General election/politics

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

General election/politics

christ · Futures level

JonH comes home wrote:
The political divide of old were people had strongly entrenched alignments (like we see in the US these days were people are very clearly one or the other) has gone for good and very many people will now vote with what works for them on an election by election basis, ideologies are lost or blended and part of history for many voters

I don't think that this is true. I think the low turnout was primarily due to entrenched Conservative voters refusing to vote for anyone else, but not wanting to vote with their history. (similarly Corbynite labour voters may have avoided the polling station rather than support Starmer's mob)

This is an odd election for me: I feel that the general country-wide thrust was "anyone but Conservative", but Labour are likely to interpret it as a massive "pro-Labour" mandate.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Yes, I agree.
This is a massive vote against the Conservatives
And, as you say, diehard Tories couldn't bring themselves to vote for anyone else and understandably stayed away

THe percentage of the actual vote is pretty much irrelevant - it's always that way - that's the way our constituency system works (whether a good idea or not)

Elegant Point · Satellite level

Yesterday's election results were a bit of a rollercoaster, with some surprising wins and losses. It was like watching a game of political musical chairs, but instead of just losing a seat, some politicians lost their entire careers. As for Keir Starmer, only time will tell if he can live up to the hype and actually make a difference. Me thinks not hmm

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

Ok I get your points. I still think there are a larger than ever number of swing voters though - Torys borrowed a lot when it was anyone but Labour and maybe youre right that a lot of people have voted against Tory as opposed to for Labour, I agree with that and that was my point. As you say, Labour havent actually got a massive popular mandate through this , maybe in terms of seats but not in terms of support.

Barefoot · Lower Club Player

Coup Droit wrote:
Really unimpressed with the comments of our tennis players, by the way, before the event:

www.theguardian.com/sport/article/2024/jul/03/emma-raducanu-claims-ignorance-of-general-election-and-says-she-will-lie-in

For Emma to supposedly be wanting to go to Oxford, and to say she doesn't know that yesterday was election day. Either she's an idiot or she's lying.

And the others are no better.

Only Harriet gave a comment that you can relate to

I find that really poor; the very least they could have said, as role models, was: "I'm not going to talk about politics directly, but elections are important events and it'd be great if young people went and voted"

God, me too. Emma especially. I get you might not want to have a chat about your voting intentions but at least show some knowledge of whats going on. Theyre not stupid, Id be astounded if they didnt all realise there was an election!!

What I found interesting about this election by the way is how local it all was. A significant number of very local issues/trends leading to independents taking seats on Gaza, splitting votes elsewhere and very tactical campaigning by the Greens and Lib Dems especially that really paid off.

Bob in Spain · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Blue_Belle wrote:
Farage is an MP. Wtf.

Good thing about living in NZ is that it's daytime when the results are trickling through.
ETA: Suella, really!?????

I'm glad Farage is finally an MP (and with only 3 other mates - Nigel-Practically-No-Mates)
At last he can stop griping and causing mayhem from the outside and then claiming he's going to leave the country if he doesn't get his way. He's an MP now - put up or shut up

In a strange way, I am also glad he got in as he will now be much more subject to scrutiny. eg. He will have to publicly declare his financial interests.

Will also be interesting to see if later in the year, he still heads off to the USA to campaign for Trump while being paid by UK tax payers. Let's be honest, his record of attendance as an MEP was pretty dire.

Someone also needs to shut down this narrative he keeps going on about when he says 'we are a start-up party' who hasn't had time to get their structure in place. He got 4m votes (14%). As UKIP in 2015, he got 3.9m votes (12.6%). It's just the same party under a different name.

Tanaqui · Club Coach

JonH comes home wrote:
crazy thing is Labour got a landslide in terms of seats with only 34% of the actual vote; dont get me wrong, glad they won, but it is hardly a mandate and those seats are very much borrowed - its a fragile although large majority in terms of the public support and they are going to need to deliver. Added to that, turnout was low so it is a low percentage of a low turnout (lowest ever winning percentage? I dont know but feels like it must be?)

A big reason for that is that Labour deliberately focused their efforts on improving their vote share in seats they wanted to flip and didn't look at increasing their vote share in (safe) seats they already held. So the swing and extra votes were much higher in the 200 or so seats they gained, while they kept a similar number of votes (or less) compared to last time in the 200 or so seats they were defending. (Source: Beth Rigby on Sky, sometime in the middle of last night.)

This backfired in a few cases, like Jonathan Ashworth (?) losing his seat.

Also, yes, the turnout was mostly lower (depressingl6 so) because a lot of Conservative voters stayed at home because they couldn't bear to vote for the Conservatives but also couldn't bear to vote for anyone else.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Coup Droit wrote:
Blue_Belle wrote:
Farage is an MP. Wtf.

Good thing about living in NZ is that it's daytime when the results are trickling through.
ETA: Suella, really!?????

I'm glad Farage is finally an MP (and with only 3 other mates - Nigel-Practically-No-Mates)

Now four other mates after the umpteenth recount in South Basildon & East Thurrock handed that rabble the new seat from a notional Tory candidate.

Stircrazy · Tennis legend

Elegant Point wrote:
Yesterday's election results were a bit of a rollercoaster, with some surprising wins and losses. It was like watching a game of political musical chairs, but instead of just losing a seat, some politicians lost their entire careers. As for Keir Starmer, only time will tell if he can live up to the hype and actually make a difference. Me thinks not

I agree, more's the pity, especially with the likes of Rayner as Deputy PM, Lammy as Foreign Secretary & Ed Miliband (Energy Secretary) in the mix. I'm prepared to give Rachel Reeves & Yvette Cooper a chance - for now...

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

Stircrazy wrote:
Coup Droit wrote:
Blue_Belle wrote:
Farage is an MP. Wtf.

Good thing about living in NZ is that it's daytime when the results are trickling through.
ETA: Suella, really!?????

I'm glad Farage is finally an MP (and with only 3 other mates - Nigel-Practically-No-Mates)
Now four other mates after the umpteenth recount in South Basildon & East Thurrock handed that rabble the new seat from a notional Tory candidate.

Well, Nigel's got 14% so I've no problem with them having another seat (much as I despise them, it's the democratic system)

And, yep, it's another Tory less so that's fine too

emmsie69 · Top national player

Just when you thought the bar couldn't get any lower along comes David (A cervix I understand is something you can have following various procedures and hormone treatment) Lammy as Foreign Secretary.

Coup Droit · Tennis legend

emmsie69 wrote:
Just when you thought the bar couldn't get any lower along comes David (A cervix I understand is something you can have following various procedures and hormone treatment) Lammy as Foreign Secretary.

But at least he also said that Trump is a psychopathic Nazi

JonH comes home · Tennis legend

That said, Timpson as prisons minister and bringing in valance are inspired and closing down Rwanda on day one is cause for celebration

emmsie69 · Top national player

Coup Droit wrote:
emmsie69 wrote:
Just when you thought the bar couldn't get any lower along comes David (A cervix I understand is something you can have following various procedures and hormone treatment) Lammy as Foreign Secretary.
But at least he also said that Trump is a psychopathic Nazi

Just what we need in a Foreign Secretary, particularly now that Trump is almost certain to be POTUS again.