General Election 2024

stolen from twitter but this on Farage and his first day in parliament.

'looks like Admiral Ackbar got a TK Maxx voucher for Christmas'

My first time was when I was doing A levels, one of which was Government and Politics, and we got shown around by Jim Wallace, who was the MP for Orkney and Shetland at the time. It was part of some Liberal Youth day, and we ended the day drinking in Stringfellows with David Steel and David Alton.

/csb

Show me on the doll where he touched you.

Stringfellows

That was an unexpected turn in the narrative.

Splendid.

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He’s like a character that Peter Kay would have made a That Peter Kay Thing episode about.

He’s a narrow-minded version of Leonard de Tomkinson.

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That was Cyril Smith, according to Steel it was just bouncing boys on his knee.

Just over 50% turnout, the body politic is hale and hearty

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jul/12/lowest-turnout-in-uk-general-election-since-universal-suffrage-report-shows

I find that strange, especially as turnout was 69% in my constituency

My feeling is that it's not clear cut.

Think about the following scenarios:

1. Life long small-c conservative who can't bare to vote for the last cunts
   
2. Starmer hating leftist who doesn't live in Walthamstow or Islington North
   
3. Time poor semi-engaged who's been told Labour will win in their seat
   
   

All eg of people who might not vote for a range of reasons, and who's decision not to vote is effectively a vote in itself.

I find that strange, especially as turnout was 69% in my constituency

Turnout is a percentage of the electorate registered to vote.

The article is taking into account the adults that aren't on the electoral roll for whatever reasons.

Thanks for clarifying that.

My feeling is that it's not clear cut.

Think about the following scenarios:

Life long small-c conservative who can't bare to vote for the last cunts
Starmer hating leftist who doesn't live in Walthamstow or Islington North
Time poor semi-engaged who's been told Labour will win in their seat

All eg of people who might not vote for a range of reasons, and who's decision not to vote is effectively a vote in itself.

This. Can be seen as an indictment of those who were running as much as those who had the opportunity to vote (although spoiling would be the better option personally).

Something I hadn't considered before posting that, which Dorian Linskey mentioned on OGWN, is that the certainty of a Labour victory gave people licence to vote in certain ways. Also that you'll have people who say voted lib dem (and may well support lib dem) who were happy with having Starmer as PM.

All in, as with PR counter-factuals, it's incredibly hard to make accurate what ifs.

Non-trivial number of people who couldn't vote either to not having ID or forgetting they needed it

Totally. Loads of people I know voted green because they couldn't stomach labour or (correctly) knew their vote was meaningless, so wanted to boost the progressive vote proportion. And I'm sure loads of tories stayed at home (as you suggested). People are likely fatigued by all the politics and are dropping out. And perhaps there's a cohort of young people who didn't engage because there was no one for them to engage with. Loads of options.

Key thing - as you said - is that it's not clear cut. Blame voters at your peril.

^ and that too!

I voted green as the labour parachute candidate was useless and who wants a parachute candidate.it seems I'm in one of the few Tory strongholds so didn't make any difference

or (correctly) knew their vote was meaningless, so wanted to boost the progressive vote proportion.

Hi 👋

Don't pretend. You've gone full centrist dad and are one step away from being a "respectable Tory". You're basically doing a reverse Ben.

Ben Habib's kitchen with draught beer:

https://x.com/BackBrexitBen/status/1811654958317457831

Think that's Kronenbourg. Classy.

Drinking that French foreign muck, traitor!

Got to admit, Reform is falling apart faster than I expected.