Fun Online Polls: Most annoying phrases of the election campaign & The next UK government

The results to last week's Fun Online Poll were as follows:

Most annoying phrases of the election campaign
Hard-working families - 56 votes
Let me be clear - 40 votes
Long term economic plan - 22 votes
The Great British people - 21 votes
What we've said is... - 16 votes
The economic mess - 13 votes
Up and down the country - 13 votes
Other - 8 votes

There were some excellent 'others':

EarthvsTheSlimePeople: Renegotiating the EU treaties
James James: Let me be absolutely clear...
Bayard: Paying off the deficit
Graeme: Companies and individuals needing to pay "their fair share of tax"
Evilc: Look...
Bayard (again): The housing crisis
Wigner's Friend: (Did/do/done) the right thing (to do)
Me: Any statement starting with "Well..."
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Continuing the general theme - the most likely outcome.

Going by reliable forecasts, the three least-unlikely possibilities for the next government are:

a) Labour minority government. I'd rule that out, John Major struggled along with that for a bit at the end and nobody thanked him for it (at the time - with the benefit of hindsight he was the best PM in my lifetime).

b) Labour-SNP coalition. Hmm, sounds a bit fractious...

So the Sherlock Holmes principle leaves us with only one workable outcome:

c) A Labour-Conservative 'Grand Coalition'.

Labour will abandon their Mansion Tax and 50% income tax ideas in return for the Tories agreeing that the 45% income tax will stay in place instead of being cut to 40%; the Tories will row back a bit on the Bedroom Tax but be secretly delighted not to have to hold an in-out EU referendum; the Tories might go halfway on tuition fees and cut them to £7,500; Labour will merrily join in welfare claimant bashing and persecution of under-25s; more bansturbation generally. Etc etc.

Apart from those relatively minor niggles, I can't really see any big areas of disagreement between Labour and the Tories.

They're 100% in agreement on increases to NHS spending (waste); the pensions triple-lock; replacing Trident; building HS2; VAT and NIC tax rates generally; crapola about 'helping first time buyers'; allowing mass immigration from the EU and elsewhere while promising to 'do something'; retaining the Union with Scotland; running masive bloody deficits; on no account ever liberalising drug laws. Etc etc.

If anybody is aware of any big disagreements on policy or direction or rhetoric which can't be solved with a quick back room compromise, then please leave a comment.

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Fun Online Polls: E-Bacc & Crackpot Lib-Dem ideas

The results to last week's meaningless rebranding exercise were as follows:

CSE's - 11 votes
GCE's - 10 votes
GCSE's - 12 votes
English Baccalaureate - 21 votes
School leaving age - 14 votes
Participation age - 13 votes
Other such gibberish - 27 votes

Only 47 people took part and no doubt none of us is any the wiser for it.
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This week it's the Lib Dems' turn, after three days of conference, we've seen plenty of daft ideas. Which is your favourite so far?

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