least Reform voting seat in the UK…Standouts seem to be:

Edinburgh North and Leith 3.7%

Islington North 3.5%

Bristol Central 3.1%

Hackney and Stoke Newington 3.1%

Interesting that these are all constituencies where there is another protest/anti-establishment candidate ie SNP, Corbyn, Green, Abbot.

Over 40% of them [didn’t vote]…If you were in the SNP excuse factory you’d be saying those people were least likely to be those who were desperate for change.

If you’re saying the 40% of the electorate that didn’t vote should be counted as people that “don’t want change”, then between them and those that voted Labour and Tory it creates an overwhelming majority of voters that don’t want any change to the Union.

Which really shows nothing but what a barrel-scrapingly terrible, nonsensical, anti-democratic excuse that would be…if anyone were to make it. ?

Meanwhile, more prominence for Anas Sarwar…is not a good thing for Labour. Hopefully he will realise that the Labour Party under Starmer is going to be more demanding when it comes to transparency and anti-sleaze, and that his family machine politics are an anachronism. But I doubt it.

We laugh and scoff but if it was a Muslim, Jewish or other faith that dominated a region and the culture was grounded in that faith we would all criticise people who don’t respect that.

If Muslims or Jews in this country were going around harassing people for drinking beer or operating a light bulb on a Friday evening they’d get told to do one. They don’t and everything goes fine. Fundamentalists in Scotland are no different. They’re entitled to make their own choices but not impose them on others, and no-one from this country should feel apologetic or embarrassed about doing things that are perfectly legal and normal.

not even sure what the SNP MPs do in the bigger picture

Wow, it’s Schrodinger’s reserved matters: on one hand, the fact that Scotland doesn’t have them and isn’t independent is a huge impediment to its progress for reasons. On the other hand, the fact that the SNP is going to be even less engaged on them means nothing.

So if we win the euros 7 nil against ze Germans are we going to complain about the lack of nutmegs and overhead bicycle kicks?

Well, under the last manager England scored 9 goals against Germany, so really that win is a failure (even though in that game Germany scored 14 goals and England was eliminated).

‘Ill give Labour 6 months and if they cant fix things thats it’

In the big company I work for, you can’t even move a desk from side of the office to the other in six months.

The UK isn’t an outlier, it’s on exactly the same path as France et al, just a little bit behind.

Or possibly a little bit ahead. Hopefully we are coming out of the populist U-bend, having seen that it doesn’t work.

The beauty of it is that if these (above) are funded correctly this…immigration…becomes unimportant

This is magical thinking. It will never become unimportant that the UK and French governments allow organised crime groups to land 400 people a week without controls. It will never be sensible for the solution to low paid, low productivity jobs being enabling employers to do more of the same through more immigration. It will never be possible to build our way out of a housing crisis if the population  is growing half a million per annum.

Immigration isn’t going away as an issue based on economic growth or increased government spending or nicer vibes.

Nothing about what he will change, just politics is moving back to serving the public.

I agree with you about the lack of fireworks. But you have to remember we’ve had a decade of total jokers who thought that politics was a platform for self-enrichment or trolling or sticking it to the ********s. It was a bit pedantic and weary headmaster in tone, but it’s totally consistent with the challenge: stop the ship sinking and then sailing it back in the right direction again.

there’s a fairly lucrative potential future for him as a conservative talking head on Fox News and the like.

No, there’s not! He’s ugly, unreliable, boring, has a weird accent, and knows nothing about US politics. US viewers aren’t interested in him. There’s a million people in the queue ahead of him who are prettier and cheaper and have spent more years earning more favours.

watching live on Sky news, he’s just driven the wrong way round a roundabout. Typical, thinking they’re above the law.

I think Kier Starmer’s been a rubbish PM so far. He’s done nothing to cut costs for hardworking families, done nothing for Palestine, and done nothing on climate change. What was the point? I’m voting Reform next time.

Since Reform is basically ‘Big Nige PLC’ there’s nowhere for an ambitious party MP to go.

I think if I were a Reform MP, I’d be looking for the first opportunity to stab Farage in the back and then run across to the Tory party. They’re wrecked today but they still have a bunch of institutional machinery and knowledge in the business of getting re-elected.

I think [Farage]’d rather have come a close second, bragged about how well he’d done then scuttled off to America to get whatever scraps the orange oaf throws his way.

Trump is not a great friend of Farage, Trump is not going to give Farage anything for free, Farage does not have any influence in the US, and Farage is not making tons of money in the US. All of these things are myths spread by Farage himself. It is total bullshit. He is an ugly-toothed, incomprehensible no-one in US politics.

why really does a Welsh-only party…have any real business campaigning based on UK foreign policy when practically, they will be completely unable to affect it?

