The Political Thread

[Professor Bear]

Nah, he's just successfully rigged an election, so he doesn't want to draw attention to it until after the ballots have been destroyed.

[The Legendary Shark]

"Rigged election"? Heh, you're starting to sound like me! Still, it was an odd result...

[JayzusB.Christ]

At least something good has come of the whole sorry mess.  He'll probably be back, but I'll enjoy a break from seeing his smug, bigoted face everywhere I look.

He won't be off your bloody telly. 'Nigel does 9/10 Cats'.... 'Farage on Have I got News for you'.... 'Nige on 'UKIP: My Story So Far book tour'... 'The REAL Nigel Farage: The Sunday Times Big Interview'. Now he can be casually racist without the need to pretend before he buckles back down to running the cult in september.

Fuxake.  It was bad enough when Willy Hague somehow became cool for a bit.  I can't really see Paul Merton or Ian Hislop being Nige's biggest fans though

[Professor Bear]

"Rigged election"? Heh, you're starting to sound like me! Still, it was an odd result...

"Unbelievable" is the term I prefer, given that the supposed swing to the right wasn't reflected in success for other right wing parties.

[Colin YNWA]

I don't usually post in this thread but always enjoy reading it; I do, however, feel the need to bring home the reality of what has just happened.  It has just been confirmed by our principal that, due to Tory government cuts to Further Education, 237 of my colleagues are to be made redundant, 179 of whom will be teaching and teaching support staff. Only 3 members of Senior Management are going. Well done Britain on voting in a party that clearly doesn't give a fuck about your children's education.

Hippynumber1 - which College is that? I too work in FE (how the hell do you afford all that cool stuff on an FE salary?!?) and we're going through a relatively minor restructure at the moment. Today it feels like the most horrible dress rehearsal ever. The tories don't like FE in principal and the future of our sector, one that provides opportunity for so many for whom 'mainstream' education doesn't work is looking pretty bleak. I'm giving us about 2 years (mainly due to a possible up coming merger) before we get our big hit. Whether I and countless other talented colleagues survive that is anybodies guess.

You have my absolute sympathy.

The terrible truth is we in FE won't be the only ones who go through this.

[The Legendary Shark]

Wasn't one of our very own Squaxx a vote counter last night? Did he notice anything 'unbelievable' about the proceedings? I'm guessing not, otherwise he'd have said.
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So, in this case, I'm content to leave the 'conspiracy theories' to others - if there are any.

[Professor Bear]

Whether or not he could shed any light on such skullduggery would depend where he did the counting, as the fix only needed to be in the marginal seats, I would think.

[JOE SOAP]

Seems like the appropriate thread:

[Something Fishy]

Very sad to hear about college job losses.

The college I worked in until last summer got rid of hundreds and is now losing more.

[Taryn Tailz]

I think they clearly rigged the election so the map could look like this. 

http://www.radiotimes.com/news/2015-05-08/what-the-simpsons-can-teach-you-about-the-uk-general-election-results

[IndigoPrime]

There was no rigging. People broadly voted to try and keep things the same, and they simultaneously punished the Liberal Democrats. The end result was a Tory majority. It's a collective fuck-up exacerbated by our ridiculous electoral system.

Note that while the polls were wrong, a few commentators have for weeks now quietly been warning about a Tory win (although not quite to the tune of 331 seats—most thought they'd need the DUP) and a Lib-Dem massacre.

[Dandontdare]

There was no rigging. People broadly voted to try and keep things the same, and they simultaneously punished the Liberal Democrats. The end result was a Tory majority. It's a collective fuck-up exacerbated by our ridiculous electoral system.
most thought they'd need the DUP) and a Lib-Dem massacre.

After 72 hours of relentless political shitemongering, that's about the best summation I've heard

[The Legendary Shark]

"It Doesn't Quite Feel Right": The British Election Result

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[Jimmy Baker's Assistant]

I just saw a stat on the Grauniad saying that under Proportional Representation UKIP would have won 83 seats.

Say what you like about First Past The Post, but it has it's good points.

[hippynumber1]

I don't usually post in this thread but always enjoy reading it; I do, however, feel the need to bring home the reality of what has just happened.  It has just been confirmed by our principal that, due to Tory government cuts to Further Education, 237 of my colleagues are to be made redundant, 179 of whom will be teaching and teaching support staff. Only 3 members of Senior Management are going. Well done Britain on voting in a party that clearly doesn't give a fuck about your children's education.

Hippynumber1 - which College is that? I too work in FE (how the hell do you afford all that cool stuff on an FE salary?!?) and we're going through a relatively minor restructure at the moment. Today it feels like the most horrible dress rehearsal ever. The tories don't like FE in principal and the future of our sector, one that provides opportunity for so many for whom 'mainstream' education doesn't work is looking pretty bleak. I'm giving us about 2 years (mainly due to a possible up coming merger) before we get our big hit. Whether I and countless other talented colleagues survive that is anybodies guess.

You have my absolute sympathy.

The terrible truth is we in FE won't be the only ones who go through this.

I can't tell you Colin (the college is notorious for putting stuff through the disciplinary procedure for saying anything on social media that can be seen as 'bringing the college into disrepute') but I can tell you that I live in a small town called Coleshill, about 12 miles outside of Birmingham and that the story made 'Private Eye' this week! 
What I will say is that the campus I work at used to be a small college in its own right, had a bank balance of several million in the black and is situated in a leafy suburb. We then went through three major mergers in very few years, now have no money and are being hit by our second round of redundancies. This is horrible for those staff made redundant obviously but the knock on effect is larger class sizes, less time to support students on a one-to-one basis, more teaching hours, more marking, more admin and the over-riding message from management that 'you should be grateful you've still got a job'. For anyone in FE, especially those undergoing 'restructuring' or under threat of merger, I would  say start looking for a new job now...