lichtgilphead

So why do you continually bang on about the place of birth of a few of our PM's? You can't argue that there is no regionalisation whilst also stating that Scottish PM's are over-represented. In addition, you don't even begin to address the fact thet some of these PM's would be likely to tick the "British not Scottish" or "More British than Scottish" box in any survey. Finally, after EVEL, do you consider it likely that a MP representing a Scottish constituency will ever be asked to be PM again? If not, do you not consider this to be an example of regionalisation?

Proof please. The election was Thursday 28th February. The results were in on Friday 1st March Jeremy Thorpe refused to enter coalition on Sunday 3rd March Heath resigned on Monday 4th March. When exactly was he appointed?

I assume you're referring to the February 1974 election? If you're going to be such a pedant about other points, I would expect you to be precise. In February, Heath didn't resign immediately. He attempted to form a coalition (with the Ulster Unionists & Liberals). As far as I recall, he was never invited to form a Government by Lizzie. This is exactly the scenario I set out above, with Heath & Wilson replacing Brown & Cameron as the main players. Lizzie only invites the winners to form a government after the political parties thrash out agreements. She doesn't pick & choose.

????? Are you referring to the 2010 GE? That resulted in a formal coalition, not a minority government. The clue would be all these Lib Dems in the cabinet.

My recollection of the 2010 election was that Lizzy didn't send for Cameron until after Brown tendered his resignation as PM. Brown remained PM until that moment. If he had refused to resign, I believe it would have taken a confidence motion tat WM to remove him? Accordingly, I would suggest that Lizzy's duties are simply to welcome the winner to the office of PM, not to pick and choose who gets it.

Whilst I agree he's not been perfect, he still has more championships than any other AFC chairman in history. Hopefully next Saturday will be the icing on the cake. We're still solvent. We still own our own ground. Unlike some, we've not been stuck in the bottom division for years. Personally, I think he can be considered to have been a a success. Enjoy your retirement John.

He's a Farfir fan (average age 87 and three quarters)

Without attempting to preempt any Yoon's right to reply, I feel that I have to point out that it is impossible for any Westminster Government to bind their successors. Accordingly, by definition, it is impossible to enshrine any devolved powers in law. Asking Westminster to pretend that this is possible is the equivalent of wishing for the moon.

I was fortunate enough to visit Prague when the IvanLendl:AlfonsMucha exhibition was on "On 10th of April 2013 was presented unique exhibition of posters by Alfons Mucha from the private collection of Ivan Lendl in the Municipal House in Prague. He began to collect works of Art Nouveau artist during his tennis career, from the beginning of the 80’s. He managed to amass more than 150 artifacts and art of Mucha and that makes it the most complete collection of the author." Absolutely brilliant.

A real democrat A cardboard cut-out democrat

I realised I'd f*cked up some numbers & it was easier to copy delete & repost than have someone quote me and show up my stupidity!

Yeah, but it's simpler to start with the one you hate most and give them the highest number rather than leaving one box blank and starting with the 2nd highest number. It's also quite satisfying to place some absolute bunch of b*stards last.

Ok, here's the election results for my local council - linky Scroll down to Ward 3, and you'll see that Donnie Macmillan, Dougie Philand and Sandy Taylor were elected. If you then click on the transfer report, you'll see a mass of figures - I'll try to make sense of them. Valid Ballots 2892 Positions to be Filled 3 Quota 724 This means 2892 voters voted to fill 3 vacancies. 2892 divided by (3+1) is 723. Accordingly, you need 724 votes (723+1) to be elected Stage 1 First Preferences Charlotte HANBURY 174 Alison Jean HAY 312 Donnie MACMILLAN 409 Douglas Trevor PHILAND 1111 Wendy REYNOLDS 174 Sandy TAYLOR 712 Dougie Philand has 1111 votes. That's more than 724, so he is elected. However, Dougie has 387 votes more than he needs, so these votes are allocated proportionately amongst the 2nd choices on these 1111 ballot papers Stage 2 - Surplus of Douglas Trevor PHILAND Action Total Votes Transfer Weight Transfer Value Transfer to Charlotte HANBURY 48 0.34833 16.71984 Transfer to Alison Jean HAY 216 0.34833 75.23928 Transfer to Donnie MACMILLAN 315 0.34833 109.72395 Transfer to Wendy REYNOLDS 101 0.34833 35.18133 Transfer to Sandy TAYLOR 286 0.34833 99.62238 Non-transferables 50.51322 Wee Donnie gets most of the transfers (109 point something), but Sandy Taylor gets 99 point something, taking him over the magic 724 (712 + 99 = 811), This leaves Sandy with a surplus of 87 point something. Here's where it gets really complicated The third choices of the people who voted Philand 1 & Taylor 2 (or vice versa) are then allocated proportionately to their 3rd choice. In addition, the 2nd choices of the people that voted Taylor 1 and "anyone but Philand" 2 are allocated proportionately to their 2nd choice At this point, no-one else has reached 724 votes, so the lowest total left is eliminated and their votes transferred Stage 4 - Exclusion of Charlotte HANBURY Action Total Votes Transfer Weight Transfer Value Transfer to Alison Jean HAY 2 0.0376 0.0752 Transfer to Alison Jean HAY 6 0.10795 0.6477 Transfer to Alison Jean HAY 13 0.34833 4.52829 Transfer to Alison Jean HAY 77 1 77 Transfer to Donnie MACMILLAN 51 1 51 Transfer to Donnie MACMILLAN 10 0.34833 3.4833 Transfer to Donnie MACMILLAN 5 0.10795 0.53975 Transfer to Donnie MACMILLAN 2 0.0376 0.0752 Transfer to Wendy REYNOLDS 3 0.10795 0.32385 Transfer to Wendy REYNOLDS 5 0.34833 1.74165 Transfer to Wendy REYNOLDS 7 1 7 Non-transferables 47.16375 From this point on, candidates continue to be eliminated, as no-one gets to the magic number before there are only 2 candidates left standing and the one with the higher total at this time wins. Accordingly, the result: Dougie Philand - elected on 1st preferences alone Sandy Taylor - elected on a mixture of 1st & 2nd preferences Donnie Macmillan - elected on a mixture of 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th & 5th preference votes (technically, Alison Hay's 6th preference votes are also allocated to him as well) So, in this particular election, some 5th preferences were counted. This isn't atypical

