Tories are apparently losing Red wall seats to … The greens!

Westminster voting intention in so-called "Red Wall" constituencies:

CON: 41% (-7)
LAB: 40% (+2)
GRN: 7% (+6)

via @YouGov, 17 – 28 Sep
Chgs. w/ GE2019https://t.co/Amvyf9SJxL

— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) October 4, 2021

I’m in full-on red wall land, and I find this one hard to run with.

In spite of their public words the Greens are hard core Eurosceptic that’s why Farage voted for them so it seems an obvious place for a Left leaning leaver to go.

https://policy.greenparty.org.uk/eu.html

“EU301 The present EU structures are fundamentally flawed. Their remoteness has resulted in a lack of accountability which is working against the interests of people and the environment.”

Plenty more in that vein.

Mind you, I’m not convinced that’s the explanation here.

Interesting. I’m not sure about that either. Who knows!

You would think most Wallers would associate Greens with lefty ‘claptrap’ as I heard one former Labour voter say.

Lefty claptrap from a traditional Labour voter! (Erm why did you ever vote Labour?)

Red wall seats maybe also contain significant amounts of Corbynite lefties who are jumping ship to the greens now Starmer has nailed his centrist colours to the mast.

It’s quite simplistic to think of red wall seats as being purely working class/socially conservative.

Or the poll is bollocks!

I think I was the only Corbyn voter in Bassetlaw, certainly on my street!

😉

Or the poll is bollocks!

They sort of all are.

But a small shift from Conservative to Labour, and a shift from Labour to the Green Party, wouldn’t be surprising right now, would it.

They are but they’re the only measurement we have between elections.

Got to keep this thread going because if we leave it to Starmer it will just fade off the server.

Latest Westminster voting intention (5-6 Oct)

Con: 39% (n/c from 28-29 Sep)
Lab: 31% (n/c)
Lib Dem: 9% (+1)
Green: 9% (n/c)
SNP: 6% (+1)
Reform UK: 4% (n/c)https://t.co/IqGUZnbKzb pic.twitter.com/epd0jFOwsY

— YouGov (@YouGov) October 7, 2021

.

But a small shift from Conservative to Labour, and a shift from Labour to the Green Party, wouldn’t be surprising right now, would it.

Not surprising but still disappointing that the Green party don’t poll better but then I guess the traditional voters vote for traditional parties and trust those parties to manage the country whereas they would probably, and understandably, see the Greens as a complete unknown

It’s telling that no-one has had anything to say about Special K for 3 days. Even the Guardian, which did more than any other paper to destroy Corbyn (according to David Graeber), is now putting the boot in:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/oct/08/people-bold-economic-change-tragedy-labour-boris-johnson-britain-progressive

Starmer’s gone quiet cos he’s been too busy thinking of ways to reignite the AS argument and the factional battles that will result from it. It’s literally the only thing he’s good at.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2021/oct/11/labour-to-accuse-five-ex-staff-members-of-leaking-antisemitism-report?CMP=Share_iOSApp_Other

Why did anyone have to leak the report anyway?

It’s telling that no-one has had anything to say about Special K for 3 days. Even the Guardian, which did more than any other paper to destroy Corbyn (according to David Graeber), is now putting the boot in:

He’s become insignificant in terms of news (s)tories.

Johnson being on holiday caused more debate than anything Starmer has said in the last three weeks.

Yeah but at least the press didn’t criticise him which they might have done if he had said something.

And focusing on attacking members of the Labour Party, especially ones that call themselves socialist, is bound to please the right-wing papers, which is of course very important.

I guess Starmer’s advisors have never seen the thick of it? It’s tragic.

Nothing quite captures Keir Starmer’s leadership like a car literally crashing with him at the helm, him failing a test to which he then mutters “very good” over and over again. pic.twitter.com/4f3wAaZCPP

— ashok kumar 🇵🇸 (@broseph_stalin) October 12, 2021

Hopeless… that’s not how you do it… you smash through the wall with both thumbs in the air… or wave some little flags when you’re “stuck” on a zip wire… absolute amateur hour. It’s like Miliband and his bacon butty… that should have been to camera… “Build Back Bacon”.

What a weird automaton he is though. Surely you’d have to have at least an embarrassed chuckle if you failed a driving test as part of a PR exercise. But no it’s ‘very good very good’ with a completely blank tone and expression. Probably wondered what Mandelson would tell him to do.

He doesn’t have any of the skill set of our current PM, he will never be PM. Johnson would have done much “worse” at this task, but come out laughing it off and gaining voters in doing so. Pulled a moony out of the cab window, or made a joke about running over green protestors or something. He’s a proper pro. He can connect even while looking hopeless and out of his depth.

Surely you’d have to have at least an embarrassed chuckle if you failed a driving test as part of a PR exercise

or comment on how its a skilled job and that bootcamps might not be the right solution.

Pulled a moony out of the cab window, or made a joke about running over green protestors or something.

Proper laugh my ass off.

I guess Starmer’s advisors have never seen the thick of it? It’s tragic

When you pen the protagonist in a script – the best anti-heros that the audience roots for are flawed losers.

It’s a simple as that.

Johnson is a successful invention in terms of political characters that just happens to be a real person.

So my next question is – was he ‘created’ or did he just evolve?

He ‘created’ himself. He. Is. Not. Stupid.

He ‘created’ himself. He. Is. Not. Stupid

There’s always a team behind these leaders though, pushing and pulling PR.

