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Original poster

Anyone in Hartlepool - what on earth is going on

999 replies

Purplecatshopaholic · 07/05/2021 07:21

Genuine question. (Apologies if this is in the wrong place, I don’t post much). I’m Scottish and in Scotland, and I am constantly aware these days of how different the views are of Westminster up here, to across the border sometimes. We also have our own Labour Party leader up here. But really? Is Keir Starmer that bad? Are other parties not available? Who on earth is still voting for Boris…? Any WHY?

OP posts:
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5
Unsure33 · 07/05/2021 08:14

@Mumteedum

I think you have hit it on the head . As a floating voter I have no idea what Labour stands for anymore . And we need a strong leader of the opposition, it’s vital , and starmer is .......well boring . And he says one thing at the pm questions and then another to the media.

CormoranStrike · 07/05/2021 08:14

Thank you @TeenMinusTests - that’s what I thought, and the implications I thought to, but I wondered if I was missing something else.

milveycrohn · 07/05/2021 08:14

I imagine it is because the Labour candidate was a Remainer, in a very strong Brexit area. At the GE there was a high vote for Brexit candidate, which has presumably gone to the Tories.
I suspect many working class have little time for the 57 varieties of gender, or the political BLM movement (bend the knee) Starmer. ( I don't mean they are racist, just not the 'defund the police' type)

Chloemol · 07/05/2021 08:15

What a stupid post. People can vote for whoever they wish and don’t have to explain

That said MN seems very much a Labour supporting site, and I have no idea why anyone would want to support them, but I don’t come in here looking for explanations as. It’s down to individual choice and nothing to do with me
,

Letsgetreadytocrumble · 07/05/2021 08:16

The problem Labour has now is that it is split and is trying to appeal to both the Blue Haired Twitterati, and it's more traditional voters, including women. And it's completely failing.

blueangel19 · 07/05/2021 08:16

Labour is the worst party. Only woke people vote for the. I find revolting that Sadiq Khan is even allow a second round but he will win. Plenty of woke people here. I guess they do not care their children getting stabbed. Luckily, not all England is London.

Viviennemary · 07/05/2021 08:16

I voted Labour this time though I only changed my mind because of wallpapergate. I have intended to vote Conservative. People have just moved away from socialism. Thry want better for their own families and they don't want to pay higher taxes towards supporting folk that are perfectly capable of supporting themselves.

Lordamighty · 07/05/2021 08:16

@TrickyD

Thick plebs voting for toffs.

Preferring to be told attractive lies rather than truths they don’t want to hear.

This attitude is why Labour keep losing. Insulting the people who’s votes you want, people who have been voting Labour for years, now being called thick plebs.
RedToothBrush · 07/05/2021 08:16

@Lightswitchesoffatnight

I mean this nicely: perhaps that's because you live in a bit of a bubble? I wasn't surprised by this at all

Oooh, you’re not patronising at all, are you @SunsetBeetch. 😂😂😂

Sunset has a point. It was bloody obvious what was going to happen if you have your ear to the ground and listen.
HeadNorth · 07/05/2021 08:17

Are you for real? Yes, @SunsetBeetch - why do you think Hartlepool voted Tory? Do you not think it was linked to Boris supposedly 'getting Brexit done.'? Is there not a history of xenophobia in Hartlepool? Are these 2 things not, possibly, linked?

WrongKindOfFace · 07/05/2021 08:18

Wrong candidate for the area. Right wing Brexit voters were never in a million years going to give him their vote.

Hartlepool (three times!) elected a man dressed as a monkey as their mayor.

Notonthestairs · 07/05/2021 08:19

We got rid of our brexity MP as they didn't represent the majority of my town's vote. Not at all surprised that it works in the same way elsewhere.

I'm a long time Lab supporter but a much hated centrist and it's a struggle to find my place there at the moment.

Completely agree that throwing insults around at voters doesn't bloody help. (That includes people deriding the London mayoral vote)

Really interesting to read about the local issues re infighting.

SunsetBeetch · 07/05/2021 08:19

@HeadNorth

Are you for real? Yes, *@SunsetBeetch* - why do you think Hartlepool voted Tory? Do you not think it was linked to Boris supposedly 'getting Brexit done.'? Is there not a history of xenophobia in Hartlepool? Are these 2 things not, possibly, linked?
Yes. No. No.
PurpleWh1teGreen · 07/05/2021 08:19

Someone asked upthread why the Labour Party didn’t want Hartlepool and to me this is the key question.

Perhaps they don’t want the wrong sort of voters.

