May 3, 201015 yr All the Fife seats are expected at 2am. My constituency is gonna have a count like this: "One for Ming, One for someone else, One for Ming, One for someone else...." :heehee: I can't say I'll be holding my breath for Fife NE :lol: That's one of the few hundred where I can safely predict the result now.
May 3, 201015 yr Oh dear! Oh dear... Same old Tories at it again! Rising Tory star Philippa Stroud ran prayer sessions to 'cure' gay people Conservative high-flyer Philippa Stroud founded a church that tried to 'cure' homosexuals by driving out their 'demons http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/5/1/1272753749984/Philippa-Stroud-006.jpg Philippa Stroud, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam, has founded US-style evangelical churches in Bedford and in Birmingham. A high-flying prospective Conservative MP, credited with shaping many of the party's social policies, founded a church that tried to "cure" homosexuals by driving out their "demons" through prayer. Philippa Stroud, who is likely to win the Sutton and Cheam seat on Thursday and is head of the Centre for Social Justice, the thinktank set up by the former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, has heavily influenced David Cameron's beliefs on subjects such as the family. A popular and energetic Tory, she is seen as one of the party's rising stars. The CSJ reportedly claims to have formulated as many as 70 of the party's policies. Stroud has spoken of how her Christian faith has motivated her to help the poor and of her time spent working with the destitute in Hong Kong. On her return to Britain, in 1989, she founded a church and night shelter in Bedford, the King's Arms Project, that helped drug addicts and alcoholics. It also counselled gay, lesbian and transsexual people. Abi, a teenage girl with transsexual issues, was sent to the church by her parents, who were evangelical Christians. "Convinced I was demonically possessed, my parents made the decision to move to Bedford, because of this woman [stroud] who had come back from Hong Kong and had the power to set me free," Abi told the Observer. "She wanted me to know all my thinking was wrong, I was wrong and the so-called demons inside me were wrong. The session ended with her and others praying over me, calling out the demons. She really believed things like homosexuality, transsexualism and addiction could be fixed just by prayer, all in the name of Jesus." "T" said he moved to Bedford because he believed the church could help him stop having homosexual thoughts. "I was trying to convince myself that a change was possible but, at the same time, a part of me didn't believe it was possible," he said. "The church's approach was not that it was sinful to be homosexual but that it was sinful to act on it. The aim is to get a person to a position where they don't have these sinful emotions and thoughts." "T" said it was only after he "took a break" from the church that his depression lifted. "It was the church's attitude towards my sexuality that was the issue," he recalled. "My impression is that she genuinely cares about people," he said of Stroud. "Her personal beliefs may get in the way sometimes, but she is a positive person." Stroud and her husband, David, a minister in the New Frontiers church, allied to the US evangelical movement, left the project in the late 1990s to establish another church in Birmingham. Angela Paterson, who was an administrator at the Bedford church, said: "With hindsight, the thing that freaks me out was everybody praying that a demon would be cast out of me because I was gay. Anything – drugs, alcohol or homosexuality, they thought you had a demon in you." Kacey Jones, a hostel resident, said she was told to end her lesbian relationship or leave the church. "Philippa was still around when I first moved in," Jones said. "There was a 'discipleship house' for Christians struggling with issues, including their sexuality. They told me my feelings weren't normal. I didn't want to be gay, I wanted to be like everybody else, get married, have kids and please my parents." Stroud wrote a book, God's Heart for the Poor, in which she explains how to deal with people showing signs of "demonic activity". Stroud, who declined to talk to the Observer, writes: "I'd say the bottom line is to remember your spiritual authority as a child of God. He is so much more powerful than anything else!" In the book she discusses the daily struggle of running the hostel. "One girl lived in the hostel for some time, became a Christian, then choked to death on her