UK Election!

Bitch as much as you want about how centre-right Labour/Starmer are, but right now stage 1 of any meaningful change in UK politics is to get this bunch of self serving, corrupt crooks who have been wrecking the country for their own benefit out of office. To be as effective as possible that means tactical voting. That’s easy for me to say as the only opposition to the incumbent Tory in my constituency is a Libdem who I would be voting for anyway. But if some other party was better placed to beat the Tory I would vote for them. Oh and bring on the Reform candidates, the more the better, to take votes off the Tories.

I reckon part of the sudden “we’ll call an election” is that they know that Rwanda flights won’t be happening anytime soon if at all – so by calling an election now, they’re now saying “our flights are ready to go, we’ve got them all lined up” (Sunak has actually already said this) and use that as an election tool. If they win, they can just break that promise and blame woke lefties (as usual), if they lose they can then say that everything was in order but Evil Labour have cancelled it all.

Yet more lies to win a vote – all they really need to do is write it on the side of a bus…

Oh and bring on the Reform candidates, the more the better, to take votes off the Tories.

Careful what you wish for, that was the attitude of some socialists in France going back a few elections. The Socialist Party is now insignificant and the FN/RN the second biggest or biggest force in French politics. Sure they took votes off the Repulicans but took votes off everyone else too.

I was watching the lunchtime news today. The Beeb had its usual trio of journalists shadowing the party leaders.

However this time the third journalist was tracking the Reform UK leader not the Lib Dems (who hardly got a mention).

I vote Lib Dem but are they a spent force?

However this time the third journalist was tracking the Reform UK leader not the Lib Dems (who hardly got a mention).

If they stick with that format, they will almost certainly rotate the third party slot.

Lib Dems, SNP, Reform, whoever…

I vote Lib Dem but are they a spent force?

More like what are they for?

They were always the party in the middle between Labour and Tories (centrists, you could say).  Now Labour policies are very similar to many of the Tories’ policies but their main selling point is they are not corrupt and incompetent.

Where does that leave the LibDems?  Less corrupt and incompetent than the Tories but more corrupt and incompetent than Labour?

They need some principles (and some policies).

I vote Lib Dem but are they a spent force?

Not at all, it’s just that the media have an absolute obsession with UKIP / Reform. In the recent Mayoral elections, the Green party candidate came 3rd in EMCCA. The media weren’t interested in anything he had to say, they rushed straight to the Reform guy who got about 1% of the votes.

Look at how many times Frogface Farage has appeared on Question Time in spite of not being an MP, not being a credible candidate. There are loads of LD / Green and other “minority” parties who’d love even 10% of the coverage that Reform get.

You lefties should really take your tinfoil helmets off every once in a while

I see. I must’ve imagined the mass resignations and Labour MPs advising people to vote Tory.

lil rishi using ringers at staged events

I vote Lib Dem but are they a spent force?

its a good point, realistically the Lib Dems have the best chance of some major upsets in the blue wall, Gove, Mogg, etc, but a real danger a big labour swing in those constituencies could split the anti tory vote

It’s so disappointing when what should be a challenging and interesting discussion gets infected with the reductionism of ‘tin foil helmets, haterz, lefties, bitching’ in place of an argument or bit of evidence. It doesn’t reflect well on people.

It’s so disappointing when what should be a challenging and interesting discussion gets infected with the reductionism of ‘tin foil helmets, haterz, lefties, bitching’ in place of an argument or bit of evidence. It doesn’t reflect well on people.

I suggest STW should introduce a pro/am distinction for politics threads.

Let the usual suspects bicker and feel superior in the “pro” thread, and the rest of us can have a sensible discussion in the “amateur” thread.

its just so cringey

'Are you looking forward to all the football?'@RishiSunak asks voters in Wales, before one person points out Wales didn't qualify for the euros pic.twitter.com/Vl8rLqKEEM

— ITV News Politics (@ITVNewsPolitics) May 23, 2024

They need some principles (and some policies).

They have both, possibly too many of the former.

