2019 General Election Poll and Discussion

[Rick]

It seems to be regardless of when the person grew up, it's weird...maybe the midlife crisis changes peoples outlook?

Not mid life crisis ... it’s called life experience... you get older and wiser.
All those idealist views from younger life drain away
See life how it is.

I don't know about older and wiser in this case, you often get older and richer with an asset pool that you're keen to hold on to for a variety of reasons. I think you perhaps also become more cynical and less ambitious, about your own life and how much it can and will change, as well as the world around you. Your ideas are often (but not always) less radical and you're content to bob along to the same old tune.

That's one of the most interesting things about the Tories at the moment. Their 2019 manifesto (alongside 10, 15 & 17) was essentially business as usual - with some reforms and changes, but largely a continuation, except of course, for Brexit which is one of the most radical departures we'll see from the status quo in our lifetimes.

 

[bluesonichd]

A shame Caroline Flint lost her seat.
Quite like her. She seams like an original labour person

If only they were all like her


you cant go on tv and make up shit about me ...

 

[IanSR]

Quite an interesting graph, the Lib Dems being relatively flat is quite surprising to me - perhaps it shouldn't be;

Should give Labour some grounds for optimism in their dark times, but perhaps not much.

Pretty sure their (old) leader practically telling the Country she didn't give a fuck what they wanted and was going to do what she wanted had nothing much to do with their flatline opinion rating, I mean pick a side but when you're so worried about upsetting a group of people that are only slightly less rare than unicorns that you alienate the other 99.99% of the population, is it any suprise that you get your arse handed to you?

 

[Rick]

@IanSR I don't support the revoke policy, I am pretty sure they regret it now too. I guess it was an attempt to differentiate from the second referendum parties. Perhaps worth remembering that 16+ million voted to remain, so there was a target audience for that policy - but you're right, I suspect many were put off by what they perceived as arrogance.

It was a pointless pledge, they knew and we knew that they weren't going to get anything approaching a majority in order to deliver it - it was just a headline grabber (and a seat loser, you might argue).

 

[IanSR]

@IanSR I don't support the revoke policy, I am pretty sure they regret it now too. I guess it was an attempt to differentiate from the second referendum parties. Perhaps worth remembering that 16+ million voted to remain, so there was a target audience for that policy - but you're right, I suspect many were put off by what they perceived as arrogance.

It was a pointless pledge, they knew and we knew that they weren't going to get anything approaching a majority in order to deliver it - it was just a headline grabber (and a seat loser, you might argue).

I don't think it was an attempt to differentiate from Labour policy, I think they gambled that the Leavers would be so pissed off with the three years of delays that they just wouldn't bother voting (I know several people who said f this a while ago) and the Remainers would be better organised this time and would back them because they were going to revoke it all, only forgetting that a large percentage of the Remainers either gave up caring long ago, had accepted the result, or even flipped sides after seeing how dissrespectful the EU has been to us, so her "revoke" pledge insulted their intelligence too and people just saw through it all this time and said f you too.

Plus she was just so dislikable, spoke to everybody like they were a naughty school child in the local primary school, not like an adult, have a look at her car crash radio 5 interview from the other day where she spent 10 minutes trying to avoid answering the question "what is a female?".

 

[Matt N]

I think the issue for the Liberal Democrats is that they never really recovered from the losses they made in the 2015 election following their coalition government with the Conservatives. I don't know whether you'd agree, but their story is perhaps one of the biggest cases of political hubris in recent times. I was reading about them once, and it turns out that they actually won 62 seats once (this was in the 2005 election). In the lead up to the 2010 election under the leadership of Nick Clegg, the party was immensely popular and actually beat the two main parties in some opinion polls. They then went on to win 57 seats in the 2010 election, entered the coalition government with the Conservatives, and then everything seemed to go downhill for them. In 2015, they only won 8 seats, and since then, their highest number of seats won has been 12 in the 2017 election (they held 21 in the previous parliament, but this was mostly because of MPs defecting from the Conservative party and the Labour party as opposed to seats being won).