John Curtace was ruminating on the Today programme about
London becoming a London enclave (paraphrasing). If this is the route they take it won’t just be Hartlepool that stop voting for them.

Rosehip10 · 07/05/2021 08:19

Tbh I don't see Labour forming a UK government for a very long time. Pre SNP dominance in Scotland, Labour always relied on a substantial number of Scottish seats to get a majority - there are not coming back (and obs Scotland will likely be independent at some point in the medium term). Labour are not picking up "new" voters and are loosing the old ex-industrial area voters. A government cannot be formed with MPs from London, a few university town/cities and the odd champagne socialist area.

Lightswitchesoffatnight · 07/05/2021 08:20

I honestly didn't mean to be! said @SunsetBeetch

The scale of the Conservative win appears to have surprised many people, so I have plenty of company here in my bubble!

I guess some people just get off on being wise after the event.

RedToothBrush · 07/05/2021 08:20

It used to be the case that economics decided elections. The general public is generally economically conservative (with a small c). That's shifted to social policy being more important. There is an even bigger number of the public who are socially conservative (with a small c).

Labour have been very disparaging and dismissive of this and missed the point about how politics shifted on this axis of importance.

MoltenLasagne · 07/05/2021 08:21

Because despite the by-election being triggered by the last Labour MP being forced to resign due to sexual assault allegations, they chose a candidate who has been slurring women all over Twitter.

And despite Hartlepool being one of the strongest Leave constituencies, they chose a former Remain MP who had already lost a Leave seat in Stockton.

And whilst the Tories put a lot of effort into winning the seat, Labour couldn't even be bothered to hold a selection process.

As RedToothBrush points out too, when you have areas that have been Labour councils for decades, there becomes a sense of complacency around retaining seats and little fiefdoms set up that can be just as bad as the "dreaded Tories".

Theworldisfullofgs · 07/05/2021 08:22

Brexit, people don't know what Labour stands for etc.

But I live in a Tory safe seat, has been since forever, think ww1. Terrible public funding. Awful.
Terrible MP.
There's no incentive to do anything when everyone always votes for you.

Polkadotties · 07/05/2021 08:24

I cannot and will not vote for a party who are unable to define what a woman is

Whitchurch · 07/05/2021 08:24

I think this post demonstrates a huge part of the problem. Labour voters and the party think the best way to oppose the Conservatives is to fault find and insult their supporters. Negative politics is a dodgy route. Instead Labour should be concentrating on what people need and want and what they can do to address that. Clear, sensible and affordable policies that the public can identify.

Damnloginpopup · 07/05/2021 08:24

For all their faults, the conservatives are in power and despite screwing up the initial response to the pandemic in terms of infection rates they pumped in loads of effort to secure enough vaccines to protect the nation going forwards and stumped up extra cash for those on benefits and were extremely generous in protecting incomes for workers whose jobs have been impacted with the furlough scheme. Perhaps labour would have done just as well to be fair but that's an unknown. As someone frontline working 1.5x my hours since September I've had no economic benefit directly, nor have any of my family, but I can appreciate what they have done for so many people who are in a position I could have found myself. Got to respect that.

TempsPerdu · 07/05/2021 08:25

The problem Labour has now is that it is split and is trying to appeal to both the Blue Haired Twitterati, and its more traditional voters, including women. And it's completely failing

This. It’s proving impossible for Labour to reconcile the needs of their current coalition of voters. Currently they’re stuck firmly down a woke rabbit hole, but outside of London and a few university towns wokeness is pretty toxic and alienating. Many of the old Red Wall seats and the swing seats they need to win are quite socially conservative, and the Tories know this and are mopping up these votes, while also moving their tanks on to Labour’s lawn economically with relatively high tax, high spend policies.

It looks to me as though the former Brexit vs Remain voter identities have now crystallised into ‘Woke’ vs ‘Non-Woke’, and elections are becoming increasingly about broader cultural values rather than primarily economics.

Andante57 · 07/05/2021 08:25

I imagine it is because the Labour candidate was a Remainer, in a very strong Brexit area

Bit daft of whoever’s in charge of selecting the candidate then. There must be a Brexit supporting Labour candidate that could’ve been chosen.

PurpleBiro21 · 07/05/2021 08:26

@blueangel19

Labour is the worst party. Only woke people vote for the. I find revolting that Sadiq Khan is even allow a second round but he will win. Plenty of woke people here. I guess they do not care their children getting stabbed. Luckily, not all England is London.
A few people have mentioned issues with Labour being ‘woke’.

Can someone define woke? Because I don’t understand?