I don't like living in England....

[Oldjohnw]

Queens Speech tomorrow. Look out for further consolidation of authoritarian tendencies. “Modernising” of Judicial Review, FPTP for Mayoral elections, boundary changes.

[millimole]

That's very simplistic.
But I understand what you are saying.
The main thrust of most campaigning seems to be about retaining or gaming power for its own sake. There is precious little sense of what the 25 year vision is (let alone a 5 or 10 year vision) for how my life, country & society will change if that party gets my vote.
The single exception to this is perhaps the Green manifesto, although even that is very broad brush and hard to relate to the daily lives of my life or that my grandchildren.

{snip}
And almost certain to compromise if it gets near real national power.

Sorry. I wasn't clear.
What I meant was that it was refreshing that the Greens, alone in the national (English) parties seem to have a long term vision for the future.
I can't see them being a force in Westminster in my lifetime.

[Oldjohnw]

The Greens are a significant influence. Caroline Lucas punches well above her weight.

[mjr]

As I said Blair was just a smarmy...... easy to mistake for charisma. Both he and Starmer have one thing in common. They're both closer to Tories than they are Labour.

People voted Conservative because Labour wasn't left-wing enough ?

More significantly, uninspired Labour voters stay home while Boris gets his vote out and woos UKIP voters. One area near me reported a 22% turnout which is not great. Another area with three or four good candidates and a few fringe ones, offering a broad choice, reported 65%!

[Jdsk]

More significantly, uninspired Labour voters stay home while Boris gets his vote out and woos UKIP voters.[/quote]
The "Brexit unwind" is certainly important.

From what I can tell there has also been a drop in voting for extreme right parties.

Jonathan

[mjr]

I would like it to be clear that I do not think that the election of Greens is bizarre, but the reverse, why so few? At least there has been a large (proportionally) increase.

FPTP makes it very hard for non top-two parties to get a toe in.

Which is almost certainly why Priti Patel has recent started a process to get rid of the fairer mayoral and PCC voting system and replace it with single-round first-takes-all (aka FPTP even though there is no "post" to get "first past"). As we have seen with mayors, there is basically a centre-left majority in England, even in semi-rural places like Cambridgeshire, but the MP/Cllr first-takes-all voting system punishes centre-left factionalism and rewards centre-right centralisation/control tendencies: but Patel wants to see that popular majority denied. She is really an enemy of the people.

[...] brexit has been 'done' (sort of, it's no longer dominating everything anyway which is the key part - many of the disinterested/non-tribal voters simply wanted it to go away),

The only reason it isn't dominating everything is because it's a slow killer while there is a faster killer in the news for the last year or so. It will be back, because the new border friction is an ongoing brake on exports, like a rear mudguard collapsed onto the tyre: it doesn't fling you over the handlebars but it will keep on breaking stuff until it is addressed. I really hope that Starmer gets a clue and starts putting forward his alternative programme for the country. If he keeps on with "I would have done the same but faster" then he will keep finding it difficult to make headway.

[mjr]

https://foreignpolicy.com/2018/10/03/je ... in-labour/

“Yet, for many reasons, Corbyn is uniquely unsuitable to be prime minister. This is someone who accepted money from Iran to present on the government-affiliated channel Press TV and who invited Linda Quigley and Gerry MacLochlainn, both convicted of activity connected to the Irish Republican Army, to Parliament just two weeks after the IRA had killed five people and almost assassinated the British prime minister in the 1984 Brighton bombing.

Have you not being paying attention to who Johnson has accepted money from and for what?

Have you seen who Johnson has invited to Parliament?

And as for having sympathies overseas, do you think our American-born Anglo-Swiss-Turkish-Bavarian PM, who spoke repeatedly in support of Turkish EU membership before Brexit, has none?

And that is an actual prime minister, not an aberration who stood almost no chance of ever becoming one and was hooked off the political stage more than a year ago.

[mjr]

Hopefully Tory areas will stop voting for a blue rosette on a dust bin too!

Count Binface stands as an Independent. He has never stood as a Tory AFAIK.

[mjr]

Post moved to viewtopic.php?f=6&t=145066&p=1604999#p1604999

[Jdsk]

Once thing that is standing out to me in these elections is that people in urban areas who've invested in cycling infrastructure (be that proper separated tracks, low traffic neighbourhoods or both) and generally reduced the dominance of motor traffic have been re-elected with increased support.

And the anti LTN candidates in London have all fallen hilariously flat.

That's being discussed in Oxford city as we type...

And now in the Local elections 2021 thread...

viewtopic.php?p=1604970#p1604970

Jonathan

[Oldjohnw]

More significantly, uninspired Labour voters stay home while Boris gets his vote out and woos UKIP voters.

The "Brexit unwind" is certainly important.

From what I can tell there has also been a drop in voting for extreme right parties.

Jonathan
[/quote]


Is that because they see a home within the Tory party? Certainly, Ms Patel’s outlook will encourage this.

[Jdsk]

I wouldn't have a problem: after all "elderly middle-class me" possesses a passport, a driving licence, and a bus pass. Not everyone is so well equipped.

https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status ... 64/photo/1

Jonathan

[Mike Sales]

I wouldn't have a problem: after all "elderly middle-class me" possesses a passport, a driving licence, and a bus pass. Not everyone is so well equipped.

https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status ... 64/photo/1

Jonathan

I would guess that a graph of passport holders would look similar.

I went years without a passport and have never had a driving licence, but now do have a bus pass.

[Jdsk]

Now added above!

Jonathan

[mjr]

I wouldn't have a problem: after all "elderly middle-class me" possesses a passport, a driving licence, and a bus pass. Not everyone is so well equipped.

https://twitter.com/jburnmurdoch/status ... 64/photo/1

Don't we want to see ID-holding by voting intention, rather than the above voting intention by ID-holding? The above graphs don't really help tell us how big an impact it would have, only that it would hurt Labour and Leave more than Conservative and Remain.

Edit to add: I think restricting voting those holding a driving licence or passport is trying to turn the clock back to the 1800s. It's slightly better than restricting the franchise to employers or landowners but still the same basic unfairness. Very un-English!