OT- General Election July 4

[mattmw]

Jul 5, 2024 0:33:19 GMT 1 vladimir said:

A majority like that on 36% of the vote with a lowish turnout by the looks. What a ludicrous system.

High time FPTP is decimated and we join the 21st century.

It is also slightly ironic that the the Liberal Democrats look to be heading for 60 seats on a vote share of about 10% when of all the parties they are the most in favour of Proportional Representation. 

Tachtical voting seems to be playing a big role too. Labour win v Conservatives in Swindon just now also showed a poor vote for Liberal Democrats in that seat, despite them gaining votes nationally, which suggests traditional Lib Dem votes have shared their vote with Labour to vote out Conservatives, and potentially elsewhere Labour supporters have voted Lib Dem to help them win seats from the conservatives.

Overall though I agree its really unhealthy for politics to be dominated by just one party on a low percentage of the vote, and other excluded for 5 years. I know First Past the Post traditionally produces a clear result, but a more balanced reflection of different politics making decisions is likely in my view to make better decision making in the long term and give people more involvement in the decisons being taken.

[Worthingshrew]

ITV saying Labour win Shrewsbury- brilliant.

[Deleted]

Woohoo Labour win 😁😁😁😁😁😁

Great night to watch it all unfold. Time for bed now

[ProudSalopian]

Good news on Danny boy finally going. I'm not sure Shaun Davies being MP for Telford is going to be good news for Shrewsbury as someone suggested earlier in the thread.

Some interesting analysis from the BBC, Reform has definitely had a huge impact on them.

"So far, the Conservatives have lost 173 seats. In 124 of these, the Reform vote was greater than the margin of the Conservatives' defeat.

Of these seats, 99 were won by Labour, 19 by the Lib Dems, two by nationalists, and four by Reform themselves".

[stuttgartershrew]

Reform have certainly played their part. I look to my home constituency back in the UK for example and the Tory and Reform vote combined is near on 60%, Labour got in with 35%. I'm sure that has happened across the country. But even so, its not for the Tories to blame others for looking for an alternative, its on them.

Labour will be delighted, as will the Lib Dems, Reform too. As for the Tories, despite taking an absolute kicking I think there will be some relief as I did wonder whether there would be anything left of the party to make any sort of comeback. They've managed to hang on in there.

[Minormorris64]

Matthew will have to stick to his planning consultancy then

[zenfootball2]

I'm over the moon to have finally got rid of our useless MP who has done nothing for us but sat. His bum, will never forgive him for twice voting against the labour clean water act.

He will have an inflation proof pension.
If our new MP is half as good as Helen Morgan I will be happy, it will be a change to have a decent MP.

[zenfootball2]

I don't think it is a good thing to have one party having such a majority, the conservatives knives will be out and then will be busy fighting each other as the blame game starts

Unless they make a really mess of things labour could be in power for ten years and possibly fifteen.

Ima labour voter but iv never had much faith in starmer I'm hoping I'm wrong,
We need a strong leader who has the strength and vision to get this country back on its feet
To make it less divided
To sort out out a system were health care services are the ones that meets the needs of the public, with a combination of universal care and private care like Canada
Fund the councils properly
Look at long term planning not knee jerk reactions
Fund social care
Improve education
Improve infersetructure

Have a fair and human approach to. Asylum seekers and economic migrants

[Worthingshrew]

Virtually everyth8ng on my wish list came up - Labour won Shrewsbury, Worthing West, and Truss and Rees-Mogg gone.

Shame about Farage, but that would have been greedy.

[Valerioch]

Has an election result ever highlighted how awful FPTP is, as much as this election?

[stuttgartershrew]

Jul 5, 2024 7:39:44 GMT 1 zenfootball2 said:

Unless they make a really mess of things labour could be in power for ten years and possibly fifteen.

Could be, they certainly have that chance. But then looking to the numbers this morning the majority they now enjoy is very much down to a collapse in the Tory vote rather than any increase in support for Labour. Not that Labour will care of course but I don't think they can take that for granted next time around. I think we might see more cooperation between the Tories and Reform next time around (more so after 4 years of a Labour government).

[barrynic]

Did the Labour party under Corbyn get more votes than Starmer did today?

[aghabullogueshrew]

Ah, the irony. Labour get a landslide victory because of the protest votes of the hard right!

[sheltonsalopian]

Historical result. 36% of the vote is alarming for Labour but I attribute that to:

independents/Greens campaigning on Gaza.
Tactical voting between Labour/Lib Dems - played FPTP to perfection.
Conservative voters not being scared of Starmer so felt safe enough not voting - Corbyn managed to galvanize Tories to come out and vote against him.

[Dancin]

Jul 5, 2024 7:50:35 GMT 1 Valerioch said:

Has an election result ever highlighted how awful FPTP is, as much as this election?

And how awful would a result be if PR was in place?!

[darkshrew]

Jul 5, 2024 9:08:34 GMT 1 Dancin said:

Jul 5, 2024 7:50:35 GMT 1 Valerioch said:

Has an election result ever highlighted how awful FPTP is, as much as this election?

And how awful would a result be if PR was in place?!

People would have voted differently under PR - under FPTP you vote against the party you don't want if your party is not running second.

[ar**chairfan]

Profoundly disappointed, and worried for the future, but far from shocked.
In search of a silver lining, at last the SNP received a good kicking ( for much the same reasons as the Conservatives - hopeless in government!)

[wakemanender]

Daniel and Liz Truss have gone. Not really bothered about the rest of them.

[Deleted]

Delighted to see so many of the big Tory names, those who’ve contributed to such misery over the last few years have been sent packing. In particular Daniel K, good riddance.

Labour might have the massive majority but they’ve got clear threats already, one being Reform, one being how the Tories regroup, and also the Israel/Palestine issues which saw off Jon Ashworth last night and nearly took out others such as Wes Streeting and Jess Phillips.

Rocky road ahead.

[aghabullogueshrew]

I live in Ireland and PR is a pain in the backside! How about an MEP getting into parliament on the NINETEENTH count, 7 days after the polls! The Fianna Fáil have 36 seats, Fine Gael have 33, Sinn Fein have 36 and 20 Independents in the Irish Parliament. We have power sharing between FF and FG to keep out Sinn Fein, we have PM’s who change every 2 years and every policy is a compromise which takes months to go through parliament! At least with the strong Conservative and Labour governments you know were you stand, ie. the Tories will do whatever their corporate sponsors and business friends want them to do and Labour will spend 5 years telling you that the “Looney Left” no longer exists and stealing most of the policies of the Liberals!

[WATR]

Jul 5, 2024 8:34:28 GMT 1 barrynic said:

Did the Labour party under Corbyn get more votes than Starmer did today?

600,000 fewer votes yesterday than under Corbyn in 2019 and 3.2 million fewer votes than under Corbyn in 2017. This is a Tory collapse, not a Labour surge.

[mattmw]

Jul 5, 2024 9:07:52 GMT 1 sheltonsalopian said:

Historical result. 36% of the vote is alarming for Labour but I attribute that to:

independents/Greens campaigning on Gaza.
Tactical voting between Labour/Lib Dems - played FPTP to perfection.
Conservative voters not being scared of Starmer so felt safe enough not voting - Corbyn managed to galvanize Tories to come out and vote against him.

Think the Labour strategy was also well thought out, as they targeted a big growth in vote in Scotland where the SNP were in free fall, so were abble to pick up 30 or so seats without too much effort, and concentrated their effort in England on winning key seats rather than just pilling up votes in seats they already held as Corbyn perhaps did.

In time I suspect that a lot of informal conversations happened with Lib Dems so they didn't tread on each others toes in seats where they were going aganst the Conservatives. 

Some mistakes along the way but overall a very clever campaign by Labour, which perhaps offers some hope they have a decent plan on what they want to do in Government too. 

[Valerioch]

Jul 5, 2024 10:05:08 GMT 1 mattmw said:

Jul 5, 2024 9:07:52 GMT 1 sheltonsalopian said:

Historical result. 36% of the vote is alarming for Labour but I attribute that to:

independents/Greens campaigning on Gaza.
Tactical voting between Labour/Lib Dems - played FPTP to perfection.
Conservative voters not being scared of Starmer so felt safe enough not voting - Corbyn managed to galvanize Tories to come out and vote against him.

Think the Labour strategy was also well thought out, as they targeted a big growth in vote in Scotland where the SNP were in free fall, so were abble to pick up 30 or so seats without too much effort, and concentrated their effort in England on winning key seats rather than just pilling up votes in seats they already held as Corbyn perhaps did.

In time I suspect that a lot of informal conversations happened with Lib Dems so they didn't tread on each others toes in seats where they were going aganst the Conservatives. 

Some mistakes along the way but overall a very clever campaign by Labour, which perhaps offers some hope they have a decent plan on what they want to do in Government too. 

Was it clever? Labour's vote is coming in 10% lower than what the polls have had over the last 6 weeks.

They just tried to maintain discipline and the only real potential falter was the Abbott saga early doors - other than that they didn't say a lot of any substance, because they knew they didn't have to

[belfastshrew]

Mr Zenfootball2 gets my vote next time 👍

[edgmond]

Jul 5, 2024 7:49:34 GMT 1 Worthingshrew said:

Virtually everyth8ng on my wish list came up - Labour won Shrewsbury, Worthing West, and Truss and Rees-Mogg gone.

Shame about Farage, but that would have been greedy.

In a strange way I am glad that Farage got in. The eternal windbag will now have to do some real work as a constituency MP and I wonder how long it will be before the people of Clacton get pi**ed off with him being over the pond fawning around Trump rather than serving them.