own vomit after a drinking bout. Her life had changed to some extent, but we wondered whether God knew that she hadn't the will to stick with it and was calling her home." One resident featured in the book, Mary, was in an abusive relationship. "We discovered further layers of the tangle when she admitted to previous lesbian relationships and to being on the receiving end of abuse from her family," Stroud writes, adding: "No wonder she was in such a mess!" The Conservatives have tried to win over gay voters after a string of controversial comments by party members. The shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, said owners of B&B accommodation should have the right to turn away gay couples. Julian Lewis, the shadow defence minister, said he was against lowering the age of consent from 18 to 16 for homosexuals. Revelations about Stroud's past are likely to make the party's task even more difficult. "This reinforces our long-held suspicions that those out of sight, but with their hands on the levers of power, have deeply reactionary ambitions," said Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society. Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the Stonewall group, said: "If Mrs Stroud has been praying to rid Britain of its homosexuality, she clearly hasn't been praying hard enough. It would be highly regrettable if someone who continued to hold these views held any significant office in government." Source: The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/ma..._medium=twitter Not being covered by Sky News I see :lol: Edited May 3, 201015 yr by Grandwicky
May 3, 201015 yr I can't say I'll be holding my breath for Fife NE :lol: That's one of the few hundred where I can safely predict the result now.Lol me neither. Dundee West should be a good one. I'm hoping its a seat that can be reclaimed from the Nats [They have it at Holyrood]
May 3, 201015 yr Here's my prediction. I was almost spot on at this stage of the last campaign but I'm far less confident about this one. Con 290 Lab 225 Lib Dem 103 Others 32
May 3, 201015 yr How would you break down others? Like, how many seats do you reckon PC, the Unionists and the ScumNP will walk away with each. Alex Salmond wanted 20 of Scotlands seats
May 3, 201015 yr How would you break down others? Like, how many seats do you reckon PC, the Unionists and the ScumNP will walk away with each. Alex Salmond wanted 20 of Scotlands seats 18 Northern Ireland seats, Richard Taylor in Wyre Forest, the Independent Labour MP in Blaenau Gwent, Green in Brighton Pavilion which leaves 11 Nationalists in total.
May 3, 201015 yr 18 Northern Ireland seats, Richard Taylor in Wyre Forest, the Independent Labour MP in Blaenau Gwent, Green in Brighton Pavilion which leaves 11 Nationalists in total. :w00t: So the SNP could lose a seat or two?
May 3, 201015 yr :w00t: So the SNP could lose a seat or two? My predictions for Scotland are even more like guess work than for England but there doesn't seem to be any sign of an SNP surge in the polls I've seen.
May 3, 201015 yr My predictions for Scotland are even more like guess work than for England but there doesn't seem to be any sign of an SNP surge in the polls I've seen. indications are that the LibDems have made a gain at their expense :w00t:
May 3, 201015 yr Oh dear! Oh dear... Same old Tories at it again! Rising Tory star Philippa Stroud ran prayer sessions to 'cure' gay people Conservative high-flyer Philippa Stroud founded a church that tried to 'cure' homosexuals by driving out their 'demons http://static.guim.co.uk/sys-images/Guardian/Pix/pictures/2010/5/1/1272753749984/Philippa-Stroud-006.jpg Philippa Stroud, the Conservative parliamentary candidate for Sutton and Cheam, has founded US-style evangelical churches in Bedford and in Birmingham. A high-flying prospective Conservative MP, credited with shaping many of the party's social policies, founded a church that tried to "cure" homosexuals by driving out their "demons" through prayer. Philippa Stroud, who is likely to win the Sutton and Cheam seat on Thursday and is head of the Centre for Social Justice, the thinktank set up by the former Tory leader Iain Duncan Smith, has heavily influenced David Cameron's beliefs on subjects such as the family. A popular and energetic Tory, she is seen as one of the party's rising stars. The CSJ reportedly claims to have formulated as many as 70 of the party's policies. Stroud has spoken of how her Christian faith has motivated her to help the poor and of her time spent working with the destitute in Hong Kong. On her return to Britain, in 1989, she founded a church and night shelter in Bedford, the King's Arms Project, that helped drug addicts and alcoholics. It also counselled gay, lesbian and transsexual people. Abi, a teenage girl with transsexual issues, was sent to the church by her parents, who were evangelical Christians. "Convinced I was demonically possessed, my parents made the decision to move to Bedford, because of this woman [stroud] who had come back from Hong Kong and had the power to set me free," Abi told the Observer. "She wanted me to know all my thinking was wrong, I was wrong and the so-called demons inside me were wrong. The session ended with her and others praying over me, calling out the demons. She really believed things like homosexuality, transsexualism and addiction could be fixed just by prayer, all in the name of Jesus." "T" said he moved to Bedford because he believed the church could help him stop having homosexual thoughts. "I was trying to convince myself that a change was possible but, at the same time, a part of me didn't believe it was possible," he said. "The church's approach was not that it was sinful to be homosexual but that it was sinful to act on it. The aim is to get a person to a position where they don't have these sinful emotions and thoughts." "T" said it was only after he "took a break" from the church that his depression lifted. "It was the church's attitude towards my sexuality that was the issue," he recalled. "My impression is that she genuinely cares about people," he said of Stroud. "Her personal beliefs may get in the way sometimes, but she is a positive person." Stroud and her husband, David, a minister in the New Frontiers church, allied to the US evangelical movement, left the project in the late 1990s to establish another church in Birmingham. Angela Paterson, who was an administrator at the Bedford church, said: "With hindsight, the thing that freaks me out was everybody praying that a demon would be cast out of me because I was gay. Anything – drugs, alcohol or homosexuality, they thought you had a demon in you." Kacey Jones, a hostel resident, said she was told to end her lesbian relationship or leave the church. "Philippa was still around when I first moved in," Jones said. "There was a 'discipleship house' for Christians struggling with issues, including their sexuality. They told me my feelings weren't normal. I didn't want to be gay, I wanted to be like everybody else, get married, have kids and please my parents." Stroud wrote a book, God's Heart for the Poor, in which she explains how to deal with people showing signs of "demonic activity". Stroud, who declined to talk to the Observer, writes: "I'd say the bottom line is to remember your spiritual authority as a child of God. He is so much more powerful than anything else!" In the book she discusses the daily struggle of running the hostel. "One girl lived in the hostel for some time, became a Christian, then choked to death on her own vomit after a drinking bout. Her life had changed to some extent, but we wondered whether God knew that she hadn't the will to stick with it and was calling her home." One resident featured in the book, Mary, was in an abusive relationship. "We discovered further layers of the tangle when she admitted to previous lesbian relationships and to being on the receiving end of abuse from her family," Stroud writes, adding: "No wonder she was in such a mess!" The Conservatives have tried to win over gay voters after a string of controversial comments by party members. The shadow home secretary, Chris Grayling, said owners of B&B accommodation should have the right to turn away gay couples. Julian Lewis, the shadow defence minister, said he was against lowering the age of consent from 18 to 16 for homosexuals. Revelations about Stroud's past are likely to make the party's task even more difficult. "This reinforces our long-held suspicions that those out of sight, but with their hands on the levers of power, have deeply reactionary ambitions," said Keith Porteous Wood, executive director of the National Secular Society. Ben Summerskill, chief executive of the Stonewall group, said: "If Mrs Stroud has been praying to rid Britain of its homosexuality, she clearly hasn't been praying hard enough. It would be highly regrettable if someone who continued to hold these views held any significant office in government." Source: The Guardian: http://www.guardian.co.uk/politics/2010/ma..._medium=twitter Not being covered by Sky News I see :lol: if labour were half awake they could destroy the tories chances by exploiting this idiots views.
May 3, 201015 yr 18 Northern Ireland seats, Richard Taylor in Wyre Forest, the Independent Labour MP in Blaenau Gwent, Green in Brighton Pavilion which leaves 11 Nationalists in total. I should have included The Speaker in the Others total so that might have to go up by one. I'll reduce the Labour figure by one to keep the total correct. One seat, Thirsk and Malton, won't be voting on Thursday after the death of the UKIP candidate but I'm including that in the Tory total as they have a 14,000 majority.
May 3, 201015 yr peter hitchens lays into the tories... http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/201...the-tories.html
May 3, 201015 yr peter hitchens lays into the tories... http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/201...the-tories.html On the subject of expenses he doesn't mention the fact that when the Camerons inherited some money a few years ago they used it to pay of the mortgage on their London home so that he could continue to claim for the mortgage on his second home. As with the removal of a Tory candidate, you can just imagine what the Tories and their friends in the press would have had to say if a senior Labour politician had done the same.
May 3, 201015 yr If the current trend is anything to go by, the tories are about 45 seats away from the crucial overall majority - which is 326 seats. My vote is going to Lib Dem, but not without consideration for Labour. I live in an area of Salford which has large pockets of urban decay and poverty but they have done so much for the area, which would NOT have happened had a tory government been in number ten. I live in one of the safest Labour seats in Britain, but I'm not having this 'wasted vote' mentality.
May 3, 201015 yr exactly, that is usual and is why im not so sure labour will be outed. people dont like the slippery, duplicitous, smarmy boy cameron ... otherwise he would be well ahead in the polls. people dont like brown but may well stick with 'the devil you know', and if they care to cast their minds back .... labour did deliver on alot (but not all) of their 1997 policies.. spending did increae in schools that the tories ran down. every school ive worked in has had massive improvements. plus we have had the longest period of economic stability ever... and even now im paying less for my mortgage then i was 17 years ago under the tories. I agree with you on all points. Cameron has made some good points in these election debates, but personality is paramount in these elections and this is something he is struggling with. It will almost certainly be a hung parliament and I think the election results will be a major anti-climax following the weeks of intense hype that has been circulating this election. Where I live suffered major urban decay during the 80s and 90s and it's all thanks to Labour that parts of it are now blooming and thriving. This wouldn't be the case had the tories remained in power. Edited May 3, 201015 yr by ScottyEm
May 3, 201015 yr I agree with you on all points. Cameron has made some good points in these election debates, but personality is paramount in these elections and this is something he is struggling with. It will almost certainly be a hung parliament and I think the election results will be a major anti-climax following the weeks of intense hype that has been circulating this election. Where I live suffered major urban decay during the 80s and 90s and it's all thanks to Labour that parts of it are now blooming and thriving. This wouldn't be the case had the tories remained in power. One of Labour's biggest problems is that governments rarely get credit for things like that. People seem to assume they just "happened" somehow. If I'd been in charge of the Labour campaign (unlikely as I'm a Liberal Democrat :lol: ) I would have advised them to show a series of headlines about the NHS and schools from 1996/7 about shabby buildings, leaking roofs, long waiting lists etc. followed by headlines highlighting the (far less serious) problems today. Then follow that with an acknowledgement that things aren't still perfect but they are a lot better than 13 years ago.
May 3, 201015 yr if labour were half awake they could destroy the tories chances by exploiting this idiots views. They are via Twitter where her name has been trending for the last two days. Media continue to blank it though - http://blogs.channel4.com/news/benjamin-co...a-stroud-story/
May 4, 201015 yr Apparently, the Labour Party is telling voter who prefer to vote for Lib Dems to vote for Labour as that will help the Tory to snatch a majority.
May 4, 201015 yr The Mirror has a list of 70 key marginal constituencies on its front cover split into two lists. One where LibDem supporters should back Labour and vise versa to prevent the Tory's getting in.
May 4, 201015 yr That mean Lib Dems will snatch a deal with Labour to govern in Coalition... let see how that goes. In another interview, economist Niall Ferguson predicted that the UK will need IMF bail-out as the deficit is far worse than those three have talked about.
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