Shandy_Top_89

True. Still its a wee bit depressing that anyone uses that reasoning at all.

You forget that in this country, that DOES make someone unelectable. I know people that voted against labour purely because of Browns one eye, with the excellent reasoning that 'Jeremy Clarkson is so f*cking funny, he looks like a gimp. LOL WHO WOULD VOTE FOR SOMEONE THAT LOOKS LIKE THAT!' ............Tools.

Alternatively I'd say a no vote would kill any chance of PR in our lifetimes. Westminster will only accept electoral reform step by step, av is the stepping stone to further reform. Also is it really that hard to say 1,2,3,4.

In some constituencys the MP is standing with roughly 30% of the vote. AV ensures that 50% is required and gives the voter a greater impact on the outcome. I fail to see how this could be a bad thing. For those that dont want to vote for those other than their main choice, you dont have to rank you can just pick one. Also the level of impact it will have on parties such as the BNP and UKIP is greatly exaggerated. Also while it may slightly increase the chances of a coalition, individual parties are full of factions that have to strike deals between each other anyway so really there isnt much difference, majority governments arent the be all and end all anyways I mean look how divisive the Thatcher and Blair governments have become after they effectively had free reign over the Commons.

Voting yes. AV is a small step, but a correct one. FPTP is practically rigged under the current boundaries, I do fear that people will wrongly derail it due to it association with the Lib Dems though. Unless we move to AV during this referendum all chances of further reform will go out the window, Westminster will only accept electoral reforms one step at a time. Hopefully we will be able to sort out the undemocratic farce that is the House of Lords before too long, and eventually move the Commons to a PR sytem or at least AV+. Even if there is a lot of hate towards the Lib Dems right now its hard to ignore their point, its worth noting that under a PR system they would be achieving more seats with their current dire poll rating (10%/ 65 seats) than they achieved in last years election (57 seats) with 23% of the vote. Shows how much of a joke FPTP is. Also the NO campaign is being shown up as a bit of a sham from what ive been reading, more interested in smear tactics than factual analysis.

Freddy Mercury as your dad, imagine how utterly glorious that would be. ......Well if he wernt dead obviously.

No I quite agree, if your degree is industry specific then the chances of a quick employment increase. Also they give you certain skills that will always make you stand out. However in my case when I left college I was acting under the understanding that purely having a degree would improve my chances of getting a well paid job, and it would also increase the number of jobs I could apply for. Unfortunetly my maths and sciences are atrocious which put a lot of vocational degrees out of my reach. However as I previously said I wouldnt be able to apply for further graduate schemes or teacher training without a degree in the first place, so there is still a benefit to having a degree although it has greatly reduced in importance as a qualification. Well unless you have an Oxbridge or red brick university degree.

Finished Uni in May (got a 2.1 at Chichester in History and Media Studies - LET THE FLAMES BEGIN!) have worked part time at Beaulieu since (summer wasnt terrible working about 40-50 hours per week, but of course its seasonal and im getting bugger all now due to the Motor Museum being shut for referb). Of course I dont intend to be stuck like this forever, I was intending to make a gap year of it and have spent 6 weeks abroad in this time. Due to circumstances beyond my control all my plans fell through and im stuck at home a hell of a lot. I have applied to do primary teacher training and to a number of graduate management schemes but none start until September which is a long wait. So its a case of getting work experience in at the moment, unfortunetly a lot of that is unpaid : /. I couldnt have applied to do teacher training or graduate schemes without a degree. Random bit of info: out of 4 of my housemates that graduated in May 2010 only 1 has a full time job.

All the Rules including 1 + 34 originate off of certain other meme spouting websites/boards that best remain unmentioned. Deep in the diahorrea filled bowels of the internet they lie.

On the FPTP point I forgot to add that under PR (although its currently not under consideration, just thought this was an interesting fact) the Lib Dems would have 71 seats with their current abysmal poll rating. Under FPTP with over double that in the election they achieved 14 seats less.

