Westminstenders: One Pepperoni Pizza Please. And a Milkshake To Go.

[RedToothBrush]

On the Eve of the EU Elections that we never met to happen, and we don't know what the next hour next mind day might bring.

Farage is enjoying the theatre of milkshakes. It means he gets attention and gets to play the victim. And avoid talking about his dodgy friends and even dodgier financing. The Brexit Party are polling so highly its possible he could be PM. And boy does he know it. The temptation is there and its too much to resist.

May has refused to resign so far tonight after a day of asking her to. The 1922 Committee refused to change the rules to help oust her - possibly because they don't want the next PM to be beset with challenges to the leadership at the drop of a hat. Graham Brady is seeing her on Friday... The ERG are not happy bunnies.

May is still apparently planning to plough on with the WAB with a referendum possibly attached. Though this remains to be seen.

Meanwhile Leadsom has just quit the Cabinet. She was one of the Brexit 'Pizza Club'. Rumours are this might be the Cabinet withdrawing support for her. Though Gove has said he doesn't intend to resign (tonight at least).

Rumour is that May's senior staff have abandoned her to let her make the decision to go. And rumours are that when Leadsom rang May to tell her she was leaving cabinet, May didn't tell her senior staff. This comes two weeks after rumours where that Phillip May was at the point of telling her it was time to resign. The rumours of course may be just that, rumours but it's hard to see how or why anyone would tell her to carry on now.

And so tomorrow. Who would vote for this utter shower of shit? Even if you were the most loyal of Tories?

The thing tomorrow is to get the remain vote out. It doesn't matter ultimately what people vote for. Every vote cast for remain keeps the Brexit Party popular vote down. Even if it doesn't win seats. And that is psychologically important.

Tomorrow make sure EVERYONE you know who is anti brexit party votes. More so if they are a Remainer voting for a Remain party, but also if they are solid Labour or the rarest of things, a true blue.

It MATTERS. Narratives will be set.

If you are not sure if you are registered to vote, please TRY ANYWAY. The worst case is you are turned away and have lost 20 mins of your life. But you might also be able to vote and that might change the course of events.

Talk to people tomorrow. Remind them. Make sure it's about preventing a hard right foothold. Apathy will destroy our futures. Being fed up of politicians so refusing to vote is actively shooting yourself in the face.

Who am I voting for?

Still no idea. But I will vote.

It seems odd/stupid that UK media can run the Dutch exit polls but not UK ones.

It's from social media. Not British media. So tweets coming out of The Netherlands.

Phillippa Wiseman @phillywiseman
Seriously, I had to vote in my car with no privacy and had to rely on the electoral officer to deposit my vote - I had no way of ensuring it wasn’t tampered with @RonaMackayMSP mostly it’s targeted discrimination!

I wonder if that polling station had a lowered table for a wheelchair user (ours does, and DW uses it).

I bet it does - which makes the entrance even more of a "fuck you".

BBC news ni @bbcnewsni
There's a security alert close to a school in Londonderry that is being used as a polling station #EuropeanElection

Joy.

Not British media

I just read it on the Express website.

I asked about turnout and was told it was "Good. Well, better than the other week anyway". LD area. An LD and a Green vote here.

Direct discrimination is the legal term under the equalty's act.

If each disabled person went for comp for this discrimination it would be in the zero-£5000 bracket I think...as it's a one off event. The legal costs would likely exceed the pay out and this is why people think they can get away with it.

Sam McBride @SamJAMcbride
Despite all the noise about Brexit, based on a small sample from across Northern Ireland, the 5pm #EuElection2019 turnout in NI seems fairly consistently down on the 5pm turnout in the council elections three weeks ago (where final turnout was 52.7%).

No brexit party in NI...

Tom Newton Dunn’s mother is Hungarian and his middle name is Zoltan - what a name! I feel guilty for begrudgingly quite liking TND.

Signs not great here - solidly Tory Yorkshire town & pro Leave in 2016. DH just back from voting - I was out earlier - & he was told it was busier than it had been for the locals and that a few people had made a point of telling the volunteers that they don't normally vote. DH asked if there were many younger voters & woman said ' a few'.

Hull is not far from us & even more brexity. Local paper's website is saying turnout is low, which is also probably not good. Quoted a couple of people ranting about politicians & how they wanted brexit 'sorted'.

A lot of people go after work so plenty of time yet - people more likely to be of working age.

Remain voters more likely to be of working age and working.

I think myself Remainers are likely to be out in strong Remain areas, and Leavers in the Leave areas.

^^ This.

Low turnout works well for the LDs... and Brexit Party....

I asked as I voted whether turnout was high. They said no, really low. Higher than other wards apparently because they were all texting each other. But still very low.
Good news if those Brexit Party wankers couldn't be arsed to turn out. Bad news if it's the rare Remainers in this area who haven't turned out.

I wonder how many Tory/Labour voters just aren’t voting. In that they’ve abandoned their party, but can’t bring themselves to vote for a different one.

WI voted in a largely leave area today, not many there & most gave off a whiff of Brexit. It was about the same as local elections, I would be surprised if it is higher. The nice thing about these huge area-wise regional elections is that our votes get aggregated with everyone else who voted the same(SE) Let’s hope it makes a difference.
I circulated the vote remain email to all & sundry, I proxy voted for partner & harassed son, who hopefully has voted by now. Vote remain were still promoting Change in SE, so I went with it - I love a good algorithm, me.

yougov.co.uk/topics/politics/articles-reports/2019/05/23/how-important-are-eu-parliament-elections

Remain voters more likely to see almost all types of elections as important elections

While a majority see EU Parliament elections are important, there is a huge split between Remain and Leave voters – 73% of the former think they are important compared to only 40% of the latter.

The results also reveal that Remain voters are more likely across the board to see the various elections as important. There is a single exception: Police and Crime Commissioner elections, where the two sides are effectively tied at 37% to 38%.

dh voted this evening - small polling station. Over 75% names crossed off having voted.

This area was 50 /50 Remain Leave. The local towns turned Lib Dem in council elections.

Keiran Pedleyy@keiranpedley*

Definitely decided who to vote for / May change Mind

1. Brexit Party 90% / 10%
2. Lib Dem 60% / 40%
3. Labour 53% / 44%
4. Green 54% / 46%
5. Con 42% / 52%

So Leave voters clear where they're going. Remain voters less so.

Most undecided region? London 43% may change mind

I know we don’t get the results until Sunday, but do we get any information beforehand? I’d be curious to know what the turnout figures are.

Everyone in ds sixth form year 13 voted & most went for Green or Lib Dem.

I'm biting my nails until Sunday...

Sunday / Monday we'll also know which pollsters came closest and which have egg on their faces (not milkshake)

Britain Electss@britainelects*

The final polls for .... European Parliament elections: leads for the Brexit Party range from 3pts to 21pts.

So Leave voters clear where they're going. Remain voters less so

I’m hoping the Remain voters will definitely vote and they are just wobbling over which remain party to go for.

Sunday feels like a long way off

Let's hope the Tories are in single digits - they created & own this clusterfuck

An update from my footie site straw poll. There are now about 120 votes (50%more than my first update. Libdems still polling around 37.5%, Greens 23.5%, brexit 16.7%, change 10%.....and although some of you aren't surprised (I am) the Tories still have 0 votes and labour have 7.
The main demographic would be 35 - 75 males with varying levels of education. The general election poll on thd same site showed the Tories and labour neck and neck so this low level for the tories and the brexit party surprises me.
Plus, like mumsnet they have their share of fanatical brexiteers that cannot name a single positive argument for brexit that stands up to scrutiny.