tom_widdows

Bit of election entertainment till the results start trickling in https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ghtpdhMpo5o

Exit poll Tory - 316 (+10) Labour - 239 (-19) SNP - 58 (+52) Lib Dem - 10 (-47) UKIP - 2 (+2) Other parties + Speaker - 10 (this apparently doesnt include the Northern Ireland Parties) Would rule out that Tory/UKIP coalition everyone was banging on about. Now would the lib dems dare go back into a coalition with even less power or would old Dave & Nicola get it on?

Looking like a Preston vs Swindon championship playoff final at the moment Both taking single goal leads to their home 2nd legs Meanwhile in scotland Forfar and Alloa in control of their championship playoff All square in both ties of the league 1 playoff

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/general-election-2015/11589591/Scottish-Tory-leader-Ruth-Davidson-alleges-voter-intimidation.html Lets see where this one takes us

So that video you posted is your evidence for Jim Murphey's 'form'? The title suggested a good old two handed shove or maybe an ice hockey body-check but instead he walks into a bit of cardboard. The power of suggestion as it were I am a bit concerned at the paranoia which seems to be being displayed with this one. The fact the SNP took the decision to suspended two of its members suggests they don't see it that way and I wouldn't be surprised if there are a couple of slightly more senior party members getting their balls booted over the whole incident. The press get a tip off? well I am shocked. The leader of the Scottish Labour party & Eddie Izzard will be campaigning on the streets of Glasgow less than a week before election day and the press were told it was going to happen. If it wasn't the Labour party themselves who called them up it would have been Eddie Izzards PR team or even someone from Police Scotland. There is no point having a campaign if nobody knows; a) its going to happen, and b) it happened. As for provisional newspapers picking up the story. Oh I dunno maybe they picked it up from 'the wire' or if they as they used to call it. Local papers priority is to cover their local areas but they have to put some national/ international news to break up the local feel good issues. They have people trawling social media for it. Now if the Basingstoke gazzette has said 'to hell with whats going on in Hampshire, get everyone we can up to Glasgow as it appears there is going to be some handbags, and im not talking about the one Eddie will be wearing' then maybe the conspiracy theorists would have something. Protestors getting tip offs? yeah because people who are prone to aggressive protesting only do it if someone picks up the phone and asks them to come along. The whole thing event would have been doing the rounds on social media days before it happened. Much like every time the BNP, SDL, EDL etc organise a march, a counter march is almost immediately organised by he anti fascist groups. However there are apparently allegations one of Sturgeons spin doctors made a few phone calls As for 'why did they do it in Glasgow? Ever heard of the term 'Red clydeside'? It has been Scotlands Labour heartland for years and if the polls are to be believed they are at risk of losing it to the SNP. It used to be you could put a red anorak on a furbie and the people would vote for it but ever since the referendum Labour have been looking north as it is an important area for them. They are hardly going to bother making a big push in non traditional labour areas. interesting that you linked homophobia to cross dressing. Ironically Mr izzard has covered this issue in several of his routines. Tonight will be interesting anyway. Channel 4s coverage seems to be the winner for me anyway. See Paxman in non official mode

I presume you know who Eddie Izzard is? Also can you enlighten me to this 'form' old Hannibal has?

I can see how that would go down 'i've got a great idea. Lets send out Jim with a transvestite comedian into the centre of our largest city to campaign. 'Good idea' 'Aye and better yet lets get some anti scots nats PR going by arranging for there to be an aggressive mob to hassle them both' 'you sure thats not a bit....well dangerous?' 'How?' Well its in a public place which we cant actually control and there is a bit of unrest among a great deal of the voting public so emotions can easily boil over. Its also a bank holiday weekend so chances are the city centre will be even busier than usual plus rangers are playing hearts in quite an important end of season game with a lunchtime kick off so theres a good chance there will be more drunken football fans in the centre who might see this as an excuse for causing trouble.' But so many believe what they want to believe 'There are no dickheads, thugs, racists, bigots etc in; my country/my football teams fans/ my political party/ my home town/ my church and so on. We are all angels

Showing your age there

Bonnie Langford is an excellent keeper.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/32604225 Post season entertainment starting early perhaps?

So this weekend Kilmarnock Win + Ross County Win or Draw + Caley win will basically settle the major league issues with 2 game to go Only think left would be St Johnstone and the Arabs battling it out for 4th in the hope that Caley win the cup.

Personally Italian football will forever be tainted for me 3 incidents of match fixing that I can recall since I got interested in football one of which was against the dons (Torino 1993 anyone) However so fed up with barcelona and real madrid I hope it is a munich vs juventus final As for the europa league? Dnipro all the way for me In other news Caley 2-1 Arabs Pretty much sewing up 3rd place in the league. Caley win on saturday and its over

Clever enough to manipulate (or pay off) two SNP Members to take part too. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2015-scotland-32595499 Alastair campbell eat your heart out

I doth my hat (and ginger hair) to you sir

Hughes got it Johansen and Denayer got the player & young player of the season So Celtic miss out on another treble

There are already SNP/ Conservative Alliances in 4 Scottish Councils so no reason why there could never be one at Westminster. Politics is a dirty horrible business Hypothetical question If Nicola announces between now and Wednesday that she has an agreement with David Cameron will you either A) Not bother voting B) Vote Labour C) Vote for another party or independant D) Spoil your ballot paper

Thats one way of putting it However based on results in 2010 a coalition government that didn't involve the tories would have required the following Labout 258 Lib Dem 57 And then minimum 11 seats from the following parties so you would end up with a minimum 4 party coalition DUP 8 SNP 6 Sinn Feinn 5 Plaid Cymru 3 SDLP 3 Green 1 Alliance 1 Independant 1 Lib dems whores you say? Or was it sheer laziness on behalf of all the parties and the wish to avoid the potential powderkeg of picking say the SNP, Plaid Cymry and just one of the Northern Ireland Parties?