To be fair the Lib Dems get insanely screwed over by FPTP; 23 % of the vote (6.8 Million / 29 Million votes) = 57/650 seats (8.8%) In contrast - Conservatives - 36.1% (10.7 Million votes) = 306/650 seats (47.1%) Labour - 29% (8.6 Million votes) = 258/650 seats (39.7%) FPTP with the current constituency boundaries is broken and regardless of the Lib Dems recent action, it would be a great shame if people decide to devalue their own electoral value just to get one over on the Lib Dems. Unlike others I dont view a majority government as the be all and end all, the current Coalition is better united than the Conservative party alone from 1990-97. As for Cable I think he is just being a typical politician, telling who he believed were two disillusioned constituents what they wanted to hear. Im more concerned about his abuse of his position in the Murdoch takeover (despite the fact I think that Murdoch is an extremely damaging influence in world politics and media, and hope the takeover bid is dead in the water). Its highly likely that Conservative MPs and ministers make the same sort of comments about the Lib Dems, but the Telegraph has focused on the Lib Dems alone. Not to say that I think any of this is right.

My attempt at a pretty generic statement about the whole issue about why this is hurting the Lib Dems so much (aside from the pledge). It makes more sense if you watch this, as this is what the comment is in response to (I posted this in another debate elsewhere) - http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-11947701 I can see this from both sides, and both have their faults. On the governments side (especially the Lib Dems), Clegg has failed to clarify the situation in a way that will get the attention of students repeatedly citing the deficit. When if... he took a line like the one taken by Ashdown, who slows down the argument and clearly explains the individual positives of the fees reform i dont believe he would have anywhere near this trouble. On the students side I find it frustrating that those getting the most attention, are the people that have clearly not researched this reform properly. But those that believe it will price people out of University, which is an incredibly flawed argument as there are no up front fees. Also the monetary benefits of a University education are seen to make this irrelivant, as everyone pays the same (course dependant) in the end based on their future earnings rather than present. Now even the motion at the moment does have issues and if im correct the rise in tuition fees is supposed to replace the government funding for Universities that has been cut. I think the real issue is if it was sensible to cut that subsidy as sharply as it has been (ive been hearing 80%). I dont know if im right here, these are just things ive heard as ive gone along so i wont press with it too much lol. I do think some will be put off by the prospect of £30,000 debts even with low interest though. Clegg is failing here because he is talking to students as if talking to uneducated children, simplifying this by pointing at Labours deficit. But he doesnt realise most students arent interested in that fact, and it greatly reduces the quality of debate over the issue. Ashdown does a brilliant job of breaking down the main points of the reform there, and opens the oppertuntity for a proper debate over the issue to take place. Hmmmm that turned into a bit of an essay, sorry if its a bit weak I havent really followed this that well lol. Just happy I got out of Uni before this all kicked off. Yeah that was my attempt to give my understanding of this lol. I finished Uni in May and have yet to find a full time job (still working the part time job I was in during Uni). But I dont really have a side in this argument. For me the thought of someone having triple the debts I have now is quite difficult to get my head around, and would certainly have made me think twice about going to Uni. But I can see what part of the jigsaw this reform is suppose to be fitting into. So overall its a difficult decision for the Government/Commons to make. I would never think of pulling out of Afganistan never ever ever! Also unless we could find a decent cheaper alternative to Trident I wouldnt consider scrapping it as a nuclear deterrent is pretty much one of the corner stones of national defences (history has proven this the only reason the Cold War stayed cold was due to the presence of said deterrent in the USA, USSR and accross Europe.). But I can fully understand the frustration of students everywhere, and can fully understand why they are protesting.

England 2018 and USA 2022 would have been the most profitable world cups of all time. To be honest if i took out my Englishness, I could see why Russia are the hosts. Its taking the world cup to a country and region that is interested in football, and once the infrastructure is in place everything should work. Russia does still have issues, but South Africa is much worse and that went off without a hitch. I also believe you will fill stadiums in Russia. Qatar though................. They have the money in place to build fantastic stadia, and travel around the country will be easy. But I forsee huge (even more than normal) ticket, accomodation and travel prices, Qatar is not a nation with a strong national team and will probably be blown out of the World Cup. They are hosting the Asian Championship next year (So it would be like Poland/Ukraine hosting 2018). Finally it is in a bad area geographically to attract foreign supporters, and the temperatures out in the open will be extremely high went getting from A to B (the stadiums will have temperature control, but obviously your only there for 2 hours). In our case i can accept that we didnt win it, and that Russia are hosting 2018. But i do find it amazing that after everything we affectively only garnered 1/21 votes (worse than 2006 where we really did nothing but shout WE MADE THE GAME! over and over). Also in my opinion the USA and Aussie bid teams can feel extremely aggrieved by this decision, as they are both clearly better candidates (So are Japan and Korea but the fact that they hosted it so recently made them extremely unlikely).

