To think Starmer will be gone by the end of Friday? Or will it be Monday evening?

[SingleSexSpacesInSchools]

Whoever you are voting for today, it's probably not Labour - they might loose 2,000 seats.

How long exactly will it be before he resigns?

You can argue that until you’re blue in the face, it still won’t make it true.

The labour government has a strong parliamentary mandate but increasingly not a strong political mandate.

The latter is what could potentially result in an early GE.

It’s more wishful thinking if the greens ever got into any actual Power I think we’d all be better off stabbing ourselves in the face and jumping off a cliff.

But it is true. If a government lacks a political mandate from the electorate it is difficult possibly impossible for them to govern and the only thing they can do is call an election. This has happened dozens of times in our history. It’s not very hard to look it up, I even cited them earlier.

It’s local elections.

The only way a government loses its mandate is if its MPs vote against it. It will never happen with a majority as large as the current one.

But it has a political mandate from the electorate! It's valid for five years.

Just want to say, I'm listening to Suzanne Vaga's The Queen And The Soildier right now, what a tune!

No

its

not

or

the

government

would

not

frequently

call

it

early .

Yes, it is valid for 5 years. Governments generally call a general election after around 4 years so that they can control the timing, not because there is any issue with their mandate. Apart from the coalition, which tried to take away the ability of Prime Ministers to choose the timing of elections, the only times in recent history when governments have gone the full five years have been when they are very unpopular and hoping something will turn up to save them. Governments go after around 4 years because they are popular and expect to win, not because they have lost their mandate. Local elections cannot take away a government's mandate. The only way a government loses its mandate to govern is by losing a majority in the Commons.

To be fair to the Tories, they are a lot quicker to cut bait when someone isn't working out as party leader or PM. Labour are a lot more stubborn and determined that they are right and the voting public are wrong for disagreeing with them.

But still they gave us Boris Fucking Johnson and Liz Truss.

Lose, not loose. Jesus.

At this stage of the night the parties are trying to play down expectations. Reform, for example, are telling the press that 800 seats would be a great night and 1,000 would be success. However, looking at current polling, they should be getting around 2,000 seats. 1,000 seats or less would be a disaster.

They have had 2 years to undo 14 years of absolutely ruthless Tory cuts. This country has suffered massively. People are fed up but I agree that they are making progress from an extremely challenging baseline.
I can't remember a time when I have felt worse off. This is not the fault of Labour though, they said in 2024 that people needed to be patient because a lot of work needed to be done.
Liz Truss broke the economy and it's still not recovered. Boris Johnson was partying away at Downing Street whilst we were all locked up.
The years of pay freezes and the cuts to schools, the NHS - I've lived and worked through it and witnessed how stretched these institutions have become. Not to mention leaving the EU. How can anyone honestly say we are in a better position? These are all choices made by the Tories. I will never trust them.
And as for Reform, I can't think of a worse situation than that party gaining power in 2029.
The division in this country is obscene and that's what the marches are about. All pedalled by Farage and co, causing distrust and leading the way with their one policy 'stop the boats!'. Nothing makes sense in their manifesto.
I saw one Reform candidate wearing a blue hat on Facebook with the slogan "Make Britain Great Again!" Really?! After the state that the US is in? It's unbelievable and I can't understand it.

Although I won't be voting Green I feel that way about Reform
The majority of my friends are centre or slightly right leaning politics wise. They would all vote green / corbyn/ far left than reform though, if it was a straight choice

I am not a labour voter and think they've shot themselves in the foot a good few times, but agree with the vast majority of this
#anythingbutreform

I have no idea when he will go but it is local elections we have just had, for councillors, not MPs.

Wales? Scotland? These are rather significant issues?

They’re all favourites this morning!

Rejoice!

IMPOSSIBLE for the left to now ignore Reform and their voters.

Save your breath trying to spin or gas-light your way out of it - it does not wash.

Own it.

Try to stay calm.

Reform hasn't even won control of any councils yet. Very early days.

GM LL.

And you, my friend - watch your blood pressure today, please.

What does GM LL mean?

Sir John Curtice predicting Labour will lose 1200 seats, rather less than some forecasts anticipated.

"However much depends on what happens in London, where a large proportion of the seats they are defending are located.

The Conservatives are also losing ground; their vote is on average down by 14 points and the party is losing around half of the seats it is trying to defend."

So v early days!

It means, Good morning, Landlord.

Manners cost nothing.

Chat later?