Labour victory feels flat - just me?

[Rafting2022]

I seem to remember after the 1997 landslide the country was on a real high for days - this feels like an anti-climax. Is it just me?

I was thinking about this earlier today, I do not understand the choice of date.

It’s particularly bad this election. They’ve got 2/3rds of the seats on 1/3 of the vote share on a very low turnout. It’s not a mandate. FPTP delivers ridiculously skewed results and this one takes the biscuit.

I am pleased to have got rid of my awful Conservative MP.

However this feels like a bit of a hollow victory.

First the turnout was low.
Secondly the Conservatives lost because people wanted shot of them and not because they wanted Labour to win.
Thirdly Labour won on only 35% of the vote because of our voting system and smaller parties like Reform, Greens, Independents and Lib Dem's splitting the vote.

Finally we are still in an economic mess, the rise of the far right like Reform is a concern and there are no big giveaways that Labour can offer or magic money tree to infuse our public services with cash so their hands will be tied.

So yes I can totally see why you feel flat.

I think it feels flat because deep down we all know they taking over an absolute shit show. They have a mountain to climb to even begin mend the devastation the Conservative government has caused. I'm not even sure it can be done. It feels bleak.

As others have said this is a Tory loss. If Labour are to hold on at the next general election they have got to prove themselves otherwise the country will be very swiftly swinging back to blue. People have short memories.

I'm very happy and optimistic as is everyone I've spoken to today.
I work with government policy and we're looking forward to working with the new administration.

If they don’t have any choice, then what difference does it make which party is in?

What does the ‘too many are taking from the system and not enough are contributing’ allude to? Presumably that’s not an issue (whatever it is) that started this afternoon?

Feels great to me. Very optimistic and glad the grown ups are back in charge.

I was thinking about this earlier today, I do not understand the choice of date.

It's a mystery wrapped in an enigma.

Grown ups? Wes Streeting?

I feel as though a great weight has been lifted from my shoulders. One I didn't realise was there until it was gone. I've been smiling all day and I am so glad to see the back of the Conservatives. Self-serving loadsamoney tosspots.

It’s downhill, but it will be faster downhill under labour than Tory. Not that I like Tory.

Too many taking from the system and not enough contributing to it is quite simple and obvious, and it’s been going on for decades.

It ends in huge political shake up / civil war. Take your pick.

He wanted out. He’s loaded anyway, and there’s a good chance we’re going to war and that doesn’t fit with his Hindu morals. Mine neither actually.

An alternative assessment could be that this one was an especially efficient use of people's tactical votes, and has delivered a result a majority of people both expected and are fine with.

I fully understand the superior representative nature of PR (clue is in the name!) but Labour clearly has a FPTP mandate.

Its definitely flat because lets be honest they only got in because the Tories are so bloody awful not because Labour have anything great to offer! They will most definitely be out in four years time!

Comedian 🙄

I think I need to see the full list of his cabinet and see their pedigree.

But this was an anti Tory win for labour.

I keep hearing this but that was all true in 1997 with Paddy Ashdown’s Lib Dems. They had an unofficial agreement to keep out of each others way in seats where one would split the vote. Blair was even promising Ashdown PR. Got their majority and all talk of PR was kicked into the long grass.

it might be a mandate under FPTP, but it’s not a mandate from the country.

I'm delighted, as is everybody I've spoken to today. I'm feeling hopeful.

But no one has ever had a mandate from the country by your definition - or is there a PM in the last century who got more than 50% of the electorate? FPTP is the system we have. The Lib Dems have been making this point forever.

I'm delighted to have a Labour government, but I am very worried at how well Reform did, coming second in something like 97 Labour constituencies. I am also worried about the independent pro-Gaza candidates and the rise of sectarianism.

All true, but, as a currency printing nation we both know that there is a magic money tree. Plenty of the world's top economists have been advocating we access it to invest in areas which drive real, sustainable, long-term growth; education, healthcare, infrastructure etc. Instead, we're on a path of cutting those very areas to pay down debt.

They did it after WWII and transformed Britain and that's the scale of the task they have.

I'm quietly delighted that we have some grown-ups in charge at last.

He wanted out. He’s loaded anyway, and there’s a good chance we’re going to war and that doesn’t fit with his Hindu morals. Mine neither actually.

So why not just stand down? Now he has half his own party wanting to kill him.

All of which suits me fine. It's not my party and it's helped the other side. Nevertheless, I'd like to hear his explanation.

There is t the same hope, the country is now old and there’s no money.

If that’s your gut feeling it’s correct.