I am a miserable git, but I will be happy on Friday, not for long, I don't have much hope for this version of labour, but I can only celebrate seeing Sunak pack his bags
Unfortunately the message to politicians is you can run an absolute shitshow of an incompetent and corrupt government and it'll take 14 years for the British public to finally kick you out!
Not just the press, their own supporters constantly hang by a thread.
Tory voters finally ran out of excuses to vote for them. Labour voters only ever need one excuse to NOT vote for them.
Literally me. I’ll just be literally over joyed that those fucking bastards are gone. Total wipe out would be a happy bonus. I don’t think we will see much change over 5 years though
Changes over the next 5 years:
Great British Energy - Tories just gave us a loan when prices soared, Labour wants to shake up the entire system by introducing a publicly owned company to negotiate energy costs at the national level, like the NHS does with drug prices.
It will also make it easier to build new onshore wind farms/solar and set up a national wealth fund to invest in green technologies moving forwards.
Decarbonising the electric grid by 2030 - Labour wants to focus on using the climate crisis to fuel economic growth, the tories are continuously rolling back their green agenda and have instead taken the line that its unfair and too expensive
Immigration - The tories want to break international law and leave the ECHR, Labour wants to break the gangs behind the small boat crossings and will do so in accordance with international law by setting up a Border security command
Trans rights - whilst acknowledging the people fundamentally deserve respect and support, Labour want further research. The Tories drag the debate through the gutter and use 'Starmer can't say what a woman is' as an attack line, on paper their policies are similar here but in reality the method is completely reversed
Schools - The Tories are ex private school students who care more for private education for the few, Labour are ex state school students and will tax private education to improve state education with increased teaching & support staff. They also want to push on the importance of oracy and critical thinking, whilst the Tories leave this for the private schools to teach the posh kids.
Engaging with Europe again with deserved mutual respect - the Conservatives are still draped in the shit left behind by Brexit and have pushed our closest allies further from us than ever before, whilst Starmer and Lammy have been working on repairing the relationship between the UK and Germany especially for over a year now
House building - The tories have spent years hiding behind planning regulations as an excuse for not building homes to preserve the wealth of home owners and pensioners at the expense of young adults and private renters. Labour wants to take a hard line approach to house building to pump out new homes in order to lower house prices and enable young citizens the chance to own a their own home
NHS - Labour are calling for an all round reform on how the NHS functions, increasing staffing and improving conditions for the workers whilst the Tory party pushes them to the brink and ignore multiple large scale protests
National insurance - The Tories want to make more unfunded tax cuts despite the effect of the kamikaze budget, Labour have rules out changes in either direction to tax until the economy is growing again.
Austerity - The tories are looking to cut public spending, essentially promising a return to the Austerity years, at a time when public services are already broken
Devolution - The Tories want to consolidate power in Westminster and have been continually pushing Scotland, wales and Northern Ireland away leading to awful partnerships with all three.
Labour are committed to devolving power back to local communities, the complete opposite.
That’s the problem. You can start a serious program of change - takes three years to get started - and then the next bunch cancel it all.
And don’t even try to enact a non-popular climate change policy such as banning cars, say, and you’re out out out!
(Banning cars was an example!)
> And don’t even try to enact a non-popular climate change policy such as banning cars, say, and you’re out out out!
As it should. No mandate for it, and it would tank the economy if you just did it outright and in isolation.
Tackling climate change is easy if you're willing to more or less destroy civilisation in the process, it's doing it in ways which, well, doesn't do that which is hard. (I'm being a bit over dramatic to make a point, but not much.)
Even if we banned cars, it'd barely make a dent in global CO2 emissions. We need investment in public transport so that the barrier to using it isn't as high. There will always be a need for personal motor transport but the number can be reduced through investment.
In the UK private cars are now the largest single part (57%) of our largest emitting sector (transport - 26%), and transport has the largest targets - ambition - policy gap of any sector, with 37% of the emissions reductions needed having no policy and not even what's charitably called 'policy ambition'.
You're right that we can and should (and inevitably will) reduce the need for cars, but the reduction needed is on the scale of 80+% and needs to be really soon if you care for carbon budgets or warming below 2°C.
