Thought it might be an idea to have one thread for all things Election related, allowing those who wish to discuss stalking, prossers or people with alien objects jammed in their orifices to do so peacefully,

First, the polls:

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"That was fun and to round off the day, I am off to steal a charity collection box and then desecrate a place of worship.” - Smokey, The Selhurst Arms, 26/02/02

Looking at the current figures the Tories will be hoping that somehow the Lib/Dems can do better than predicted in Scotland and against their Labour threat - in spite of the right wing press having spent months oing all possible to undermine them. Interesting times!

I don't understand all this "Tories are favourites" nonsense in the press. Is it just the Tories getting their mates to say it so that people vote for them as the "most viable stable majority government"?

As I see it, Miliband is unpopular and if he persuades key voters that he's not that bad after all, Labour could pull away and get a majority. I don't really see how the Tories can get a boost, the public believe their line on most issues anyway, they just don't want to vote for them.

"The fox has his den. The bee has his hive. The stoat, has, uh... his stoat-hole... but only man chooses to make his nest in an investment opportunity.” Stewart Lee

This time in 2010, the Tories had leads of around 8-9%. They ended up winning the election by 7.2%. So on that occasion, they slipped about 1.5% in that time.

Surely pollsters saying "if you look at the history, the governing party always gets a boost before the election" only works if all other factors are equal, which they're not.

The Tories have been in a coalition government and have basically had 5 years of "austerity", which is unlikely to make them particularly popular. Difficult to compare this government with Blair's Labour/Thatcher's Tories.

"The fox has his den. The bee has his hive. The stoat, has, uh... his stoat-hole... but only man chooses to make his nest in an investment opportunity.” Stewart Lee

I predict that not only will the Tories be the largest party they might just get a majority. If not, they will go for a minority's govt rather than go I to coalition again and dare the opposition to vote down the Queesn's Speech. Going further, I think they will put something in the Queen's Speech to make it impossible for Labour to stand aloof - such as new union restrictions.

Yes, I am an agent of Satan but my duties are largely ceremonial

I think we're in a similar situation to 1992....

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Kinnock was ahead in the polls, but when push came to shove the public could not vote for him and turned to the very bland John Major on polling day.

Miliband is the problem Labour have... and Balls!

Without them two Labour would probably have a comfortable majority especially with UKIP nicking a lot of Tory support.

The SNP surge is not helping Labour either.