Labour (in spite of Milliband's denial.)

 

Don't say I'm right but that's how I see it.

I've heard a number of people suggest that the Labour leader was simply not competent to be leader, and, as a consequence, they were too scared to vote for his party.

Looks like England is turning into America, the right wing nuts taking over. Time for us all to move to Denmark, happiest country in the world statistically. 33 hour work week sounds nice

By US standards, the Tories are rather like the Democrats. US politics is way more right-wing than anything seen in Britain - even the nutty UKIP.

Everton 3-2 Sunderland

Lukaku

Why on earth in this day and age is there still a manual count? Prone to errors and fixing.

Because electronic voting can be much more easily manipulated. How can you prove that your vote for actually counted and applied to your candidate? With paper, you can demand to see. Personally, I have no problem with paper ballot sheets, despite being very much a technologist at heart.

Just seen some of the swings. A "safe" Labout seat, and they lose by almost 6,000 votes. The swing to the SNP is almost 30%. I've never seen such complete and utter domination before. SNP might actually win every single seat in Scotland!

Absolutely delighted that UKIP are doing so poorly.

It looks like the financial and currency markets have made their prediction: very nervous right now. That must mean they believe Labour will get in.

 

And Labour have said they'll keep trident, even though they initially said they'd think of dropping it from four subs to .three

I was probably confusing about this. My assumption is that Labour will get into power only as part of an alliance with the SNP, and SNP's price for that alliance will be tossing out all Trident missiles.

Maybe I can predict the outcome.

Conservative 30% of votes (285 seats)

Labour 31% of votes (270 seats)

SNP 6% of votes (28 seats)

LibDem 6% of votes (24 seats)

UKIP 14% of votes (12 seats)

Green 6% of votes (3 seats)

Plaid Cymru (4 seats)

DemUnionists (8 seats)

Sinn Fein (5 seats)

SDLP (3 seats)

Other (8 seats)

Tory/LD/Union/UKIP = 329 seats

Labour/LD/SNP/SF/SDLP/PC/Green = 338 seats

In other words, the LibDems, despite losing ground, will be king-makers.

Very interesting discussion, so maybe I can jump in.

Before I left Britain, I was an approved parliamentary candidate for the Liberal Party. This was before the merger with the Social Democrats and the fuzzy, ever-changing policies of today's LibDems. The party then was a blend of libertarian, green, devolved power, and pro-Europe. I knew David Steel and, in particular, David Penhaligon (who was a great guy). At that time, we would consistently win over 20 percent of the vote but about 2 percent of the seats - such is the fate of finishing second almost everywhere. Most of the Liberals I knew then were trustworthy people, and a couple of friends from college were elected. Today I would give the LibDems a wide berth, and no longer am I pro-Europe.

Parents? My father, in many respects (hate to say it, but it's true), was the kind of person not to aspire to: mostly illiterate, a dockyardee (as people near Plymouth would understand), and very bigoted. He voted for the National Front (for those in the US, the NF was a collection of racist bullies). My mother usually voted Conservative, but based solely on who she liked and disliked ("that man has a funny smile - can't be trusted"). She was big admirer of Maggie Thatcher.

Today, I would be really stuck. If there were such a thing, I'd be a cross between Conservative and Green, with a splash of libertarian opinions thrown in for good measure. I'm for the nationalist parties (fellow Celts), but I am very much anti-Labour. They are for the big companies, not the little ones; for the unions, not the entrepreneurs; for bureaucracy and rules, not free enterprise. I have never trusted them, and nothing I've seen recently changes my mind on that. As for UKIP, I can't stand them. They are rather like the Tea Party in the US and offer little more than slogans - which, unfortunately, does sway some people. Thank goodness for the "first past the post" system, because they'll get few seats despite winning a fair percentage of votes.

If I had to predict the outcome: the SNP will cut big time into Labour seats in Scotland, to about the same extent that Labour will gain in England. The Welsh Nationalists should do well, and I think the Green Party may create a couple of surprises. UKIP will be third in terms of number of votes but will win only a handful of seats. The LibDems will be decimated. It will either be a coalition of Conservative/Unionist/UKIP/LibDem or of Labour/Nationalists/LibDem/Greens. I would prefer the former (despite my disdain for UKIP), but I suspect the latter will win out. The US should fear a Labour/Nationalist coalition because they will immediately throw out all Trident missiles and make a point of standing up against America around the world.

 

You're right, and I'm sorry! For some reason, I didn't enter your prediction in my spreadsheet. Let me double-check everyone's prediction to be sure I didn't miss anyone else. Once I make the correction, it will be in the master spreadsheet and be taken into account in this weekend's totals. Apologies for that, and thank you for pointing it out.

I see what happened. I somehow combined your prediction with that of pete0. In the results above, his prediction is entered wrongly. I've corrected the problem.

But you didn't score me! I feel so left out. Repressed memories have been flooding back, I feel so alone

You're right, and I'm sorry! For some reason, I didn't enter your prediction in my spreadsheet. Let me double-check everyone's prediction to be sure I didn't miss anyone else. Once I make the correction, it will be in the master spreadsheet and be taken into account in this weekend's totals. Apologies for that, and thank you for pointing it out.

 

Uni eh. I was working in my first job at 15.

I worked my first job at 10 - you lazy sod!

What do Januzaj, Sterling, Zaha, and Barkley all have in common? They star in a couple of games and the press suddenly believe they are the greatest thing since sliced bread. The reality is, however, that they are all young kids with potential. They all need to learn and to grow and to make mistakes and to prove their abilities, regardless of what the latest lazy pundit says. Some are pointing to Barkley being played out of position this season. I would say it's part of the learning process. I agree with the point made earlier about Henderson: These youngsters, if they truly do have potential, come good after their apprenticeship years. That's where Barkley is right now. I would expect to see him make a bigger impact next season and a considerably bigger impact after that. IMO, it would be foolish to sell such potential - especially when we're looking to build a younger team that can play together for the best part of a decade.