Labour; Have They Fallen Into A Conservative Trap?

[Steve Hunt]

Lol @ major issue, what's the betting that once the focus groups show little or no interest it'll cease to be a major issue.

It is a major issue, rotary.

Anything that could potentially determine the outcome of general elections and the whole balance of power is a major issue.

That's why Labour are in such a frenzied state

Labour will have it's own answer to the West Lothian question by May 2015. It'll be similar to Lib Dem policy is my guess.

It will be a fudge, designed to protect the party and it's interests as much as possible. Any democratic principles will be way down the agenda.

Not that I blame them. That's the nature of the game. It will have to be bloody good to convince the electorate that they are not merely trying to protect themselves,

[Ralph]

Lol @ major issue, what's the betting that once the focus groups show little or no interest it'll cease to be a major issue.

It is a major issue, rotary.

Anything that could potentially determine the outcome of general elections and the whole balance of power is a major issue.

That's why Labour are in such a frenzied state

Labour will have it's own answer to the West Lothian question by May 2015. It'll be similar to Lib Dem policy is my guess.

It will be a fudge, designed to protect the party and it's interests as much as possible. Any democratic principles will be way down the agenda.

Not that I blame them. That's the nature of the game. It will have to be bloody good to convince the electorate that they are not merely trying to protect themselves,

And the Tories will have to convince people they're not trying to permanently install themselves in power in England. Vote for us & you'll never be able to get rid of us is not a great message.

Labour realise they may need to form a coalition with the Lib Dems. Constitutional change is an important issue for the Lib Dems.

[the rotary club]

Lol @ major issue, what's the betting that once the focus groups show little or no interest it'll cease to be a major issue.

It is a major issue, rotary.

Anything that could potentially determine the outcome of general elections and the whole balance of power is a major issue.

That's why Labour are in such a frenzied state

Nope, you appear as out of touch as those in the Westminster bubble,

[Steve Hunt]

Labour realise they may need to form a coalition with the Lib Dems..

You are assuming that the LibDems won't be wiped out next May, Ralph.

If they somehow manage to survive, I can easily see a Lab/LibDem coalition happening.

[the rotary club]

Lab / Lib / SNP ?

[Hillman avenger]

Presumably not covered in a lot of detail on Talksport.

There were several constitutional experts on BBC yesterday saying that separating what is UK and what is England is actually very difficult. Added to that is that most measures require funds, so you'd have to sort out how that was split.

To try to sort all this out in a few months is deeply stupid.

[Ralph]

Presumably not covered in a lot of detail on Talksport.

There were several constitutional experts on BBC yesterday saying that separating what is UK and what is England is actually very difficult. Added to that is that most measures require funds, so you'd have to sort out how that was split.

To try to sort all this out in a few months is deeply stupid.

The Tories are running out of issues to campaign on. So they've snatched at 'English votes for England'. It was in their last manifesto & they didn't implement it.

Ideally they'd like to campaign on the economy but....

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-29324751

Or immigration.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-28964323

[Steve Hunt]

Lol @ major issue, what's the betting that once the focus groups show little or no interest it'll cease to be a major issue.

It is a major issue, rotary.

Anything that could potentially determine the outcome of general elections and the whole balance of power is a major issue.

That's why Labour are in such a frenzied state

Nope, you appear as out of touch as those in the Westminster bubble,

I guess only time will tell as to which one of us is "out of touch" on this, rotary

[the rotary club]

We find constitutional shite about as intersting as say local elections hence the piss poor turnout in AV referendum.

It's this weeks go to Labour bashing / shore up the Tory backbench bastards support issue nothing more.

[Steve Hunt]

We find constitutional shite about as intersting as say local elections hence the piss poor turnout in AV referendum.

We the "general public" may well do, rotary.

It is the politicians themselves that will keep this issue alive, imo.

[Ralph]

We find constitutional shite about as intersting as say local elections hence the piss poor turnout in AV referendum.

We the "general public" may well do, rotary.

It is the politicians themselves that will keep this issue alive, imo.

Really? If the Tories end up wittering on about the West Lothian question in the run up to the election it will be a dreadful tactical blunder. Especially if Labour have their own solution. I think interest in this is very limited compared to the economy, NHS, immigration, schools etc.

I agree something needs to be done, but it's hardly the most pressing issue facing the nation is it. If people care about it that much, the answer is obvious - Set up an English parlaiment, abolish the House of Lords &/or reduce the number of MPs in the House of Commons.

[Steve Hunt]

We find constitutional shite about as intersting as say local elections hence the piss poor turnout in AV referendum.

We the "general public" may well do, rotary.

It is the politicians themselves that will keep this issue alive, imo.

Really? If the Tories end up wittering on about the West Lothian question in the run up to the election it will be a dreadful tactical blunder. Especially if Labour have their own solution. I think interest in this is very limited compared to the economy, NHS, immigration, schools etc.

I agree something needs to be done, but it's hardly the most pressing issue facing the nation is it. If people care about it that much, the answer is obvious - Set up an English parlaiment, abolish the House of Lords &/or reduce the number of MPs in the House of Commons.

I reckon this issue will be kept alive up to next May and will feature heavily in all the parties manifesto's, Ralph.

The Scottish referendum and it's result will ensure it remains in the public domain.

[birdie]

Lol @ major issue, what's the betting that once the focus groups show little or no interest it'll cease to be a major issue.

It is a major issue, rotary.

Anything that could potentially determine the outcome of general elections and the whole balance of power is a major issue.

That's why Labour are in such a frenzied state

Nope, you appear as out of touch as those in the Westminster bubble,

I guess only time will tell as to which one of us is "out of touch" on this, rotary

I'll tell you IS out of touch, the Labour prospective successor to IDS, seems she was asked by Ferrari how much the BASIC state pension is and she didn't know, he asked her a couple of times and she just waffled on about contributions and it depends on how long you have been paying in. Andrew Neil was all over it this morning.

[Steve Hunt]

Former Cabinet ministers Ben Bradshaw and John Denham have formed a new group dubbed English Labour to challenge the party leadership's refusal to admit it is 'unfair' for Scots to vote on English matters.

[Petingo]

It is fanciful in the extreme for anyone to think that, come polling day, any prospective Labour voter is going to give two hoots about Johnny Jock's MPs voting on English matters.

Or Johnny Paddy and Johnny Dai as well.

It'll be the NHS or their current or future economic situation they'll be voting on.

Personally, I didn't give a monkey's fuck whether the Jocks voted yes or no......but I wanted no simply because happen they had left the UK the Tories might have been in power for the duration.

And it truly is a world gone mad when these pro Tory journalists try and make Cameron's lies to the Scots and his reneging on promises to them into a problem for a Brown and Darling.

Roll on May next year so Cameron and his cronies are sent packing.