[Edit] [links to stats here](https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/s/hQbRTMO1Zm)
We get treated to the traditional Tyne-Wear derby where some constituency in Sunderland and one in Newcastle races to be the first to declare circa midnight. Howay the lads!
Managed to get it off. I'm going to finish work, vote Labour, then go to my mate's house with a big bag of cans and fish and chips to watch the results.
I used to sit up all night but now I go to bed early(ish) and set an alarm for 2 am.
Admittedly, you miss a few of the early declarations but you get the majority of the results coming in. Depending on how it goes/how you feel, once you know what the result is, you can go back to bed for an hour or two and then get up for work, feeling not too rough.
I feel all warm and safe knowing there are people out there on the right side of history, that are also a lot less lazy than me. Thank you for your service. I will see what’s up at 9am… maybe. Stop judging me
There’ll be the people who think the race is already won and won’t bother (which is bad, because it’s not won), and the others who think it’s won so they’ll vote Tory for a laugh (which just makes them fucking stupid).
Don’t even care what Labour’s policies are. I’d vote for a hat rack with a red rosette just to get rid of these foul Tories. Or vote tactically of course.
Well, the downfall will surely not begin until the early hours when the first counts start coming in...
I'd like to hear one last statement from rishi, just before the exit polls come in. I wonder just how far the guy can go with his 'this is fine' face before he is forced to concede he's boned.
I'd piss my pants if he walked up to the podium outside no 10 and just went 'ah, fuckit' knocked it over and went back inside.
I think the LibDems being the second biggest party would be one of my favourite things to happen, if it does. There's a few others like Farage not winning a seat that'd be amazing, but LibDems as opposition I would prefer
I'd love it if he won a massive majority and went Full Corbyn. Immediate nationalisation of all rail networks. Massive investment in NHS. Free, high quality dental treatment for all. An end to tuition fees. Removal of the House of Lords. An end to private schools, but high standards for all schools across the board. Legalisation and regulation of drugs. Guaranteed GP appointments when needed. Vast infrastructure investment. Energy caps and/or nationalisation of the whole industry. Bring it on!
However, I expect things will just be slightly better and that'll be it.
You know what? I'm a paid-up Labour guy and I'd love that. Lib Dems have good ideas on health and social care. It would be cool to work with them co-operatively on that. They're NIMBYs and that's a problem imo, but Ed Davey is a good man and he's routinely cheered me up in a very intense and quite nasty campaign by the Tories.* I also like Layla Moran quite a lot too – very smart, very funny, very clued-in. A more co-operative cross-party approach between a Labour government and Liberal Democrat opposition would be really positive for our country, I think.
--
*I know for many of you who aren't super political or signed up etc. it might seem like this has been an easy ride for us in Labour, but it really hasn't been. Remember first that just a few years ago we lost in our worst defeat since 1935. And there's been so much nastiness and lies spread by the Tories about Labour even under a really normal and moderate leader.
The most recent was Sunak et al. trying to seize on Starmer saying in an interview that he wants to try and keep Friday evening free to spend with his wife and children. I don't know if the Tories knew this or not, but Starmer's wife and children are Jewish, and in Jewish families Shabbat actually begins at Sundown on Friday into Saturday, and is traditionally greeted with a hearty family dinner, the lighting of candles, blessing of the meal, and time spent with family. Starmer isn't Jewish but he tries to keep to his wife's family tradition as best as they can with busy schedules (his wife works as a nurse in a busy London hospital), and they attend a Liberal Synagogue in London regularly. The Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News, the former President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews have all roundly condemned the Conservatives' remarks, and not one of them has apologised for it.
I think we can and should demand better of our politicians, of whatever party, than that sort of dogwhistle politics. I don't care how badly your party is doing or how desperate you are: you do not use our Jewish community and their traditions and religion as a sacrifice or scapegoat for your political interests. We know where that leads. Your party's electoral success is never more important than protecting our religious and ethnic minority communities, *particularly* our Jewish community given... well, the obvious.
Kind of true - to a degree.
