The Tories got 36.9% of the vote, add in UKIP votes and it's at 50% of those who voted. UKIP are our biggest party in Europe. The Tories got more votes in 2015 than in 2010. The Tories got a majority instead of a hung parliament. In 2010 a left wing combination of parties would have had more votes than a combination of right wing parties, that isn't the case in 2015. There has been a clear shift to the right, not the left in British politics. There are some very passionate people on the left and lots of people want to shout about there views because it makes them feel like they are good people but the reality is that the left wing is in pieces and no-one trusts any of them, they are a loud minority, but a minority none the less. Currently the right is the majority. Or the majority of those who take part in the political process anyway.
You hit it on the head. There is far too much inaction from people which has led to the disillusionment towards politics. Hopefully figures like Corbyn will actively encourage people to engage and want to take part in the political process.
http://www.theguardian.com/politics...s-backing-anti-austerity-policies-corbynomics Stick that in your pipe & smoke it
Afctw - While the Tories had 36% of the vote, 25% of the population (around that - 24% or 26%) actually voted for them, hardly a majority, when 3 out of every 4 people didn't vote for them! They have 98 seats more than Labour http://www.parliament.uk/mps-lords-and-offices/mps/current-state-of-the-parties/, which (ignoring the ridiculous FPTP system and the constituency boundaries, that means a party like UKIP gets 1 seat off 3m votes) gives them a working majority of just 16.
Wow, so 75% didn't vote? Just shows how disenfranchised people are from all the current politicians/parties. Appealing to the other 75% is what is necessary and to do that you need someone charismatic to achieve it. With no personalities like Cameron and the rest, that shouldn't be too difficult. It is no wonder that Corbyn is getting so much support, other than his good policies of course.
His policies are pretty good, using sense and logic to back them up, and are supported by quite a few people - including all those economists reported about recently. As people like Chomsky says, when the political debate is narrowed to such an extent that you are choosing between two essentially similar things (Tories and New Labour) then there is no democracy, and it will result in apathy. (paraphrased, but that's the jist). Funny that the one person (in either party) who wants to hold Blair and his cronies accountable for starting an illegal war and killing a million Iraqi's, and wants to break the monopolic hold of the big media corporations over our society and government, while threatening the free ride that many of the very richest and the biggest corporations enjoy, is the one being lambasted in the press, and slandered by propaganda...
Totally agree. Its an illusion that real democracy lives in countries like the UK or US. Its ironic that these countries are the least democratic western countries in the world, yet they use "democracy" for a pretext for so many wars....
It's like Orwellian 'New Speak' where you can 'Liberate' a country by blowing it up, or 'reforming welfare' by cutting it to the bone, 'protecting' the public' by enacting severe restrictions on the public - like CCTV-ing them everywhere they go, restriction the right to protest and looking at getting rid of the Human Rights Act in this country! You can 'Defend' your country by attacking much smaller, weaker countries (who happen, by coincidence, to have lots of oil, or assets/areas of strategic importance).
Cool. That's potentially 40 more voters for the handout party, but sadly for them, not enough to prevent the inevitable Tory win at the next election/s.
Yes but you seem to be missing the point that even less people voted for labour or the left wing parties. It's all well and good saying we have a party in power who only had 25% of people vote for them, but they got more support than anyone else. I completely share the frustration at our stupid FPTP system, but proportional representation would most likely have seen a UKIP-Tory coalition, not exactly what your after I definitely think proportional representation would allow for a wider choice of views and a more representative government though.
Actually, Labour increased their share of the vote in England. It was in Scotland where the SNP (an anti austerity party) cleaned up and Labour got punished overall.
Interestingly, I very roughly added up how many people voted for the left parties and how many voted for ukip/conservatives and there was only something like 400k votes in it - which considering the winning party had 11m votes, is nothing really! The big issue for everyone in this country who doesn't ardently believe what the Torys are doing is good, and that we are in a good place right now, is that the Tories are going to change the constituency boundaries to make it easier for them to win next time, there's no plans for an alternative to the current voting system either. It really hits ukip, the greens and even lib demos hard, as they'll probably never get into power, even as a coalition.
Corbyn suggesting woman only train carriages... It really is like he is living in the past. Segregation isn't an acceptable answer to harassment rising on public transport. I just can't comprehend how anyone in a modern society thinks separating men and women in public is somehow a way to protect women rather than belittle them.
On the face of it, this is true. However, if there was PR then I think parties would fracture and split and Tories would get a choice of UKIPish candidates, One Nation Candidates and all streams in between. Labour would have a Bennite (Corbynite now I suppose) strand, a Kinnockite soft left and Social Democratic candidate. I suspect Labour would do well when there is a proper choice and voting for one of these wouldn't split the vote. I think Labour vote is down because they essentially offer Tory policies. If I wanted Tory policies, I would vote Tory. I don't though.
