Labour wont form a coalition with Lib dems?

Just looking at how Lab min = 9/2 and Lab/Lib = 11/2.

Not very green eh? I mean if they can't even get that right...

BBC Story

Also, their hatred of cars is such that on-street parking now costs £3.50/hour and central car parks a mind boggling £4.20/hour.

Of course, that won't put off any tourists. Idiots.

There used to be some seafront spaces where cars could park all day for £4 perfect spots for less well-off families visiting the town. The Greens raised the prices in one hit to £20 per day,

Some light relief for UK politards.

Fox News expert apologises over 'Birmingham Muslim' comments.

LoL Fox.

Seen that on my the bbc earlier today. Nothing from Fox News should be a surprise. In fact the only surprising part is that he apologised.

Thanks for posting this. I agree it doesn't look good at all. Not sure it'll effect Lucas's chance of reelection though.
I think that despite you trying to spin this to your own agenda, it looks like a really positive step. You correctly noted that the first story wasn't very green. Well, this story is.

Whilst it's ostensibly a green policy, one has to look at the consequences for the city's business ratepayers - you know - the people who actually pay to be in the town center. For many of them it's a dreadful policy.

A policy can be green, but still used to illustrate council incompetence.

I can't understand why taxi drivers still enjoy privileges from the car-haring council when they are demonstrably less green than a private motorist. Seems odd.

There's a limit to how far I can argue this point with you as it's not my council anymore and it is (seemingly) yours. All I'll say is that I'm very happy for motorists to pay a disproportionately high fee to drive, especially in town centres (or the seafront in the case of Brighton). I do agree with you about taxis though.

Your own post said tourists are happy to pay the rates, evidence is missing that it's bad for business to price parking closer to market rates and it's definitely green. From what I have read the public transport is very good, BTW.

I am curious what they said about recycling. If they are green incinerating it for power generation with low carbon output, for example, they will be crushing the councils recycling the most.

First part of the post was sarcastic, 'idiots' referred to the council.

I live about 8 miles from Brighton, the bus lane from where I am is built on a road too narrow to accommodate it properly with the result that the ride is a spine jarring hell of poor suspension vs. roadside drains. I literally feel sick every time I use it.

Also public transport is great if you aren't a poker player, try getting a bus anywhere at 3am. A trip home will cost £30 in a taxi thereby killing my mincash entirely.

I will freely admit to being pro-car, the alternatives suck donkey balls if you travel a lot outside normal working hours, have somewhat disabled parents who need to get into town regularly, or deal in fairly bulky items on a regular basis, all of which I do.

To be fair the council has good disabled parking and doesn't generally charge on metered bays, which some councils do.

8 miles from Brighton, time to pick up a bicycle amigo. You'll be in great mental shape to play a nifty

I own bicycles, I just don't actually ride them.

In my defence I get pretty bad asthma, but I'm also a good chunk overweight

Despite the total ineptitude of the Green Council in Brighton, Lucas is slight favourite for the Brighton Pavilion seat last time I checked. She's probably a top 5 MP in the Commons and it would be a travesty if she didn't get back in.

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As for the TV debates, it's understandable that UKIP but not the Greens got an invite. UKIP won a plurality in the EU elections, have 2 MPs, and poll roughly 2.5x more than the Greens.

Thing is that Lucas is very closely associated in the minds of the electorate with the council who are hated by many, not least for consistently proposing huge rate increases.

She has tried to distance herself somewhat from them, albeit rather subtly, but I'm not convinced that it's a trick she can pull off. Election will be interesting for sure.

Labour have played into this. I remember reading about their candidate often reminding voters to think about the ineptitude of 'Caroline's council' before casting their vote. Really disingenuous, cynical campaigning, but I think it shouldn't be too difficult for Lucas to point out that she has little to no influence in the council's decisions.

Article is here

That's the one

Greens still 4/7 on oddschecker to retrain Brighton Pav.

http://www.oddschecker.com/politics/.../winning-party

They didn't have two mps at the time and that piling won't represent a strong performance due to the spread of support and our electoral system. Without looking I'd guess it's a good bet the SNP win more seats in the commons than ukip, if you're inviting one fringe party that won't be a power after the election no matter what like ukip you should invite them all like the greens. Actually debate ideas for once, which can only happen if a party like the greens gets a voice

I think it's pretty much a lock for the SNP to get more seats than UKIP, although the fact that they are a regional party does affect things with regards to the debates. (FWIW I think it's a big enough issue now to warrant holding one debate specific to Scotland and devolution that included the larger regional parties.)

Also, whilst unlikely, there is a non-zero (5%, according to the admittedly illiquid market) chance that UKIP will be in power after the election.

Look, whatever cut-off point used is going to be fairly arbitrary, but, by whatever metric you look at there is, unfortunately, a pretty big gap between the Greens and UKIP, so making the cut there is as good a place as any.

Optimal solution is to just not have the debates, they barely made a jot of difference last time anyway.

Link not good, here's a Betfair snapshot - again the market is somewhat illiquid:



For those unfamiliar with decimal odds - the back is being offered at around 1/2, the lay at 4/5.

I might put up a bit at 1.55 and see if I get any takers

The debates are of dubious value but they do make a difference. J

Just look at Clegg last time even if he fell away a bit - imagine a Farage v2 coming from obscurity just before a GE and being very effective in the debates just before a general election.

Will find the source in a sec, but Lib Dem's polling on the day of the election was the same as before the debates. The Salmond/Darling debates made little to no lasting impact either.

Was it, oh well, I remember he fell away in the later debates but then he isn't great at debates. Not something we can always rely on.

Salmond/Darling is different, it's more about a small party gaining a lot. But what about Kennedy/Nixon?

I'll take Caroline at 1.6 for up to $80.