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JonD
Not that anyone cares, but here are my election headlines:
• Voter turnout is at a historic low. There is a collapse in faith in what can be achieved by democratic politics.
• Combined Labour / Conservative vote share is also at a historic low. The big story in this election is the fragmentation of the vote across a wide political spectrum.
• There is no enthusiasm for Labour. They have more or less stayed still, whilst everything else has moved around them.
• There is a total collapse in the Tory vote, following historic highs in total votes for them in 2017 and 2019, when they claimed the mantle of the party of Brexit. Effectively they are being punished for failing to deliver what they promised the benefits of Brexit would be.
• Reform isn’t a breakthrough, per se. Reform vote count and share is similar to what UKIP won in 2015. Those voters have now gone to Reform, after going Tory in 2017 and 2019.
We had an election with no discussion of the macro trends:
• Ageing population driving ever greater share of GDP towards Pensions and NHS.
• Endemic low productivity and low growth.
• A broken economic model with intergenerational inequality entrenched.
• A need for immigration driven by our economic model, lack of needed skills, and need to support an ageing population.
• Climate change and global instability driving further migration.
Or indeed how that then feeds through to specific policy areas of health, education, defence, immigration, housing, climate…
I don't know what Labour's position is on any of these areas. The best I have heard is that changes to planning will enable development of on shore windfarms. Good luck to the incoming government. They will need it.