UK General Election

Question from an outsider...What is actually different about the electorate? Is it a more energized base? Are people actually willing to switch the party they voted for so soon?

I'm not British, so I have a lot of trouble imagining switching my vote so soon.
 
I wonder how high the vote might be, the council elections are 4 days before. The average UK citizen hates multiple voting. If the turnout is low then she may a get a shock as remain voters maybe more disenchanted with her at present and therefore more likely to turn out to vote and to exercise a non Tory vote. I suspect the Greens and the Lib Dems might do better than expected if that is the case. Of course none of the EU citizens resident in the U.K. have a vote in a GE so she doesn't have to worry about the turnout of the 3 milllion.
 
Hlafordlaes said:
Dear lord, elections. Yet another reason I'll be seeing endless Ms. May on the tele, much to my grim dismay. Please stop being in the news, madame, I beg of you, enough.:(
Click to expand...

Please consider Ms May's refusal to appear on TV debates a direct response to your appeal to see less of her.

ETA

See someone got there first.
 
ddt said:
........
Lastly, I think you overblow the whole issue. Right now, May can go into the election with explicitly Brexit in the manifesto. But in 2015, the Tories went into the election with the Brexit referendum in the manifesto. Did they promise that referendum just for fun? Brexit is the direct outcome of what they promised in the manifesto. Maybe they didn't write in the manifesto explicitly "and if the referendum yields leave, we'll actually leave the EU", but that's really hairsplitting.
Click to expand...

No, that really is not hairsplitting. It was government policy (explicit in the manifesto) to remain in the EU. Therefore the Lords would be perfectly entitled to vote that way rather than support the deal that had been negotiated over 2 years. The government is in a minority in the Lords, and the Lords has a large majority in support of membership of the EU. This is not the minor issue that you wish it to be.
 
ddt said:
........Next to it it says "PM's snap poll will kill off Labour". You may say that's meant figuratively, but there's literally a ton of people out there who can't quite make the distinction between figuratively and literally.

It's at the least very offensive........
Click to expand...

This is a Poe, surely. It's beyond ridiculous.
 
BobTheCoward said:
Question from an outsider...What is actually different about the electorate? Is it a more energized base? Are people actually willing to switch the party they voted for so soon?

I'm not British, so I have a lot of trouble imagining switching my vote so soon.
Click to expand...

There are higher and higher percentages of people who will vote differently from not only their parents and community, but how they've voted in the past. We have a wide choice of serious parties to vote for, plus some single issue and outright silly parties, and I guess most people will enter an election having 2, or maybe even 3, that they would consider voting for, and at least one or two that they wouldn't vote for in any circumstance.
 
MCel58 said:
I wonder how high the vote might be, the council elections are 4 days before........
Click to expand...

No, the council elections are on the 4th of May, the GE on the 8th of June. The council elections aren't all across the country.
 
imodium said:
...... ignoring the fact Tony Blair's lurch to the center right got labour into the current situation........
Click to expand...

Conveniently forgetting that Blair won 3 elections, was the only Labour leader ever to win consecutive elections, and will be the last-but-one Labour prime minister for probably decades, as a direct result of Labour forgetting that elections in Britain are always, but always, won on the centre ground.

Blair shouldn't be excoriated for being a winner and for understanding what a modern centre left party looks like. He should be excoriated for what he did in Iraq and with tuition fees, but not for doing the only sensible thing and moving Labour to the centre left. Not being competitive anywhere in southern Britain other than in the heart of London is a ridiculous way of trying to gain power, and that is precisely what Blair understood, and Corbyn ignores.
 
Last edited:
MikeG said:
Conveniently forgetting that Blair won 3 elections, was the only Labour leader ever to win consecutive elections, and will be the last-but-one Labour prime minister for probably decades, as a direct result of Labour forgetting that elections in Britain are always, but always, won on the centre ground.

Blair shouldn't be excoriated for being a winner and for understanding what a modern centre left party looks like. He should be excoriated for what he did in Iraq and with tuition fees, but not for doing the only sensible thing and moving Labour to the centre left. Not being competitive anywhere in southern Britain other than in the heart of London is a ridiculous way of trying to gain power, and that is precisely what Blair understood, and Corbyn ignores.
Click to expand...

Except of course nobody says this about the Tories who happily lurch right with great support from the peanut gallery while not being competitive anywhere in 'northern Britain' and that's just fine.

