PompeyVillan

3 minutes ago, New_Hope said:

Lol....still crying are we??

I'm totally on board with one Liverpool chant "Duh duh duh duh, **** the Tories". 

I'd like that one to catch on at VP.

I think they cap it so that you can only vote if you are a member from a certain date, usually after the leadership election is announced though.

I shouldn't have thought that there would be that many people who will be bothered enough to pay £4 I think it is a month in order to try to sabotage a leadership vote. 

It is worth saying that Labour have a large membership, I might be wrong but I think just over half a million. If you add in the union member votes then you'd have to have quite a few people bothered enough to try to sabotage the vote to make much of a difference. 

I can't understand why the other side would do that anyway tbh.

The candidates being touted at the moment are frighteningly uninspiring. 

30 minutes ago, Davkaus said:

Regardless of who the leader will be, I think it's brilliant news that McDonnell is ruling himself out for any shadow cabinet positions. See you never, comrade. 

Both he and Jeremy Corbyn will be incredibly important to keeping seats in 2025 in seats where their sort of Labour is really popular. 

They're still constituency MPs, and they'll continue to be important voices (but probably not on a national or leadership level). 

15 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Post-mortem:

What this means in practice is that about 1% of the total electorate switched directly from LAB-CON. They must each have spoken to a vox popper several times!

In the end, the 'Labour were squeezed' story is basically right, but the effects of that squeeze weren't even; in two-way northern seats Labour were squeezed by the Tories and lost the seats, but then there were other seats, particularly in the south, where they were squeezed by both Tories and Lib Dems/Greens (Stroud and Kensington for example) and that also lead to Tory victories. EDIT: meant to add, the majority of this squeeze is simply down to turnout, not direct switching.

One very important lesson that people should take from this is that tactical voting completely failed, in an election where people were talking about it much more than usual. I hope we never have to see another postcode voting site.

Edit, I think I've misread the stats.

They need someone that will win those centre left core voters back, keep lefty middle class voters and tempt some of the more liberal Conservative voters over the Labour. 

Easy job then. 

I think the candidate list is bleak, Starmer is the only credible option. They need someone that oozes aspiration and doesn't talk about the poor as if they are victims and can hold their own in a tense debate. 

I'm not sure Starmer fits the bill. 

Pick a continuity candidate and I'm out. Not sure where, but we can't go through that again. 

3 minutes ago, HanoiVillan said:

Yeah, they always say stuff like that, like May with her 'just about managing' voters she was supposedly targeting, and then never did anything for. It's the cheapest talk in the world. 

Aye, but in the past they've not actually voted for the Conservatives. As in, they've not had to actually do anything for them, because they don't rely on them in an election anyway. 

My point is, Brexit will be crap for these places, so he's going to have to come up with something else. 

1 hour ago, Mic09 said:

After all the dust has settled, I'm not sure how this Tory campaign and manifesto has been branded right wing. 

They have given Labour a good go when it comes to promises of hospitals, nurses, schools etc. This was not a campaign of "go out there and prove yourself in the world" but a campaign of "look what government can do for you".

While a lot of posters have a clear left leaning bias, Conservatives are just another centrist, boring European party who will plod this country along to a questionable 1% GDP growth. Compared to many other countries, UK does not have a strong free market libertarian party but majority of its parties are just different shades of red (how different are greens or lib Dems to Labour really?). 

All Tories had to do to win is to ride on Brexit (which looks like countries preferred option now) and mix it with left leaning promises of £4865 billion for the NHS. Not that they will deliver it, but the message is there.

Just because some voters are racist or because the Polish man will have to apply to stay here post Brexit does not make this government right wing. It definately does not make it a free market heaven government. 

Let's have a look at their policies first to make a call on it, they won a lot of red seats so they might further slip into the labour promise land to make sure they keep them next time around.

My hope is that Boris Johnson is the shameless careerist that I think he is. I hope that he has used Raab and Rees Mogg as tools, in order to get him into power within the party and now he has complete power in parliament, he sidelines them in a cabinet reshuffle. 

I don't think Johnson is as right wing as Rees Mogg and Raab, both rabid free market loonies. They would both happily privitise the NHS and run a lord of the flies style government. 

Johnson isn't stupid, he's a canny political operator. That doesn't equate with being a good public servant though mind. 

This morning he is talking about investing in the NHS, schools and whatnot. And he's saying that he wants to look after the ex industrial towns that have for the first time voted for the Conservatives. 

The thing that bothers me, is that nobody really knows that Boris stands for. And the country has given him free reign to do what he wants. 

The alternative didn't in the least appeal to these ex industrial towns, so there we and they have it. 

The way I see it, the Tories are running out of excuses. Labour haven't been in power for 9 years and won't be for the next 5 either. Once Brexit is 'done', then they can't blame the EU or immigrants. There isn't much left for them to privitise. They're running a strong a parliamentary majority, not a coalition. It's on them now. 

It's going to be a long 5 years, but it's time for the Tories to step up and deliver. With a significant majority like they have won comes an expectation that they'll do something with it.

They won't.

3 minutes ago, Awol said:

Centre left on economics + centre right on social/culture = majority in UK. 

I would argue centre on social/culture, more centre than right. 

Sad that the climate emergency clearly isn't a problem for the electorate. 

It also bothers me that the electorate don't mind being lied to. I was taught that lying was wrong.

Oh ****. That's a damning exit poll.

