Party politics

[Thing2]

3 Green posters on my road. No UKIP posters. Encouraging...

[wishiwasskinny]

UKIP van driving endlessly around Coventry City Centre recently.
Didn't see a single egg smeared down the side of it.
What is wrong with students these days?

[gtw]

Jesus fucking Christ, oh god no!

[NicholasVanWotsisface]

Mental

[NicholasVanWotsisface]

Sounds like Balls might be losing his seat too

New leaders all round then, but if no Cable and Balls then who?

5 years time and Boris will ride into no 10 like clint eastwood

[Rake]

Jesus fucking Christ, oh god no!

Well said

[Blackout]

I've been a bit busy these past few days. Thursday I cast my vote and got on with my day. Yes I voted Green and I don't regret it. I like my Labour Co-op MP who's been with us a couple of years since a by-election, but she was never going to lose the seat - last time her predecessor, who was not well liked as an individual, retained a massive majority against a Lib Dem who was already a popular local councillor and riding the wave of 2010 Cleggmania. Unsurprisingly she increased Labour's majority considerably this time. I felt it was important that the voices of those disaffected by the big parties were heard saying we would prefer an alternative, and as someone in a privileged position to be able to do that (unlike equally disaffected left-wngers in more marginal seats) I felt it was actually my duty. And as the aftermath debate in the Labour party wonders whether they should shift right or left from here it was important for any left wing candidates in the leadership battle to know we are out here. (Oh god, the leadership battle, Chuka Umunna makes me want to punch the TV in, but that's another (s)tory....)

Then I went out to watch French atmospheric metalgazers Alcest, hoping Ed would have the common sense to bring the SNP and Greens into his coalition. Returning to social media after the gig I basically forced myself into denial, because I couldn't afford to let it get me down as I had things I needed to achieve, not least my first ever formal 10k run on Sunday. The run went well and I was buzzing for the rest of the day, which made this one particularly harsh Monday.

I am scared. I was pissed off in '92 and '10, but I've never been actually scared by an election result.

My parents will be in their late seventies by the time this parliamentary term ends and I'm scared for them growing old in a country with no national health service. I'll do what I can for them, and I guess I'll have more time to do so if xenophobic halfwits have voted us out of the EU and the company I work for, like many others, ups and leaves. I am glad I do not have children, because at the end of the day my partner and I will be able to survive; I've been skint before, I've lived on very little, it's easier without dependent mouths to feed, and when the earth boils and the icecaps melt I'll probably be close to the end anyway.

I get the UKIPs. I don't like them, I disagree vehemently with them, but I get where they're - massively mistakenly - coming from. I can understand why some rich people vote Tory, because they prefer not to acknowledge the society that made them rich nor contribute towards anyone else having such chances. I don't agree with it, I think it's mean and nasty to be honest, the likes of JK Rowling are far more honourable in putting something back into the country that made them, but I can sort of see the logic. But who actually are the non rich, "normal" people who vote Tory? Were they licking their lips reading about the guy found dead with a fridge he couldn't power full of unusable insulin and a pile of CVs by his side? Are they laughing along with Iain Duncan Smith at the cancer patients ordered to choose between slave labour and starvation? Did they actually believe the mass of fabrications, distortions and cherry picked "facts" the Conservative Party peddled out about the economy? Would they really prefer to work on a zero hours contract with no emplyment rights? Or an American style healthcare system? I have learnt a lot from the appeals for help with medical bills posted by bands and musicians I like - that even with so-called health insurance many things are no covered, it is NOT simply replacing one (state) scheme with a(private)nother whereby lower taxes cover the premiums. Non rich Tory voters have basically voted in their own deaths, the fucking thick twats. Seriously, who are they? I've come to the conclusion that anyone who earns over £40k and votes Tory is a tight-fisted self-server, whilst anyone who earns under £40k and votes Tory is basically a moron.

[Rake]

But who actually are the non rich, "normal" people who vote Tory?

Turkeys voting for Christmas (the insane genius of Thatcher's legacy).

[Thing2]

I listened with increasing dismay to various members of the public interviewed on radio 4 about their voting intentions. The sad fact is that (if they had made their mind up) most of them had no real idea why they were voting for a particular party other than fuzzy notions about the leader's presentation skills and personality.
Most members of the public are ill-informed and most of them like it that way.
I grew up in the 70s at a time when Labour and Tories had clear identities based what they actually felt passionately about. This is no longer the case.
Nowadays when a party gets a beating in the polls it rebrands itself like a failing supermarket - in other words it changes what it believes in. So Labour stopped being *New* and aspirational to a bit leftish and woolly and now it will probably seek the "centre ground" (wherever that is)
I voted Green because they have clear principles which most closely match what I believe in and are likely to still stick to them even though they are unlikely to be elected to government.

[5 Not Out]

The problem with being self employed is that I don't know from one day to the next whether I am a tight-fisted self-server or a moron. I'll just settle for being a fucking thick twat then.

[redc]

Turkeys voting for Christmas

More like middle class 'chickens', scared of their own or the press' opinions of what labour (+/- SNP) would do to the economy, that let the foxes into the hen house believing only welfare 'turkeys' were on the festive menu.

[gtw]

What depresses me is that the apparent late swing seems to have been caused by people who might have held their noses, gritted their teeth and voted for a PM they didn't believe in 'because at least he's labour / not a tory' being scared off by the SNP 'threat'. A highly effective campaign twist that apparently came up on doorstep after doorstep. And Labour really were totally ineffective in rebuttal / fighting fire with fire. They should have been pummelling the Tories over the greater threat posed by leaving the EU, which could in turn break up the Union, the scrapping of the human rights act, which apparently even threatens to breach the Good Friday Agreement.

I really truly wanted Labour to win, but Ed was sadly just not the right leader. My mum arrived down at tea time on Thursday, finding me excited ahead of results night. She deflated me by recounting what her friends who go to her OAP club had to say about Ed, and the extent that even they (pretty impoverished, merseyside council stock pensioners who I'm sure hate the Tories as much as my mum does) were finding it hard to vote for him. Ed just couldn't ever rise above being seen as a policy wonk who had never lived a life or had a proper job. Far too metropolitan. And it wouldn't have been so bad if he had a likeable chancellor who was rated in his or her own right, or allowed his shadow team to shine. So Tories were, on the day, more enthusiastic about getting out to vote than many natural labour voters. This is already being called the 'lazy Labour effect' which is apparently this year's equivilent to 1992's shy tory.

[pomfob]

I'd agree with all of the above, apart from a 'lazy Labour' effect. It's more a 'what's the point, it's barely Labour any longer' effect. I say this as a nose-holding socialist who did vote Labour, would have rather voted Green, as the SNP don't stand in England. Mind you, after their recent showing, they might think it's worth a go in the urban North.

[pomfob]

The problem with being self employed is that I don't know from one day to the next whether I am a tight-fisted self-server or a moron. I'll just settle for being a fucking thick twat then.

Are you outing yourself as a Tory voter? Quite brave of you to do so in a place that disapproves of such things.

Would you mind sharing your reasons for voting Conservative? I'm not after an argument, I simply find it baffling why anyone would vote for 'em.

[Revol_T]

Can we do it? #JezWeCan