This country is doomed

[HappyFace2025]

While the vote in Gorton and Denton may be described as a 'protest' vote the strength of both the Greens and Reform performance is something to worry all of us not just Labour.

The Greens don't know what a woman is.

And the local by-election campaign was won on their anti-Semitic policies.

I could get on board with that. The current House of Lords is a complete anachronism.

I think they know exactly what a woman is. After all one has just delivered them a resounding victory.

That’s such a daily mail claim.

The other possibility instead of first past the post is optioonal preferential (Australia uses this system).

You use numbers, and you can give a number to all candidates in order of your preference, or only give your vote to one or two or however many of the candidates you want to vote for.

If your first preference candidate doesn't get an outright majority (ie half the votes cast + one) then your vote is rolled over to your 2nd preference candidate. And so on.

It means you could vote 1. for Monster Raving Loony Party, then vote 2. for a serious party, and not "waste" your vote.

It sounds complicated but it's really not - it's just a numbering of your preferences from highest to lowest. And you can choose not to give any of the candidates your vote at all. You can make a protest vote but not "waste" your vote.

The problem with Labour is that they're not the opposition, they're just the lite version of the Tories. Some might argue not even the lite version recently. Anyway, nothing will fucking change while we have the two main parties owned and controlled by foreign powers, so for now, Greens will have to do (for me).

Scotland's Parliament is not fully PR, and one of the biggest issues with the partial system is that you end up with the likes of Murdo Fraser being a perpetual but wholly pointless presence in your Parliament, in a job for decades despite never once having actually been directly elected, and indeed, having been utterly rejected by the electorate on at least seven separate occasions when he has actually attempted to get himself elected on merit.

PR systems are not free of pitfalls either, especially so when it's left to the whims of the party to nominate who, precisely, will be elected by bloc vote. Conversely, it does make it virtually impossible for bampot single-issue independents to wind up with a seat because they can't muster any sort of widespread enough support to matter when the larger parties also return significant bloc list votes.

There are pros and cons to all systems, and in a lot of ways partial PR isn't really an improvement over and above full FPTP. It does mean though that smaller parties who have a degree of popular support do gain some traction if they can break through a certain threshold, so there is that.

That was one hell of a promising acceptance speech from Hannah Spencer.
More of that please.

Parma, there was a vote for AV in 2011 in the UK. The lib Dems pushed for it and people voted to keep it as first past the post. Wasn’t a big turn out for this and I felt that people were after a PR vote really.

You're quite right, OP. The country is doomed. But not because of the Greens or Labour.

Nope.

www.politicshome.com/news/article/legal-row-over-green-party-leadership-rules

A Green Party Spokesperson told PoliticsHome: "The Green Party's internal rules state that if a single leader is elected, there must be two deputy leaders of different genders, noting that gender is self-defined.

So, for them a woman is anyone who says they are a woman. Note the clever use of gender rather than sex hey. The result is still the same - Nigel Farage could claim he’s now female and take the place of a biological woman. You’re also voting for a man of course who said he can increase women’s breast sizes through the power of his mind. Yup, they are the party with a sound grasp on what a woman is for sure…

Fptp does not produce representative govt.

pr is needed, very much so.

It's always like this after a by-election. There was a 47% turnout and the Labour candidate who would have probably won wasn't allowed to stand.

All a storm in a teacup - I'm just glad Reform didn't win.

Totally agree - and parties would have to work together if they didn't get an overall majority rather than us having an elected dictatorship for 4-5 years.

So you’re not going to tell me what the point of your post was, other than “but Israel”? Rightio.

Politics home is owned by cock Ashcroft so hardly a bastion of impartiality.

dont get played. Always ask who is telling you something.

And what would those be? Since you enjoy following me thread to thread.

I find it disheartening that politics on both sides seem to be lurching further and further to the extreme fringes, and as a result Labour/Conservatives are having to follow that way too to appeal to those voters.

Where have the sensible, centrist, moderate parties disappeared to? That's who I'd support. Not some far right or far left party of nutters with ridiculous policies.

Saying that, at this rate and given the derth of other suitable options, I think I'll be tempted to vote monster raving looney party next time!

I didn't intend to imply that it was only due to the Greens or Labour.

The Green's complete belief in gender ideology is well known. They even expel women for having gender critical views.

I don't think Starmer or the Labour Party consider the result 'a storm in a tea cup'.

I don’t think they feel it is either. It’s pretty damaging. But May is coming up which could be even more pronounced.

what is inaccurate?

The woman who won was very inspiring and I like Zack Polanski. The Green party policies are insane though. Do they understand basic economics? As a country we have a tough fiscal situation and there is no money without economic growth which the labour party have done a great job of halting. The Greens feel like a sixth form party with great ideas (which I completely agree with) but in real life would be disasterous for everyone and would leave us all poorer. Don't like Reform who are like the Greens but at the other end of the spectrum. I hope that the Conservatives, Labour and Lib Dems all improve because if Green/Reform do well then we all need to leave the country.

Which policies concern you ?