General Election 2024
- Thread starter gavreid
- Start date
Tony L
Administrator
It wasn’t entirely a Gillian Duffy zombie apocalypse, there were a couple of people at the end who appeared not to have been brainwashed by far-right thugs like Lee Anderson or public school millionaires like Farage. As I say I don’t think it was anything other than a look at a very narrow subset of people, mostly old, white and retired, who hang around in largely boarded-up shopping centres. Most folk just don’t go there these days, especially in the middle of the working day. I’m sure the much maligned ethnic minorities would mostly have been at work, earning their wages and paying their taxes. To be honest it was a rather poor and slanted video IMO even though I hugely respected the interviewer for even being prepared to talk to such people.
I currently live in a similarly poor and deprived northern working class town. One that gave Reform an absolute last-place kicking at the last by-election. Liverpool is the same, no way will the people there buy this far-right shit. I suspect where I live will either return to Labour or keep the gobshite independent. No way in hell will it go Reform. I don’t even need to vote tactically here, so I’ll just be in the 2-3% locally that vote Green.
Seeker_UK
Feelin' nearly faded as my jeans
Tony L
Administrator
Interesting, that predicts the homophobic Brexit/Putin-loving cat impersonator and indoor hat-model is going to hold on in Rochdale.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
Question because I don't know the answer... under the present system SNP MPs require a far fewer number of votes to gain a seat in Scotland than Labour or Conservative do in England because (as far as I can tell) their constituencies are on the whole less densely populated.
Would this be reflected under a devolved form of PR? i.e. would PR be based on the votes cast in a particular country not across the UK as a whole?
Finnegan
It’s shite being Scottish!
Always worth listening to Varoufakis. Here he lands well aimed blows on Reeves economics, Tory privatisation, Reform, and from 35:35 in, articulates what is likely to follow the implosion of the Tory party.
No idea but the SNP will lose a lot of seats in the GE, they'll hold onto the western isles and probably bits of Edinburgh but I doubt they'll hold on to much in Glasgow and the likes of Aberdeen and Inverness etc.
If I were a betting man I'd be betting on less than 20 seats for the SNP.
I'm in an SNP constituency BTW I think they might hold on here though.
Finnegan
It’s shite being Scottish!
I’ve made my view of Galloway plain. He is a despicable opportunist except when it comes to Palestine, where his principles heroically win out over his ego. I would far rather an articulate pro-Palestine voice in Parliament than some lickspittle Labour apparatchik.
Ponty
pfm Member
Don’t see why it would be different, you’d have rural seats in England and Wales making the same case. Isn’t that the whole point of PR, if you live in the UK, your vote should be worth the same wherever it is cast.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
What's your take on the appetite for another independence referendum Tone?
I'm wondering whether the removal of the Tories from Westminster will make it less of a priority for some folk. Though I guess that also depends on what a Labour government looks like.
Tony L
Administrator
I’m not getting involved at all. I really can’t stand Galloway, and I can’t stand Starmer/Labour either. This is not my battle, so I’ll just cast my vote to help the Green national voteshare and continue the PR argument.
I realise I do not currently have, and will not ever have political representation under FPTP.
Independence is dead here Paul the SNP have effed it up, they took the queen's shilling, they should have done what the Sinn Fein Mps did but they took the dosh and the cars and the expenses, there isn't the same appetite for it now IMO.
Personally I'd vote for independence and so would all of my family but the arse has been kicked out of it for the time being.
droodzilla
pfm Member
Always worth listening to Varoufakis. Here he lands well aimed blows on Reeves economics, Tory privatisation, Reform, and from 35:35 in, articulates what is likely to follow the implosion of the Tory party.
Jo Coburn seems quite relaxed about the prospect of a far-right government in the UK.
paulfromcamden
Baffled
Actually I checked and my premise was wrong. Average constituency sizes are relatively uniform - 57,992 for Wales (lowest) and 74,861 for England (highest).
I think the fact that the SNP previously gained a number of seats that is out of proportion to their UK wide share of the votes is more to do with FPTP and votes being concentrated in one region.
Finnegan
It’s shite being Scottish!
Typical Liberal BBC journo. “Well fascism can be a nasty old business, but they have a democratic right to air their views, and we’re happy to platform them.”
gavreid
Pretty Words...
Very naive - it's not at all unusual though we see it among young people flirting with the right across Europe.
Finnegan
It’s shite being Scottish!
Which is entirely down to social democracy’s capitulation to neoliberalism and racism.
kensalriser
pfm Member
15-20 sounds about right for the SNP, but I don't think the Western Isles will be among them. Smallish majority and the incumbent has been booted out of the party and has a chequered personal history to boot. I'd put money on that going to Labour.
wulbert
pfm Member
Let them win seats. Let them try to run a local authority. Deliver local services to people, deal with complaints, run an education dept and early years services, old people's care etc etc.
Let them stand up in parliament and have their ideas subject to scrutiny and debate. I have no problem with that.
Edit: Plus, they'd all be in England anyway. 500 miles away.