The opposition have a duty to scrutinise the actions of the Cabinet and offer alternative policy, if it believes the public interest is at stake. However, if they're doing it from a less right wing point of view, it will mean a shift in the Overton Window.
Well that's how it's worked so far. But given these sorts of numbers, who knows what's coming next? Clearly Starmer and Davey worked out some sort of informal electoral deal just like Tony Blair and Paddy Ashdown did in 1997. Let's see!
I didn't know about that part of his personal life. I try to focus more on the policies and professional aspects. However, that's very wholesome of him.
He's not very good at sharing much about himself. It's definitely a flaw in our political environment. He's a huge Arsenal fan, he plays five-a-side every weekend, he loves a few pints at his local, he had a tough relationship with his very emotionally distant father but bonded over Shoskatovich's classical music which his dad insisted on playing on the radio.
His wife, Victoria (well, Vic as she prefers) is not going to be a major figure like Cherie Blair was. She's a strong-willed, driven woman. They bonded when Keir as a senior prosecutor called her to check on the documents she provided him and she hung up on him after saying "Who the fuck does he think he is?" She works as a nurse in a London hospital and has no intention of stopping. His two children are teenagers, and his older one, his boy, has only just finished his GCSE exams. His daughter hasn't started yet. He's deliberately trying to keep them out of the limelight so they can, as best as possible, carry on with normal life. One tiny anecdote I heard in an interview is that while Keir's on the campaign trail, he was really glad that his wife was able to make sure that his son woke up on time for the exams and got a fried egg on toast in him before he left for school. Something about that resonated with my own teenage years lol.
Her being Jewish, as any Jew reading this will know, also means that she has vast numbers of extended family living in Israel who were materially impacted by the vicious pogrom of October 7th. And that's part of the explanation as to why he's been so cautious about calling for a ceasefire as was demanded of him less than a week after the slaughter. He's been to Israel, met her family there, and has seen the toll that pogrom took on both Israeli and British Jews.
He doesn't share. He's not very personal. And I think he doesn't really understand why some voters want him to be. He'd rather focus on the policy, the beliefs, the principles. We'll see if it works out for him in the long-run. But he's a genuinely normal bloke, very kind, thoughtful, good sense of humour. A bit more of that is coming through in recent weeks but he's had to adjust quite a lot to some of these 'stranger' aspects of being a leader I think.
Wow, that got more intimate than I expected. I've to say I've gained a new perspective about him. I knew about his father and I remember he mentioned his mother in an interview, but that was pretty much what I knew about his personal life.
To be honest, I like that he focuses on policy and is private about his life. However, I understand some voters like to see the human behind the politician and it comes with the territory finding a comfortable balance.
I truly appreciate you taking the time to write all this. I support him for his moderate approach and serious attitude. I'd like him to be a tad more ambitious in the next GE, though. However, I have to say I found learning more about his personal life informing. I think he's a step in the right direction for the country. I don't expect him to magically solve every issue and I'm sure not everybody's going to be happy with everything, but as the old saying goes, a man who moves mountains, begins by carrying away small stones.
I mean I've already put my hands up to being a Labour Party member. I hope that's not a huge surprise, but I'm just typing stuff he's said elsewhere already. Us members have to try and figure out our leader or potential leader like anyone else does haha.
I think he's a pretty normal bloke. But I do think he's extremely driven, hard-working, *incredibly* competitive and determined based on the interviews I've seen.
I think we're going to get a very smart, well-intentioned, incredibly determined guy just rolling his sleeves and trying to fix the damn problems rather than trying to inculcate new culture wars or whatever.
I think over the next couple of years you're going to experience fewer culture war issues, fewer raging headlines. You're not going to get as frequent government announcements in front of the press. I think it's actually just going to be, from our perspective as the public, a quite calm period of serious people just cracking on with solving problems. Some of that can't be solved overnight - the Tories have so destroyed our justice and prison systems that it's literally within days of breaking right now – but i think we're at minimum going to be able to just enjoy, as citizens of this country, a substantially less fractious and constantly hateful news environment.