The reasons for them going tits up can be argued long into the night - Being naive and too eager for power to read the fine print? - The UK public not understanding the concept of an uneven coalition (5 Tories for every 1 Lib Dem) and presuming both Lib Dem and Tory policies would be implemented (even through they contradicted each other) - Not having the balls to stick to their PR voting system policy for future elections and then being extremely fucking lazy and naive in the corresponding alternative vote campaign (Way too easily stitched up by both Labour and the Tories on that one) - Being shite at dirty tactics and waiting till now to 'leak' unpopular and controversial tory policies (Cameron and Co would never have walked away from this coalition so Lib Dems could have stuck the knife in years ago) - Not having the balls to say 'ah fuck right off we quit. Call another election right now' My point is if you are an SNP voter who is expecting a Labour/ SNP Coalition and will turn nasty if a Conservative/ SNP appears on May 10th they why bother voting for the Nats in the first place? You either want a stronger Scots Nats voice at Westminster or you don't. If you think a coalition which is minimum 4.5 labour-ites for every 1 Scot nat is going to be any fairer in the negotiation stakes then think again. The tragedy of the FPTP system means we will always end up with tory or labour in some way or another and as has been suggested before they are essentially as bad as each other. We had the chance to change this 4 years ago but the great British public happily voted to keep the status quo. It actually made me want to strangle a friend of mine when she said she had voted against changing the system because 1) 'I want everyone to have just one vote so the government is always chosen by the majority of the UK 2) 'The other way seems way too confusing and I dont want the hassle on polling day' She looked a bit perplexed when I pointed out Labour had formed 3 previous 'majority' governments with less than 45% of the vote ie the majority actually voted against them. I then asked how much hassle she had during the Scottish elections but she chose to change the subject

1-1 (2-2 Aggregate) Brora W0n 4-2 on Penalties

An extremely depressing suggestion. 'I'm right behind ya Nic.....whats that....you'd do a deal with thatcher's crew? Fuck you ya turncoat.' If it turned out to be true it would say a great deal about the SNPs current increased support ie they would rather sacrifice a shot at actually having their party influencing the UK parliament just because of their potential Bed Fellows. Are we destined to see another party in Yellow go tits up over the next 5 years? But then again so many people vote with their gut which is why the press still have so much influence. Anyway had to put up with the SNP 4x4 megaphone driving past my office on numerous occasions and they were in full tartan shortbread tin mode with their little campaign desk outside Partick station. As with the referendum they seemed to take one look at me and suddenly they werent handing out leaflets or talking to people. I'm starting to feel like Bill Hicks with the right wing christians

Almost £5k raised in just over a week https://crowdfunding.justgiving.com/BonAccordHeritage Think the old £2 gym & swim wont be on the cards if it re-opens but hope it all goes well and they dont flatten it for another shite office block or hotel

Bournemouth CHAMPIONS!!! Sheffield Wednesday shaft Watford the same as they Shafted Bournemouth 2 weeks ago

Blackpool game abandoned after pitch invasion. Their owners make Romanov look like mother Teressa Brentford heading for the premiership playoffs unless Derby can find 2 goals in the next 7 mins and in lighter news Falkirk 0-3 Hibs Hearts 2-2 Sevco Queen of the South Vs Sevco coming up next Saturday Cowdenbeath heading down to League 2 and livi somehow staying up

By 'barring' people does that mean they can be removed from the stadium and told not to come back? or does it mean they are not allowed to buy anymore overpriced watered down booze at half time? Football violence isnt the only issue with booze at the football. There is a point where it is fucking irritating to have someone who doesnt know when enough is enough and you and several others are unfortunately stuck next to them. That goes against the 'family' atmosphere they claim they want. However short of breathalysing every single person at the turnstiles I don't see this making any impact other than making a fair few volunteer stewards say 'fuck this I quit' Police and government really want to make a difference with alcohol then I say they would need to start targeting the weatherspoons of this world who blatantly ignore the supposed laws regarding continuing to serve people who are intoxicated. A 'brave' notion could be to restrict each customer to a max of 2 alcoholic drinks per sale (a much stricter version of the Kiwi stadium booze rules that were in force when I lived there) and banning the night club practice of selling bottles of Wines & spirits to customers thereby effectively killing the 'round'. Cause extremely long queues, be about as popular as a thatcher impersonator at a Ravenscraig social club and the breweries and pub trade (and tax man) would have a fit but personally I think it would be interesting to see if it would made a difference to the booze culture?

If Labours ratings are so bad a deal with the SNP may not be enough to get the majority. SNP can only get a max of 59 seats which would leave Labour needing 267 to get for a 2 party coalition majority. The quote from Ballot Monkeys keeps ringing through my head "They're all tossers. To win an election, you’ve only got to convince people that your tosser is less of a tosser than the other lot’s tosser.”