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AngryAsWell wrote:Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 2 mins2 minutes ago
250,000 ballot papers now gone missing in stolen printers' van, covering Eastbourne and Hastings seats, and local elections.
“Effectively, this means that all the ballot papers intended for use at polling stations on May 7 are in circulation and in the possession of persons unknown.
AngryAsWell wrote:Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 2 mins2 minutes ago
250,000 ballot papers now gone missing in stolen printers' van, covering Eastbourne and Hastings seats, and local elections.
I was neither for nor against Ed Miliband's conversation with Russell Brand. (I'm also a bit ambivalent about Russell Brand himself - who can infuriate and exasperate me, but who sometimes talks sense and, yes, usually makes me laugh.)
However, I should have trusted Ed Miliband's instincts. Also, my respect for Russell Brand has increased. Not because he seems supportive of Ed Miliband but because he treated the situation seriously and didn't turn it into a joke\publicity stunt - which I thought that he might do.
Ed Miliband is fundamentally consistent regardless who he's speaking with - respectful, straightforward & reliable. That can't be faked, it has to be lived to be real. Miliband is honest too. It's the best way, really. It takes too much energy to lie & eventually the truth comes out making a liar look the ass they are.
I think Miliband believes in his heart all people are fundamentally equal, each important & none more important than another.
sorry about grammar problems
Last edited by citizenJA on Wed 29 Apr, 2015 3:41 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Martin Rowson @MartinRowson · 1 hr1 hour ago
Just watched #Milibrand & kept thinking "What's Ed going to look like in 5 yrs time & how will I draw him?" Wonder if this means anything?
PorFavor wrote:I was neither for nor against Ed Miliband's conversation with Russell Brand. (I'm also a bit ambivalent about Russell Brand himself - who can infuriate and exasperate me, but who sometimes talks sense and, yes, usually makes me laugh.)
However, I should have trusted Ed Miliband's instincts. Also, my respect for Russell Brand has increased. Not because he seems supportive of Ed Miliband but because he treated the situation seriously and didn't turn it into a joke\publicity stunt - which I thought that he might do.
I lack an appreciation of Brand's humour, I'm not a fan, but so what? Your observation regarding increased regard for Brand is good. Someone without a heart can remain immune to sincerity. Miliband's sincerity is trustworthy.
AngryAsWell wrote:Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 2 mins2 minutes ago
250,000 ballot papers now gone missing in stolen printers' van, covering Eastbourne and Hastings seats, and local elections.
“Effectively, this means that all the ballot papers intended for use at polling stations on May 7 are in circulation and in the possession of persons unknown.
letsskiptotheleft wrote:Clegg had better throw in the towel, Rocket Ronnie has endorsed Oliver Coppard.
Sorry to be dumb but who is he?
Nick Clegg is Deputy Prime Minister - a Liberal Democrat losing his seat & getting kicked out of government by his Sheffield Hallam constituency next week.
AngryAsWell wrote:Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 2 mins2 minutes ago
250,000 ballot papers now gone missing in stolen printers' van, covering Eastbourne and Hastings seats, and local elections.
“Effectively, this means that all the ballot papers intended for use at polling stations on May 7 are in circulation and in the possession of persons unknown.
Oh, jesus christ!
So one is a Lib-Con marginal and the other is a Con-Lab marginal... anyone think there won't be a legal challenge of the results because of this?
AngryAsWell wrote:Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 2 mins2 minutes ago
250,000 ballot papers now gone missing in stolen printers' van, covering Eastbourne and Hastings seats, and local elections.
Giligan suspects Lutfur Rahman.
Can they not have them reprinted with a distinguising mark which identifies them as being from the fresh batch? (Of course, I don't know how many ballot papers there are involved in total and whether the missing batch can be identifiable to a particular polling stations. If you get my drift.)
But the fundamental issue of the vulnerability of ballot papers is deeply concerning and is a whole different bunch of bananas (and republics).
Tory MPs are avoiding their local hustings, because they'll be confronted by people they've harmed and be expected to give a good account of themselves.
I wonder what they thought would happen when it was time for a GE? Did they think they'd allowed plenty of time for us to have knuckled down? Wafted into space? My reckoning is that instead of looking inward and admitting they could have been wrong, they're blaming us.
I'd stake my life Dave is, especially hearing his remark about Brand not being worth it.