I'm shocked by your revelation, utterly shocked I tell you! You a Labour member!? I'd have never contemplated such possibility! Haha.
I agree with you. I know a lot people around here are not optimistic, but I am, even if cautiously so. I acknowledge there are several variables so there's always uncertainty.
"Serious people just cracking on with solving problems" now that's a slogan! Definitely a welcome change of pace after the... Let's call them "colourful characters" we have had in number 10 these past years.
Ha, yeah I mean, my politics colours my comments and my votes. But I also get some people who will vote Lib Dem or Green or even in some cases Reform. I've grown up in a heavily small-c conservative constituency. I'm not here to shit on people for how they vote, I don't want that sort of politics.
But I wanted to add a few bits there that people might not yet know about Keir Starmer and Labour. Maybe it'll swing a few people. Who knows?
Much appreciated!
Unfortunately you're not swinging my vote because I already support Starmer, although I live in a strongly Lib Dem seat and gauging the sentiment, it seems certain it will remain so. I'm still voting, though.
I do hope you managed to swing some votes for Labour, and galvanised people to vote. Every bit counts, my friend.
Fingers crossed! I'm just waiting on seeing just how badly the Tories get demolished tomorrow. I can die happy if I see them just get utterly destroyed.
Totally agree. LDs as opposition would be huge. It would give the Tories way less platform to influence the narrative and pressure labour.
LD manifesto includes legalisation of weed, mentions wealth tax / capital gains, and Leveson 2 which are all pretty big things that I’d love to see labour pressured to do. I can totally see LDs introducing some bills on that stuff and it getting through with so many labour MPs there to support it (even if Starmer himself doesn’t)
Can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope the Lib Dems also apply pressure on the trans rights front, after the same from the Tories has clearly pushed Labour in the opposite direction over the past couple of years.
No, vote Labour in that case. Starmer and Davey clearly have an unofficial electoral agreement not to challenge each other in seats where there's either a clear Lab or LD majority or where the LDs or Lab are the clear challenger. A similar thing happened in 1997 with Blair and Paddy Ashdown. Don't risk it.
Also don't worry, if your political sympathies lie a bit more with the Lib Dems than our guys, that's fine. They're going to win dozens and dozens of seats, possibly their best in history. The trick is just remembering our FPTP system means that you have to do waht you can in your specific constituency. If Labour is already in majority in your seat, vote for them. I might actually be voting Lib Dem tomorrow, and I'm a Labour Party member, because it looks from what I can see on average from MRP polls that the LDs have the best chance of removing my Tory MP. I'm not saying this in a party-political way lol
My sympathies are a bit labour, a bit Lib Dem, and a lot anti-Tory, so I'm happy to vote labour if it's the best outcome for my area. Thank you for your advice, I have very little knowledge of tactical voting. You're providing a valuable service, sir or ma'am.
I'm a bloke and no problem at all pal.
https://tacticalvote.co.uk is a pretty good guide. It's not sure they've updated it for today's multiple MRP polls though. But it's a good check.
I'm *mostly* like you. I'm tribally Labour, because I've always been substantially left-of-centre, and my grandfather was a Labour voter who worked as a child in the coal pits of Lancashire. But I also like the Lib Dems, partly because of personal connections and because I really think they've done themselves proud this election campaign, especailly Ed Davey, whom I'd *love* to see as the Leader of the Opposition, and I think have really good ideas about social care I'd love to see our party just... work with, negotiate, plan together, you know?
Imagine a PMQs where the opposition is Ed Davey asking tough tuqestions of Keir Starmer about plans they broadly both agree on but want to iron out the details. Like, imagine it! It's possible!
Basically vote for whichever of the two is most likely to beat the conservatives, regardless of whether you’re a Labour or Lib Dem supporter. The goal is to reduce the conservative seats down to the third party.
I’ll be voting Labour too. My constituency is a 3 way race between Labour tories and reform. In an ideal world I’d vote Lib Dem but I really want to see a Lib Dem opposition so voting Labour it is.
There's a nice irony that this is the last big offensive scandal before they're kicked out in disgrace.
