# BritDopers (and nosy foreigners) - The general election 2010 **URL:** \ **Category:** Great Debates\ **Created:** [April 6, 2010, 11:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133 "2010-04-06T11:13:57Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 30
**Author:** ![Ximenean](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/aca169/32.png) [@Ximenean](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ximenean)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 11:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/581 "2010-05-07T11:15:20Z")
> [@Ximenean](#): > > the FDP in Germany is almost always in government despite only getting I think something like 15% of the vote. You know, it seems I may have overstated that. Let me say “often in government” instead, with the Greens also playing the kingmaker role sometimes in recent years. But Germany has a more multi-party system than us. Of course, under PR we might develop more of a multi-party system. ---
**Author:** ![Busy\_Scissors](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/d78d45/32.png) [@Busy\_Scissors](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Busy_Scissors)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/582 "2010-05-07T11:17:22Z")
> [@Baron\_Greenback](#): > > Sorry, I should have explained a bit more. He is, well was, one of the desperately few Members of Parliament who has a science background, and is a crusader against all kinds of anti-thought bullshit. Think along the lines of Simon Singh, Ben Goldacre, Phil Plait etc. He’s a real loss to our public life. The loss of Harris is a bad one for science advocacy. Balancing this out somewhat, the lib-dems have won Cambridge with a guy called Julian Huppert. He is a computational biologist with an active research group at the university there. Great to see a genuine scientist get elected as an MP. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 11:17am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/583 "2010-05-07T11:17:45Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > As you have been told -the Conservative Party would be on the extreme left of the Democrats in the USA. [Debatable](http://www.politicalcompass.org/ukparties2010). It’s worth noting, however, that in some regards they are to the left (or, on that scale, below) Labour. Labour has become much more authoritarian and economically conservative in the past 13 years, whereas their years in opposition have moved the Tories to the left. But the UK Conservatives certainly bear little resemblance to their US counterparts as the frothing idiot wing has largely gone off to UKIP and the BNP rather than dragging the rest of the party down with them. (On that note, I suspect the “Land is Power” candidate in Brown’s constituency we saw during his speech, fist raised in salute as he received notice of his grand total of 57 votes, is a crypto-BNP member. The BNP had registered under about a [dozen names](http://shirazsocialist.wordpress.com/2010/05/05/the-many-faces-of-fascism-dont-be-fooled/) around the country. I gather they’re not very popular in Scotland, hence the charade.) ---
**Author:** ![Baboonanza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@Baboonanza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baboonanza)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 11:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/584 "2010-05-07T11:22:59Z")
> [@tagos](#): > > As you have been told -the Conservative Party would be on the extreme left of the Democrats in the USA. That’s not quite true. A large portion of the conservative base is hard-line on immigration, anti-welfare, pro-rich people, anti-minority rights (inc. gay rights), pro-defense and would generally fit in quite well in the GOP. There are some issues on which they lean much left than the Democracts, but these are generally issues like the NHS and education spending that really they’re forced to support because of almost universal popularity. This is one reason the Republican’s fear UHC, becuase once they have it no-one will vote it away again and they will be forced to become more progressive. Also the Cons. in the last decade have been making noises about being more progressive than they actually are in order to win votes. Don’t be fooled that they have the same ideas on public spending and eqaulizing society that Labour does, even if they’ve been trying to convey that image. ---
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 11:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/585 "2010-05-07T11:52:24Z")
> [@Baboonanza](#): > > That’s not quite true. A large portion of the conservative base is … pro-rich people I’m going to pick you up on this. This is a misrepresentation, because there aren’t that many rich people. They’re pro- **becoming** -rich. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/586 "2010-05-07T12:07:54Z")
The BBC has just said “viewers are warned that there is some flash photography in this report”. What’s that all about? Are Brits now sensitive to flash photography? I am British myself, but I have never heard such a warning before. ---
**Author:** ![Gyrate](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gyrate/32/3588_2.png) [@Gyrate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gyrate)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/587 "2010-05-07T12:10:45Z")
Really? I hear it all the time. It’s to warn those viewers who are subject to strobe-induced epileptic fits. ---
**Author:** ![SanVito](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sanvito/32/2805_2.png) [@SanVito](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/SanVito)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/588 "2010-05-07T12:13:33Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > The BBC has just said “viewers are warned that there is some flash photography in this report”. What’s that all about? Are Brits now sensitive to flash photography? I am British myself, but I have never heard such a warning before. They say it all the time these days, apparently to prevent epileptic fits caused by photosensitivity. [Explained here.](http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/6728071.stm) ---
**Author:** ![Baboonanza](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f475e1/32.png) [@Baboonanza](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Baboonanza)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/589 "2010-05-07T12:20:06Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I’m going to pick you up on this. This is a misrepresentation, because there aren’t that many rich people. They’re pro- **becoming** -rich. Fair enough. Pro-wealth would probably be better way of putting it. ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/590 "2010-05-07T12:32:45Z")
> [@Quartz](#): > > I’m going to pick you up on this. This is a misrepresentation, because there aren’t that many rich people. They’re pro- **becoming** -rich. How does your ‘because’ work? Yes, there aren’t that many rich people. But the Conservatives are pro-them. Including those individuals who are not very well-off and have no decent prospects of becoming so, but have been told their interests coincide with the party of the rich. A truly bizarre and unheard of state of affairs for our American readers, I’m sure. Thank God they don’t have a party like that. ---
