Torres

Remind me where the Lib Dems stand on English votes on English matters or where they might be if they have zero MPs in Scotland? With such a huge number of SNP MPs it'd be very much in the Tories interest to get such rules passed as soon as absolutey possible.

I was going to Lou, but I've got to be in the office tomorrow, so I'll be off to bed soon.

Alright fella, you keep telling yourself that [emoji38]

No, I was doing you the common decency of replying to your question. Perhaps I shouldn't have bothered.

Guy from yougov was on Sky earlier, explaining that the methodologies are quite different.

Kay Burleigh can hardly contain her delight at the exit polls. She is so wet for DCam.

I asked the question last week of people who may live in marginal, target constituencies - how has the campaigning been there? Could be very different to the national campaigning that the majority are aware of which has possibly aimed more at bringing out the core vote rather than changing people's minds as it may have been in marginals.

Hey Shurlock, check it out. Gus ODonnell on Sky making predictions about what might happen if the exit polls are correct. Or was he? Lulz.

I neither know nor care. HTH.

How many Sinn Fein?

Didn't expect that. Jesus.

What, when he's talking about signing property over to his daughter? It's pretty relevant.

THE most important question of the day - who are we all sitting in front of tonight? I normally go BBC but the Sky News setup looks quite impressive.

I'd love to think that it was written by #factless but that the two sentence paragraph was the work of some sub-editor, causing #factless to fire of a Giles Coren style email rant http://www.theguardian.com/media/2008/jul/23/mediamonkey - warning, lots of swearing Sadly, I don't think #factless is quite up to writing such a thing.

Another stunning over-simplification. How much profit did Starbucks make in this country last year pap? How much do you calculate their corporation tax liability to be? How much tax have they evaded?

Now now pap, no need to get abusive

Nobody on here is arguing for zero government, VFFT.

Nobody on here is arguing for zero government, pap.

Well yes pap, because the underlying conviction of right-of-centre politics is of small government and minimal state intervention. That's what people are arguing for - not intervening unless necessary.

Can those who think that someone should have "gone after the bankers" care to explain what they mean by this? How would you have "made the bankers pay"? In your minds, who are "the bankers"? Are you talking about punishment? Retribution? Reparations? Genuine questions, btw. I'm absolutely not looking to score points with anyone, I just wonder what people think was the correct course of action.

So, other than being a major force behind the OECD's attempts to stop multinationals from shifting profits to minimise tax liabilities (http://www.oecd.org/ctp/beps.htm) and the introduction of a 25% charge on profits hidden in contrived arrangements, what more would you like the government to do to stop it?

And rather than use Google, use Bing!

I think you'd be able to count on the fingers of one finger those on this board who disagreed. Hell, even Osbourne agrees, hence his plans announced last year to try to do something about it.

Nobody is missing that point, you're just introducing it afresh now. FWIW, I absolutely agree. If we were able to collect corporation tax as it was "morally" due rather than legally due, the Exchequer would have more the play with and we could maybe afford to spend more on the NHS, or welfare, or infrastructure investment, or education. The only obstacle is actually doing it....

I'm with you entirely, JB. My point is that any party that promised to cut employer's NI would risk being childishly portrayed by the opposition or critics within their own party as giving a tax cut to big, rich business. It's the same with the top rate of income tax - despite it being known that a 50%+ top rate of tax actually decreases tax revenue, it sounds "equitable" or "fair" and so is championed by many on the left. Sadly, so much of politics is now about managing perceptions and controlling the narrative rather than real, effective policy.