Just wondering with just about two weeks of polls left, I assume no polls the day before voting, is it usual to have Con and Lab locked so closely so soon to a vote?

Also do people think, the polls will eventually break clear for the Con or Lab before polling day or could the polls actually stay as they are right up to voting time?

I recommend you dictionary check the meaning of the phrase every time.

It seems to me that a sizeable chunk of modern day tories are still rather attached to the Thatcher era and her ideology so same difference.

I think they may move slightly in favour of The Tories but nothing much to confirm a winner. I think it's way too close to call.

I am well aware of the situation in scotland, and they're rightly angry about the Poll Tax being "guinea-pigged" there, Thatcher used Scotland to try out many of her worst policies and it wasn't fair. I agree. But Scotland became stronger as a people and a nation as a result. Time moves on.

As an outsider, I think you're right about breaking for the Tories for three reasons.
One, I think a significant amount of UKIP voters may return to Con towards the closing stages.
Second some fearing an Ed led government propped up or loosely supported by the SNP.
And third, when it comes to the crunch, Cameron just being alot more primeministerial than Ed. And why risk a recovery with a party that previously destroyed your economy.

I never said that you had I said thr whole tone and attitude from the SNP and its supporters towards the Tories and it's supporters is pretty awful but it was you who shouts to preach it when someone states that Cameron is disgraceful for airing his views all the while that Sturgeon and her followers them selves are guilty of disgraceful language and attitude to anyone opposing their views.

I don't know why I am surprised though as this has always been a leftie default mode.

But times moving on does not equate to get over it and start voting tory again in sizeable numbers. I would argue that Scottish society has moved on and I think in an independent Scotland tories would gain more support.

The Conservatives have had 25 years to change this image in Scotland. Even Labour only needed 18 to turn the farce of 1979 into the triumphalism of 1997. The reason why the focus in Scotland is on Thatcher is because the Conservative Party has done very little in attempting to change this image - yes, local Tories have tried but when every attempt they make is in turn 'blackballed', whether deliberately or accidentally, by the English party then it's very difficult for them to do anything at all.

This latest approach is hardly going to help either. They're working up the threat of the SNP to try and convince people in England and, to a lesser extent, Wales to turn away from the alternatives and vote Conservative. If it succeeds, which I highly doubt, they still have an issue of isolating Scotland once again. They were nearly burned last time when they offered the referendum; this time I think the fire will burn even stronger.

Cameron is not airing opinions he's playing political tactics. It's no coincidence that The Scottish Sun os basically supporting/bigging up the snp.

I was a reasonable conclusion to draw from the way you worded your post to me, certainly not an unreasonable inference so default mode has nowt to do with it.

Plus the 'silent Tory' vote who don't like to admit it but still put a cross in their box on the day. Some pollsters say this isn't such an event nowadays but I'm not so sure.

I still don't think it will be anywhere near enough to run a majority government but they may just claim the most seats.

I think the Tory campaign has been farcical on the most part though. To be fair none of them have been brilliant but when the Conservatives have so much going for them in terms of the economy and employment they are staggering to get this across; blinded by fear seemingly. And still, over twenty years on, split on Europe.

Well again I am not referring to you unless of course you yourself do indulge in the practice, I do not come on the boards sufficiently enough to know every posters way of posting but I do see a common theme among lefties who like to name call and insult and use the foulest of language towards Tories and their supporters.

It's not a new thing and has been prevelent for a long long time, imo it's beyond childish and ruins proper debate.

How do you know that these are not Cameron's opinions? I would say they surely are and also what is wrong with using those opinions as a tactic? Every party is using tactics and especially Sturgeon herself , what is all this bargaining and pleading towards Labour in return for locking out the tories if not a tactic?

In previous recent general elections, there's been a distinct lead by one of the two biggest parties but not this one at the current time. It remains to be seen whether one party will manage to pull away by virtue of its campaign but there's no sign of a breakaway so far so it really is too close to call right now.

I've noticed in the past few pages that there's been wider political discussion that's got nothing to do with polls, polling and surveys and the existing thread below would be a far better home for such general political discussions:

------> http://forums.digitalspy.co.uk/showt...2061616&page=8 (go on, you know you want to!)

I still think UKIP will poll way higher than anyone is expecting. I'm convinced people who are voting them are too scared to admit it out of fear of being called a bigot or racist.

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...nstituency-map

I understand the theory but 2 questions, 1.) how come in the EU elections the polls actually overstated their vote (polls were done in the exact same way for that election) 2.) why would people be scared to say down the phone who they are voting too , to an anonymous person?

1, The European elections are always a mid term protest vote and you should never use them to try and predict the outcome of a general election.

2, just like the Scottish Referendum most who were voting No didn't actually confirm this until the very end of polling which is why non of the polls accept the last Yougov one predicted the 10% No lead of the final result.

For the first point I'm not saying we should use it to predict the election I'm just using it to say that people can't be that ashamed to say they vote UKIP if the polls were picking up how high the vote was back then, if they were truly nervous about saying they voted UKIP back then, then surely the polls would of understated the UKIP share.

I suspect we'll only find that out if there's a significant disparity between the pre-election opinion polls and the post election exit polls and the actual election vote shares. If there does turn out to be a large disparity then the pollsters will have to have internal inquiries and alter their methodologies again just like they did after the 1992 general election.

While the UKIP vote share has been relatively volatile, the polls of polls show that it's relatively static in the 14%-15% range and I would at least expect vote shares along those lines on election day itself.

A youguv poll is due out shortly about the effect of SNP influence.

I have a feeling the SNP effect will end up putting the Tories in to power. People will turn away from Labour in their droves.

Tom Newton Dunn of the Sun has tweeted that a very interesting you gov poll is on its way could be a game changer and could be down to fears of a labour SNP pact

I'm seeing a lot of seethe down south that voters are going to be saddled with a party they didn't or couldn't vote for. Fair enough but I'm a tad naive - could someone explain to me how they would feel a lot better if the SNP launched 150 candidates in England and Wales. They'd then have the chance to vote for them, would choose not to and Scotland might return 40 SNP MPs anyway. What changes? In practice it would be a repeat of the process Labour used for years before they ****ed up monumentally on this side of the border.

It doesn't matter whether England votes for the SNP or not. They can't vote for any party which campaigns only in one part of the UK. This time though that party might have a UK influence. ****in deal with it and stop greetin. Unless of course the UK should only ever be governed the way England votes - and that normally defines the true meaning of "union".

No we won't deal with it give us a chance to vote for them then we can say we said no like the Scots do to the Tories and now Labour don't tell us to ****ing deal with it put up the candidates and show your willing to be judged.

I think this week has marked the start of the Tory uplift and we will get that majority government,

The poll could show a large lead for Labour but if as expected there is a shift based on the SNP narrative from the Conservatives I recall reading the following article earlier:

http://www.theguardian.com/politics/...liband-warning

Have the Tories hit the jackpot? Judging by the media coverage of the past five days they have. They have managed to combine their warnings of economic chaos after 8 May – the threat of excessive borrowing, leftwing influence and instability – with the threat posed by Scottish nationalism. By uniting Nicola Sturgeon and Ed Miliband in the nation’s mind, the Tories have injected a badly needed new ingredient into their warnings about Miliband. Previously, those warnings were not gaining sufficient traction because Miliband had been outperforming expectations.

It is a brilliant strategy, and bears the hallmark of George Osborne, a keen reader of Scottish politics. And it has left Labour fighting hard to get a hearing for its warnings about the NHS.

The Guardian was saying labour was losing the air waves over the NHS because of the SNP this week