Monday 13 August 2007

An October Election?

Just how frequent are General Elections now going to be? Unless the Government loses a confidence motion, then four years minimum, I say. Or else why want to be in government at all? To do what?
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17 comments:

  1. Anonymous13 August 2007 at 16:44

    What are you talking about?

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  2. David Lindsay13 August 2007 at 16:48

    The talk of a General Election in October. The World At One was at it again today, the blogosphere is full of such speculation, and so forth.

    But that would only be two and half years (not even that, in fact) after the last one. It's absurd. Where will it all end?

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  3. Anonymous13 August 2007 at 17:04

    Does that mean you haven't raised the dough to stand yet?

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  4. David Lindsay14 August 2007 at 00:06

    Let's just say that I'd never thought of it like that...

    Why is the BBC campaigning so hard for an early Election? There must be some reason, but I honestly can't think what it might be. Yet Auntie's dedication to the cause is absolute: she'd have an Election this Thursday if she could. Why?

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  5. vanfuertes14 August 2007 at 13:17

    It's being talked about because there were a significant minority of people whining that Brown was not put forward as leader in 2005 manifesto. Now he can argue that he has shown people what he's like and given them a chance to stick with him or get rid.

    It can be portrayed as a principled gesture of good will to the electorate, when obviously he just wants to trounce Cameron and be safe in the knowledge he's got five years in the bag.

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  6. Anonymous14 August 2007 at 14:38

    so its sad news that we're not going to get a David Lindsay campaign in the next GE (if its anytime soon) due to lack of funds....sad news indeed. This will seriously stall the momentum needed to carry someone who came last in the local elections to Parliament....

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  7. David Lindsay14 August 2007 at 18:16

    I thought I'd answered that one...

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  8. Anonymous15 August 2007 at 16:05

    David short of cash? Are you serious? He might not have too much of his own (opinions differ on that one), but he could raise the money to stand for Parliament without a second thought. I suspect it's because him standing is all tied up with bigger projects that won't be fully up and running by October.

    So who would he back in an October election? An Independent who copied most of his election address from David's letters to the local free paper kept his deposit last time and took more votes than the reduction in the Labour majority.

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  9. David Lindsay15 August 2007 at 16:40

    You're right, Clive. Various connected projects here and abroad will still be in quite early stages this autumn, so there's no way I could stand for Parliament as well.

    If Watts Stelling (to whom you refer) put up again at an Election that early, then, albeit depending on his exact programme, I'd very probably support him.

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  10. Anonymous15 August 2007 at 17:34

    but we were promised the David Lindsay for President campaign would be up and running well before the fall. Why the delay Clive? Are you David's Campaign Director? He did promise many moons ago to publish his campaign team and financial backers for his political campaigns but sadly the revolution has stalled and no details have been forthcoming

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  11. David Lindsay15 August 2007 at 17:39

    Nothing has "stalled", let me assure you. Very far from it, in fact. And I never made any such promise, although of course financial backers strictly of the parliamentary campaign will have to be made public in the fullness of time, by law.

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  12. Anonymous16 August 2007 at 09:23

    You did make such a promise David last year. It was when you were working out that it would only take £5 from 33,005968 businesses (I forget the exact figures) to raise the money. I would be interested to study the pattern of your lunacy David - it seems to come in cycles - I wonder, is there any relation to those of the moon. Keep it up anyway David - it brings entertainment after all.

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  13. Anonymous16 August 2007 at 15:51

    Daniel Hannan on his Telegraph blog has been predicting for a while now that an election would happen this year. He isn't usually wrong, so I'm going to go with an election in October too.

    If it is a bad time for the Conservatives, it is a good time for Brown and Labour.

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  14. Anonymous16 August 2007 at 16:01

    Lay not that flattering unction to your soul, Sticks2. Does David still have that copy of James Goldsmith's The Trap, complete with the hand-written note inside saying "This is not a Left-Right issue" and signed "Jimmy"?

    And how young was David then? But the talent already seems to have been spotted.

    Yet more sucking up to the monarchy on this blog. Hung Parliaments are becoming more likely, so who knows? Charles III might have to choose a PM himself in 20 years time. I’m right aren’t I, David. Go on, admit it.

    Funny how you never mention that, although it is at one or two degrees remove, you do actually have friends at court. And court is going to become a much more politicised place when the Queen dies or gets too old to do things herself.

    At least you're going straight to the top instead of doing what Roy Jenkins did and plotting with society hostesses to get word back to the Queen.

    But the Old Labour right-wing really does ride again in the form of David Lindsay. Could the political elite dread anything more than that? And could the social elite welcome anything more than that?

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  15. David Lindsay16 August 2007 at 16:48

    Gosh, not many people ever saw that book. Yes, I do still have it, although I might have trouble finding it, since, as you can probably tell, I have a very large number of books.

    I cannot claim to have known him well, but he went to great pains to convince me that he was no more (or less) pro-Tory than pro-Labour. He was valiantly anti-globalisation and anti-neocon. But it must be said that the French original of his book advocated the ERM, a passage strangely ommitted from the English translation...

    I do not understnad your distinction between the political and the social elite in today's Britain.

    But whatever you choose to call the political tradition in which I stand, yes, I believe that the ruling element has more to fear from its re-emergence onto the national stage, from hundreds of provincial redoubts (you should see my inbox) than from any other force.

    We have been the sleeping giant in British politics for far too long. It is time to wake up.

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  16. David Lindsay16 August 2007 at 16:54

    Chris Palmer, I've never disputed that there might be an October Election.

    I just don't see the point of one after only two and a half years, and when the Government still has a comfortable majority. We could quite reasonably turn round to them and say "Don't you have anything else to do?"

    And then there are the non-Labour Ministers, no doubt to be matched by non-Tory or, in theory, non-Lib Dem ones. For what, exactly, would we be voting?

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  17. Anonymous16 August 2007 at 17:08

    David, I was just saying that I thought there will be an election. I know that your post didn't speculate either way.

    You are right though, that we could turn around and say, why now? after only two years. However, I suspect that quite a few people in this country on all sides of the political spectrum will jump at the chance of an early polling day - so I am not certain that line would resonate particularly well with the general public.

    However, we shall have to wait until October to fully find out!

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