I actually think their current predicament is a rather sad one, because with both the main parties going to their extremes (Conservatives are arguably going quite far right and Labour are arguably going quite far left), I'd argue that there is more of a place for moderate, centrist politics than ever before.

 

[Rick]

Unelected beuracrat at the helm. I feel like they're trolling us now.

 

[Britford]

I actually think their current predicament is a rather sad one, because with both the main parties going to their extremes (Conservatives are arguably going quite far right and Labour are arguably going quite far left), I'd argue that there is more of a place for moderate, centrist politics than ever before.

Really, that's interesting... my issue with the UK political establishment prior to boris, was that I (and seemingly, a lot of working class voters) felt that the whole thing was approaching this far left singularity with conservative far from right-wing while labour was off chasing Venezuela.
Literally the only reason I even voted in 2017 was to ensure Brexit!

I'm glad we have boris, he seems more centrist to me...
What about him seems far right to you?

 

[Stuie]

I'm glad we have boris, he seems more centrist to me...
What about him seems far right to you?

Boris has made many racist comments over the years and his dog whistle politics has earned him his far right fan club.

His voting record doesn’t exactly scream centrist either.

 

[IanSR]

I'm no fan of his but if you think what Boris has said over the years makes him a far right racist, you've never met a far right racist.

@Matt N yes true too, they (the Lib Dems) stabbed an entire generation in the back, based on how long it took the North to forgive the Tories, it might be 2070 before they recover to anything like what they were in 2005.

 

[Britford]

I was actually talking about since he became prime minister. In all honesty, I have no idea what he was like before then.

 

[ChristmasPud]

What a big ‘coincidence’ Nicky Morgan would become a peer after she stepped down from being an MP. Ridiculous system that needs to be challenged

 

[Alsty]

"The European Union is anti-democratic."

 

[jon81uk]

What a big ‘coincidence’ Nicky Morgan would become a peer after she stepped down from being an MP. Ridiculous system that needs to be challenged

and Zac Goldsmith too. He couldn't get elected so Boris made him a peer instead. So the democratic votes of the people saying they didn't want Zac as an MP are being ignored.
We really are "taking back control" and following the "democratic wishes" of the people.

 

[Stuie]

"The European Union is anti-democratic."

Oh come on... surely the EU give jobs to their shit mates too?


/sarcasm

 

[jon81uk]

Oh come on... surely the EU give jobs to their **** mates too?

I don't believe there is any form of chamber made up of unelected representatives. The EU parliament is elected MEPs and the councils are formed of government officials such as heads of state.

 

[RoyJess]

It's all Uri Geller's fault that Boris is in power

https://www.thesun.co.uk/news/10564...n-win-election-with-special-positivity-spoon/

He's claims are probably more credible than Boris manifesto promises

(Disclaimer, I personally don't believe in any supernatural powers, Uri is just a great showman)

 

[Stuie]

I don't believe there is any form of chamber made up of unelected representatives. The EU parliament is elected MEPs and the councils are formed of government officials such as heads of state.

Yes, sorry... perhaps my sarcasm didn't shine through there.

Rewarding your mate for losing their seat stinks just a little bit.

 

[jon81uk]

Yes, sorry... perhaps my sarcasm didn't shine through there.

Sorry I got the sarcasm and was trying to add to the point that the EU isn't all that bad.

 

[Alsty]

I definitely think some review and changes to our political system are long overdue.

I would suggest abolishing the unelected House of Lords and changing our outdated FPTP system to some form of proportional representation. When the Conservatives got 42% of the overall vote compared to Labour's 40%, yet the seats are 318 and 262 respectively, that does not seem to be representing the people very well.

This article is interesting and worth a read: How would parliament look under Proportional Representation?

[Edit to add] - just realised this was from 2017. The 2019 article is here.