The problem for them is that their core vote is smaller and is heavily diffused throughout the country and its more tricky for them to appeal to the wider voters vs labour/tory who can hope their core vote remain loyal whilst chasing the lib dem voters.

its just so cringey

Reminds me of when a multi national I was working for decided to sponsor a premier league team. Had a global call with people from all over cheering and sounding happy and then got to the UK where it was met with mostly sullen silence since whilst a small number of people supported them the majority either didnt give a toss about football or supported another team.

Just had my labour candidate at the door (dedication considering the weather) having had a labour campaigner back in November.  Judging by the leaflets I’ve been given they were ready to go and are not surprised and clearly putting effort into changing the seat from SNP to Labour.

You lefties should really take your tinfoil helmets off every once in a while

Am lost here – if anti-tory then should be pro-left?

That would be one way to correct the errors of right-wing policy that we all despise.

Bitch as much as you want about how centre-right Labour/Starmer are, but right now stage 1 of any meaningful change in UK politics is to get this bunch of self serving, corrupt crooks who have been wrecking the country for their own benefit out of office.

I don’t think it unreasonable to ask for something more than that in an election where the odds are stacked against the Tories.

Parties have to earn your votes. Sell me something good and I’m in. But it’s mostly been very very poor.

Here is some more info about deadlines for registering to vote and for postal votes etc

https://www.electoralcommission.org.uk/i-am-a/voter

How to register and how to vote.

Vote in UK elections

I must’ve imagined the mass resignations and Labour MPs advising people to vote Tory.

Pretty much, a few low level councillors scoring political points on an issue that their party couldn’t really influence and was hardly applicable to local level politics, but we’ve done this death and it’s yesterday’s news. Starmer has long since purged the party of the problematic members who only wanted to be in opposition.

Meanwhile we actually have a Labour party with a good chance of being a real party of government that will represent a large proportion of the population, not just the left. What still scares me is the number of people who would rather vote Tory than give Labour a chance. Despite the wailing and gnashing of teeth on here about Labour’s move to the centre the message still doesn’t seem to have reached parts of the population.

The Lib Dem’s have the best chance of getting PR into mainstream UK politics.  Whether this is the right time for that is another question, but part of me would love to see Labour win, but without a majority and for the Lib Dem’s to agree to govern, but in exchange for a vote on PR.  If PR gets into play, it’s doubtful that the Tories would ever govern again.

I reckon part of the sudden “we’ll call an election” is that they know that Rwanda flights won’t be happening anytime soon if at all – so by calling an election now, they’re now saying “our flights are ready to go, we’ve got them all lined up” (Sunak has actually already said this) and use that as an election tool.

the downside of that election tool is… Labour have been preparing in case there was an early election just in case Sunak’s ‘second half of 2024’ turned out to be a bluff so they got their ducks in a row. The Conservative Party itself seems to have been banking on the election being as late as possible – partly in the hope that ‘something might happen’ that might somehow improve their fortunes, partly as a courtesy to all the incumbent MPs who’ll doubtless lose their seats and giving them a few more pay-cheques. Having called the election as early in the ‘second half of the year’ as possible Sunak seems to have outwitted his own party- with so many current MPs standing down theres quite a lot of seats where they haven’t actually lined up a candidate yet, They’ve started a campaign with nobody to actually campaign for. The conservatives as a party aren’t ready for a July election.

Lets face it – they weren’t even ready for rain.

Lib Dem’s to agree to govern, but in exchange for a vote on PR.

Groundhog Day

If PR gets into play, it’s doubtful that the Tories would ever govern again.

Oh PR wouldn’t stop the Tories from governing, they would just have to regularly form coalitions. As conservative parties currently do in most of Europe.

And don’t assume that enforced coalitions on right-wing parties necessarily makes them more moderate. In much of Europe it currently means forming a government with far-right parties.

Under PR Reform UK would do far better than it will do on July 4th, when it is very unlikely to get any MPs. It is perfectly feasible for a Tory-ReformUK-DUP coalition in the future under PR.

And I can’t see PR bringing in any great benefits for Labour, it would more than likely mean the end of Labour majority governments.