**Author:** ![Nancarrow](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c37758/32.png) [@Nancarrow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Nancarrow)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/591 "2010-05-07T12:47:32Z")
I know I could pick any of several combinations, and this is really just masturbating with numbers (an activity I hugely enjoy, and _especially_ with numbers), but… with 633 seats declared at the mo: Democratic Unionist Party: 168,216 votes = 8 seats UK Independence Party: 890,263 votes = 0 seats Come ON! How the fuck can anyone pretend this is ‘democracy’ worthy of the name? The UKIP are loons, but they’re loons with a right to representation, chrissake. :mad: And, yes, so far it looks like the LibDem vote DID go up by a percentage point, and yes, that is a DROP in seats. Oh, but we simply _must_ have a government with a strong mandate, and we can’t let minority parties be kingmakers, and look how terrible a few (carefully cherry-picked) countries with coalitions are, yadda yadda yadda. Jesus, Tories and the Daily Wail, why not just actually SAY you want an aristocratic oligarchy with a puppet dictator and be done with it? Goddamn, but fucking cunt shit arsehole. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/592 "2010-05-07T12:50:21Z")
> [@One\_And\_Only\_Wanderers](#): > > BREAKING NEWSLib Dem leader Nick Clegg says he sticks to his view that the party with most votes and seats - the Conservatives - should seek to form a government He’s conspicuously not saying the Lib-Dems will support them. The SNP have already said ‘no way ever’. The Tories cannot get a majority coalition without the lib dems. I have a sneaking suspicion we’ll end up with a Lib-Lab Pact. ---
**Author:** ![nicole1912](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/9de0a6/32.png) [@nicole1912](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nicole1912)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/593 "2010-05-07T12:51:18Z")
That was an interesting speech by Brown though. Shows quite how desperate they are, on the one hand - he’s offering everything the Lib Dems might ask for, before they even ask - but puts a lot of pressure on the Tories to match that. The general “look how important we are, doing all these important things while everyone else is just playing” bit at the beginning was annoying though. ---
**Author:** ![Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/46a35a/32.png) [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walker_in_Eternity)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/594 "2010-05-07T12:55:05Z")
> [@Nancarrow](#): > > Oh you poor bastard. My condolences. Well I don’t wish rabies on Mr. Tredinnick, but if he DID happen to get bitten, I hope he would go straight to his homeopathic remedies for prophylaxis. I concur. I wish I had an MP like Andrew Slaughter, as has been said elsewhere there are far too few politicians with any kind of scientific background and while Slaughter isn’t a trained scientist he at least seems to grasp the facts unlike many of his colleagues. On the plus side, no seats for the BNP so far and the odious George Galloway has been beaten by Labour and so is no longer a burden on the British taxpayer. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/595 "2010-05-07T12:58:30Z")
> [@Baboonanza](#): > > That’s not quite true. A large portion of the conservative base is hard-line on immigration, anti-welfare, pro-rich people, anti-minority rights (inc. gay rights), pro-defense and would generally fit in quite well in the GOP. What makes you think that the Democrats are not ‘pro-defence’? And no - a large part of the Conservative base is not ‘anti-welfare’. The Conservative vote would fall to about 5 if they even looked cross-eyed at the NHS. They might be against ‘scroungers’ but that is shared by all parties. All parties are also anti-illegal immigration. As part of the rehabilitation of the tories they’ve had to go out of their way to stop being The Nasty Party. Even at the height of the Thatcher Terror the basic post-war consensus on the welfare state was not challenged. Unlike the USA our conservative party does not go out of its way to be the party of choice for lunatics, bigots and racists. We have the BNP and UKIP for that. These parties exist and thrive as much as they can in First Past The Post precisely because they cannot be accommodated in the main parties. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/596 "2010-05-07T12:59:40Z")
> [@Walker\_in\_Eternity](#): > > On the plus side, no seats for the BNP so far and the odious George Galloway has been beaten by Labour and so is no longer a burden on the British taxpayer. great news. Galloway is a twat. ---
**Author:** ![Rayne\_Man](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/df705f/32.png) [@Rayne\_Man](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rayne_Man)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 1:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/597 "2010-05-07T13:06:37Z")
Nigel Farage beaten into third place behind some candidate who wanted “democracy for Buckinghamshire”. ---
**Author:** ![amarone](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/e0b2c6/32.png) [@amarone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/amarone)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 1:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/598 "2010-05-07T13:08:45Z")
> [@Gyrate](#): > > Really? I hear it all the time. It’s to warn those viewers who are subject to strobe-induced epileptic fits. I have not lived in the UK for over 13 years, so presumably they have started in that time. ---
**Author:** ![tagos](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/bbe5ce/32.png) [@tagos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/tagos)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 1:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/599 "2010-05-07T13:16:34Z")
> [@amarone](#): > > I have not lived in the UK for over 13 years, so presumably they have started in that time. Yes. It has been in the last 10 years or so but the warning is routine for all programming. I have a vague memory that a specific incident is behind it all. ---
**Author:** ![Duke](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e8c25b/32.png) [@Duke](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Duke)\ **Post date:** [May 7, 2010, 1:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133/600 "2010-05-07T13:25:06Z")
> [@Nancarrow](#): > > I know I could pick any of several combinations, and this is really just masturbating with numbers (an activity I hugely enjoy, and _especially_ with numbers), but… with 633 seats declared at the mo: > > Democratic Unionist Party: 168,216 votes = 8 seats > UK Independence Party: 890,263 votes = 0 seats > > Come ON! How the fuck can anyone pretend this is ‘democracy’ worthy of the name? The UKIP are loons, but they’re loons with a right to representation, chrissake. :mad: Well, the DUP only ran in 17 constituencies, so they averaged about 10,000 votes per race. UKIP ran in over 600 constituencies and barely topped 1,000 votes per race. Even under the most liberal form of proportional representation UKIP might not have gotten a single seat. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133.md?page=29) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/britdopers-and-nosy-foreigners-the-general-election-2010/535133.md?page=31)