Blair may well have known what a centre left party looks like, unfortunately what he created was a centre right party
 
BobTheCoward said:
Question from an outsider...What is actually different about the electorate? Is it a more energized base? Are people actually willing to switch the party they voted for so soon?

I'm not British, so I have a lot of trouble imagining switching my vote so soon.
Click to expand...

The system over here is far less polarised than in the US, and the 'centre' ground in the US would be considered very right of centre in the UK. It is always noteworthy to me that 'liberal' in the US is considered by some to be an insult, whereas in the UK, most parties would claim to be 'liberal' to some extent, and view it as a positive.

The electoral system makes a difference as well, the Prime Minister comes to power through a very different system to the US, so people view their vote in a different way.

Our parties are much closer together, and while there are certainly those who would never consider voting Tory or Labour, who they *will* vote for is less certain.

Of course, these are generalities, there are many who will only ever vote for one party, regardless of the candidate, and almost nothing will change that, just as in the US.
 
BobTheCoward said:
Question from an outsider...What is actually different about the electorate? Is it a more energized base? Are people actually willing to switch the party they voted for so soon?

I'm not British, so I have a lot of trouble imagining switching my vote so soon.
Click to expand...

I will be switching my vote. Two years ago I voted Conservative, at that time they were the closest match to my opinions. In this election I will be voting Lib Dem. Not that I see them as having a chance of winning the whole election, however, I do not agree with Mrs May approach to Brexit and their softer approach is closer to mine (remain). I also do not appreciate being told by MP, when asked for the fact based benefits of Brexit, that "the time for that has passed - it's going to be wonderful - just listen to Mrs May isn't she marvelous! Bye"*.

If anyone will change their mind, I suspect it is due the the fact that either the leader of the party they voted for changed (and they don't like them for reasons) or the path the party is taking has changed.



*Paraphrased
 
Last edited:
Greebo said:
I will be switching my vote. Two years ago I voted Conservative, at that time they were the closest match to my opinions. In this election I will be voting Lib Dem. Not that I see them as having a chance of winning the whole election, however, I do not agree with Mrs May approach to Brexit and their softer approach is closer to mine (remain). I also do not appreciate being told by MP, when asked for the fact based benefits of Brexit, that "the time for that has passed - it's going to be wonderful - just listen to Mrs May isn't she marvelous! Bye"*.



*Paraphrased
Click to expand...



This has been the substance of the entire campaign. It continues to be mental and will only continue to be more so.

My faint hope is a Libdem surge of epic, unfeasible proportions.
 
MikeG said:
I'm really not sure it's going to be in their hands. I also don't think they'll get away with the old trick of being everything to everyone, either.......saying X in one constituency and the complete polar opposite in another. Being avid Remainers isn't going to help them with a bunch of retired people in Devon, Cornwall and Dorset.......and Farron really doesn't have any gravitas at all. At least old Paddy could wrinkle his forehead and appear deep and thoughtful.
Click to expand...

However, the recent (massive) reduction in money to (say) Cornwall has caused a number of ructions out there. All along the lines of "we were promised etc etc" re: matching Euro money. That's a rich seam for the Lib Dems, IMO. The people down there have already been hit (in their minds).

Can't disagree about Farron, though.
 
Greebo said:
I will be switching my vote. Two years ago I voted Conservative, at that time they were the closest match to my opinions. In this election I will be voting Lib Dem. Not that I see them as having a chance of winning the whole election, however, I do not agree with Mrs May approach to Brexit and their softer approach is closer to mine (remain).
Click to expand...

Farron doesn't have a 'softer' approach, he wants to reverse Article 50. All along he's tried to block Brexit and has called for a second referendum. Any vote for the Lib Dems is a vote to inject confusion into the issue, and regardless of your view on Brexit that's not going to help anybody.
 
baron said:
Farron doesn't have a 'softer' approach, he wants to reverse Article 50. All along he's tried to block Brexit and has called for a second referendum. Any vote for the Lib Dems is a vote to inject confusion into the issue, and regardless of your view on Brexit that's not going to help anybody.
Click to expand...
Why does Brexit mean Brexit but opposition to it isn't going to help anybody because it's "confusion"?
 
Garrison said:
Oh don't worry she's already said she won't participate in any TV debates. but don't dare suggest she's high handed or authoritarian.
Click to expand...

Seems to be re-considering now that the BBC and ITV have said they'll empty-chair her, although it would have been funnier if they'd threatened to emulate the Rt Hon Tub Of Lard MP, say with a pair of shoes.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom