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...

He’s not running. @NigelFarage will not be a candidate at the election. Suggests @brexitpartyuk is more a pressure group than a political party Nick Robinson

Won’t be 8th time lucky then.

I didn't know about the Brexit party being founded by a woman!

moderate remain voters who want the ref result to be honoured

Not sure what moderate means in this context?

Suspect it means if you don't want an advisory ref result that broke electoral laws, was funded by questionable sources, used lies and/or exaggerations, and drew on illegal data mining and profiling to sway voters to be 'honoured', well that must are me immoderate .

Nice bit of disingenuous framing there.

We won't know for definite that Farage is not running until the nominations close. But still if he did, he would have to give up what for him is a sinecure of being an MEP.

make me... (should really preview posts)

See whilst I think Labour should have a female leader, names keep getting thrown around who would be a disaster and counter productive to women in politics in the long run because the names in the frame are completely useless. I would simply like a compentant leader but I think this is currently over ambitious.

I see that people's political beliefs fall along a bell curve - so the vast majority are Centrists. Part of the labour parties problem at the moment is it is perceived as quite far to the left on that curve, with some of its policies being to the fffaaaarrrrrr left.
I am not saying those polices are wrong - but they are not appealing to the vast majority.
As I see it - parties need to compromise on those perceived extreme policies (the tories have this same problem) or we need PR, and both those major parties split in two.

mockers you forgot the hat we all have to have the Corbyn cap.....

< I have one of those caps.... I however thought I was channelling Kate Moss/Bardot>

Still better than an EU BERET Red

Basil theres a poll floating about that gave Corbyn a +6 bounce on the 30th, is there any chance you could do the do to it, bloody westminsters I dont trust polls no matter if theyre in my favour or not, I miss my innocence and I hold each and every 1 of you responsible for that

That's going to be my line to undecideds...

Vote to prevent a tory majority.

Whatever party that is for.

so the vast majority are Centrists

I think the Overton window has drifted so far rightward since the 90's that what people think of as centrist now would be considered quite right wing

Vote to prevent a tory majority.

Very much this ^^

If you let me know which poll it is Just I will have a look.

I have stopped doing them because frankly I’m preaching to the converted on here.

Now everyone has stopped having a collective nervous breakdown with every poll posted I didn’t see the need.

Britain Elects
@britainelects
·
9h
Westminster voting intention:

CON: 39% (+3)
LAB: 27% (+6)
LDEM: 16% (-2)
BREX: 7% (-6)

via
@YouGov
, 30 Oct - 01 Nov
Chgs. w/ 30 Oct

Thank you Basil when I rule the world I shall give you the title of Her Supreme Dictators Poll Interpreter

@JustAnotherPoster00
This election will be interesting. I was never very politically engaged in the uk until the referendum. From that un-engaged place - I would have described myself right of centre. However as the Tory party (who - I will say I have never voted for) have swung further right - I would now describe myself left of center. It will be interesting to see if it's just me - or its an actual movement.

DH was at conference recently, the after dinner speaker was a political scientist from Oxford. DH was sitting next to him at dinner - and talked about my new found engagement (obsession?) - political scientist said it was trend they were seeing, and that if one positive came out of the referendum it was that it had made a proportion of the population far more engaged.

Can anyone one here read the Tim Shipman article in The Times with Farage I’ve reached my freebie limit and I’m too tight to pay,

There is something in there about him being offered a peerage and somebody else (Tice ?) was offered a safe Tory seat in exchange for not running against the Tory’s.

I wish we had more political engagement in this country, everytime I'm asked 'as all Labour members are' to suggest things for policy I always ask for:

Civics lessons to be compulsory and on the curriculum from the ages of 10 up

Votes for EU Nationals paying tax here

Votes for 16/17 year olds

Compulsory voting

I always seem to forget to put votes for prisoners which irritates me, I want to extend the franchise to everyone possible

One of my friends posted this on FB (she lives in the US these days, so she may not be thinking of the UK GE, but the principle works equally well here)

I had thought. [...] What if....[...] Johnson doesn't want to win?

Going way back when, there was a strong suspicion that Brexit would never happen, and that the challenge facing the incumbent party (which Theresa May tried to change in an election in 2017 ...) would be how to avoid delivering Brexit without committing permanent electoral suicide.

It was one thing which dogged Theresa May Premiership.

If we assume Boris has quickly realised - or being advised with a baseball bat until even he "gets it" that this is indeed the situation, then a faux election with Farage helpfully obliging by splitting the Leave vote leading to either a hung parliament or non-Tory government of some description would be "just the ticket".

On that note, Brexiteers are 100% right to distrust Boris. His only concern is Boris and what result is best for Boris.

Looked at that way, the optics of refusing a deal with BXP (although there was never any chance of any deal anyway - note my previous comments about it being in itself electoral suicide), and then having BXP drain the loony Leavers and deny the Tories a majority start to look possible, if not planned for.

As an aside, I notice a lot of poll, but very few predictions That would worry me if I was a Tory that wanted to win the election. Maybe the ration will change as time goes on, but it's one to watch. I think a lot of pollsters still have bandaged hands from 2017.

Either that, or I'm reading the wrong news sources ...

I'm pleased none of you think I'm mad

if one positive came out of the referendum it was that it had made a proportion of the population far more engaged.

There's a world of difference between being "politically engaged" and just doing what a twat in a Union Jack hat tells you that you should be doing ...

Blindly voting based on rosette colour is the opposite of "politically engaged". And that's the problem we have in the UK (or is it more English ?)

People spend more time choosing their car insurer than they do who they vote for.

If you wanted a real game changer, it would be a comparison website "CompareTheParties.com" where you put in your criteria, and it suggested the appropriate candidate.

Anyone who moronically admits they "always vote " will be the section that gets shat on the hardest and most often by that party when it comes into power. Which explains 1997-2010 in a sentence. And since 2015, there's been this lovely shiny "referendum" to dazzle voters with and persuade them to vote for the eye-poking-party.

I suspect people will vote along their traditional Labour or Tory lines in this election, not Brexit P or LibDem but we shall see.

Sorry, @Xenia, I don’t buy that at all. There will be massive tactical voting among remainers, including those who have always voted Tory. And there are a lot of Tories who won’t vote for Johnson, I’m married to one.

Don't agree xenia
My dh, for example, will be voting labour for the first time.