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It was a good speech from Hunt , I disagree with him politically but he defied the odds to keep his seat by getting out and canvassing himself , as for Truss , horrific petulant display , dear God she actually thankfully briefly represented this nation
Pick 3 on Saturday champion 2025/2026
Spiked is non-aligned; basically Libertarian and a champion of free speech. It does have the rather annoying trait of being contrary for contrarinesses sake, especially Brendan O’Neill; but it’s a welcome counterblast to the largely received wisdom of the mainstream media
Rory Stewart being the poshest of posh boys does have the rather grandiose sense of his own importance that Prep School, Eton and Baliol College inevitably instill but I do have some time for him. Essentially a centrist ‘one nation’ Tory whose privileged upbringing he recognizes to mean a ‘duty to serve his country’
“I’ll withhold opinions on them until I’ve seen them in action in Parliament. A solicitor, an IT consultant, a former LibDem councillor and an optician: on the face of it a good mix, time will tell.”
On the face of it Drone, I wouldn’t be too concerned about the actual candidates, it’s the pressure (intimidation) in the background which will be the defining point.
Going back a while I was talking to a Muslim acquaintance about the more extremist aspect of the Muslim culture and why the ordinary Muslims don’t speak out more against it.
The reply was, “I don’t want my balls cut off!!”
“Reform are excited with their results and obviously Labour are as well, but this election seems more of a vote against Conservative, far more than votes to support the other two.”
The Conservative vote went down by 20%, whereas the Labour vote only went up by 2%.
It is often said that governments lose elections rather than oppositions winning them. It looks especially true this time.
Appropriately, from good ol’ Spiked
The victories of the independent candidates at the expense of Labour in constituencies with large Islamic communities is one of the most noteworthy features of this election.
Could this be the start of a trend to which Labour is vulnerable? The situation in the Middle East is unlikely to be resolved any time soon. The Islamic population in Britain will get larger. Previously they have mainly voted for Labour – but will that always be the case?
One of the constituencies was Blackburn, once the domain of Barbara Castle and Jack Straw. I don’t expect Labour was expecting to lose that seat!
Spiked used to be a decent listen but now just says stuff that will get folk talking. A shame as it started promisingly. I’ve got plenty of time for Rory Stewart as he can see things from others perspective. The newsagents my fav podcast and more on the pulse.
This election was about two things. One was punishing the tories for a horrible 14 years and secondly the power of tactical voting. Yes, labour won spectacularly where reform took a lot of the tory vote but many seats werw won by them by tactical voting by libdem and ind/green voters and the libdem won so many seats due to lab supporters switching to lib dem. If this continues the tories could be out of power for a very long time. Remember the combined lab and lib dem vote is 6 to 7% Higher than the combined tory and reform vote something the media fail to recognise. Still im Mighty chuffed the charlatans have met their Waterloo. Enjoy the wilderness and the rat fighting to come. One can only hope the right eats itself and fractures but I’m sure they will come up with something. Hopefully not on second thoughts.🤣🤣The Liberal Democrats have certainly been the beneficiaries of tactical voting in the south of England, especially the West Country.
The south used to be a sea of blue with just a few bits of orange and the occasional red dot outside of London. Now it looks more orange than blue. The Conservatives have no seats in Cornwall (I can’t recall that happening before) and only three in Devon (I took 8/11 on them holding on in Torridge and Tavistock – I was fairly confident they would win there).
But a big winner in this election was apathy. It looks like turnout will be 59%, which is pitiful. It looks like plenty of Conservative voters have protested by not voting.
There was not much enthusiasm in Labour areas either. My constituency of Liverpool Wavertree saw a 55% turnout and a significant swing from Labour to Green (probably the student vote). Reform finished third and the Conservatives were pushed down to fifth and a lost deposit, in a constituency they won as recently as 1979.
In the neighbouring Liverpool Riverside, the turnout was only 45%.
‘The Conservatives have no seats in Cornwall (I can’t recall that happening before) and only three in Devon’
It was four in Devon, I used to live in one and am now in another. Tactical voting went wrong here. Two of them were won by a combined total of fewer than 200 votes (roughly 60 and 120) and all four could have gone to Labour or LD with a moderate amount of tactical voting, it would not have even required anywhere near all of Labour or LD’s voters to switch. Redrawn boundaries did not help and neither did both parties claiming they were the tactical vote.
“If this continues the tories could be out of power for a very long time.”
This was said of the Labour disaster of 2019. Boris would still be in No 10 come the 2030s. There are three things that could see a Tory government before the end of the decade.
1) How much of a bollox Labour make of it.
2) Who the Tories chosse as their leader.
3) How Reform goes. Will Farage serve the people of Clacton now he’s their MP or will it just be all about immigration. They could be another UKIP, BNP in 5 years time and we all know where the vote will go.There was not much enthusiasm in Labour areas either. My constituency of Liverpool Wavertree saw a 55% turnout
It was 55% here in York Central too, down from 66% in 2019. Our MP increased her percentage marginally and the Greens were up 8%
So much for judging turnout as ‘brisk’ at 11am on Thursday morning
I have friends who live in the new Exmouth & Exeter East constituency which very nearly went Labour. They’re most annoyed as their (and others) ‘cunning plan’ to defeat the Tories was to vote LibDem: a fine example of tactical voting gone wrong
A paltry 52% turnout in my area which means the Labour MP was supported by less than 20% of the electorate.
‘I have friends who live in the new Exmouth & Exeter East constituency which very nearly went Labour. They’re most annoyed as their (and others) ‘cunning plan’ to defeat the Tories was to vote LibDem: a fine example of tactical voting gone wrong’
That’s one of the two I refer to above. The Lib Dems were 8/11 and neither tactical voting websites nor the parties themselves could agree who the tactical vote was and that is the result so in the absence of anything else then I can’t knock favourite backing. I believe the new boundaries contained some eastern outskirts of Exeter, long a red dot in a sea of blue. East parts of Devon’s traditional second preference after the Tories is more likely to be Lib Dem so a three way fight was not a massive surprise. There was a good independent here too who was reasonably close to unseating the local Tory in 2019. She did not stand this time which no doubt further muddied the waters.
The Liberal Democrats doing so well was one of the more unfortunate outcomes on the night. Only a few months ago, the Post Office scandal was dominating the national conversation. Just a few months later, the public saw fit to reward Sir Ed Davey, one of the main people responsible.
The sight of this loathsome little man (who has shown little if any remorse or contrition) acting like a buffoon, falling into lakes or doing bungee jumps, was truly stomach churning.
On the plus side, at least the arrogant SNP received a thoroughly deserved kicking. I imagine Sturgeon’s face was a picture. Remember, the Great Leader wanted this election to be a de facto second independence referendum. I wonder if she still thinks that was a good idea?
Also no Tory seats left in Oxfordshire, which would have been utterly unthinkable as recently as ten years ago.
You do have to wonder if this will be a low ebb for the Tories. Anyone who hasn’t abandoned them by now surely never will. If they drop the Farage tribute act and move back slightly closer to the centre then they could see something of a revival next time out.
Of course a lot of ‘events, dear boy, events’ will happen over the next five years too. Just glad that we have a bit of stability back for the time being.
Wonder if the Greens will get increased media coverage now they have four seats. Don’t hold your breath.
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