I have never felt so bleak

[Alanis126]

The whole thing, Brexit, Johnson re-elected has put me in a pit of despair. I hate what the UK has become. Can someone, anyone recommend a website or something where I can connect with like minded people? I cannot function and I don't want to carry on like this

I feel the same, OP. Having read and liked your posts before, I was a little surprised that you were now in Ireland and yet still so vigorously and unhappily involved with UK politics. Perhaps it shouldn't be surprising, given the links between the two countries. Personally I feel I'd be happy to wash my hands of the UK entirely, partly for my own peace of mind (LOL) and partly because the Tory landslide wasn't an act of God, but something the population actually chose: if we add together the Tory and Lib Dem vote share plus abstainers, we see that the vast majority either chose austerity or couldn't be arsed to oppose it. I think any effective resistance to Brexit and/or the dire poverty caused by Coalition/Tory policies will have to be led from outside of England. In Ireland, perhaps you could focus on giving advice and encouragement to Brits seeking to relocate because of Brexit.

I find FB groups are a good place to vent, but they are full of people who really do just want to moan. Nothing wrong with that, but I sense that you're maybe more of an activist than a keyboard warrior. Perhaps you could join or start some kind of local grass roots political movement, and links to any future UK resistance movement might emerge organically from that.

It really is bloody depressing.

Most people vote Tory because they are selfish. They think only about what benefits them in the short term.

I'm a WASPI. If I was only driven by selfishness and self interest, I'd have voted Labour.

Hang on - you are in a "pit of despair" and "cannot function" yet don't live in the UK? I think you need to work on your mental health first then get back to politics.

Charlottejbt thanks for the post. I'm very happy to be in Ireland but I still feel very invested in the UK. It would be easier if this were not the case. I'd very much like to get involved but not sure where to start. The Irish Labour party are almost extinct and the 2 main parties Fianna Fail and Fine Gael seem to me almost indistinguishable and voting patterns in some cases seem to derive from inherited preferences or personal favours/relationship with your local TD (MP). I was very much thinking about something to help immigrants (not just from Britain) settle here. The people I have met here are wonderful and really exceptionally laidback which doesn't necessarily fit with activism. I'm going ro think about it. If Ireland and Scotland are flourishing in the EU in a few years there might be a case to be made. Some of the older voters many of whom are desperate for Brexit will no longer be voting then either.

Brexit is shit, it will likely damage the economy and make the poorest even worse off. There could be food price increases. Boris is an untrustworthy liar. Divide and rule propaganda is poisoning political debate. There has been an increase in hate crime. However, you can sit in a pit of despair or be the change you want to see in the world. I was deflated Friday, but have found hope in connecting with charities in the area and plan on helping food banks and other charities which help needy people locally. And also tree planting and environmental stuff. I’m also thinking about joining a political party for the first time.

@Alanis126 Thank you. I think you are on the right track with the idea of helping immigrants. It's what I'd like to do in France if they will let me stay. Politics there is not dissimilar to what you say about Ireland: the left has collapsed and the ruling "centrist" party is indistinguishable from the centre right. It's rubbish.

In terms of the popular vote, the Tory vote share only went up 1.2%, the effect was just greatly magnified by FPTP. Labour's vote share went down 7.9% but the Lib Dems were the main beneficiary with an increase in 4.2% of the popular vote.

I came on to post this. I read that this translated as only 200,000 more people voted Conservative in this election than the previous one which resulted in a landslide majority. Over 1 million more people voted Lib Dem in this election but they actually lost a seat. So in reality, not that many people have actually changed into Conservative supporters, they have just been concentrated in particular geographic areas.

Google the electoral reform society and join their campaign for something pro-active to do.

Everything @FainaSnowChild has said.

Op you have every right to feel disappointed and I'm sorry you're struggling so much, but the left will NEVER convert ANYONE to its cause with that mindset. You will continue to be validated by those who already vote the same way as you, and that's it. Until the left are prepared to hear the legitimate concerns of ordinary people Labour will be lost.

I know some Labour canvassers well. Many of them said voters where they were (NE England) had said that Corbyn supported the IRA and separately that they the voters opposed investigating British soldiers expected of committing crimes including murder during the Northern Irish troubles. Corbyn said he opposed all violence. The IRA were violent terrorists. What more does he have to say? I don't agree that because someone was a soldier they should be immune to prosecution. I am.not saying they are guilty but I think they should be subject to the law. I frankly would not want Labour to change its views and say that other forms of violence (for example the British soldiers who shot dead unarmed civilians on Bloody Sunday) are any more excusable than the despicable actions of all terrorists.

Hey, all you remoaners - get a life! The country have voted.

THREE TIMES - FFS!!!

2016 - We want out!
2017 - The two largest parties, Tory and Labour promised to implement Article 50 in their manifestos.
2019 - If you still didn't get the message (because you're living in fantasy land) a big slap in the face to wake you up!

The UK didn't have a meltdown economically since 2016. The sky didn't fall down. Instead, I've wasted my money on a white elephant of a solid concrete bunker built at my back garden in anticipation of war like that idiot Cameron told me we were going to have.

On the contrary, I see since 12 December 2019 the Pound going from strength to strength against all the major world currencies. Boris reassuring me the NHS is staying put - not that I believe for one moment the scare-mongering nonsense that it's going to be sold to the Americans - and will have 50,000 more nurses and 6000(?) additional doctors coupled with 40 brand new hospitals to make the NHS even greater!

