The fall of the Tory party

Libs have overtaken the Tories.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8jVRnQSzFYw

Kuenenfreude: delight in seeing a Tory stooge facing imminent unemployment.

I was born in Middlesborough and lived in the Sunderland-Durham borderlands until I was 18, so sort of close to some of these areas. I wasn't in the slightest surprised about parts of the 'red wall' turning blue, and got a few eye rolls from a typical Labour supporter at work in London for suggesting it was a risk years before it happened. Brexit was obviously the trigger for that change, but there's been a deep-seated dog-eat-dog mindset, mostly in men, for ages and ages. Macho individualists with a chip on the shoulder fit in very well with Conservative ideology.

The political scars from the 80s are just too far away, and many under the age of about 65–70 simply don't give a shit about it — growing up there it basically just wasn't mentioned, or if it was it was taking the piss out of the couple of call centres created after industry left. Blaming councils for everything also seems to be a past time.

All anecdotal obviously, and I'm sure there are loads of places like this, but yeah…

(This also isn't representative of everyone in the North East, just to be clear)

Hartlepool

Places like this have been moving tory for years, dead end town where any young person with anything about them will leave as soon as they can and its just packed with home owning retired boomers add in brexit as there gateway drug too.

If anything it's a surprise there going back to Labour so fast, it a measure of just how terrible the tory's have been.

99% of folk walking or cycling to my polling station. That’s encouraging.

That's just coz they couldn't get a parking spot next to it and gave up after 28 laps around the block.

Darlington

I quite like going to Darlo for audaxes.

If anything it's a surprise there going back to Labour so fast, it a measure of just how terrible the tory's have been.

Yeah it's a bit bonkers, looks like quite a swing too:

Conservatives -6 councillors
Labour +8 councillors

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election/2024/england/councils/E06000001

So, what the fuck happened? I voted for my beloved Tories, the party that will absolutely guarantee I can park my car on the footpath outside my front door. Did we fucking win or what?

This is pretty interesting in Newcastle too, lots of anti-Labour sentiment around:
https://twitter.com/Alex_Niven/status/1786277225349673109

Basically, there are the makings of a Green electoral alliance here taking in a range of former Labour-voting groups (students, Muslims, young professionals, left-wing working class). 4 or 5 urban Green seats in the GE not an impossibility

For Labour the bigger problem with this is a longer term hollowing out of its support in these sorts of urban areas, which’ll be more pertinent in GEs after this one where the party isn’t so invulnerable nationally due to terminal incumbent opponent

We may even see a Green on QT.

Growing up in Peterlee and Hartlepool I always noticed what I thought was a significant amount of BNP and UKIP support floating around quite openly. Wasn't a surprise at all to me when there was a Conservative flip, I'd have thought it would have happened a lot earlier and didn't think it would go back so quickly, especially with how further right the Conservatives have gone.

probably the cuntest result of the day

BBC leading with one seat they won while they are losing nearly 200?

Starmer out.

^^ Loads of commentators warned they would do this - the Kenneth Baker approach - during the course of the week.

That'll learn em

Starmer out.

What does this mean?

Nothing says Tory Heartland like "ICI" and "failed shipbuilding".

The Times are reporting that Tory councils are desperately reducing their home building plans whilst they can, some cutting their plans to build new homes by 10-40%, which they are able to do under Gove's planning reforms.

The reason? To deliberately make it for difficult for Labour to deliver their plans for building 300,000 new homes.

Nothing says far right Heartland like "ICI" and "failed shipbuilding".

More understandable like that?

This is one of the effects of the Tories moving further and further right

I mean yeh take out the frustration, of your factory closing and you struggling to make ends meet, on people seeking asylum.

Classic.

And if you* can't see the problem with that, then I have no sympathy.

*not you