We'll never know, will we. You and the rest of the No voters made sure of that in the short to medium term. Your No vote made sure that we're looking pretty well fu*ked now, though.

Another way to think about this type of election is "Which candidate do I hate most?" and give them the high scores Say that the candidates were BNP, Conservatives, Greens, Labour, Solidarity, SNP, UKIP My votes in these circumstances would be BNP 7, UKIP 6, Conservatives 5, Labour 4, Solidarity 3, Green 2 & SNP 1 It seems counter-intuitive, but this method puts the good guys in with the maximum chance of being elected.

Of course there is. With 3 (or even 4 candidates) being elected in each ward, there's a high chance that your first & second preferences will either be elected or will be eliminated before your vote is allocated. I would rather it went to a candidate that I disliked less than the Tory than not have it counted at all.

Ok, I'll try to explain it using the seat I'll be voting in We have 7 candidates for 3 seats. Non-party candidate A - current councillor - doesn't appear to have any discernible political views. Now in his 90's Non party candidate B - current councillor - ex labour, but left at least 2 elections ago. Not sure of his current position on indy - will ask if I see him SNP - current leader of SNP group on council - supports indy Green - part of Yes campaign in 2014 - supports Indy Non party candidate C - part of Yes campaign in 2014 - ex member of SNP. I assume she still supprts indy, but I'll be asking her when I see her Labour - enough said Conservative - enough said I'll definitely vote SNP 1st, Green 2nd. I'm likely to vote for the non-party candidates in the order C 3rd, B 4th & A 5th. I'll vote Labour 6th, only because they're slightly less evil than the Tories IMO By doing this, it's likely that my vote will end up counting for a pro-indy candidate, but in the highly unlikely event that all my previous votes have either been elected or fallen by the wayside, I'll end up voting for the lesser of the 2 evils. PS This used to be a Lib-Dem seat - they can't even get someone to stand for them these days.

Which bit of my fact-filled & accurate post are you accusing me of making up?

How many are standing in your area and for what parties? Assuming every party has 2 candidates (unlikely, I know) 1) Give the SNP candidates 1 & 2 2) Give the Green candidates 3 & 4 3) Give any other Independence supporters 5 & 6 Don't vote for Unionists This strategy practically ensures that your vote won't be wasted and will go to a pro-indy candidate

My recollection is that he called a press conference in a pub. Some members of the public found out about it and chose to go to the same pub. Farage started arguing with them, and everyone (including Farage) got kicked out. Your claim that he was harrassed in the street is not the a complete account without taking this context into account Yes really. He actually got into two taxis. No-one knows what was said, but both drivers would appear to have exercised their right to refuse a fare. Hopefully they both called him a c**t as they asked him to leave

12 in league if you look at 8:37 in this video I hope it doesn't come down to an argument about who scored it... (To be fair, that video is probably the only source to credit Stevie with the goal)

It was only against Annan, ffs [emoji1]

Hire some secure storage space, spend Saturday moving the stuff from the old house to there then move it again on Monday into the new house? Twice as much work and more expensive, but may be your only option.

520 jobs which contribute very little to the local economy. It's strongly rumoured that very few of these workers reside in Argyll & Bute or West Dunbartonshire