General Election - 4th July 2024

Oh don't worry about that, I will certainly snipe all I like because that's what Labour supporters have been doing for the past 14 years, you'll have to get used to it. 

Look. We've had fourteen years of lies, corruption and cheating. I don't care what anybody says. I am happy and I am going to enjoy this result. Just for a bit. A few weeks of happiness free of the cynicism and constant negativity.

Did Brown preside over 14 years of bare faced lying or have to prorogue the house to achieve his goals?

One can only hope

This is not new outfit syndrome

The novelty will wear off quickly

The chilling events in France

Are a stark reminder of where politics can go

The main challenge Labour have is to unite the country

Change cannot be for changes sake

The Daily Mail is so furious over Starmer/Labour win that they tried to get the word ‘woke’ in the same sentence seventeen times,

Eh? It was a world banking recession. Gordon Brown saved capitalism

It goes both ways. Labour/Brown didn't cause the global financial crisis which originated in the US due to dodgy sub-prime lending practices - amongst other things. There's a case to say he could have handled it better, although IMO he did a decent job, or that other things in how Labour managed the economy weren't great. Something was needed due to decades of under-investment by previous administrations, most notably the previous Tory one, but the reliance on PPP stored up a lot of problems.

On the other hand, the fall-out from the financial crisis was far from over by the time the coalition took over, and while I'd agree some decisions were wrong and the financial crisis was used as a cover for some ideological cuts - especially the ones that came in after the 2015 election, the fall-out from the financial crash was a major contributing factor to a lot of the poverty. Businesses were going bust, redundancy was common and lots of people were defaulting on mortgages with a reduced tax base. There was always going to be more demand on public services and less money to spend on it. The 2010 Labour manifesto promised austerity too, something a lot of Labour activist conveniently forget. 

When challenged many Labour supporters will claim they'd have made different choices when it came to cuts, but the scale of cuts in the 2010 government were the same as proposed in the 2010 Labour manifesto. If we are being honest about the global financial crisis in 2008 not being Labour's fault, we should be equally honest that the continued fall-out after the 2010 wasn't (all) the fault of the Conservatives.  Albeit the Conservatives were more than happy to let their voters think the financial crisis was Labour's fault and used that fallacy to introduce much more scathing cuts after the 2015 general election.

What do you think they could have done differently? More and earlier financial regulation?

Also, how did the polls get the predictions of vote share so wrong?

We were led to expect Labour above 40%, not 33.7%, and the Tories under 20% when they got 23%.

For the very first time in my life (now aged 60), I had a vote (in a UK parliamentary, regional or local election) that actually counted. I managed to vote for the winner here in Nuneaton (Labour).

Sweetest moment: Gillian Keegan being told by the people of my constituency that “No, actually, you are not doing a f@@@@G good job!” and booting her out! Still bleating on in her concession speech about this year celebrating 40 years of full time employment (well done - you’ve had a job!). Entitled and out of touch - good riddance.