Deathray

I think you need the context here, the Political Ranting Thread was a replacement for the original Politicians Thread, where we used to discuss non-death related politics until an eager mod merged it with the Political Frailty Thread.

In the first round, if nobody gets 50%, there is a second round between the two people with the most votes, so logically, somebody has to get over 50%. Depends whether you count spoilt ballots in the percentage, in that case it'd be very possible to win with less.

This didn't quite feel appropriate in the election thread: Anyone else sick of fuckers screaming how pointless the election as it doesn't change anything before declaring they won't vote. These are people in the main who are reliant on the government to look after them in some way, to set their pension pot, to set the minimum wage, to set the rate of tax, to design the benefits system, to set the rate of vat, to provide them with an effective health system, to get them out their house as it burns to the ground, to repair the road they use to go on holiday, to set the environmentally levy they pay on that flight, to set the rate of beer duty. Okay so the system isn't perfect and is currently extremely bias, but part of the reason for the inbuilt bias is this level of fucking apathy which by not voting people are being complicit in. Not mention the fact voting does change some things, otherwise nobody would care which government is in yet these vary same people are happy to complain the fing tories have done something or labour ruined the economy through uncontrolled immigration. This issue goes beyond the election, it's one where people are happy to moan incessantly when politicians do something wrong but still sit on their arse when it comes to the once every five years or 1 in 13 times a life chance to have some small say in the government we might get or to register the government you'd prefer. Compulsory voting needs instituted, even if it leads to a mass of spoilt ballots then that is a fair way of registering a political opinion. What scares me more is I predominantly here this opinion from young people; i.e those who are most likely to suffer the long term effects of the next government or current governments policies.

That second plan would be shot down from all corners as anti-democratic and lead to the largest spoilt ballot in history.

http://metro.co.uk/2015/04/26/remember-your-loved-one-by-putting-their-ashes-in-a-dildo-5168393/ Self-Shag your dead husband? WTF

When did the tagline for this thread get changed?

Anyone else reckon it's sweepstake time for ole Phil the Greek. September 1st 2015

The only thing certain about the next election is nobody is the government won't be popular and the seats in parliament won't reflective the vote share.

Actually can go one better although it's a shutterstock image

In the most respectful way possible; both he and to some extent the Queen looked as though they could cark it by election day at the Gallipoli centenary this morning. If the Queen does I'm pretty sure the election would be postponed, although I think the custom of holding a new election upon the monarchs death has now been discarded which would avoid the financial catastrophe for the parties if she went after the election. Prince Philip's death would likely not post-pone the election, but national days of mourning would no doubt be declared - meaning no political campaigning, presumably his state funeral would be held after we have a prime minister or we could see a 2010esque situation with the war memorial in which all three leaders have to parade along, which would be bizarre at a funeral. Note to everyone: don't create threads to discuss these possibilities on Digital Spy; they don't like you asking and will eventually ban you when you start considering minor royals.

May 28th

Why does Danny Alexander remind me of Beaker from the Muppet Show? A 1000 internets for the person who can rustle up a picture of him in the same shot as Eric Pickles. You have Beaker and Dr. Bunsen Honeydew in full view... Is this cheating?

Voted. Going to seem really weird not actually going to a polling station on polling day. Even before I could vote I'd walk across to the station and watch people going in for a bit. EDIT: Greens for those who care, not particular fussed by this secret ballot thing on anonymous forum.

The issue with that would be us not posting unknown potentials here any longerand leaving the TL with nout to publish.

Have to love the archetype Scottish flame haired tempter though. He played a blinder, even Willie Thorne sounded moist. McGill is a talent I'll give you that, but I'm not going to start lauding him as the future prodigy yet as we've been here before too many times in the past with various exciting players who've fizzled into failure. If he beats Murphy (I'd be very surprised if Perry gets through) in the quarters, then I'll start considering him a serious bet for the future and gladly so. On a more important note, he's a Scot who smiles at the table and can play snooker, has to be the second coming.

I had to google that. Shoes. Some other trendy thing that I've never heard of. Ah, but the money I save. Yes, dunno if they have them on your side of the pond, but they're prevalent here and have overtaken the market share of say Converse and Vans and all but the big names. So like 5th in sales maybe. They're crap. Lol I've never purchased them. Tennis shoes for those whose price point is in blue collar range. SC Am I the only person who buys 90% of their clothes in George/Sainsburys and the other 10% in officers club (they sell a certain type of looser fitting jeans and chinos you can't get in george/sainsburys - otherwise it'd be 100% and more importantly are bang next door to the aforementioned). Never seen the point in forking out a shit-ton of money for branded clothing that's probably been made by the same guy...

I must admit if I was a lazy ass hack this'd be my first port of call for obits.

Crucible curse. Fuck you Selby. Go spend the next week furiously practising you git.

Reminder for anybody else who views this as the hughlight of five years - new regs mean virtually every count will be done overnight unlike 2010.

After a good start to the year I'm floundering

1992 I have got to go on a foreign business trip on 07th May which will deprive me of my five year highlight of sitting up till 2 in the morning watching the results come in surrounded by colour coded charts and marker pens. Very disappointed. You only stay up until 2? That's when the real action starts.

7th May 11pm - give every news outlet in the country a dilemna.

Getting access to food banks is difficult and should be only possible if you genuinely have no or very little income (zero hours contracters or people who are waiting for benefits) , also it's not the state running them.

What, no rain? Away game!

What curse is that? The number of times the remaining viewers are cursed to hear the ratty old BBC commentators mutter the world "Crucible" in a vain attempt to inject some artificial drama into an extremely faded tournament which has been rendered so by a clueless megalomaniac old fart who has so physically and mentally knackered his own already monosyllabic players by making them travel to every corner of Eastern Europe and backwater China to play in meaningless tournaments, that they have literally no inspiration left for what he describes as the "shop-window" of the sport? Or the curse of having the most dull set of qualifiers, and hence first-round line-up, probably ever in the televised history of the tournament.... and which again is probably Bazza's fault for screwing around with the qualifying rounds. How is he supposed to break either of those curses, he's just one man! (BTW could someone move this to the Silly Sports thread?) Oh for suck sakes Zorders, the qualifiers could be better but I've seen worse - you always get a couple of shit players in the first round. Although losing Michael White, Dechawat Poomjaeng, Jimmy White and Ken Doherty in the qualifiers was a bit annoying. The idea that the players have no inspiration left to win this is bollocks, the fact these long-session matches are so rare is only going to increase their drive to stay in the tournament: these guys grew up on multi-session snooker. The curse he's actually trying to break, a I'm sure you a someone so versed in the logistical workings of snooker will be aware of, is the crucible curse that no first time defending champion has won. Couldn't agree more, if he had been in Round 1 it would have meant slightly less air-time for his horrendous droning commentary voice. Remember they got rid of Clive Everton to make room for that twat, "just cos he was a World Champ"? Couldn't they have just, like.... told him to go back to his paper-round? I put it on for 20 minutes this morning, him and Virgo sound like two concentration camp prisoners. This tournament is completely fucking stone fuck Jeff Buckley dead in the water, until Ronnie shows up (we have to wait til TUESDAY for that). And what if he doesn't entertain? Watch on Eurosport for the commentators and put BBC on in the adbreaks for the features - best of both worlds.