Nice to see Corbyn win his seat also pleased for Abbott, not popular with some, but both obviously are within their constituencies. Well done the Lib Dems and the Greens , surprised and saddened to see the strength of the latest Farage invention in the North East, but then again not really shocked by it.
Could also be they remember the s hit show who was their last MP ( whoever that was ) and don’t fancy a repeat.
In the past I have tended to stay up all night for Elections. Must be an age thing but my interest has lessened somewhat. I went to bed early last night.! Some very good news. Liz Truss managed to lose her near 35K majority. I wonder who she will blame for that? Some less good news, Penny Mordaunt lost her Seat. A pity as I liked her style, particularly when dealing with questions from the SNP. If Sir Kiier has looked at his recent History, he just might wish that his majority had been a tad smaller. With this huge majority, he is set to get whoping protest votes at by-elections, once the euphoria has died down. And the far left of his party and The Unions are going to feel free to push away from the 'Left of Centre' where Leader has skillfully steered the party. He must hope that The Tory Party will attempt suicide and move not to the centre, but to the far right. But now, like all new Prime Ministers, he is going to discover that it's much easier to complain that the goverment is getting it all wrong, that to be 'The Government' and get it all right. We will see what he is made of. But as long as he can rein back his left wing and at get the more extreme Unions to seem to co-operate, I expect he will do well enough.
I don't think the last Labour MP was too bad. He was only there from 2017 to 2019 so didn't get his feet under the table much before the current Tory MP got in. The Tees Valley mayor, who got voted in for a second term, is also a Tory so I suppose our constituency could benefit in that regard. Lots of getting things approved around here by 'knowing the right people' allegedly.
I feel that cutting the number of constituencies by around 20% would be more likely to produce a result more aligned to the actual voting patterns. Also, less noses in the trough and most likely no dilution of local services. Does Newcastle really need three MP's and a Mayor and are they even remotely any better off for it?
The biggest change I would make would be to remind both the electorate and the candidates that in the British parliamentary system, people are not voting for a party or a government, they are voting for the person that they want to represent them at Parliament. If everybody remembered that, they might get MPs who actually worked for their constituencies and represented their views. To make that work though, the power of the whips needs to be reduced so that MPs can vote the way they feel is right, rather than along party lines. The party that has the most MPs should then be allowed to form a government, but ministers should be technocrats, taken from the elite of relevant sectors, with appropriate experience for their portfolios; they'd be given seats in the HoL to be consistent with the convention (note that's not a rule) that ministers must be member of one of the two Houses of Parliament.
Bloody hell ITV could’ve sent their reporter somewhere the voters are more optimistic than they are in Bury. Everyone they had on said they don’t expect anything to change
Thanks mate. I have been wanting to look at the underlying stats, but work expect me to be doing other things! On the face of it it looks like Labour have benefited from the respective punishment of Conservative and SNP parties. Not necessarily by taking their votes, but by Reform, Lib Dems and others taking the tory vote. I wonder how many are just a protest vote from conservatives. I sort of hope they were, because if Reform genuinely I have that number of people who believe in their policies then I worry for the future of our country. I hope Labour recognise the danger Reform present into the future. The vote has given them a degree of legitimacy. Labour need to deliver now on fundamental policies to essentially close the attack lines Farage and co will make.
I'd like to engage in a some good faith conversations on here about Reform and what would be a sensible immigration policy for Labour over the coming weeks, ideally it would be just an honest and open discussion without the need for conflict or partisanship because I strongly believe it is immigration and perhaps more importantly demographic change that is driving things like Reform and if there is a genuine feeling that they represent a risk, if it is worth mitigating that by assessing and acting on those concerns.
I've no problem with that whatsoever. As a starting point, as this is about Reform, could you spell out what their policy is for immigration, legal and illegal, and how they would deal with the small boats. I've honestly no idea.
There was a video doing the rounds of a bloke walking around one of the more recent labour/CWU rallies asking lefty tossers waving flags related to immigration if they’d be happy to be added to a list of volunteers to house immigrants entering the country illegally and watching them all squirm and come up with excuses is hilarious.
