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maybe in Manchester's case this is partly down to cyclical voter motivation and those that would have voted Tory simply stayed at home in addition to the rights vote being split across some harder right options.
How do we determine what the 75% who didn't vote would have voted if they could be bothered to get their arses off the sofa? As to the right vote being split, as binners points out -
The combined vote of all the right wing loons, including the Tories, still wouldn’t have beaten Labour
In fact taking the 1st preference vote figures "the left" beat "the right" almost 2 to 1 and Labour were 1st choice in every borough.
It's not a matter of getting your arse of the sofa!Politicians are scumbags and most people detest them.
I could beleive that some polititians hear '75% of people really couldn't (don't) care less' and think 'that sounds like a green light to continue my self serving agenda, crack on'
as opposed to a potential candidate hearing '75% of people want a drastic change', and realising 'I am prepared to lead that change'.
Im all for compulsory voting if you did not know.
Just waiting for a reply of
Assuming you are of average inteligence, what will you do when 50% of the population get hoodwinked and buy into the rubbish they read on facebook or X and vote for a frog faced prick.
How do we determine what the 75% who didn't vote would have voted if they could be bothered to get their arses off the sofa? As to the right vote being split, as binners points out
Presumably you're only real world option is to ask a large sample size the question "if you're forced to vote, who would you vote for" or something along those lines.
I get the point from Binners, but with such low turnouts you can get something radically different next time of asking if someone suitably motivates a targeted segment of the electorate.
Im all for compulsory voting if you did not know.
The problem with that is how does it result in an informed vote vs a "bugger I need to turn up".
Theoretically I would be in favour of a quick quiz along the lines of "what are the parties key policies" but unfortunately when we look at the history of voting qualification tests they have a habit of being abused.
Perhaps we should remove the party from the ballots since that is a reasonably new innovation but then it was done in response to people abusing how easy it is to change your name legally.
If we do end up with compulsory voting the first option at the top of the ballot form should be - I vote for none of the candidates below and then if 50% of the electors vote that way then none of those candidates can stand anywhere for the next 2 full election cycles.
Kemi really living up to the thread title today
OK she's blocked Grant Shapps from running as an MP (probably a wise thing but for the wrong reasons)
Now she's actively defending the party's selection of the memewarrior who was previously convicted of (and jailed for) antisemitism and harssing a female MP (who now sits in the HoL)
This really is madness and we all know that at best badenoch will have to backtrack on this, at worst his hard drive is going to contain images that will lead to an investigation across multiple police forces and jurisdictions
And the already indivisible differences between Reform, Restore and the Tories shrinks yet further
well this is spiralling to its inevitable conclusion....
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c1l1q6167d3o
Luciana Berger's interview on R4 today was eyeopening:harassing her with pornographic material, as well as racist and sexist stuff, also gave a nazi salute in court..1hr:16
https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m002zrq4
and if you can stomach it Badenochs deeply patronising response at 2hr11 ......... its all fine, because councillors only deal with bins & she apparently hates his AI slop deepfakes anyway
Every time she opens her mouth, banality and platitudes are all that come out. Its so depressing to see leaders of political parties spew forth such empty words but then they ceased to be leaders ages ago and now just follow.
With the Tory's walking so far to the right, making decisions like this one and freezing out the one nation Tories and anyone who believes in net zero.....or human rights......where do you put your vote if you are a bit right wing?
I have the joy of my FiL coming to stay next month - there seems little point in making any effort to pull him back from the gasping hands of Reform if the next port of call is equally full of pirates.
This morning's Badenoch interviews where 50:50...
- The government should act to keep those who attack the police in prison longer
- Of course someone who has attacked the police can be a Conservative candidate
One thing that seems to be missing from all this debate around Joshua Bonehill-Paine is that he wasn't just a dangerous antisemite, his dangerous lie filled hate campaigns were against Muslims, immigrants, and also people he had petty personal grudges with as well. If he's genuinely rejected all that, and is actively working to stop others going down that rabbit hole (as regards all his past bigotry, disinformation, and violence, not just the antisemitism) then that's great... and him also stating his support for a political party is fine as well... but standing as a candidate...? Someone with expertise and experience using the internet to incite violence against politicians and others shouldn't be standing for a party... not least because it can look as if that expertise and experience could be the very reason for accepting him into the party.
where do you put your vote if you are a bit right wing?
