Politics Today

[Hermann]

Labour’s own internal polling suggesting a heavy defeat in Hartlepool.

If correct the Jinxster and myself will have got this one badly wrong.

Labour now 5/1 to win with the Bookies.

Quite remarkable.

Conservatives will win it, without a shadow of a doubt. I genuinely don't understand why anyone is surprised.

 

[angelic upstart]

Conservatives will win it, without a shadow of a doubt. I genuinely don't understand why anyone is surprised.

Is it not a surprise, that Labour are losing percentage of vote?

 

[Hermann]

Is it not a surprise, that Labour are losing percentage of vote?

They don't have to lose any to lose the seat, hence why it's not a surprise.

 

[angelic upstart]

Sorry, I meant would you find it surprising if Labour lost some of their percentage of vote. Whether they win or lose

 

[angelic upstart]

Amazon getting tax credits on their loss making European business is mildly amusing.

 

[IndoMike]

Yes, everything is pointing to a savage beating for Labour in Hartlepool and elsewhere. The only hope is that the polls have got it badly wrong.

If this happens, Johnson will feel absolutely free to do whatever pleases him. Patel will feel free to further constrain human rights in the UK. Dissent will be banned and accusations of misgovernment will be swept away.

Although it is hard to believe that the public have been conned hook, line and sinker, it seems that is the reality.

One of the biggest lies that the Tories have managed to fool the public with is the "levelling up" and social liberalism mantra. That will never happen under this Tory Govt : remember the Tories cutting free school meals during the holidays and the Tories giving nurses a pittance of a pay rise?

No, this collective madness, which includes BREXIT, is going to result in the rich becoming much richer and the poor much poorer.

I see this as a pivotal moment in the history of democracy in the UK. Ever since Johnson was quoted as saying how fascinated he was with the style of Trump's leadership - combined with the awful Bannon and Cummings combo - I have realised that the dumbing down process is in full flow. You get the Govt you deserve.

 

[IndoMike]

I extracted this from a Guardian article :-


Treating “patriotism” as a static set of values that a metropolitan Labour party has carelessly abandoned misunderstands the challenge confronting Labour. The party has a dynamic relationship with patriotism, shaped by a rhetorical contest with its opponents over endless possible visions of the nation, and by peoples’ changing material circumstances. The story of our time is not the party’s abandonment of an English working class that has long been undergoing a wrenching process of decline. Rather, it’s of how the right has presided over an economy that rewards asset-owners at the expense of everyone else, while purging liberalism and social democracy from Britain’s political culture.

The result of this is a superficial, misanthropic kind of nationalism that is devoid of any real regard for Britain’s history or institutions, and is based on little more than blind deference to privilege, cruelty to outsiders, and contempt for our fellow citizens. To voters, the main attraction of this new Tory nationalism is that it makes voting for Britain’s traditional governing party seem like an act of thrilling rebellion against the “woke orthodoxy” represented by under-40s living in big cities.

 

[Hermann]

Sorry, I meant would you find it surprising if Labour lost some of their percentage of vote. Whether they win or lose

Ah right. I think if turnout is the same or higher then Labour’s vote should hold up. But I could see a situation where the Labour voters don't bother getting out of bed.

 

[tavyred]

I extracted this from a Guardian article :-


Treating “patriotism” as a static set of values that a metropolitan Labour party has carelessly abandoned misunderstands the challenge confronting Labour. The party has a dynamic relationship with patriotism, shaped by a rhetorical contest with its opponents over endless possible visions of the nation, and by peoples’ changing material circumstances. The story of our time is not the party’s abandonment of an English working class that has long been undergoing a wrenching process of decline. Rather, it’s of how the right has presided over an economy that rewards asset-owners at the expense of everyone else, while purging liberalism and social democracy from Britain’s political culture.

The result of this is a superficial, misanthropic kind of nationalism that is devoid of any real regard for Britain’s history or institutions, and is based on little more than blind deference to privilege, cruelty to outsiders, and contempt for our fellow citizens. To voters, the main attraction of this new Tory nationalism is that it makes voting for Britain’s traditional governing party seem like an act of thrilling rebellion against the “woke orthodoxy” represented by under-40s living in big cities.

Filing this under ‘one set of rich people, telling poor people that another set of rich people doesn’t really care about them’.
I think the good people of the North East are engaged in an experiment where instead of voting unthinkingly for Labour every time they’re making the quite wise choice of voting for a political party in power and able to materially change their lives for the better. Labourites and the Guardianistas will sneer that how can they be so stupid to trust the nasty Tories, I can’t help but think however those sneers betray a real fear that the Tories may just pull it off and thus change the political landscape in provincial England for a generation.

 

[angelic upstart]

But how is voting Conservative going to materially change their lives Tavy?