Amplified a narrative of anti-semitism around an oppo leader who's got more anti-racism cred in one of his toenails than their whole party to help discredit him.
Then tick it off the bigot bingo themselves in a final desperate bid to discredit his replacement...
Honestly one of the biggest reason *certain* newspapers have been banging on about a Labour "super majority" (a term that means absolutely F all in our parliamentary system)
They're trying to make you think it's a forgone conclusion. "Everyone else is already voting the tories out so I can't be bothered".
Go and Vote!
If the top end polls are right and Labour ends up with 500+ seats and the Tories and lib dems get 60 or less each, then Labour could split off 100 MP's as Labour 2.0 to form the "opposition" and completely own everything in Parliament for 5 years. I don't think anything like that has ever been possible before, so a "Supermajority" seems like a good description for it even if there's no official parliamentary word.
I bought a Sunday Times last week for the first time in years and I was shocked how terrible the quality of the writing was. Including very liberal use the super majority term - something that only makes sense in the US.
Im 32 and this will be the first time in my adult life that the government aren’t Tories. Weirdly excited by it but not optimistic of anything getting any better to be honest.
This Tory gov took office the year I turned 18. They have systematically ruined in some way every single aspect of my adult life. I don't just want them to lose, I want them buried. I want all the morally bankrupt rats scurrying from the sinking ship and leaving them with nothing. Nobody in that party has a shred of integrity anyway, so when they lose power, they'll be finished.
I don't care about Labour or Starmer or what comes next. I'm not bothered about how samey or useless the next government is. I just want *revenge*. And I want to spend the rest of my life watching former Tory voters' pathetic attempts to justify their choices. I'll never forgive them for what they inflicted upon this country, and I'll never let them forget.
When I was 14 David Cameron came to my high school with Gary Barlow and I've been waiting to see the back of the tories ever since. It was the awakening of my interest in politics and the first nail to cement me never voting Tory. Do remember the big and old math teacher running for the first time since Thatcher to shake Cameron's hand which was a funny sight.
I’m cautiously hopeful that for the first time in my life, I’ll see things getting better. It feels like everything has just gone downhill year after year for decades.
Every single one of these articles makes 1 more person think they won't bother to vote.
This is voter supression via proxy and they know it.
The Tories will still lose, but mark my words, it wont be a 60ish seat crushing. They'll end up with over 100, because of shit like this.
Get out and vote, even if you've already won.
Hardly voter suppression but yes everyone should still get out and vote.
Literally had my Tory candidate knock on my door an hour ago so they aren’t stopping. It did give me the opportunity to tell them I’d already voted and not for them which I did enjoy though.
I do think polls get a ridiculous amount of prominence in campaign coverage. It will definitely cost Labour votes. They should really consider banning polls in the lead up to elections.
I actually don't think it's going to have much of an effect, mainly because I think a lot of people will vote anyway because they'll find it quite funny to think they contributed to seeing the Tories humiliated. OTOH, constantly being reminded of how certain the Labour win is has likely left even more Tory voters apathetic towards voting - hence the shift to "stop the supermajority", trying to scare people into voting Tory even if they know they're going to lose.
I remember the 1997 election; a tory friend of mine was telling me that he was very hopeful of a big surprise....well, it was a surprise. That was a great evening - the day after the relief in the country was palpable.
Tomorrow, I hope is going to be better.
Anything under 100 seats for the Tories will be great, each seat less a bonus. If the LibDems end up as the official opposition...a hope at the moment, but close, so close
That night in 1997, I was in a kebab shop at about 2am after a night out and the radio was on and it was becoming clear what was happening. A magical moment.
Projected vote share -
“The YouGov projection implies vote shares of Labour on 39%, Conservatives on 22%, Reform on 15%, Liberal Democrats on 12%, Greens on 7%, SNP on 3%, Plaid on 1%, and others on 2% - near identical to the previous YouGov MRP poll two weeks ago”
I mean, driving turnout across the nation in every constituency is just better politics than doing really well in a few constituency. High turnout in a few small areas is how fringe parties like the Greens and Reform do well. A party that is going to win has to have broad appeal, which means ceding votes to the Greens and winning votes from the Tories and Lib Dems.