Because Welsh voters that agree with PC’s position are entitled to representation, because opposition MPs play a strong role in scrutiny and committees (not just votes), and because foreign policy in particular throws up dilemmas that aren’t neatly divisible along ideological lines. That’s exactly when cross-party or conscience votes are possible.

The whole point of devolved nations sending MPs to Westminster is to influence reserved matters like foreign policy!

The last nail in the coffin for this country will be a Labour government…To coin a phrase from a popular sitcom: We’re doomed.

It’s been about 40 years since Dad’s Army was popular. But to be fair your stereotype of the Labour Party is about 40 years out of date too. You’re the last person alive that thinks the Labour Party is socialist!

They’ll try to appeal to Reform – and unlike UKIP, Reform actually have high profile MPs now. Farage is going to be unbelievably dangerous and generally awful all round.

Reform will have about an eighth of the seats that the SNP had in the last parliament. The Tories found it pretty easy to ignore the SNP then. Labour can do the same now. Spending the next five years worrying about the party that’s going to spend the whole time infighting and shit-stirring would be a monumental mistake.

Is it just me or have labour done much worse than everyone was expecting?

lol

It pains me to say it – Farage is nailing his talking points and setting out his stall for the next five years. Ffffff…

The original labour candidate got purged for not being a true believer

She got purged for shitposting online about the “Jewish lobby”.

Faiza Shaheen huffing and stomping her feet.

Grant Shapps speaking under his own name as opposed to a pseudonym.

Starmer’s speech is very worthy and headteacher-y, slightly tediously laying out the purpose of things and how they work. But that’s maybe what is needed when there is no consensus about what politics is for or how it should work. People have had enough of clowns and entertainers.

Ed Davey of the Lib Dems saying a lot of the simple words about health and care that I wish I had heard more from Labour. His campaign choices seem to have really paid off.

30p Lee. Ugh.

we need to start thinking about mandatory voting 55% turn out is an embarrassment

They have mandatory voting in Australia. That’s how you end up with novelty parties and microparties like the Australian Motorists’ Party and the Hunters & Shooters Party. They end up taking unpredictable extreme policies on topics that are totally outside their mandate.

Yes Cougar, all normal people who are pissed off at the two main parties not doing anything to help them are racists. Classic STW!

No, @dazh, that’s not what was said.

But in any case if you vote for a party with a racist platform (and not much else), then it’s fair enough to describe you as a racist. What’s so hard to believe about 10-20% of the population being racist?

Meanwhile – look at the hat on that lady on the left behind the journalist in the pink jacket in Welwyn! It’s massive!!!

Carol Vorders turning up the volume. Good for her.

I’m expecting a Starmer government to be boring but competent managers/bureaucrats and hard workers. I think that’ll be what’s most needed to deal with systematic and institutional sized problems.

I hope this is right. It’ll take 3-4 years to even produce a 10 year plan to un-fluff this country from 14 years of nihilism and destruction. With luck, Labour will win a second five year term, get halfway through executing it, things will improve – and then the electorate will elect a new government that will drive it into the sea again. :(

I am reading the SNP loses as two things – 1) a general hold your nose and vote the tories out and 2) after 17 years in power in holyrood thy are tired and folk are tired of them – but you must remember the SNP are only a part of the independence movement

It makes no sense to switch from the SNP to Labour if you want to GTTO.

It’s true that the SNP is one component of the independence movement, and it’s true that support for independence doesn’t track support for the SNP. But the SNP is the standard-bearer and bulwark and dominant component of that movement. There is no effective organising body for Scottish independence other than the SNP, and independence is the defining policy of the SNP. There’s no-one other than the SNP that can deliver independence…and there’s no confidence in the SNP’s ability to deliver anything.

There’s also the slightly awkward point that the SNP is broke as a result of the shenanigans of its former leadership and it’s probably going to lose a whole bunch of state election funding.

There’s not a world in which the collapse in support for the SNP isn’t a massive setback for the independence movement. Maybe even a generational one…

Sunderland with Reform in the second place. Approximately 7k plus difference only.

Sunderland was the most Brexity city in the UK (IIRC). If Reform were only a Brexit party, you’d expect their support there to be the strongest in the country. But with their new, overt xenophobic platform, maybe they have a wider appeal.

the thought of Farage sitting in parliament disgusts me.

Don’t worry, it disgusts him even more. He won’t show up much.

I’m enjoying this Genny Lex so far…

Dorres is trying to sound intelligent

“There will be a lot of dissatisfied Labour people going into Parliament because Labour didn’t get the lead it was predicted”.

Not with a 280 seat majority they won’t be dissatisfied, Nads!