Neither Labour or the LibDems really have a policy platform that "one nation Tories" couldn't support, they just need to let go of the idea that the Conservative Party of today is the same party they have continued to support, perhaps partly out of habit and partly out of past policy divisions between parties.
She decided a long time ago that there was no place in the Tory party for anyone even remotely socially liberal. Though obviously she wouldn’t use the words ‘socially liberal’, she’d have started blathering on about the ‘woke agenda’.
This is just the inevitable conclusion of her charging headlong to the right, chasing Reform. We can now see the full extent of what she thinks is representative of the present Tory party. She’s always come across as not very bright, but you have to be really dim to think that this is a good look to voters. If she thinks that the last election was the lowest point for her party, she might be in for a bit of a shock yet.
oh look the most predictable thing ever that everyone saw coming except Badenoch........
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy4kx8n2vwxo
Because the only way she knows to deal with anything is confrontation and aggression, once people disagree with her she just digs her heels in and goes on the attack, instead of stopping to ask if that’s actually an advisable course of action.
As others have said, the way this played out was 100% predictable, but who would bet against her doing exactly the same next week. She really is that dense and doesn’t learn a thing.
The fact that her remaining MPs and the membership all love her guarantees the continued slow death of the Tory party, which is a highly enjoyable spectator sport 😃
Im all for compulsory voting if you did not know.
Nice. Please tell the class exactly how you would go about enforcing it. Enquiring minds want to know. 🤔
what a strange hill to die on
Nope,he understands the social media/YouTube world more than most.
He's been doing ‘well’ with social media with his AI stuff (oh no I posted the Farage boat for my shame.)
Better to have him in your pocket than on your back 🙁
And this is where the battles will play out for the next election, just keep feeding the drip drip across all the social media outlets.
I’ve always seen Kemi as a holding PM for the wilderness years, when they get close to an election I expected her to be ejected.
I’ve always seen Kemi as a holding PM for the wilderness years, when they get close to an election I expected her to be ejected.
It's probably true. But in 1997 the Tories chose William Hague in the holding role. I'm not sure I'd have wanted Hague for PM but as a leader of the opposition he would run rings around Badenoch. Standards are dropping.
I’ve always seen Kemi as a holding PM for the wilderness years, when they get close to an election I expected her to be ejected.
The problem with that (for those who'd want to get rid of her) is that despite them still flatlining in the polls and their terrible performance in recent by-election/mayoral elections, most of her MPs and the membership think she's wonderful!
So, given the new rules and increased numbers of letters needed to trigger a leadership election, plus the absence of an obvious replacement (Christ Philp? Helen Whateley?) she's safe and she knows it.
Her rabidly aggressive attitude and smug, self-satisfied overconfidence in her own abilities seems to be all they need.
I suspect that her incredibly confrontational attitude is going to play out even worse with the electorate when you have Andy Burnham opposite her at the depatch box, who's style is so far removed from her wanting to have a childish slanging match and who seems to actually possess a functioning sense of humour and is pretty sharp at thinking on his feet, something else she can't do.
reform are too woke
https://bsky.app/profile/stejormur.bsky.social/post/3msfokygcoc2p
she's a new/improved liz truss with such self assurance on show
"but actually I probably have grounds to call myself a victim"
A victim of what exactly? Your incredibly privileged upbringing? For someone who claims to 'never play the victim', she's doing a more than passable impression of precisely that
Mind you, this is the woman who claimed working a couple of shifts in Maccy D's while she was a student meant she 'became working class'. Not the first time she's given a somewhat embellished/fabricated account of her life and career. The story constantly changes depending on her audience. Given the grief that Rachael Reeves got for apparently bigging up her CV, Kemi doesn't half get off lightly with appearing to be making her past up as she goes along.
The only thing you can say with any certainty is that her parents came to England from Nigeria to give birth to her so that she would then have a British passport. The very definition of an economic migrant, the type of which she now rails against
I also love the way that her and her ilk now use 'woke' to mean 'anything I don't agree with'. They really are all morons
