Everyone a winner except tories?
I don’t really follow local elections so I don’t know what good and bad looks like except the libdems always seem to punch above their weight. the tories seem to have got a shoeing as far as I can see. Was it expected to be worse?
I reckon you're right there. If the general election results always mirrored the local ones you would have many more landside wins in general elections. The turnout will no doubt make a big difference. Probably in the minority here but local elections see,more important to me as the issues are more relevant. General election manifestos are purely poetic licence (in a legal sense more like fraud).
I'm not sure how you get that given the tory bastards achieved the worst set of results in at least 40 years (I read). This following record breaking defeats in recent by-elections.
Labour achieved 34% share of the vote, with the tories about 25%. If that is repeated in the GE then Labour will win with probably a majority, but that doesn't look to me anything like the sort of potential landslide territory that Blair got in 1997, which is what the polls and the media have been telling us will happen in the last year or so. Add to that Reform UK only had a few candidates in the council elections as well.
Farage has probably been the most influential politician in the UK over the last 15 years.
And probably the next 15 years if he plays his cards correctly. Reform are going to be big....
Not so sure about that ,K.
One of life's great mysteries why this should be. No matter the disaffection people may have with other parties at various times SURELY they know returning tories to government will only result in levels of unfeeling, uncaring, cost cutting misery not seen since the last time the *&*^ were in charge.
All they can do in the first instance is kill or irrevocably change the Tories. Polling had been showing them getting more votes than the LDs but not a single seat. FPTP really is a massive hurdle to get over.
Their core voters , I get.
Never say never, but British political history is littered with 'break the mould' parties that didn't.
I think their core is no longer their core as I wrote on the thread about them being destroyed.
It is. But we haven’t been at juncture like this since at least when Thatcher upended the tories, and possibly not since the end of ww1. Look around the world, this is not a British thing, it’s epochal. It’s hard for centrist dads to grapple with as it’s the end of their world view and it is scary. And it fckn is scary.
Yes you're right. Isn't it sad though that regardless of wealth/social position empathy for others is an alien concept. Morally bankrupt fuckers!
It's weird but they're deliberately targeting the Tory vote when I feel they'd do just as well if they were to target the Labour vote (who voted Boris Johnson). Makes me think that they absolutely want a Labour Government (They feel - Farage has said - the country is 'safe' with Starmer when they didn't with Corbyn) . And feel that's their best way to replace or hijack the Tory Party. They know Labour is inheriting a shit show and with huge unrealistic expectations that Labour Government will quickly become unpopular.
SDP? Are you a 'centarist dad now?
What does that mean though? ‘Empathy for others’? Does suppressing the wages of the less affluent, eroding t&c, making housing unaffordable and services overwhelmed come under that banner, rising violence…. because those are the conditions that people are responding to.
All it took for the English pleb was a promise from a public schoolboy to present them with their utopia.
It isn't impossible that just like the Canadian Tories experienced we could see a complete collapse in the UK Tories.
Are you referring to my expressed preference for them? Maybe I am, I’m certainly allergic to extremists. But it’s not the centrism that dominates today.
This is where I get confused. The belief here is that the Tories are inept and have run their course. But if that's the case then why is it seen as impossible that Labour might do better? I get the catastrophisers and people who hate Labour beat that drum. But I don't think it's a given that they fail.
Yup. As I’ve said before an insincere nod to their concerns was enough to win a landslide, because that was more than has been on offer for a long long time. Imagine what someone who really meant it could achieve?
You’re assuming the type of person voting for the tories cares about anyone else but themselves. These are folks that are comfortably well off and can still get their shopping delivered by Waitrose. They scoff at those of us that cans only afford Aldi.
No - I'm not proposing an SDP. I want a Labour government.
Because they're aspirational for themselves and their kids. I actually quite admire the southern attitude. I have some family down south that haven't quite 'made it' in life. They look on at other family and friends who have with pride, not envy. They conclude it's through themselves that they've not 'made it'. They believe it's down to the individual and your own endeavour. They don't blame government or look to government. I wish we had a wee bit more of a similar outlook up here TBH.
It's easy to sneer, but I know older people who were dedicated working class Tories. They bought their council house, retired on good pensions and had a better life than their parents. Lovely people as they were, we didn't agree politically. But they weren't stupid and who could say the Tories didn't deliver for them?
The Tory vote they are targeting substantially was a labour vote. It had already migrated to the tories in despair, got fucked over by them, and is now the target for Reform.
Yes, and maybe folk are responding to this shit show but my point was about the *&*^ being voted in again by people who don't care how others quality of life may be worsened.
I probably fit into part of that - bought house, retired on good pension and have a more comfortable life than my parents, but still believe myself to have a socialist leaning and yearn for an independent and republican Scotland.
Boris Johnson did what all Labour voters want. He pumped much more money into public services.
I think this is out of date a bit K. More people are desperate than are aspirational. England is radically radically different than the context into which Blair arrived.
Really?
I meant was that what you meant when you suggested I was a centrist dad. The SDP are not even in the debate on government - a pimple on a flea’s nose ; irrelevant.