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The Upcoming UK General Election

Altfish

Veteran Member
It's looking like a big loss in West Midlands for the Tories, Andy Street, the current Mayor, is being predicted to lose.
 

Secret Chief

Very strong language
Ok, I'll let you off!


IMG_7665.jpeg
 

RestlessSoul

Well-Known Member
My relatives in NI anticipate that Brexit will continue to bolster Sinn Fein, I will be interested to see if this pans out.


It appears that Sinn Fein in the Republic are taking a hard line on immigration, but it remains to be seen how steering towards populist, right wing nationalism, will play out with the Irish people.
 

blü 2

Veteran Member
Premium Member
So, in the next few months our PM has to call a GE, latest I believe is January 2025.

The main runners and riders are: -

  • Conservative
  • Green
  • Labour
  • Lib Dems
  • Reform Ltd
In the regions we also have
  • Plaid Cymru (Wales)
  • SNP (Scotland)
And Northern Ireland has
  • Alliance Party
  • Democratic Unionist Party (DUP)
  • Green Party
  • Sinn Féin (SF)
  • Social Democratic Labour Party (SDLP)

There will be others but our electoral system excludes them as it is first past the post.

Use this thread to discuss and debate.
It's Labour's to lose, and on the present evidence, that would take some very hard work.

I suppose we could imagine that the Lib Dems and Greens and maybe some from the colonies ─ Wales, Scotland, NI ─ could keep Labour's numbers under 50.1% and force a coalition of some kind; but I wouldn't bet on it.

Will the rather boring Starmer be rather boring in office? Pay only a few quid for his sneakers? Merely address the mess that Boris and Liz and Rish! will bequeath him instead of handing out ice creams and public holidays? Yes, I think he'll be just as exciting in office as in opposition.
 

libre

In flight
Staff member
Premium Member
It appears that Sinn Fein in the Republic are taking a hard line on immigration,
It is a shame, it is a party of career politicians now, so I guess it can be expected for them to tail the popular fashions.

Irish people being against immigration is quite rich - what country have the Irish not shagged themselves into?
but it remains to be seen how steering towards populist, right wing nationalism, will play out with the Irish people.
I'm not sure about the Republic, but my family (protestant and catholic sides) both consider Sinn Fein's perceived growth in popularity as a sign that the end of partition will come, independent of their stance on such. I would consider unification to be a good thing.
 

Altfish

Veteran Member
It's Labour's to lose, and on the present evidence, that would take some very hard work.

I suppose we could imagine that the Lib Dems and Greens and maybe some from the colonies ─ Wales, Scotland, NI ─ could keep Labour's numbers under 50.1% and force a coalition of some kind; but I wouldn't bet on it.

Will the rather boring Starmer be rather boring in office? Pay only a few quid for his sneakers? Merely address the mess that Boris and Liz and Rish! will bequeath him instead of handing out ice creams and public holidays? Yes, I think he'll be just as exciting in office as in opposition.
To be honest, I can handle 'boring'. After Johnson, Truss, Sunak I'm very much looking forward to calm.
 

LuisDantas

Aura of atheification
Premium Member
This is where UK politics is superior to the US; Count Binface, Raving Looney Party, etc.
Also, they get about as many votes as they should.

Elsewhere (Brazil and the USA come to mind) their counterparts are major contenders and have violent followers.

----

British politics have been surprising me (not in a good way, but certainly in an exciting way) since early 2019.

At this point I feel foolish for assuming that the Tories would attempt to preserve the Party for the next general ellections. As of now I very much feel that they will not; despite having imposed much upon themselves in order to appear united on Brexit, the Conservative Party is now very much split into mismatched factions and appear to be about to split according to perceptions of immediate electoral convenience.

Frankly, that is just insane.

On paper, the Conservative Party is supposed to be one of the two main political groups of the UK, and the caretaker of a political tradition going back at least a hundred years and more.

In practice, it feels more like a bloated condominium in which a huge percentage of the members has recently and independently decided that they should move elsewhere and spend the next few months grabbing as much of the reserve fund as they can while the place is still functioning in some shape.

Those interested in personal promotion want to stir the pot with little regard to the continued existence of a functional politlcal party (perhaps because that ship has sailed?) while the backbenchers - those who feel that being in the party benefits them more than it does the party - seem to be mostly hoping that nothing much happens while they are still technically in power.

I'm hoping for (and expecting) a decisive Labour victory... but it feels like that such a victory is not nearly as much the culmination of Labour's current plans as it is of the Conservative Party's. Individual candidates will of course hope for victory in their constituencies, but the path ahead for the Party involves very little more than presenting themselves as an alternative for those who feel that Labour is "too left-wing" and attempting to dodge requests for further clarification. That is not much, but seems to be all that truly unites the Tories right now. And somehow it almost appears to be enough.

Here is hoping that the election comes early rather than late, and that Starmer and his support base decide that it the time is ripe for the UK to resume having a functional government that actually goes through the trouble of doing things. The UK could use that for a couple of decades or more.
 
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Altfish

Veteran Member
This is where UK politics is superior to the US; Count Binface, Raving Looney Party, etc.
I have a vague recollection in a by-election in the Ribble Valley (?) where there had been some sexual impropriety of the previous incumbent, one candidate was for the "Whiplash Party" promising corrective punishment. This would have been in the mid 1980s.
 

ChristineM

"Be strong", I whispered to my coffee.
Premium Member
Some more of the manifesto from the Independent

  • Thames Water bosses to be made to take a dip in the Thames, to see how they like it
  • Claudia Winkleman's fringe to be Grade 1 listed
  • No shop to be allowed to sell a croissant for more than £1.10
  • Build at least one affordable house
  • London Bridge to be renamed after Phoebe Waller
  • NHS waiting times to be improved by making GP surgeries' hold music less appalling
  • To solve delays caused by 20mph zones, all meetings to start ten minutes later
  • Stop the bots
  • Shops that play Christmas music before December to be closed down and turned into public libraries
  • Loud snacks to be banned from theatres
  • Voter ID legislation to be scrapped
  • Ceefax to be reintroduced for all homes within the M25
London Mayoral Election 2024: Who is Count Binface and what is in his manifesto?

What is not to like?
 
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