One thing's for sure they'll be hating our guts for humiliating them, and if they get in we'd better hunker down. In fact if this generation of Tories ever get in again, we've had it.
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop
letsskiptotheleft wrote:Clegg had better throw in the towel, Rocket Ronnie has endorsed Oliver Coppard.
Sorry to be dumb but who is he?
Nick Clegg is Deputy Prime Minister - a Liberal Democrat losing his seat & getting kicked out of government by his Sheffield Hallam constituency next week.
Towel being thrown...
tonight 7:30
"We have invited Conservative, Green, Labour, Lib Dem, and UKIP candidates.
Acceptances to date from Labour, Green, Conservative. Mr Clegg is unable to
attend but will send a representative. No response yet from UKIP.
All welcome.
Wesley Hall, Crookes,
Sheffield, Hallam" https://meetyournextmp.com/area/197-sheffield-hallam
Whether Scotland votes Labour or SNP, it doesn't matter. It changes nothing for the Tories, as they will still not be able to scrape together enough support to get to a majority (remember the Libdems are set to be wiped out in Scotland too, not just Labour!) and, to a degree, it changes nothing for Labour either because Labour need to win in England & Wales, if they are to brave the storm of media cries of illegitimacy that will accompany any Labour-led government. A collapse in Labour voters tactically voting in Tory/Libdem marginals will let Tories in, but they will also boost Labour's overall vote share and as we appear to be heading for a seriously hung parliament, Labour really need to top vote share and seats in England & Wales if they possibly can and then, whatever happens with the SNP, the Tories will be well and truly stuffed.
I was just pondering...if Labour calculated that they'd get the SNP's support whatever happened as they couldn't possibly be seen to back the Tories, then is it likely that Miliband stuck Jim Murphy up there to run the campaign deliberately?
"Sorry about that Jim, and you lost your seat too? Ah well, these things happen"
"Phew! that's got rid of another of the New Labour types"
A bit too Machiavellian?
With 6 months to the election, I think it was the dull, old "safe pair of hands" choice. There wasn't time for a newbie to make an impact or learn the ropes. I think the debates justified the choice. Murphy's experience enabled him to more than hold his own and given the disillusioned were already lost to SNP, maybe a more old school, safe choice was a better bet to shore up the remaining Labour vote. All of which is quite beside the point that it was the Scottish Labour party that picked Murphy, not Ed, so if it was a deliberate ploy, it really would have taken some pulling off!
As to whether or not Ed may have been secretly rather pleased about the development, however, I really couldn't say.
"Fall seven times, get up eight" - Japanese proverb
AngryAsWell wrote:Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 2 mins2 minutes ago
250,000 ballot papers now gone missing in stolen printers' van, covering Eastbourne and Hastings seats, and local elections.
Giligan suspects Lutfur Rahman.
Can they not have them reprinted with a distinguising mark which identifies them as being from the fresh batch? (Of course, I don't know how many ballot papers there are involved in total and whether the missing batch can be identifiable to a particular polling stations. If you get my drift.)
But the fundamental issue of the vulnerability of ballot papers is deeply concerning and is a whole different bunch of bananas (and republics).
Presumably the serial numbers of papers already sent by post are recorded against the addressee - so checkable. Serial numbers of those stolen will be known. Easy to print a new batch on coloured paper so a pain in the administrative neck but not a huge problem, I would have thought.
AngryAsWell wrote:
Sorry to be dumb but who is he?
Nick Clegg is Deputy Prime Minister - a Liberal Democrat losing his seat & getting kicked out of government by his Sheffield Hallam constituency next week.
Towel being thrown...
tonight 7:30
"We have invited Conservative, Green, Labour, Lib Dem, and UKIP candidates.
Acceptances to date from Labour, Green, Conservative. Mr Clegg is unable to
attend but will send a representative. No response yet from UKIP.
All welcome.
Wesley Hall, Crookes,
Sheffield, Hallam" https://meetyournextmp.com/area/197-sheffield-hallam
Again?! This is the third time he's been "too busy" to face his own electorate.
This is their first political poll & as yet, aren't members of the BPC so shouldn't be included in any 'poll of polls'. They have this statement on their tables:
BMG are not yet members of the British Polling Council but are in the process of applying to become members, and abided by BPC rules in carrying out their poll.
AngryAsWell wrote:Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 2 mins2 minutes ago
250,000 ballot papers now gone missing in stolen printers' van, covering Eastbourne and Hastings seats, and local elections.