Also his attendance and voting record in parliament will bear some very close scrutiny in a year’s time I think.

He could finally be found out for the shallow, attention-seeking waste of space that he is.

[mattmw]

Jul 5, 2024 10:16:20 GMT 1 Valerioch said:

Jul 5, 2024 10:05:08 GMT 1 mattmw said:

Think the Labour strategy was also well thought out, as they targeted a big growth in vote in Scotland where the SNP were in free fall, so were abble to pick up 30 or so seats without too much effort, and concentrated their effort in England on winning key seats rather than just pilling up votes in seats they already held as Corbyn perhaps did.

In time I suspect that a lot of informal conversations happened with Lib Dems so they didn't tread on each others toes in seats where they were going aganst the Conservatives. 

Some mistakes along the way but overall a very clever campaign by Labour, which perhaps offers some hope they have a decent plan on what they want to do in Government too. 

Was it clever? Labour's vote is coming in 10% lower than what the polls have had over the last 6 weeks.

They just tried to maintain discipline and the only real potential falter was the Abbott saga early doors - other than that they didn't say a lot of any substance, because they knew they didn't have to

I think the Labour top team were always very cautious of the polls and understood that any major slips in the election could be costly and so ran a very tight ship, and the strategists in the back ground played a big part. I think they also expected a better Conservative campaign than they actually got.  Pat McFadden and Morgan McSweeney are really data driven strategists and will I think have a very good grasp on the key issues they face moving forward and will have a plan, which it feels like the Government haven't had in the last 5 years

Whether that plan works is of course another matter, and its quite likely that the scale of the issues they face may over whelm them, but it does feel like a bit of boring but effective control might be coming back to Downing Street

I do also wonder if Starmer might bring some people from outside the Party into Government in some roles as well. 

[mattmw]

Jul 5, 2024 11:03:15 GMT 1 edgmond said:

Jul 5, 2024 7:49:34 GMT 1 Worthingshrew said:

Virtually everyth8ng on my wish list came up - Labour won Shrewsbury, Worthing West, and Truss and Rees-Mogg gone.

Shame about Farage, but that would have been greedy.

In a strange way I am glad that Farage got in. The eternal windbag will now have to do some real work as a constituency MP and I wonder how long it will be before the people of Clacton get pi**ed off with him being over the pond fawning around Trump rather than serving them.

Also his attendance and voting record in parliament will bear some very close scrutiny in a year’s time I think.

He could finally be found out for the shallow, attention-seeking waste of space that he is.

I think its probably helped Reform that the 4 MP's they have got are experienced in politics and can run a tight ship in Parliament. At one stage last night it looked like one of the candidates they disowned might win in Barnsley, who had made rather questionable statements about things. If they had 4-5 additional loose cannons as MP's that could be tricky for them. 

Tice and Fararge are experienced in the media and will probably be joined at some stage by a few defecting Conservative MP's over the next few years, and if they work hard on policy development and party structure are very well placed in second in many seats to really challenge at the 2029 election

[salop27]

A great responsibility has been bestowed upon the Labour Party.
Hardly an endorsement of their capabilities with just a 1.6% increase in vote share from a heavy defeat in 2019.
So time will tell.
As someone said above it's ironic Reform have got four MPs and a 14% vote share while Lib Dems have 71 MPs with 12%!!!
What do all the PR advocates think of that now!?
For the sake of everyone let's hope Labour are successful though.
I'll be keeping an interesting eye on things.

[staffordshrew]

Shame some of the hard working genuine Conservative MPs got swept aside with the swing, there must be some, I'm thinking Sir Rob Buckland for one. Then again, some of Starmer's shadow cabinet didn't get in due to Gaza candidates.

Perhaps good decent MP's who have lost will be parachuted in if there are byelections. Hopefully any that have been self serving dead weights, dangerous or devisive from any party won't get another chance.

A smooth handover with a gracious exit from Rishi. The 'Mother Country'shows the world how to do things again.

I understand Jeremy Corbyn is now 'Father of the House' and Dianne Abbott 'Mother of the House'

[Valerioch]

Jul 5, 2024 11:54:01 GMT 1 staffordshrew said:

Shame some of the hard working genuine Conservative MPs got swept aside with the swing, there must be some, I'm thinking Sir Rob Buckland for one. Then again, some of Starmer's shadow cabinet didn't get in due to Gaza candidates.

Perhaps good decent MP's who have lost will be parachuted in if there are byelections. Hopefully any that have been self serving dead weights, dangerous or devisive from any party won't get another chance.

A smooth handover with a gracious exit from Rishi. The 'Mother Country'shows the world how to do things again.

I understand Jeremy Corbyn is now 'Father of the House' and Dianne Abbott 'Mother of the House'

As if I wasn't depressed enough today, you've now said that 

Two truly odious racist characters