I would love for the tory party to not even make it to be the opposition.. what are the chances?

[sixtyandsomething]

It would be awesome if the Greens or the Libdems became the official opposition. I would even prefer Reform to the current tories.

Any chance at all, do you think?

We can dream

Zero, unfortunately. While we have FPTP elections (not to mention engineered boundary changes), you're destined to get Labour and Tories in Govmt & Opposition.

And despite all the predictions, it will inevitably be closer than people think. Labour will not have several hundred majority and tories just few tens, but I really hope Labour have a very healthy majority. This country needs a change badly.

Lib Dems are very popular in the Home Counties now which used to be safe tory seats so very possibly!

Main thing is it's very important for democracy to have a healthy opposition, whoever it is. Whichever party anyone supports or whatever their political leanings, left or right, everyone should want a healthy opposition.

This. It is terrifying that people don't realise this.

Healthy debate yes but in a dream world wouldn’t it be great if government was collaborative?

Yes, it's vital there's a strong opposition, even if the party you like is in power.

But the very last thing that would be good for us would be having Reform as opposition. I can't think of anything worse.

Its possible, a low tory turn out and Reform splitting the tories vote.

Everyone says "oh Reform wont win any seats in our FPTP system" well thats rubbish, other parties win seats and Reform can too.

I think they'll do very well, which is crazy as they are a bunch of nut jobs.

According to these guys, and somewhat to my surprise, it's unlikely but not impossible that the lib dems could overtake the Tories. I.e. their highest plausible number of Lib Dem seats is higher than the lowest plausible number of Tory seats.

I'd be flabbergasted if that happened to be honest, their predicted most likely number of Tory seats of 76 seems madly low.
https://www.electoralcalculus.co.uk/prediction_main.html

As others have said, to have no Opposition is unthinkable. A lot of the Greens’ ideas are unpalatable (on women) and I’m afraid most LibDems are just Labour in constituencies that won’t vote Labour, iyswim.

What if the next Govt want to pass a law that you really disagree with ? Let’s say, for sake of argument, that the age of consent should be lowered? Who do you lobby? Cos there’s no effective opposition.

Careful what you wish for. Are you sure you'd want reform to set the tone for those with right leaning politics?

The fact that this is even plausible should scare the Tory Party. The official opposition gets more salary and perks than other parties. Not that even the opposition get much but you won’t get the ability to question, you get downgraded in terms of PMQs, publicity and media. There is a reason Ed Davey does all those stunts. He needs a very cheap way of getting attention

The thought of Farage at PMQs every week is nauseating

Plus remember the opposition gets lots of extra money so do you really want a better funded reform party?

You overestimate the effectiveness of any opposition.

If the Govt has a majority, it doesn't matter if its 50 or 350, they can do as they wish.

In fact Governments with v large number of MPs often have a lot of rebellions, as their MPs feel able to rebel, safe in the knowledge that the opposition can't unseat them.

You think an MP takes any notice of your lobbying??? nope, only when election time comes around.

100% this.

There will always been an opposition - it’s just plausible that it will not be the Conservatives. Honestly they are scared for themselves. If they don’t make it, they will be eaten all the more quickly by Reform. I think it will happen anyway; once you are not in opposition officially you are fighting against other parties for time in the Commons. You might even have a Tory/Reform coalition so that there an opposition from the right.

I'm feeling a bit glum about the whole wretched affair now it's under way.

You need a robust Opposition so that it can hold the Government to account. Preferably one with some parliamentary experience rather than a party led by an attention seeking ego or a bunch of idealistic opportunists.
My Lib Dem candidate signs her name with a smiley face in the Y. I just think 'grow up - you're not 12'. Can't take her seriously, unfortunately.

The Liberals are a very honesty party. They said if they get to number 10, they aboloish the Uni fees.

You know the rest😂

The Greens - full of total BS - unaffordable dreams and they forget that England is not the only country on Earth

The Lib Dems and the Greens can say whatever they want in their manifesto. Same goes for Reform. They don't have to cost anything or for it to even make any sense.

This also applies to the current Conservatives. Why excuse them from the pretend manifesto for their “pretend government” they are pretending they will lead

Oh but that is awful! How embarrassing.

Well you shouldn’t have called the election then, should you?

The Greens - full of total BS - unaffordable dreams and they forget that England is not the only country on Earth

More the party of id pol bullshit these days. I used to vote for them when they actually cared about the environment.

while we have FPTP it will pretty much always be a 2 horse race - Lib Dem had a great chance when they went into the coalition with the tories but buggered it up so much that they missed their window of opportunity.
I think we need an overhaul of politics and complete reform of voting and the HP & HoL