That Starmer hgv stunt is classic Johnson, I’m not sure he can pull it off the way the clown PM does,

but then I don’t get why people like it when Johnson does it, so what do I know?

I know that after the death of two MPs, this is a tough week to be opposition leader… but by god Starmer has been an utter waste of space this week, hasn’t he.

Who?

He’s got a massive goal net with covid currently. Huge.

Simon Wren-Lewis makes a simple analysis.

Another COVID thread. The results are clear. The government made a bad mistake in getting rid of compulsory masks, not introducing vaccine passports, and not protecting children at school. France kept compulsory masks in public places and schools, has vaccine 1/9

— simon wren-lewis (@sjwrenlewis) October 21, 2021

He’s not only failing to get a shot on that open goal (and it’s not the only one) but actively trying to get everyone to pretend it’s not there, and to keep passing around in Labour’s own half instead of even considering changing the goal tally.

The Labour Party need to hire Cummings, although I disagree strongly on Nandy.

Wake up LAB MPs. PM killed 150k. Most think he's useless. And that he's *better than Starmer*! Your dud even supported him on telling women to 'hail a bus'! Today 'we want PlanA to work' FFS. Get Nandy now. Youll soon be on 40 + tory civil war https://t.co/xtwzlBZwER

— Dominic Cummings (@Dominic2306) October 21, 2021

He’s not only failing to get a shot on that open goal (and it’s not the only one) but actively trying to get everyone to pretend it’s not there, and to keep passing around in Labour’s own half instead of even considering changing the goal tally.

It’s completely bizarre.

There must be some of the electorate that like the idea of the opposition pushing against the Government’s non-handling of the virus.

Is that such a small group of people?

Tories have the excuse that the right don’t do solutions to complex problems.

I’m pretty sure this is where Labour step in.

Starmer just came on the news.

Binnerstte number 1 (17 and presently doing politics A Level):

“I could just slap his useless face to try and get him to DO SOMETHING!”

15 year old Binnerette number 2:

“Who is he?”

I think that pretty much sums things up

The Tories must be incredulous at what exactly it is they have to do to raise the Labour Party from its catatonic state? Kill another 100,000 over the winter?

Starmer just came on the news.

Most excited he’s been all year with the sounds of it.

Even Labour MPs who are in seats which are currently marginal seats are unlikely to lose their seats next general election.

Taking on the Tories lacks any urgency for them and when coupled with no discernible political convictions I can understand the reason for the widespread apathy which appears to have gripped the Parliamentary Labour Party.

Starmer isn’t rocking the boat, everything is just plodding along with very little criticism from the press, why make things difficult by getting all bolshie?

why make things difficult by getting all bolshie?

As I’ve always said, very few of them care about winning or changing anything, they just want to protect themselves. And they wonder why people think they’re useless.

Starmer isn’t rocking the boat, everything is just plodding along with very little criticism from the press, why make things difficult by getting all bolshie?

He’s completely happy to rock the boat if it means getting rid of certain elements of the party.

Probably not seen as rocking the boat by Starmer and his supporters but simply a way of placating the press/media, which can be very hostile if you send out the wrong message and frighten them into thinking that you might change things.

But yeah I get what you’re saying, Starmer is up for a fight as long as it’s not against the Tories.

Which for me is frankly more shocking than Tories behaving like Tories.

Which for me is frankly more shocking than Tories behaving like Tories

Yes imagine our suprise when they don’t just carry out race-to-the-bottom policies but do them badly too.

Nothing new.

Just up road from me. (Council)

By-elections mean nothing etc etc

Rainworth South and Blidworth (Newark and Sherwood) by-election result:

IND: 66.2% (+35.8)
CON: 17.1% (-12.9)
LAB: 16.7% (-22.9)

Independent GAIN from Labour.

— Britain Elects (@BritainElects) October 22, 2021

By-elections mean nothing etc etc

And council by-elections considerably less than parliamentary by-elections.

The next government won’t be made up of independents.

That result provides only percentage figures, no vote numbers. Some ward by-elections the total number of votes is just a few dozen so very few people can have a dramatic effect on percentage changes.

Last week there was a borough-wide referendum on directly elected mayors in Croydon, one polling station, despite remaining open until 10pm, only had 17 votes cast the whole day.

And local issues obviously have a far more profound effect than in a general election. Why was the by-election called?

So while people on Twitter are busy doing an excellent job of holding the tories to account on dumping sewerage into rivers, what are the Labour Party doing?

Starmer's Labour is possibly the first political party in the world to believe that manufacturing constant disputes and infighting in their own party, rather than in the government, is the route to power. pic.twitter.com/X0vfWZyKdc

— Doug (@redandriveting) October 24, 2021

So while people on Twitter are busy doing an excellent job of holding the tories to account on dumping sewerage into rivers, what are the Labour Party doing?

The up-tick in stories about sewage run-off over the weekend off is a strange one. The water companies have been allowed to do this since forever. so that they can prevent flooding and so on, Certainly the monitoring of it has increased, I’m not sure the quantity has significantly. I’ve seen both the Tories and Brexit being blamed, although directly Johnson’s govt isn’t to blame here (the water companies were privatised in the 90s?) If you want a target, look to the water cos who’ve paid billions in dividends and haven’t done enough infrastructure updates, and the legions of folks flushing wet wipes down the loo.

I’m not sure jumping on bandwagons that are tilting at windmills is a good strategy for Labour is it?