Westminstenders: Election Special 3

[RedToothBrush]

Reactions...

Pmk! Wow; the first!

I feel emotionally flat, drained and still unbelieving, really. Hasn't fully sunk in. Probably will get myself together after more rest.

Thanks for the thread, Red and to all contributors.

My reaction is simply gutted, to be honest.

This means that no matter how much Boris lies, how much he avoids slightly tricky interviews, no matter what racist things he says, no matter what fridges he hides in, no matter how miserable NHS staff are, no matter what ‘mistakes’ the unbiased BBC and Laura Kuenssberg say, people still voted for the conservatives.

The Tories and BBC can do what they like and nobody cares any more.

PMK

I'm so sad for all the suffering people who are now going to made to suffer even more. More children sleeping on hospital floors, more elderly people on trollys in corridors for hours upon end, more schools doing reduced hours, more people sleeping on the streets, and more innocent children going hungry.

I'm so ashamed to be British right now. My only consolation is that I don't live there anymore so I get the privilege of turning off the news and pretending it's not happening.

@fedup21 yeh we're in a seriously unwell country. pathological denial is almost the least of it

I've never cried because of an election result before 😢

PMK as ever many many thanks Red & all contributors concur with pp

Think I missed virtually all the last thread. Went to bed after the exit polls but didnt really sleep. Saw BlowJob win Uxbridge, that was disappointing.

I seem to remember Theresa May's speech after her win was all about uniting the country, JAMs, it will all be lovely. That went well (not).

The only clear thing to me is that whatever is good for BJ is what will happen.

Responding to BCF post from the previous thread

bear Your technique of haranguing people and demanding they debase themselves in abject shame has never worked yet

I’ve never demanded they ‘debase themselves in abject shame’, only ‘wake up and smell the coffee’

And even after a huge Tory win it seems that’s still not on the agenda around here so I’ll leave you all to wallow in what was always going to be defeat today because of how the opposition conducted and continues to conduct themselves

Watching from abroad in horror. But is it just me who thinks Labour threw the election? Avoids the whole having to take action in Brexit, gets rid of a leader who is unpopular and, minus any electoral boundary nonsense, leave it all to win when impacts of Brexit are properly felt.

I am somewhat calm.

It is what it is and there is now a democratic mandate.

So we go with it for the next 5 years and hope for the best.

DH & I can tell our children that we did not vote for this.

But ultimately we'll be fine.

And the large is possibly better than a small majority.

Re EU we have possible a stronger position- less infighting.

Brexit is still a worry but it won't break the country.

Johnson as PM might though

If Johnson is a true One Nation conservative this is the time to show it.

I'm sad today.
I hope that good people will stick together and help each other because the Tory party will not be there for the vulnerable.
Clearly Labour and the LibDems need to reflect on what has happened but tearing themselves apart cannot be the answer. In many places the combined non-Tory vote Lib Dems, Labour, Greens, nationalist parties exceeded the Conservative one. I am reminded of Gordon Brown's remarks after the 2010 GE that there was a majority for a liberal/left administration. This has been disrupted, I hope temporarily, by Brexit. The Conservatives have set themselves up for expectations that cannot be met. Brexit will not be the answer many new Tory voters have been conned into believing it will be. Instead real problems of poverty and inequality will worsen. Environmental issues and climate change will not be taken seriously enough. Labour's policies would have helped to address these - they are after all very like those accepted as the norm in many other European countries. My hope is that the penny will drop that only the rich stand to benefit and at the next GE there will be a reaction.
My worry though is that the lying, and frankly sinister tactics underwritten by far right money and foreign interference will continue and, worse still, many many people will either not realise or accept it as an inevitablity and not care. This was behind the leave vote and now this Government's election victory. This breed of "Conservatives" have no incentive to regulate electioneering and fake news on social media. Will the Russian dossier ever be released now?
It's up to anyone who feels like I do to try and do our bit even if it it is only to speak up for what you know to be right and true. The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men (and women) to do nothing.

Christ, you’d think the bloody gloaters would have the decency to leave us to lick our wounds for five minutes but no, they can’t even manage to be gracious in victory.

Reaction? There is lots I could say, and I'll probably put some more down later today but initially 2 things.

I am surprised at the scale of the Johnson win and I also want to say to all the people who I've been chatting to on here, most of whom so willed a different outcome, that I hope you are able to take care of yourselves and those you love and that I wish you all well.

More later. Need coffee.

I'm sad. But I won't give up. I want my dc to know this wasn't my choice and that their mum did what she could to avert it all. And I'm praying that there's a big fall from grace for the lying nitwit who's now in charge sooner rather than later.

And I'm smiling that ds who seems to have a rip on politicians doesn't really get parties at the moment saw the news about the Tories and Labour then asked me how the Lemon Debbies did this morning. Took a while before I realised he meant the Lib Dems. I may start calling them that from now on.

I think there is a large element of the truth in this:

The left need to start basing policy on what their traditional supporters want, not what the left think they should want.

It's a tough thing to do and do well, but the social justice warrior doesn't connect with a lot of people. It just smacks of people telling them how the should behave and think which gets up backs because it can be authoritarian in nature and tone.

Turkey I have thought precisely the same. At least, Labour knew they were likely to face a significant defeat right from the get-go. They refused a GE a couple of times for this reason and then accepted that this would be one to let go for the reasons you describe.
Labour would have made further moves to unseat JC as leader and replace him with someone more centrist if they felt that would have won this.
They knew that any sort of Brexit focused election would put them at a significant disadvantage. Economic damage done by leaving the EU would damage Labour's reputation irretrievably , because they declare themselves as caring for jobs, public services, the vulnerable. The very things that will be ravaged by Brexit.

I believed all the shit about high turnout being better for labour etc, but I think turnout was down compared to 2017

Turnout was up in Cities. But down in small towns.

That's an important distinction to recognise.

This means that no matter how much Boris lies, how much he avoids slightly tricky interviews, no matter what racist things he says, no matter what fridges he hides in, no matter how miserable NHS staff are, no matter what ‘mistakes’ the unbiased BBC and Laura Kuenssberg say, people still voted for the conservatives.

^This....

It does really feel as though the US has come to the UK. Far right from the US (and Australia) saw their chance to build allies in the UK and brought tactics and money.

I say 'far right' but that implies a political allegiance of sorts when really its all about money and power and nothing more. BJ is the poster boy of this cadre in that he really has no strong political views. His only goal was No 10 and now he's got his prize. I wonder if he'll find that it pays to be careful for what he's wished for.

I feel utterly depressed this morning. There are a few small glimmers of light though.
The Tories will have to own Brexit. When things don’t go smoothly they won’t have anyone else to blame. Of course they will try to blame the EU but they can’t convincingly blame every country in the world when trade negotiations don’t go to plan.
They also have to try to hang on to their new voters or they will quickly desert them. This hopefully means investment in poorer areas or a labour win in the future when people realise exactly what they voted for.
Corbyn will be gone. Hopefully someone with some leadership skills will rebuild the Labour Party. I hope they go back to basics, properly look at what went wrong and learn from their mistakes.
I know I’m clutching at straws but I need some positivity this morning

It wasn't a vote for Boris though.

I really don't beleive it was.

It was a vote for an end to this. I know, I know. But his Get Brexit Done message hit home.

And I need to start remembering I before e

Christ, you’d think the bloody gloaters would have the decency to leave us to lick our wounds for five minutes but no, they can’t even manage to be gracious in victory.

I think after the way several on here behaved after we didn’t leave the EU on 31st October it’s entirely understandable that people might want to point out this defeat was entirely predictably