Westminstenders: From Uxbridge to...?

[RedToothBrush]

Speaker Bercow is gone.

Speculation that Johnson is parachuting into Rutland.

Rumours that the Brexit Party won't contest the election.

A new speaker to be elected on Monday.

Parliament to dissolve next week.

Brexit? Oh we've forgotten that until Friday 13th...

Jennifer Williams of the Manchester Evening news pointed out the town thing matching with marginals some time ago.

She's just tweeted how the adverts are wrong and misleading too

Jennifer Williams @jenwilliamsMEN
Also, not really true. The towns will say how they want the money will be spent, but the government will veto it and give them nothing if it disagrees. That’s not devolution.

I think it's interesting that the LDs or groups sympathetic to the LD appear to have been doing a lot of constituency level polls and putting them on social media

Constituency level polls are really interesting - again with all the caveats of polls.

The Daily Mail is getting all excited about Workington - based on a poll of 500 people, with 100 people saying they don't know.

Red there’s a survey result kick about somewhere that had stats that up to 60% (I thinkish) from memory Lib Dem voters were prepared to vote tactically for someone else. Labour was quite high to.

I will try and find it but make no promises

Choma look at the data sheets (I know you will) 22% don’t knows and they only canvassed two wards in Workington.

We should look at our voting system though. It doesn't seem right if many MP gets elected with less than 30% of the vote as has been predicted might happen.

Ideally, an MP should have at least 50% of a vote.

You want the tyranny of the majority?

Very very few seats are more than 50% for one party and that breeds contempt for the electorate and an unwillingness to compromise and to try and represent the interests of everyone.

I'm not sure that's particularly healthy either in terms of democracy

ook at the data sheets (I know you will) 22% don’t knows and they only canvassed two wards in Workington

I know - and the Daily Mail are thinking that this is great news for Boris.

Very very few seats are more than 50% for one party and that breeds contempt for the electorate and an unwillingness to compromise and to try and represent the interests of everyone

Is it fair that an MP gets 30% and can win?

There are alternative ways - maybe the bottom candidate drops out, and people vote for again, until a winner is produced who has 50% or more?

In 2015, an MP was elected with less than 25% of the vote ....
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election_records#Lowest_winning_share_of_the_vote

BackinTime

"In my personal experience the leave voters I know are all southern Tory middle class baby boomers very much in the 'I'm alright jack' category."

That's precisely my experience, too. Don't give a fuck about anyone else, as long as they have their private incomes/health insurance/investments. The only slight worry is that their houses are worth less due to Brexit uncertainty, but they're not planning to move and are confident that with Boris at the helm, they'll rebound once we're out and Singapore on Thames comes about.

Their smug selfishness knows no bounds. They might be a bit concerned that the younger generation can't afford to live in the area, but Bank of Mum and Dad will see them through, as long as the kids hold on long enough to inherit. Other people's kids are an irrelevance.

This is real donkey with a blue rosette territory, despite the fact that our former Tory MP has now fled the party in disgust. He's black, anyway, so they were always suspicious of him (I can't tell you the disgusting epithet I heard about him from one local Farageist loon, but I'm sure you can fill in the gap), and a committed remainer to boot. I'm sure the local Conservative association has a nice white man with proper right-wing views lined up to replace him.

Is it fair that an MP gets 30% and can win?

There are alternative ways - maybe the bottom candidate drops out, and people vote for again, until a winner is produced who has 50% or more?

We had a referendum on that...

But yes there is an argument for that but neither of the two big parties who would be most disadvantaged are against electoral reform. Can't think why.

Agreeing to this WA is not a big improvement:

BJ has been promising the ERG that he will No Deal after 31 December

• it's how he (mostly) gained their support

It is impossible to negotiate any future trade deal with the EU within 11 months, because trade negotiations typically take 5-12 years,
e.g. CETA took over 7 years

Unless one side immediately accepts all the terms of the other ...... which may be the plan for a US FTA,
but I doubt is the Tory plan for an EU FTA

In any case, the impact statements are dreadful for BJ's WA, even with his magically quick minimum EU FTA

Tory and Labour each want the chance to carry out their policies after a narrow win, with 35% of the vote or even less

WInner-takes-all suits them
They don't like compromise with others

We had a referendum on that

I remember.

I wonder if people might feel a bit different now, given the current situation....

The SNP, despite the fact that it would currently disadvantage them, are still nevertheless in favour of PR.

The hybrid d'Hondt system seems to work well in Scotland - retaining a constituency link as well as a broader regional link. It was designed never to elect a single party majority government (except the SNP "broke" the system in 2011 ) and to encourage that dirty word compromise

A PR system would lead to more parties being viable

People would be more able to vote for who they want, rather than the least horrible option

• that may be part of the frustration that leads to the wish for more referendums

We had a referendum on that

I am the only person I know who voted in that !!!

Hasenstein reading some of the responses from Tory voters on the AIBU thread who are hoping for Leave that doesn't surprise me at all. Just so selfish.

his huge majority means my vote is worthless

Same

Not the constituency...the worthless

I did vote in the PR Referendum but for the life of me can't remember which way I voted as it was a crap form of PR (the LibDems were shafted ) and iirc, would've entrenched 2 party politics even more

Jennifer Williams of the Manchester Evening news pointed out the town thing matching with marginals some time ago.

And they used Taxpayers money to place those ads !!!

They have now been pulled.

www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/facebook-pulls-government-adverts-targeted-at-marginal-seats_uk_5dbc77f4e4b0d8b441ce9b73

This
The hybrid d'Hondt system seems to work well in Scotland - retaining a constituency link as well as a broader regional link

Their smug selfishness knows no bounds. They might be a bit concerned that the younger generation can't afford to live in the area, but Bank of Mum and Dad will see them through, as long as the kids hold on long enough to inherit. Other people's kids are an irrelevance.

@Hasenstein The smugness and the notion that somehow their superior work ethic has got them to where they are today and others are just plain lazy. When in fact many have just been incredibly fortunate to have been part of a generation that has benefited massively from secure well paid jobs, good pensions and house price growth. The idea of Jeremy Corbyn coming after their pennies absolutely terrifies them far more than a hard Brexit.

Tory Candidate Crib Notes

Sam Coates Sky@samcoatessky
^Here’s a game both for the media and people at home

This is Tory general election brief for candidates - and here’s the page with suggested answers to qs^

Why not read along with candidates when they deliver preprepared lines? Surprise them by pre-empting what they’ll say next!

I’d happily help people play Labour and Lib Dem election bingo if anyone wants to leak their equivalent briefing packs / documents

My DMs are always open to all

Worthlessness...

we had a referendum on that

With a precise question:

At present, the UK uses the "first past the post" system to elect MPs to the House of Commons. Should the "alternative vote" system be used instead?

Note that it didn’t ask ^Should a “proportional representation” system be used instead?” Which might have given a different result and then paralysed subsequent governments whilst the argued over what was meant by “proportional representation”

If only the EU referendum had defined “leave” in a similarly precise way...