Such a huge majority will prove a discipline problem for Starmer. As there is no chance the government will lose a vote, MPs will feel free to kick off and vote against party lines.

Reform on 13. Labour NEED to deliver over the next 5 years or we’ll have PM Farage.

They’ll be rats in a sack. Farage can’t even persuade himself to stick to his own party line.

Channel 4 exit poll prediction:

* Labour 410 seats

* Conservatives 131 seats

* Lib Dem 61 seats

* Reform 13 seats

* SNP 10 seats

* Green, Plaid Cymru, Northern Irish parties, Speaker 25 seats

I had just about steeled myself to vote labour then came Starmers latest pro brexit announcement.  I just cannot vote for a party that is a brexiteer party

I do sympathise with TJ and he has obviously thought long and hard and done his research. I don’t agree with the outcome.

On the failure of Labour to push rejoining the EU as a priority: I was skeptical that the EU was interested in hearing any more bullshit from the UK about this. They’re much more interested in Serbia, Macedonia, Ukraine and even Armenia – getting them in the bloc makes EU members safer and unlocks infrastructure opportunities. Those countries have also spent decades working towards integration.

Recognising that isn’t being pro-Brexit. Jean-Claude Juncker is not a Brexiteer. In the last couple of days:

ON BREXIT: “When you leave a boat, you can’t get back on the same boat,” says the man who — with Michel Barnier — led the EU’s side of Brexit talks. Never? “In a century or two, yes,” he said, eyes sparkling mischievously behind his glasses. He notes that no British political party fighting today’s election wants to rejoin the EU (with Labour Party Leader Keir Starmer — who is widely expected to be the U.K.’s next PM — saying the country would not rejoin the EU’s single market in his lifetime). Britain is “currently discovering the consequences of its vote, and the consequences correspond exactly to what we told them they’d be,” Juncker says.

https://www.politico.eu/newsletter/brussels-playbook/juncker-says-uk-can-rejoin-eu-in-a-century-or-two/

I’d have thought lucky would be a better descriptive. Lucky to be the current leader at around election time when Joe Public got to vote out the shitshow that the tories are.

Corbyn and Kinnock were leaders at election times when Tory shitshows were on full display. They failed. Blair succeeded. Starmer – we will see. It’s not just luck.

no party of influence is talking about re-joining the EU.

the SNP.  the Greens.  We do not all live in racist pockets of England

The Greens are not an influential party. The SNP is influential in the small minority of constituencies where it stands, but it does not have a policy of rejoining the EU. It has a two step policy of independence and then Scotland becoming a member of the EU. That’s an even longer timescale than the UK becoming a member of the EU again, which itself would take years and years. And that’s if the EU states were even interested in hearing our bullshit at all – we have seen how the “they need us more than we need them” argument plays out already.

We do not all live in racist pockets of England – nor irredentist pockets of Northern Ireland or separatist pockets of Scotland.

Given that he’s a bit of a boozer it’s probably a simple statement

LOL – according to you he is a secret alcoholic and a football hooligan!

Could you live in Spain and cross the border to work each day?

Not without the legal right to live in Spain, no. And unlike everyone else who overstays and lives in Spain illegally, you’d be offering yourself up for inspection every day! You would also be tax resident in both Spain and Gibraltar (although you wouldn’t need to pay tax at the full rate in both).

The problem with labour is that as soon as they are in office on Friday they’ll see it as job done.

The problem with Labour is they always try and walk it in.

The idea of some magic drug to focus my brain sounds amazing but I will likely give up chasing a solution due to lack of attention lol

There is a bit of a paradox there, it’s true.

I think I’m only a mild case and only take a mild dose, but I have definitely found it worthwhile.

@luke – my OH says I am less awful to be around now

Whoever posted a few pages back about NHS patient info being dumbed down to the reading age of a 7/8 year old (“your tummy”) had it right.

I finished university and have had GI surgery. I still don’t know the difference between “stomach”, “intestines” “colon”, “guts”, “belly”, “abdomen”, and “tummy”. But everybody understands “tummy”. Do you want people to understand or not?

What’s wrong with using more simple language anyway? Is “stool” that much better than “poo”? Why?

I don’t agree with all of this politico-intellectual snobbery against people with lower rates of formal literacy, especially when it comes to their health.

Taxi driver hit my dad – the guy drove with my dad directly to the paint shop that taxi drivers all use, paid for the fix on the spot and it was all done within about 90 minutes of it happening!

Neighbour hit my dad – I popped the bumper and wing back out, got rid of the paint transfer, and told my dad to let it slide for an easy life with the neighbours. That was stupid – I had missed the cracked headlamp and pierced AC lines. Argh