Thread 22 Starmer - Running up to local elections

[BIossomtoes]

Here we go. Previous thread.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5305431-thread-21-starmer-casting-nasturtiums?page=40&reply=143731831

Thought following the US thread/politics was depressing- now looks like U.K. thread/politics will be too 😞 Though these are my favourite threads for good debate/information.
Glad my area hasn't had elections! Tbh I've not found a lot of differences between council running, whichever party has the majority, so I'm not sure what impact these results have on local areas in practice, especially as all I have heard about why vote Reform are national reasons not local ones and they can't stop the boats locally (or at all!). So I'm not sure how this will impact increasing the future by potentially increasing, or hopefully decreasing any Reform support for the future.
I cannot abide Frogface - nearly didn't watch GE for fear of seeing/hearing him - I find him repulsive - top of my revulsion scale is a close run thing between him/Trump. So this is a definite downside of these results as we'll see the lazy ass even more.
Anyway, I look forward to understanding more about the impact of these results on this moderate thread.

It’s really Not as depressing at US politics @MsJinks

I’ve only read headlines and am about to drive for a couple of hours but the long and short of it to me is the Conservatives are done for now, Labour have had a kick up the arse in multiple areas, Reform have done well and…

the Lib Dem’s gets zero media attention as always. They’ve thumped it home in my area.

I hope Labour don’t decide to focus on the Reform vote - easy answers to complicated questions ruins countries (see Brexit)

Farage saying that he would like to stop working from home on Radio 4. People, get ready to have health insurance.

Jenkyns wants migrants to be housed in tents and an end to soft touch Britain.

No @Notonthestairs - nothing could be as dire as US politics, but my heart sinks at results. I am concerned we may piggy back to their ways though.
And the health insurance if they get in would be a horrific result for future generations.
Glad Lib Dem's did well, the main party I support, though float a bit.
Kemi will have to think their position- I'd prefer that the rabid Tories go away and an original one nation, not far right party returns, but guess there'd not be many votes for them how we stand.
Hoping that the local votes don't transfer to national ones - you can take a more personal/protest preference approach in council elections I think but move to more moderate parties in GEs I think. Not that I understand any Reform vote tbh.

Just seen Regorm MPs make 5 again - though only just. They have a mayor and 71 local seats - my main take away is that Tories are wiped - which is good in their current iteration but I don't care for their replacement at all.

Six votes. Six bloody votes. Well, let Farage crow for now.

@Notonthestairs I agree. Labour is done if it chases the Reform vote. It doesn't need to. It needs to woo back its own voters by being the Labour party not the Red Tory party.

@placemats - unfortunately I think the not WFH will appeal to the Reform base, and those who don't care for his idea already stand more left than Reform base. It won't lose votes - I can't understand why no one worries about health insurance - honestly Farage doing health, with his known US ties, should result in very few votes ever.

I agree with this totally.
Awful Andrea has become Mayor

They don't think or care about health insurance. All the Reformites care about is immigration, it is just about all they ever talk about if you look at the work of the pro-Reform posters on MN. They are particularly obsessed with the small boats.

Perhaps they are all wealthy enough not to worry about health insurance?

Lincolnshire can look forward to her having no interest in public transport and other regional issues. It's not like small boats are landing at Mablethorpe every day.

The right side of close in North Tyneside. I don't think they have even started counting council votes yet, here.

Mayoral election results declared so far:

Doncaster: LAB HOLD
West of England: LAB HOLD
North Tyneside: LAB HOLD

6 votes in Runcorn, that was closer than I expected.

Jenkyns thanks great leader Farage, very Trump like

Meanwhile, this significant story about maternity care and promised funding has already been and gone off the BBC's main page:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cwynqx77dn5o

6 votes meaning 5 seats is not a seismic shift in the system. BBC need to get a grip, fact check this bollocks and stop over promoting them. Lib dems don't seem to have won any seats ever.

The new mayor of Lincolnshire showing how much she cares for the people who elect her.

Vain hope @littledrummergirl the BBC has always given Farage and his parties a disproprtionate ampount of airtime for some reason.

With my Pollyanna hat on, I am quite heartened that Reform won by only 6 votes. If it had been a landslide I would be really worried.

I was agreeing with @PandoraSocks but the quote got lost.

I was thinking the same. 6 votes is not a landslide. I predict many interested and engaged constituents asking many detailed questions regularly.
I also predict costs rising, standards dropping and few if any occasions when the MP turns up in the constituency, or joins debates in Parliament.

There are a LOT of people who admire her for doing this. The context , remember, was 'people having a go at dear Boris' and the large number of newer Reform voters are Tory Boris fans. They don't care that she did it to bereaved Covid families (or they don't know) and a fair smattering of them are anti vaxxers/maskers/lockdown etc. and probably admire that too.

Jenkyns aside, there are quite lot of people wo like the 'I speak as I find' politicians - which includes her, Lee Anderson and others of their ilk. Labour has lost its Dennis Skinners and appear mealy mouthed .

Lincolnshire really is quite an odd place, also.

Re Runcorn, Sarah Pochin is a former Conservative councillor and ex mayor of Cheshire East.

No mention anywhere of the disastrous Tory performance.

Lincolnshire was very pro brexit iirc

For Runcorn voters, winter fuel and pip were the big issues. So why not vote Lib Dems. Although Greens picked up Labour votes too.

I actually think there are similar issues to the MAGA red states in some areas of the east coast of England, economic deprivation and low rates of educational attainment. Reform offer simple answers to complex issues, as with Trump they blame immigrants for nearly every problem and convince their supporters that they could return to a “golden age” if we stop them coming.

This is what I don’t understand why vote for Reform, surely the Lib Dems or the Green Party would be more aligned if you previously voted Labour.

But I assume she wouldn't want a tent camp on her doorstep, NIMBY