Don't forget the local elections are tomorrow !

basil

don't mention the blinds
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Tumble weed

Well-Known Forumite
Disappointingly, only got conservative and labour leaflets through the door, so no idea what the other parties goals are.

Of the two that I had, conservative and labour, both had fairly wishy-washy goals, got a bit bored of conservative running the town, so voted labour for both. But, tbh, I could probably do a better job .


There needs to be a new party focusing on things that the town actually cares about .

I can see why people my age aren't interested in voting.
 

Trumpet

Well-Known Forumite
Boy is campaign manager for Ken Skates current minister for economy and transport North Wales. Apparently a 30% higher turnout from their last election and a decent increase in support for Ken. Looks like he's got a job for the next five years.
 
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Cue

Well-Known Forumite

Not even remotely mystifying to me to be honest. Everyone knows that Green/LD/etc won’t get in, and Labour are a shadow of their former selves and most supporters are feeling very disillusioned by their poor performance as an opposition and constant implosion. The fact that Central’s Labour candidate got in is impressive in itself (I did vote for them, personally)

I almost didn’t bother myself. Starting to feel like we need to have a full reset (conservatives landsliding even further) for Labour to actually get their shit together
 
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joshua

Well-Known Forumite
I think it’s more that Labour simply don’t care about the working class any longer.

Look at the labour supporters comments in the Guardian the last couple of days. They are full of absolute disdain for people such as the voters of Hartlepool. The old core voters are seen by many Labour members and activists as un-woke reactionary racists and xénophobes.
 

joshua

Well-Known Forumite
Momentum: "the people want socialism"
The people "er, actually a minority might but what we really like is something in the middle"
There was a voter interviewed in Hartlepool who had voted Labour most of her life and said that she liked Boris because "he got things done - like Brexit" and had voted Tory.
Meanwhile the Tories have parked their tanks on New Labour's lawn. High spend, less London, carry Brexit vote.

Hard to see where Labour go from here.
 

gilbert grape

Well-Known Forumite
Momentum: "the people want socialism"
The people "er, actually a minority might but what we really like is something in the middle"
There was a voter interviewed in Hartlepool who had voted Labour most of her life and said that she liked Boris because "he got things done - like Brexit" and had voted Tory.
Meanwhile the Tories have parked their tanks on New Labour's lawn. High spend, less London, carry Brexit vote.

Hard to see where Labour go from here.

I also saw a fella interviewed who blamed Labour for hospital closures and lack of jobs so he voted Tory! Almost like he's been in a parallel universe!

My disbelief is more along the lines of people taking a view -
"I know that they've been kicking a lot of us in the nuts but I don't know how hard the others will kick me so I'll go with these!! " While all the time, the intention of the others is not to kick you in the nuts!!
 

joshua

Well-Known Forumite
I think the problem Labour have is simply that there are now fewer people who would identify as 'working class' or traditional labour voters. Heavy industry is gone, tradesmen are self-employed, the gig economy is seen as a freedom rather than an exploitation by some. People drive Audis instead of Vauxhalls, live in 'executive developments' rather than 2-up 2-down terraces. More people than ever graduate university and try hard to leave behind their working class roots. People are more capable than ever of genuine social mobility, and guess what, nobody want to move down that ladder.
It used to be that the typical working voter had nothing in common with the land-owning gentry and London bankers of the Tory party, but now the typical working voter has nothing in common with Islington Labour, or with the hard-line trade-unionist 'traditional' Labour party. Add to that one of the most centrist governments for a while and a common enemy in both the EU and Covid and it's no wonder that people are lending their support to a government who are actually doing well at helping normal working people for a change.

The question for me is not "Can Kier Starmer revive the Labour Party?", it is "Can the Labour Party be revived at all?"
 

basil

don't mention the blinds
Maybe the UK has had a contentment level for , well decades. Therefore elections are about blues and reds , good and bad, wrong and right, helpful and unhelpful.
Maybe we are electing a new board of governors and the only concern to the plebiscite is how they spend our money.
Maybe we should have reached a point were we no longer have elections 'cos we are finally are were it's at.
Maybe or possibly the uk just apolitical......
 

Lucy

Well-Known Forumite
The other problem is that the Tories pretend that everyone can earn £200k so when Labour want to raise the higher tax rate us ordinary folk get scared in case one day it might affect us (it won't).
 

gilbert grape

Well-Known Forumite
Just because a nation has traditionally further right, it does not mean we have to all follow that mindset. Just imagine, we'd all be happy with banning foreigners, not accepting anybody who's a bit different and calling anybody who needs benefits "Scum", like quite a few of my Tory supporting acquaintances do. If that's your "normal" I really feel for you.
If anybody shoots me down for that observation it'll be because it's touched a nerve rather than me being harsh. It's commonplace and it isn't nice.
 

littleme

250,000th poster!
The question for me is not "Can Kier Starmer revive the Labour Party?", it is "Can the Labour Party be revived at all?"

I think its more 'Can the Labour Party survive Kier Starmer?'

He was my sole reason for not voting Labour/at all this time.
 
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