Whilst it's true that we defended ourselves against the Germans successfully, it's retarded to devalue the Russian and American contributions to WW2. We may have been able to secure our territory but without the Russians and yanks we wouldn't have been able to advance on the continent at all. Plus even though Britain suffered in the second world war, the Russians payed by far the biggest price of any country, the battle of Stalingrad was the most horrific battle the world has ever seen.

That final line is the most accurate summing up of England and Saints i have seen. Congrats :smt038

Lol i pointed that out in the post myself. I wasnt favouring one or the other to be honest, this is a country that struggles without a majority. However a system where a party can get 23% of votes but only 8% of seats is clearly disfunctional. However i did vote for Lib Dem because of promises of electoral reform, PR may not be the way forward however FPTP also has major flaws and id welcome a creative outcome to con-lib discussions on the issue. *Breaking news as i write this - cons have just offered libs referendum on AV. Anyways im out of posts for today, ta for taking the time to read the rant.

Balls..... i always muck my posts up. *replace 67% with 63% in 5th line. And before people point out that the cons-lib would provide 60% of the electorate, many conservatives and liberals dont want a pact. Stand by my point that no matter what the outcome provides, large proportions of the nation will not be satisfied.

Problem there is no real will of the people. Reversing the figures 63% of the country dont want a conservative government. A lab-lib government would be also be incredibly unpopular, not commanding an overall majority. Most Conservative and Lib Dem supporters do not favour a coalition. Favoured option would probably be a Conservative majority with Lib Dem backing in return for electoral reform. However as said before this goes against 67% of the electorate, and a minority government wouldnt last more than a year. I think its clear that whatever happens huge portions of the country will be uncomfortable with events, no matter what the outcome is. The only thing this election has confirmed is that we have a broken electoral system that doesnt allow the public an equal vote. However life without a majority government is difficult. Noone has won, if anything the biggest result of the election is the damning indictment of the state of British politics. *rant done

Chamberlain wasnt terrible domestically, he also had the misfortune of being Prime Minister in possibly the most difficult and confusing eras of international relations. He wanted peace and he stuck to his guns, unfortunetly a slimey little German/Austrian conned him. However it is true that Chamberlain screwed over Czechoslovakia against the advice of a number of government MPs and world figures, but war was a total non option for Britain at the time we just were not prepared. Come to think of it I cant think of someone who stands out as the 'worst' Prime Minister, despite a few that certainly could be labelled weak.

Brown is still technically the Prime Minister and all cabinet ministers are still in their positions. However it all runs on silent whilst campaigning I imagine.

They are all being quite equal so far, only a few things to note for me; Im intending to vote Lib Dem but I am getting fed up of hearing Clegg repeat 'the two old parties' over and over and over. They are all answering questions more directly than i expected, a bit of bickering but it is surprisingly muted. Brown is also a lot more relaxed than i expected him to be. Although it is horrifically boring all the same and I think the host is struggling to keep it together by consistantly shutting them out half way through their answers, if they want to argue with each other let them, we need to know how they cope under pressure especially from each other.

Technically unrelated but I came across this the other day and had a chuckle. http://fansonline.net/portsmouth/mb/view.php?id=260277

I have largely disregarded the missions as ive decended into dissertation hell lol. I have to talk about the ending though because it annoyed me slightly so.... SPOILER ALERT I dont get why they fight Orphan at the end when they want to save Cocoon, they had no plan for saving it and surely the 'heroic' thing to do would be to walk away and sacrifice themselves by neglecting their focus, even if it would have been a huge anti-climax. I get that Fang and Vanille did save Cocoon and Pulse, but that was only as a result of their own spontaneous action and the other main characters couldnt have known about it. Also i found the whole cieth thing between the Orphan battles to be confusing, even if it was apparently 'fal'cie smoke and mirrors'. SPOILER OVER The ending did actually kind of irritate me because of this.

In Chapter 13 now, i found the best grind for cp was in taijins tower 5th floor against those pulsework thingys. Easy to sneak up on, with a preemptive strike and easy to stagger + they dont attack when staggered, if done perfectly its worth 8000 cp in about 30 seconds. One fault with this game is that towards the end there is no enemy that gives you enough cp to progress far in the crystarium, i mean 30 mins of grinding will only earn you about 5 moves. Has anyone else found that what cp rewards are really unbalanced, like the 8000 cp you gain against those pulsework thingys is pisch, but you only gain like 4000 cp for fighting two behemoth kings which is infinitely harder. On a random note i think this game has a pretty good soundtrack, the background music in the final dungeon is creeping me the hell out.