General Election July 2024
Discussion
If you take all votes cast and draw a line down the middle, around 54% voted for centre or centre left, and 38% for centre right and right.
If you wanted to be even more granular, you could drop SNP. Plaid and SF into the left/centre left and DUP to the right. That puts it at 58% to 39%, plus indies, but the NI votes are arguably not split on equivalent lines.
It shows where the Overton window sits
Given that that Labour vote hasn’t moved Knave, in fact as Chevrons pointed out has declined from Corbyn, the Tory vote nearly halved, with 15% going to Reform and (the majority) of the rest going to Lib Dems, then I’d say it shows the window where it always is. Smack. In. The. Centre.
My household is 3 ppl, 2 mid 40s, 1 works, 1 is a “housewife” (dear God never call my wife that to her face) and 1 is an OAP widow, all 3 of us normally a blue vote. In this election I went for our local Indie, the other 2 went Lib Dem as they talked of cleaning up the water companies. I would posit that is not an uncommon pattern across the country, the LDs have benefitted hugely from the country giving them their vote instead of the Tories.
We are naturally an incredibly politically centrist country. Our politics is inherently very very dull and we like it that way. The Tories just found out what happens when you try and make things interesting!! Brutally so!
My household is 3 ppl, 2 mid 40s, 1 works, 1 is a “housewife” (dear God never call my wife that to her face) and 1 is an OAP widow, all 3 of us normally a blue vote. In this election I went for our local Indie, the other 2 went Lib Dem as they talked of cleaning up the water companies. I would posit that is not an uncommon pattern across the country, the LDs have benefitted hugely from the country giving them their vote instead of the Tories.
We are naturally an incredibly politically centrist country. Our politics is inherently very very dull and we like it that way. The Tories just found out what happens when you try and make things interesting!! Brutally so!
Countdown said:
Starmer got fewer votes than Corbyn (500k less than Corbyn in 2019, nearly 5m less than Corbyn in 2017).
If the Tories can get somebody half decent and (more importantly) stop fighting amongst themselves there's a very good chance they can turn things around in the next 4/5 years.
Well, yes, in theory. They only have 120 people to choose from, and have you seen some of them? If the Tories can get somebody half decent and (more importantly) stop fighting amongst themselves there's a very good chance they can turn things around in the next 4/5 years.
Murph7355 said:
pheonix478 said:
Sorry but even ignoring his very dubious "friends" his stance on effectively surrendering Ukraine to Russia screams how unfit for any position of responsibility he was. The fact that prior to becoming leader not a single leader of his own party for decades had entrusted him with any kind of roll at all is pretty telling.
You can be decent and personable whilst holding very different views to others.I pretty much entirely disagreed with Corbyn's politics, but that didn't make him (nor me) a bad person.
Edited to add, Frank Field and Tony Benn are better examples.
I'm not sure the actions of other leaders are great barometer either.
Edited by Murph7355 on Friday 5th July 16:32
PurplePenguin said:
BikeBikeBIke said:
E63eeeeee... said:
In fairness there were a lot of classy acceptance and concession speeches last night.
+1We can be pretty proud of our system and our nation.
E63eeeeee... said:
PurplePenguin said:
BikeBikeBIke said:
E63eeeeee... said:
In fairness there were a lot of classy acceptance and concession speeches last night.
+1We can be pretty proud of our system and our nation.
119 said:
biggbn said:
Derek Smith said:
MC Bodge said:
biggbn said:
Say what you like about Corbyn but on old fashioned campaigning and very little budget he held his seat. That's not a protest vote, an anti tory vote, that's because people in that area like him. Pleased for the old bugger
He was very much the wrong man to lead Labour, but his short post-election interview on C4 was actually very good. He has a cause he believes in and goes for it. He did not enrich himself while leader, so no chance of him being PM.
I have never despised anyone more than that odious individual.
hidetheelephants said:
biggbn said:
Derek Smith said:
MC Bodge said:
biggbn said:
Say what you like about Corbyn but on old fashioned campaigning and very little budget he held his seat. That's not a protest vote, an anti tory vote, that's because people in that area like him. Pleased for the old bugger
He was very much the wrong man to lead Labour, but his short post-election interview on C4 was actually very good. He has a cause he believes in and goes for it. He did not enrich himself while leader, so no chance of him being PM.
