UK General Election

[angrysoba]

No they didn't. They got a whipping in London (and Wales, BTW), but the rest of England gave them increased votes compared with last time, and a virtually-zero swing to Labour.

That and three pounds will get you a pint of beer.

And London is in England last time I checked.

 

[3point14]

That and three pounds will get you a pint of beer.

And London is in England last time I checked.

From chronological cherry-picking to geographical cherry-picking.

 

[MikeG]

.......No, not the election, the campaign. I think he out-campaigned her in every aspect.

Of course, your views may differ.

I didn't take any notice of the campaign at all, other than to follow the polling. May is wooden, dull, repetitive. Corbyn is a vacuous socialist twerp. Who with any sense would watch any of that?

 

[3point14]

I didn't take any notice of the campaign at all, other than to follow the polling. May is wooden, dull, repetitive. Corbyn is a vacuous socialist twerp. Who with any sense would watch any of that?

Yeah, I mean, who wants to know anything about the potential PM of the country. What possible interest could anyone have in that...

 

[angrysoba]

Mainly by dint of the SNP collapse in Scotland, where their best claim is that they did less badly than the incumbents.

No. Their best claim is that they won more seats than last time. That, by any normal standard of elections, is a good thing for them.

 

[angrysoba]

From chronological cherry-picking to geographical cherry-picking.

Who is cherry-picking?

 

[ddt]

Do they stand for elections of those seats or are they assigned to them with a treaty?

McHrozni

They stand, and then they refuse to take the oath to the Queen that's required for taking up the seat.

In Northern Ireland, the extremist parties on both sides of the issue - DUP and Sinn Fein - have now divided between them all seats, and wiped out the more moderate parties, UUP and SDLP. (except for one independent unionist candidate).

 

[MikeG]

You seem to be picking starting points for all your comparison that shift depending on the impression you want to give.

You compare the SNP and the Libdems current position to their previous strongest position, having to use 'only the last election results' for the SNP and the results from some time ago for the Libdems. Which one should I be using to counter your arguments to remain consistent?.......

OK, let's stick with a comparison only with the last election then:

The SNP have lost 26% of their votes and 38% of their seats. Bad result. Very bad result.

From a historic low, the Lib Dems have lost 6% of their vote, but gained 4 seats by a quirk of other parties' results. Not great.

Labour have increased their vote by 30% and their seats by 4%. Good result.

Conservatives threw away a spectacular lead...........whatever the numbers say (increased share of the vote) that is a bad result.

 

[MikeG]

Yeah, I mean, who wants to know anything about the potential PM of the country. What possible interest could anyone have in that...

Cut out the sarcasm. For a start, I wasn't voting for a prime minister. I was voting for a constituency MP. More importantly, Corbyn has been in politics for 30 years. I follow politics closely, and know everything I ever need to know of Corbyn, his acolytes, his policies, his voting history and so on. If you need to follow a general election campaign to learn about any of that, then you haven't been paying attention to the running of the country for the last 3 decades. That's your problem, not mine.

 

[angrysoba]

Yes. With Sinn Fein not taking up their 7 seats the winning line is effectively 321, and they'll only be 2 or 3 seats short of that. They're sister party in Northern Ireland, the DUP has won 10 seats and already said they'll work with the conservatives (for a price).

I think this is wrong if you are saying that the DUP is the sister party of the Conservative Party. I think you are thinking of the Ulster Unionists.

 

[ddt]

MEP, @SophieintVeld

Cameron gambled, lost. May gambled, lost. Tory party beginning to look like a casino.

May has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

And with this result, you really, really have a hung parliament.

The DUP is already proclaiming its conditions for support. From the Guardian:

The Democratic Unionists will only support a Conservative government if Northern Ireland is not granted any unique special status that would keep the region half-way inside the EU, the party’s leader at Westminster has confirmed.

Nigel Dodds, who was re-elected in his North Belfast seat, said the DUP would insist that there would be no post-Brexit deal that could de-couple Northern Ireland from the rest of the UK.

It will be one of the DUP’s key preconditions in negotiations with the Tories to help them form a new administration.

So I guess they want a kind of Berlin Wall between NI and the Republic?

 

[3point14]

Who is cherry-picking?

MikeG, not you.

 

[angrysoba]

From a historic low, the Lib Dems have lost 6% of their vote, but gained 4 seats by a quirk of other parties' results. Not great.

I had thought of qualifying my point about the Lib Dems when I wrote it. They did better than before in the thing that counts the most; more seats. But it is also true that they suffered a few losses, as I noted earlier (Clegg and almost lost Farron).

I think the advantages they gained are Cable and Swinson. So a mixed bag, really, but probably a net positive.

 

[3point14]

Cut out the sarcasm.

You are neither the first nor, I suspect, the last to make that request of me.

For a start, I wasn't voting for a prime minister. I was voting for a constituency MP. More importantly, Corbyn has been in politics for 30 years. I follow politics closely, and know everything I ever need to know of Corbyn, his acolytes, his policies, his voting history and so on.

And yet your predictions of him being a disastrous leader seem not to have come to fruition. I wonder, then, if your previous impression might have been in error?

If you need to follow a general election campaign to learn about any of that, then you haven't been paying attention to the running of the country for the last 3 decades. That's your problem, not mine.

You don't think that, during a general election campaign, people should maybe be a little more interested in the political landscape than usual? Or that reviewing manifestos and leaders attitudes while they campaign is important? You just go on the parties history rather than what they say they're going to do if they gain a majority?

 

[Ethan Thane Athen]

That was the rationale she presented fire the election. Everyone knows it was just about her seeing some amazingly good polls and selfishly calling an election that was meant to consolidate her power and her partys.

Exactly - and u-turning (again) on her previous vote for legislation that meant elections should only be every 5 years, purely because she thought she could destroy Labour and have a glorious victory. Completely selfish and opportunistic and I think people saw that - especially when she ran the campaign like she couldn't be arsed.

Heard a great interview with a senior European figure this morning who, when asked if they'd give her more time wrt Brexit negotiations, pointed out that this mess was completely self-inflicted and any sane person, even if they decided they needed an election to prove their mandate (although his view was that affected the talks not one jot) would do so before triggering Article 50. Absolutely spot on.

 

[angrysoba]

May has managed to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory.

And with this result, you really, really have a hung parliament.

The DUP is already proclaiming its conditions for support. From the Guardian:


So I guess they want a kind of Berlin Wall between NI and the Republic?

Jesus! Do they want a hard border? That would be a nightmare.

 

[Tolls]

Definitely "not great" for the LibDems. When the election was called I would have called 18-20 seats as their aim, so 12 is a poor showing.

 

[Matthew Best]

That and three pounds will get you a pint of beer.

Not in London!


(Unless you go to a Wetherspoons ....)

 

[Elaedith]

What an odd collection of results.

How can Labour win Cantebury FFS in an election where they don't win handsomely?

Partly because of a large increase in student registration. I am in the Canterbury constituency and noticed the unusual increase in labour placards in gardens and windows, far outnumbering the Tory ones. My impression was that there was little effort from the Tories. I think many assumed that there was just no chance of Brazier lising when he held the seat since 1987. He lost by 187 votes.

 

[MikeG]

......You don't think that........

Strawman alert.....

during a general election campaign, people should maybe be a little more interested in the political landscape than usual? Or that reviewing manifestos and leaders attitudes while they campaign is important? You just go on the parties history rather than what they say they're going to do if they gain a majority?

Yep, there they are. Not one, but 4 of them. Congratulations.

Let me help you a little. "Following a campaign" and "reading the manifestos" are not the same thing.