General Election - 4th July 2024

It's fascinating how people who like the outcome of FPTP are so comfortable with setting aside the manifest unfairness of it.



Seats quadrupled.



No, it's Farage who is responsible for the huge majority. Obviously we can't say for sure how votes would have fallenl, but under FPTP and without Reform, the Labour majority is likely to have been nowhere near the size achieved. It doesn't bear thinking about what could have happened today if Reform had targetted only Labour seats, similar to how they targetted anti-Brexit MPs in 2017.

Whatever is meant by "strong government" -- and it tends to mean unrestrained power -- I'm not sure history shows that to be a good thing. Most of the Western world operates on more proportional systems, and I don't see any evidence that any consequent coalitions, rather than single-party overall majorities, result in governments that adversely affect economies and standards of living.

I'm not saying diagnosis would definitely pick something up, however there is more to how Liz Truss presents to the world than manners.

Somewhat amusing that Starmer gets picked up for being 'robotic' while no one sees Truss.

www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/diane-abbott-mother-of-the-house-hackney-north-election-parliament-b1168972.html

Like master of the house

In Les Mis?

🤣

You seriously think that if Reform had not been energised by Farage, that they'd still have had the same number of votes, or that their votes going elsewhere instead would not have largely fallen to Labour's disadvantage?

When political arguments begin by declaring their clarity, it's a good rule of thumb that what follows will be anything but.

I see that, contrary to media suggestions, the penultimate declaration, at South Basildon and East Thurrock, has gone to Reform rather than Labour. 98-vote majority.

No. She doesn't get a pass for this. If nothing else, the people who campaigned on her behalf deserved a public thank-you, and she didn't think they were important enough to offer them one. That's indefensible, and speaks volumes to her (lack of) character.

I watched that about 6:30 this morning and for a while I saw the podium minus Liz Truss, so thought she bolted it down the A10, but she didn’t she toughed it out and took her place on the podium, which I have to say is very gracious of her, to give us that true Michael Portillo moment the election had so far been lacking. A truly fitting end to a political career.

I do wonder if some of the MPs who lost their seat are perhaps secretly thrilled to leave politics. It's not a job for the faint hearted and perhaps something more normal would be better for some of them.

We'll be seeing Truss and Sunak at big occasions like Remembrance Sunday since former PMs usually always attend those.

It was a technical issue.

Truss - oh, no mics.

As far back as I remember, they have always been allowed a few moments to process. Often their teams can tell from the counted stacks, though not in this case.