PurplePenguin said:
E63eeeeee... said:
PurplePenguin said:
BikeBikeBIke said:
E63eeeeee... said:
In fairness there were a lot of classy acceptance and concession speeches last night.
+1We can be pretty proud of our system and our nation.
![](/inc/images/censored.gif)
E63eeeeee... said:
Countdown said:
Starmer got fewer votes than Corbyn (500k less than Corbyn in 2019, nearly 5m less than Corbyn in 2017).
If the Tories can get somebody half decent and (more importantly) stop fighting amongst themselves there's a very good chance they can turn things around in the next 4/5 years.
Well, yes, in theory. They only have 120 people to choose from, and have you seen some of them? If the Tories can get somebody half decent and (more importantly) stop fighting amongst themselves there's a very good chance they can turn things around in the next 4/5 years.
With these people, the infighting won't stop.
E63eeeeee... said:
PurplePenguin said:
BikeBikeBIke said:
E63eeeeee... said:
In fairness there were a lot of classy acceptance and concession speeches last night.
+1We can be pretty proud of our system and our nation.
CraigyMc said:
E63eeeeee... said:
Countdown said:
Starmer got fewer votes than Corbyn (500k less than Corbyn in 2019, nearly 5m less than Corbyn in 2017).
If the Tories can get somebody half decent and (more importantly) stop fighting amongst themselves there's a very good chance they can turn things around in the next 4/5 years.
Well, yes, in theory. They only have 120 people to choose from, and have you seen some of them? If the Tories can get somebody half decent and (more importantly) stop fighting amongst themselves there's a very good chance they can turn things around in the next 4/5 years.
With these people, the infighting won't stop.
Likely going to target that 15% of Reform votes - if so split in the party is likely to get worse
E63eeeeee... said:
Sway said:
JNW1 said:
Who have been rewarded with over 70 seats in the House of Commons compared to just 4 for Reform. The Greens have the same number of seats as Reform having attracted less than half the number of votes.
And according to the BBC website Labour polled just under 34% of the vote nationally but now holds 64% of the seats in the HoC - can't remember an election in my lifetime where a party's gained an overall majority with such a small proportion of the vote, never mind one on the scale Labour's secured!
I fully understand the mechanics of how all this has come about but (IMHO) these results make our current electoral system very difficult to defend....
If we took this outcome as unchanged under a PR system (yes, I know, but it's all we can do) - the outcome there is just as difficult to defend! And according to the BBC website Labour polled just under 34% of the vote nationally but now holds 64% of the seats in the HoC - can't remember an election in my lifetime where a party's gained an overall majority with such a small proportion of the vote, never mind one on the scale Labour's secured!
I fully understand the mechanics of how all this has come about but (IMHO) these results make our current electoral system very difficult to defend....
Some, including me, think very minor parties gaining king maker status and a disproportionate amount of power, is a bad idea.
That applies if it's Cons/Reform or Labour/Greens.
Even worse is the b
![](/inc/images/censored.gif)
Then there's the fact that whatever the makeup, no one actually gets what they want. No party in government can be held to a manifesto that's had to be negotiated day one.
So in that instance, what exactly are people voting for under such a system?
CraigyMc said:
Master Bean said:
What are the 2 seats not declared yet?
- South Basildon and East Thurrock (a recount is in progress, first count had reform up by 135 over labour)
- Inverness, Skye and West Ross-shire (due to a "discrepancy" -- won't be announced until Saturday at the earliest)
Reform candidate won by 98 over the Labour candidate with the Tory a few thousand behind, but really quite a close 3-way race there.
Murph7355 said:
pheonix478 said:
Sorry but even ignoring his very dubious "friends" his stance on effectively surrendering Ukraine to Russia screams how unfit for any position of responsibility he was. The fact that prior to becoming leader not a single leader of his own party for decades had entrusted him with any kind of roll at all is pretty telling.
You can be decent and personable whilst holding very different views to others.I pretty much entirely disagreed with Corbyn's politics, but that didn't make him (nor me) a bad person.
Edited to add, Frank Field and Tony Benn are better examples.
I'm not sure the actions of other leaders are great barometer either.
Edited by Murph7355 on Friday 5th July 16:32
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