Local election results

[KenAdams]

Is anyone following the local election results?

It's not looking good for the Tories is it?

I have a question if anyone can answer it for me - NW Leicestershire has been declared "hung" due to no majority. However, Labour have 18 seats and the Conservatives 12. How is that not considered a majority?

Oh @Emotionalstorm I think you might have been being sarcastic and it went way over my head, sorry!

I’m 70 in August. I remember the Blair/Brown governments well. Please can I have some more?

Not to mention the people who are dying prematurely because they can't access healthcare. The tories must be loving all that.

If the tories can be credited with anything it’s understanding marketing and propaganda. As a culture we love blaming people and harbouring the belief if they’d done what we personally would have done everything would be perfect.

What actually happens is Liz/Kwasi making the rest of the world go ‘wtf? Lol…. No’.

I'm surprised my area stuck Tory.

I mean I'm not entirely surprised. Since taking power here in 2019, they've done absolutely loads for the area - regeneration etc. You can literally see it with your eyes, the difference the Tories have made.

However, it's incredibly working class area, with high poverty levels. So I am surprised by the fact they retained control.

Me too , didn't Bair/Brown have the longest period of sustained growth in the UK .

@MaisieMay23 are you ready to admit how wrong your theory about our ages was? I'm 55.

https://ifs.org.uk/taxlab/taxlab-key-questions/what-does-government-spend-money

The major trend of the past 70 years has been a steady increase in the share of government spending devoted to health and a corresponding decrease in the share devoted to defence. Between 1955−56 and 2019−20, health increased from 7.7% to 18.5% of total spending.

The share of GDP spent on pensions in the UK has increased from 2% in 1950 to 8% in 2016, it is forecast to rise towards 10% of GDP by 2062.
https://www.economicshelp.org/blog/8950/society/impact-ageing-population-economy/#:~:text=Shortage%20of%20workers.,by%20offering%20flexible%20working%20practices.

Aging population does come with a higher dependency ratio of worker to dependent - lower tax base to tax.

It's a good thing that people are living longer and older citizens who paid tax all their working lives and continue to do so in retirement haven't done anything wrong they shouldn't be sat on waiting list and waiting list are themselves an issue forcing many to take early retirement impacting working population to tax.

TBH though whoever gets in spending less, raising taxes and borrowing more, having population working longer to get past demographic issues is probably going to be inevitable.

Our results aren't in for our area yet. Past elections have been Conservative for three terms, then 2019 was no majority so will be really interesting to see what it is this time.

@Giggorata Everyone appears to have forgotten that Labour doesn't give a shit about women, actual women, not men self ID as women & the children...

we are up shit creek.

It would be shocking for a party NOT to lose lots of seats mid term.

That's the ebb and flow of politics.

Before the general ejection the tories will put out a sweetie shop of goodies in their (unenforceable) manifesto.

The result isnt bad enough for them not think they've got a good chance of winning next year.

I'll say now it's going to be a close one.

I think the ones behind labour are mostly young people who weren't adults last time Labour were in. Or were but too young/not interested enough to see the damage they did.

I’m mid/late 40s.

Lucky enough to train and teach under many years of Labour government. We had a sensible curriculum, much more money within schools, sure start centres and children’s centres to support our families, EPs/CAMHS/SaLT/counsellors etc to refer children into.

Things are worlds apart in schools now and not for the better.

Before the general ejection

Ejection is the right word as the Tories are going to ejected right out of office. Can't wait.

@JustFrustrated that's the problem-they possibly have put money into your area as desparate to retain them- they have however been more than happy to let centre ground towns go to rot- it's all very well winning places like Hartlepool but losing places like Windsor

Greens have done very well here! 👏🎉

It's not depressing.. it's great news!

Good!

We’re up shit creek alright but apparently different ones. There are a multitude of societal issues threatening the fabric of what we could consider cornerstones of our communities and gender ID is waaaay down the list. Frankly if Bert next door is now identifying as Brenda and spends all his time trying to take surreptitious photos in ladies toilets I will take a punt on a Labour government providing police to deal with that over a Tory government cutting them to the bone and just capitalising on the chance to spew hatred in the press.

We don’t have the luxury of sitting about moaning that candidates don’t have our personal specific issues at the forefront of their campaigns, well not if any aspect of the welfare of our country is going to be addressed by a government that is competent.

Most people in this country support Conservative values and ideology for the most part.

Problem is that recent Conservative governments (since 2016 or so) have not been effective or competent in implementing Conservative values and ideology. Voters understood this even back in 2017 and wanted change.

Despite this, voters hated Jeremy Corbyn so much that they still chose to give the Conservatives another 2 election terms in power.

Of course, the ineffective Conservatives were emboldened by this, falsely assuming they were elected because of their success rather than dislike of the opposition, and so continued their ineffective/incompetent practices, frankly getting much worse over the Boris era. This ego is a common reason why incumbents lose support as their tenure extends.

Losing to the Conservatives in 2019 finally instigated the desired change in Labour, installing a more centrist leader in Keir Starmer who possessed more tolerable views for the core of voters.

As before, the Conservatives continued their ineffective/incompetent practices but the difference is that there is now an opposition that the core of voters can at least tolerate, in order to force the Conservative party to change for the better. As long as that remains true at the next general election, Labour will win.

Once Labour are in power, two things can happen. The first is that Keir ends up being catastrophically incompetent - i.e. Liz Truss level. If that's the case then Conservatives won't be motivated to change much and will easily get back into power at the next election. Disaster for democracy and the future of the country.

Alternatively, Keir could end up similar to or a little bit more/less effective than some recent Conservative governments. If that's the case (and it's the more likely scenario) then it's likely that the Conservatives will have to do a proper reorganisation and realign with what the core voters desire. If they do, and Labour get complacent like the Conservatives did these past few years, then the Conservatives will get back in. If Labour don't get complacent and evolve proactively, they can stay in power. Win-win for the people.

And thus parties evolve and change to better reflect the desires and aims of the population.

The very best thing for a successful democratic country is (a) the existence of palatable opposition parties, and (b) the willingness of citizens to vote for said palatable opposition parties if the incumbent becomes complacent.

Britain voting right is an optical illusion caused by first past the post. Most people vote Center / left but the vote us more split so the Tories get in.

The share of GDP spent on pensions in the UK has increased from 2% in 1950 to 8% in 2016, it is forecast to rise towards 10% of GDP by 2062.

That’s because pensions in 1950 were nowhere near the current level in real terms. How does an ageing population lead to an increase in pension expenditure in 2062? We boomers will all be dead by then and the bulge in the snake will be gone, expenditure should decrease from around 2045-50, if not before.

Between 1955−56 and 2019−20, health increased from 7.7% to 18.5% of total spending.

Of course. Because of the huge developments in technology and treatments over that period. Organ transplantation, IVF and numerous other treatments didn’t exist 70 years ago. The biggest cost to the NHS is Type 2 diabetes and that’s not age related.

Really? I’m young enough to remember. I can remember being able to get doctors appointments, an and E waiting times felt bad, but nothing compared to now. There was also walk in centres that took the burden. teachers weren’t striking.
they didn’t get it all right but you can’t blame the world wide financial crisis on them. Tories and Labour have been in power through recessions. The absolute shit show of austerity and cuts to front line services is why we are in the shit we are in now.

giving rich people more money just means they save it. Give poorer people money, they spend it on things they need which boosts the economy

Greens were on that band wagon before anyone else were. I questioned our local candidate in 2017/2018. They just seemed confused.

what’s Lib Dem’s view?

@Cornettoninja spot on.

And wrecking health and education is helping women how?