Early twitter rumblings that Boris Johnson is in serious danger of losing his seat. How hilarious would that be?

3 minutes ago, chrisp65 said:

**** is too.

**** labour **** shit up.

I’ll be holding my nose on Thursday when I vote.

The Conservatives are expected to win 5 seats in Wales. 

I'm resigned to another 5 years of shit. 

I will watch for a while until the remaining hope drains out of me, and the inevitable becomes reality.

Then on Friday night I will get thoroughly arseholed and watch Withnail and I to cheer myself up. 

Kuensseberg is an absolute disgrace of a journalist. Her insidious Tory bias, has become blatant, outright propaganda. 

I cannot express my contempt for her. She should at least have the decency to be honest and put a blue rosette on and a 'Get Brexit done' badge. 

She is just as dangerous as her Tory overlords, because she wields significant influence and does so under the banner of being 'impartial'. 

"Don't shoot the messenger". 

**** off.

I've had literature from Conservatives (2 leaflets),  Labour (2 leaflets), Lib Dems and Greens.

Odd considering that the Tories have always had Mid Worcestershire. Although neighboring Worcester is a sorta Con-Lab marginal. 

Leicester look like the sort of team that we want to be. They move the ball quickly, they look dynamic and fast. They've got some classy players and they're feckin quick. Brendan Rogers is doing a magnificent job. I would be delighted to see that sort of football from Villa.

They are however, years ahead of us in terms of development. I'm confident that we can get to that level in a few years. 

This was probably the first result that I think could damage confidence. We were dismantled at home. The away fans were giving the olès. We didn't play well, we lost a few players to injury. 

It doesn't take a genius to spot that we concede far too many chances. We are too open. We don't defend well as a team.

I also was massively frustrated by our inability to keep the ball today. We were sloppy, but also impatient. That needs to improve.

I'm starting to believe that we made a mistake signing Wesley with the idea of him being our 1st choice striker. He works ever so hard but he doesn't seem able to make an impact on the game, maybe we need to be more direct to get the best out of him. The contrast between Vardy and Wesley today was not flattering for Wesley. 

It's also worth remembering that these players are still quite new to each other and they have not yet developed that understanding that gives continuity to performances. That's not giving them an excuse, but I certainly feel that if we can get into next season and remain in the Premier League, we'll be all the better for it. 

Anecdotally, I've spoken to 5 strongly idealogical Greens who are voting Labour.

I think this election feels like armageddon for them. It's important to have Greens in parliament, but it's even more important that we have a government that will take climate change seriously. 

Brexit is important, because everyone is telling us it is. But the reality is that it pales in comparison to importance of the climate emergency. 

We're shite at defending.

59 minutes ago, ml1dch said:

 

I can't think of anything potentially funnier than a hung Parliament caused by a massive drop in Tory support because rural areas are snowed in and people can't get out to vote. 

What I would find funnier is a Labour landslide because the old folks homes couldn't get their residents to the poll booths.

7 hours ago, jackbauer24 said:

Slight tangent but this is a common thought I have. You look at some of the Tory/Brexit personalities and, regardless of politics, they are simply vile people that no one would (should) want to be associated with. Farage, Johnson, Trump, Hopkins, Jim Davidson and the late John McCririck. Bigots, racists and greedy self-serving liars. The more reasoned ones seem to have fallen to the side (Ken Clarke). In the Labour camp you get the likes Stephen Fry, the late Stephen Hawkings and about 95% of popular comedians.

Yet the majority of the public seem to feel like the Tories are more 'their type of people'. This is terrifying to start with (and suggests it is clearly me that is so out of touch with what Britain 'needs') but also makes me instantly question why nationally respected figures (and experts!) are so readily ignored in politics and these people are voted for. Furthermore, why is the TV/digital media/social media so openly inclusive and welcoming if it's not what the majority of people want to see? Newspapers are openly hostile but TV in particular certainly advocates for equality, compassion and inclusiveness. All things Tories are largely against, especially those to the extreme right. And yet, nationally, they hold the majority. Where is the TV that caters for these people? Why isn't Roy Chubby Brown on TV if that's what the majority believe?

To me there is a disconnect between what I see in people, in society, in 21st attitudes to race, nationality, gender and sexuality and what people vote for. We've come so far in even the last twenty years and yet we now seem to be going backwards. Small nation, walls and borders returning, racism running wild, them and us rhetoric and a general narrowing of acceptance of others/ care for others.

We easily pity the drowning single migrant but dismiss as garbage the group of them. We laugh at Scotland wanting to leave a bigger nation but push for the UK to leave Europe. We mock Trump for wanting to build a wall but reinstate 'borders'in Ireland. We cut numbers across every public service and then act surprised when schools, police, hospitals and security begins to creak under the strain. We all see it, we all comment on it, many of us experience it directly. And yet MOST still want conservatives in power to continue what they've been doing.

I just don't get it. Surely some right-wing media mogul controlling The Sun isn't enough to swing that many people?!

I think in part because our voting habits are not reflective of society as a whole. Unfortunately, elections are decided by the older voters because in general they are much more likely to vote and they tend to vote Conservative. 

If everyone were to vote or if we had proportional representation we might well rid ourselves of the Conservatives. 

Worth sharing only to highlight to any potential Conservative voters that you'll be on the same side of the argument as this waste of skin.

Rhetoric encouraged by Boris Johnson.