H_R I'm don't think you are entirely right. I don't think Labour could take over without another election but I also think your view are, well not old school exactly, but rooted in the thinking that became mainstream since Magaret Thatchers days, the emergence of the yuppies and the importance of self and self wealth. PeopleThe media and other unbelievers keep stating that Corbyn couldn't lead the party/country but it would not be a dictatorship. It would be Labour that got in not Corbyn. The same applies to any party but i think the country (or a lot of us - especially younger peeps) are sick and tired of rhetoric, spin and lies. It is about the party and policies more than personalities and policies that can benefit the country as a whole rather than certain wealthy individuals.

When I said "win win for labour" I was quoting from above and didn't mean to be specific about it being labour but was keeping it in context, it was more to clarify the point that we need stability not continuous disruption!

As with Corbyn, I'm generalising but out of the people I know, it's the older true working class labour voters that are saying they cannot vote for him and the new voters that support him are the younger new generation of voters!

i know it's the party you should vote for but it's figurehead does play a major part in it, sometimes far too much!

In another thread I mentioned I was politically homeless and I still feel that's true I just want the best possible brexit outcome at the moment then to sort the country out after brexit

That’s not strictly true; a little under 21% of the UK voted for a Conservative government.

They got the most votes of any single party, fair enough, but it’s arguable that more people voted not to have another 5 years of Tory rule (if we assume that a large number of people voting Labour, SNP, Lib Dem, Plaid and Green would rather lose a kidney than have the Tories in charge again).

They also got the most seats by some margin, but the margin is only so large because of our bent political system. If we had proportional representation, the Tories would have ended up on 189 seats and Labour on 178. Much closer.

In any case, I completely agree with you that Corbyn has no mandate to try and form a government and he is silly to think that he does.

If I were Labour, I wouldn’t be too hasty to take the reins at the moment. Whoever is in Number 10 has the unenviable task of negotiating their way out of the EU. It’s a poisoned chalice and I don’t see anyone coming out of it with much of a political career intact.

No deal we strike will be good enough for the 48% of the country who didn’t want it to happen and the tabloid media don’t seem to be able to report anything but doom and gloom these days.

If I were Labour, I’d bide my time. Build on the support they’ve already generated and reach out to some of the big name MPs who left the cabinet some time ago (Benn, Cooper, et al.) Focus on firming up those marginal seats and go to town on the marginally lost ones to turn them red in 5 years’ time.

They ultimately need a plan for Scotland though. If they want a chance of beating the Tories at the next election they need to win back some of those seats lost to the SNP 2 years ago.

21% of votes.
I never saw it like that that's a good point! but I guess that also means that even more people did not want the other parties in too!

I don't really know much about the Scottish vote so cannot comment

I also agree with other parties biding their time and think this was the main reason the torys wanted an election now so they have some time after brexit to try to gain some credibility after what is bound to be viewed as a disastrous deal no matter what happens, they know they will be very unpopular after brexit and with the original election being at the end of negotiations they were guaranteed not to get in

When brexit was voted for last year,are there figures showing what political party the pro brexit voters favored?

It would be interesting to know.

Many of the pro-brexit areas were traditional Labour regions. On the BBC coverage of the election results they seemed surprised that the UKIP vote from 2015 was split between Labour and the Conservatives. It struck me that completely ignored those who wanted Brexit two years ago, well before the referendum was called, and voted UKIP instead of Labour, then voted out. Now they have got that and a Labour manifesto that committed to leave the EU and the single market they went back to their traditional party.

Conservative polled 42.4%
Labour 40.0%

The difference this time could be that, even the voters that wanted remain , accepted Brexit and wanted the best brexit outcome!(allegedly)
So i think these results this year are fairly difficult to put in one box or another

Anyone wishing to stand for parliament in a particular constituency should have to live and work there (in a non-political capacity) for 3 years.

For the first time in my life, I'm looking enviously at France's political situation...

Thought you was about to say you were going to run as a candidate

Sounds like a good idea Jim!

The system is definitely limited and not always representative!

That is a really good idea Jim, would certainly liven things up a lot to be restricted to locals. My neighbouring MP is Yvette Cooper and I doubt she had ever even visited Pontefract before she became candidate. Having a close relationship with Tony Bliar's mate Bill Clinton was the criteria that got her the nod rather than anything relevant to Yorkshire.

Yes, of those that voted.

They're the only ones that count, though. There's absolutely no data to suggest that those that voted aren't representative of those that didn't.

Well, except to suggest that they actually care about the result...

Whilst not entirely correct I think it has to be said that those who can vote but don't accept the result of the majority of others. If you specifically want to make a statement about not voting it is better to spoil the paper in my view.

So who else have the Tories got? Boris Johnson? Michael Gove? No contest!!

No way should Corbyn let ANY of those back-stabbers - Cooper, Eagle, Benn, etc - back in the shadow cabinet. After Benn's pro-bombing Syria speech I wonder how could the wonderful Tony Benn have spawned such a slimey toad!

I didn't make any assertion otherwise. Merely pointing out that "the majority of the country" didn't vote for the Tories.

That's the same in every election - I'm not sure what it adds.

Actually, having thought about it in more detail, I think it could be argued that increased turnout would have resulted in a great number of votes for Labour.

The young (18-29 year olds) turned out in greater numbers than expected and, according to a couple of polls*, around 65% of them voted Labour versus 22% for the Conservatives.

But, despite the large increase in the youth vote, they are still the demographic who voted the least.

So the majority of people who didn’t vote were the young and if we assume that they would have voted in the same kind of pattern as the rest of their demographic then the vote could have looked very different.

This is all moot though, those that didn’t vote don’t impact the result.


*Lord Ashcroft’s exit poll and a poll conducted by YouGov since the election.