Having said that I strongly support PR. The aim should be to win the argument, not manipulate the electoral system.

blame woke lefties

Mad isn’t it how woke lefties/Marxists are to blame for everything yet haven’t been in charge of anything, even at a local level as long as I’ve been alive. So much damage with so little/non-existent power, what an amazing supernatural force!

Anyway according to the voters who actually vote, yeah cantankerous old **** the problem is it’s not been right-wing enough.

The average British voter off to the polling station.

Lib Dem’s to agree to govern, but in exchange for a vote on PR

That went well…

After the recent fallout in the Scottish Parliament, maybe it’s not the best time to mention moving to PR 🤣

As for the election, hope labour do well, and i will be voting LibDem again, only choice to oust the tory incumbent (Thornbury and Yate), voted last time thinking it might work and the tories managed to increase their percentage, it shows that it’s not a forgone conclusion yet, there are a hell of a lot of tory voters who will always vote tory, even when they continually say they won’t, labour need those ‘centrists’ who may shift their vote to do so, that’s where this election will be fought, the middle 20%.

Our election boundary has been redrawn, what was historically true blue is almost certainly going to be LibDem going forward, every seat counts.

It’s a little hard to judge how to vote tactically in my constituency to unseat the Tory incumbent. Labour and the LDs were neck and neck last time.  But the LD’s share was up and Labour well down on the previous time, so my instinct is that Labour’s fortunes are on the up so they have the best chance of bouncing back. If it were a bye-election, I’d be voting on who I thought would be the best constituency MP regardless of what colour rosette.  But this time I’m not going to waste the opportunity to do all I can to make this safe Tory seat unsafe!

It’s a difficult one to call. I suspect the LD argument would be that it sounds like the kind of seat where Lab’s vote ceiling is lower than theirs, but it’s not (so far as I know) a top target seat either.

Lib Dem’s to agree to govern, but in exchange for a vote on PR

For all those saying ‘again’ AV isn’t proportional so we’ve never voted on this. I think it’s well recognised in the party that asking for an AV referendum was a bit of a tactical blunder (though they went for AV thinking Lab would support this) and I think if they’d asked for STV for local elections instead of the arrant nonsense that is electing in thirds, they’d have got it without a vote.

Very little chance of it going to Labour in my area – which baffles me, it incorporates loads of ex mining villages. Must be the posh lot in Duffield and Quarndon that swing it to Tory!…

I’m just watching Richi chatting shite on the news in a Midlands factory. Why would you agree/volunteer to sit behind or anywhere near the arsehole and not swear at him or heckle?

The audience was carefully selected apparently – the ‘off the cuff’ questions came from Tory voters.

Why would you agree/volunteer to sit behind or anywhere near the arsehole and not swear at him or heckle

They may not be a representative sample of factory workers… judging by recent headlines.

TJ- They have trying to harness that power for literally decades. So far the issues have been insurmountable on a commercially viable scale.

Can’t believe that Starmer has been blocking it for that long. What an absolute dick.

get this bunch of self serving, corrupt crooks who have been wrecking the country for their own benefit out of office. To be as effective as possible that means tactical voting.

In my constituency the Tories have, with remarkable consistency really, had a lower vote share with every election since 1979. They were at 11.7% in 2019 and fancy their chances of continuing the run in 2024…

Sorry, but Sunak’s speech in the rain just said it all.

Absurd, sad, defeated, it sums up we are after 14 years of Tories.

https://x.com/Samfr/status/1793712476816912724

Fieldwork done yesterday and today.

I have only just discovered that due to boundary changes I’m now in a different constituency than I was previously.

The best news is that my current Tory MP – Kieran Mullen – is standing down and none of the 3 other constituencies he tried to get into didn’t want him. Apparently he’s disliked so much even the Tories hate him!

I’m guessing this means that the local party won’t have a clue yet who will be replacing him so with luck Labour will make a good show of it.

@the-muffin-man If you take a look at this page you will see the change from Labour to Conservative occurred at the time of boundary changes in 2010.