And that's not to mention The Donald telling me the USA will sign trade deals with the UK, three; five or maybe even ten times bigger than what we have with the EU. Oh, and I haven't even mentioned the markets of the Chinese and Indian economies yet (never mind the rest of the world) now that we are being unshackled from the pathetic little EU market.

Floreat Alexander Boris de Pfeffel!

The sky didn't fall down.

We haven't left yet!

Exactly. Haven’t even started to leave

"I cannot function and I don't want to carry on like this"

Gosh. I hope you never experience any real problems

If your criteria is a failing health service, an education system we think is failing but the SNP stopped checking, a centralised police service so you phone up from the borders and talk to people in Aberdeen.

The despair I feel OP is the mistakes the Labour Party made in this election.

As someone else posted on another thread, if you tell 17 million people they are thick, ignorant and racist, they’re not going to vote for you.

Of course Johnson could say he won’t sell the NHS - parts of it are already sold. Our blood service was sold for 200 odd million to a hedge fund headed by Mitt Romney, and later sold to the Chinese for 800 million. Although the 999 service is still under the NHS, but patient transport is privately run as are other parts. Can’t understand why that was never mentioned.

Neither did they sell nationalisation particularly well. About 17 of our train companies are run by State owned Railways - owned by the Germans, French, Dutch and now China has bought some. If other countries can run our railways, then surely so can we.

Similarly, it's difficult to take back control (always had control of our borders) but as some of our Utilities - Electric and water - are foreign owned we can’t have control. And didn't Labour introduce a points based immigration system?

In our area they were given a golden opportunity to make political capital out of Matt Hancock. He was filmed standing in the grounds of our local hospital, alongside the MP, clearing stating, ‘this is where we’re building a new hospital.’ Locals know in 2018 it was agreed to build a 22 bed extension, not a brand new hospital.

The Labour Party organised by Alistair Campbell would’ve made enormous capital out of all those.

My annoyance is at the Labour Party for over egging the manifesto. And it still is when I see that they will not learn from the defeat and understand what people thought of their policies.

Until labour shifts to the centre they are not electable. Not enough people want trades union or Momentum involvement.

The joke that people vote Conservative for themselves alone! All those on benefits noted how? For Labour in my family and not one of them working. Cake and eat it was the Labour promise with others paying! The country said no.

There is a need for a credible centrist party. It must appeal to the middle ground in the swing seats. The aspirational as well as the left behind. Tony Blair managed it but it’s no good dithering over Brexit and having unaffordable policies.

Labour was right to say Brexit will harm those worse off but they were not believed by those worse off! You only have to see the anger in deprived areas to know this. Plus JC is a puppet and a dinosaur. People didn’t want that either.

Op, I read your posts and feel like this...🤦‍♀️

It’s all very melodramatic, very accusatory and getting rather dull.

I’ll tell you why I didn’t vote Corbyn:

1. Just like the old ‘We’ll give free tuition to students policy’, which funnily enough didn’t raise its nonsense head this time around, most of the labour policies were bollocks. They could never have afforded their own manifesto without spectacular borrowing, which we’d have to pay for down the line.

1. The party have gone too far to the left. The U.K. is not that left.

1. Emily Thornberry.

1. Momentum.

I have a very mixed family; Caribbean , Asian, Italian and Irish. Racism is not the reason people voted against labour.

So pull up your big girl pants and get on with it, because the more people try to spread hateful lies about other voters, the more resolve we’re going to have.

I moved from yorkshire to London 15 years ago and I tell you what, all this lazy language like 'remoaners' and 'Yorkshireman' makes me glad I have no intention of ever moving back there. Johnson and his cronies have lied and lied some more. If you think his promises mean anything ir Brexit it's going to be great for Yorkshire you just haven't been paying attention.

And this reaction to somebody saying they feel bleak is just fucking bloody minded. But don't worry, Boris Johnson's going to heal this rift. Ha ha ha ha ha ha

Corbyn said he opposed all violence. The IRA were violent terrorists. What more does he have to say?

He needed to say he OPPOSED IRA TERRORISM.

He was asked many many times and he always refused to condem the IRA. Why do you think that is? Its a pathetic excuse to say he is against all violence because that doesn't acknowledge that he thinks the IRA were violent terrorists.

So the only conclusion voters could come to that he was indeed a terrorist sympathiser. And the fact that he refused to resign just shows that he still doesn't get it.

Why do you think that is?
Because by condemning all violence he was saying violence on either side was unacceptable. Because condemning the IRA and not talking got politicians nowhere and people kept dying. Because like many others at the time, like Mo Mowlam, he knew that had to talk to Sinn Fein in order to get the Good Friday Agreement. Which has saved lives.
Do you believe all the propaganda you read in the media or just the stuff about Corbyn?
It’s more complicated than the daily fail portray it. Use a range of media sources and use your brain and start thinking for yourself. Is this really true? Or is this what rich people want me to believe so that I keep voting their mates into power which keeps me poorer than them.

you lost, get over it

Tories are in so we’ve all lost. Except for the top 10%.

that's bollocks, but perhaps if you tried a bit harder you could make the top 10%.

Have the tories have convinced you we can all be in the top 10% youknowitmakessensedunnit?