“Effectively, this means that all the ballot papers intended for use at polling stations on May 7 are in circulation and in the possession of persons unknown.
Surely all they need to do is issue a rubber stamp and an ink pad. When the voting paper is handed over to the voter they stamp it. Or am I being simple?
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop
This is their first political poll & as yet, aren't members of the BPC so shouldn't be included in any 'poll of polls'. They have this statement on their tables:
BMG are not yet members of the British Polling Council but are in the process of applying to become members, and abided by BPC rules in carrying out their poll.
Smithson not impressed
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB 36m36 minutes ago
BMG polls need to publish methodology info and detailed datasets ASAP in same manner as all established pollsters.
Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB 12 mins12 minutes ago
Before turnout weighting and don't know re-allocation in @LordAshcroft Swindon S poll LAB was 2% ahead
AngryAsWell wrote:Michael Crick @MichaelLCrick · 2 mins2 minutes ago
250,000 ballot papers now gone missing in stolen printers' van, covering Eastbourne and Hastings seats, and local elections.
“Effectively, this means that all the ballot papers intended for use at polling stations on May 7 are in circulation and in the possession of persons unknown.
Surely all they need to do is issue a rubber stamp and an ink pad. When the voting paper is handed over to the voter they stamp it. Or am I being simple?
Come to think of it - papers are punched with an array of holes when handed to the voter - so no problem. (Don't know whether this is done to papers sent out by post).
AngryAsWell wrote:
Sorry to be dumb but who is he?
Nick Clegg is Deputy Prime Minister - a Liberal Democrat losing his seat & getting kicked out of government by his Sheffield Hallam constituency next week.
Towel being thrown...
tonight 7:30
"We have invited Conservative, Green, Labour, Lib Dem, and UKIP candidates.
Acceptances to date from Labour, Green, Conservative. Mr Clegg is unable to
attend but will send a representative. No response yet from UKIP.
All welcome.
Wesley Hall, Crookes,
Sheffield, Hallam" https://meetyournextmp.com/area/197-sheffield-hallam
It's Cleggs own fault, but it makes me squirm...The silly man.
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop
Appears to be an outfit that uses telephone polling and telephone polls have tended to favour the Cons.
They are online pollsters.
As this is their first poll, we have no idea about them.
Pattern of journals not getting the results they want from inhouse pollsters continues. May2015 is the New Statesman.
From their website:
BMG is one of the largest market research agencies in the UK.
Typically you could be contacted by BMG using one of the following methods. By:-
Telephone from our call centre based in Birmingham
Face to face household visit by our trained research team
Post – paper surveys
Online – email or web based survey
Focus groups
There's a Comres Lab-Con marginal poll coming at 5pm. After the mess they made of the UKIP one it'll be interesting to see if they've actually managed to pick marginal seats for this one...
They did the data gathering for that poll online,not by phone
Fieldwork Dates:
25th – 27th April 2015
Data Collection Method:
The fieldwork was conducted via an online panel. Invitations to participate were sent to members of the panel. Non
response from different demographic groups was taken into account during the fieldwork phase and post-fieldwork
adjustments.
The lists (extended) give more information about their involvement with each sector. They work primarily in the private sector, I think, given the descriptions on each page.
Spacedone wrote:Mike Smithson @MSmithsonPB 12 mins12 minutes ago
Before turnout weighting and don't know re-allocation in @LordAshcroft Swindon S poll LAB was 2% ahead
The whole election is just too close to predict. Margin of error is too big for polls to give us a definitive prediction unless one party is clearly well ahead. If there wasn't so much riding on it, election night would be fascinating. As it is, it's a bit nail-biting, isn't it?
"Fall seven times, get up eight" - Japanese proverb
seeingclearly wrote:I've seen a fair few posts saying we haven't seen a politician like this for a long time.
Good.
It's about time - some of us have been saying he has the makings of a ( possibly great, in time) statesman.
Nice to see a few more people finally catching on.....
I've had that feeling about him from the get go. He's not just a politician who happens to be PM, he's going down in the history books as a Statesman. I'm glad I've lived long enough to see another Labour 'great' emerge.
I can't remember both names but one of his MPs said he was a cross between another famous Statesman and Harold Wilson...
I remember my dad saying about Wilson that he was a cunning, clever politician.
We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office. – Aesop