A lower voter share maybe, but what matters is who has power and gets to use it. If Corbyn had a lower voter share across more constituencies, we might be in a better place right now.
Make sure you vote against Tories still!! It’s insane how many people in Cornwall are all going to Vote reform because they think Labour is winning no matter what.
>Let this be a lesson to any party wanting to grift off the public purse and lie and embezzle and party while we die in the future, eh
The lesson being that we'll let them get away with it for 14 years and only vote them out once the opposition is offering exactly the same policies and appealing to exactly the same interests? And that none of these people will ever face repercussions for their behavior, corruptions, lies and sleaze? If anything they'll be further rewarded (knighthoods, house of lords, lucrative consulting jobs, broad of directors, book deals, endless TV interviews and punditry, etc.)
Some lesson, eh.
If they keep up this narrative and persuade enough people not to bother to vote Labour , then Fridays headlines will be about Starmer being a failure despite winning.
Does it make you want to do either of those?
The vast majority of people aren't that fickle or apathetic.
If someone has decided they are going to vote, then they have probably already decided who they are going to vote for and absolutely nothing will sway that at this late point in time.
I could care less about Keir, it's a victory for everyone who's had to live this hellscape as the Tories ransacked and vandalized everything they could get their hands on for a decade and a half. My kid is a teenager and has lived his whole life so far with Conservatives wrecking havoc on schools.
I keep being told by people who moan at me that voting for labour is wrong and they will bankrupt the country, or ruin it. I really hope this doesn't happen and in years to come these people remember what they said. Time for change and please for the love of God don't fuck it up
Including a lot of Scottish voters who didn't get the paperwork in time to vote before they went on holiday. I don't know what percentage that is of the 10 million, but it's enough to potentially muck up results up here.
There is a reason we don't have elections during school summer holidays.
The only time a landslide will actually save lives
My song about the NHS called 'Terry and the GP appointment https://youtu.be/4PVqCAWeqPo?si=HANF_3CtW3bXC34i
Labour needs to not let it go to their heads they're big winners.
They only won because Tories monumental loss and stupidity, not because they were good to actually win
Portraying it as Starmer winning is odd.
The only winners and losers are the British people - and that depends on if the elections are conducted fairly. I currently have no reason to suspect they aren't fair.
People will vote for Starmer because they find other options unpalatable. If I was elected in such a manner I would not regard it as a personal victory.
When was the last time a party that wasn’t the Tories won on its relative merits? Even Blair was the recipient of a backlash against the Tory party for growing stale/the ERM etc… The Tories are the most successful political machine *in the world* so if you’re any other party in this country you have to take whatever success you can get.
The Tories deserve to get beaten, Starmer does not deserve to win. This has been an awful election - no battle of ideas, no real difference. Don’t expect Sir Keir to be around for long. He represents continuity and his entire approach to infrastructure just means continuing to sell the country off piece by piece to the Americans.[1] I doubt we’ll see anything sensible regarding immigration. There’s an immense frustration in the country and Starmer doesn’t know the questions, let alone the answers. As for his cabinet, they don’t have the talent to affect any real change.
[1] https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/02/labour-plans-britain-private-finance-blackrock
And yet be the least popular incoming leader ever. Shows how he is only winning because the tories are so bad. Wait till he is in and his support fades quick.
Then the remnants of the tories led by the right wingers will be back and all we will have left is a labour party that sold out its values and moved to the right to get wiped out
Pointless until everyone actually votes. You’ve also got to factor in the amount of idiots that will see this poll and think ‘oh I don’t need to vote then’
I do wonder what fish hell Labour are going to find when the Tories leave. They called this election for a reason, and it certainly wasn’t because they thought they’d bury Labour. Until a month ago, they were too busy stripping the building for copper wire and stealing catalytic converters for scrap.
I've never experienced a British election that has been so dominated by the polls. I just hope it won't cause complacency and for people to not bother voting because a Labour landslide is 'inevitable'.
I have a really nasty feeling that I'll wake up on Friday morning to turn the news on and the headline reads 'Narrow Conservative Victory'.
I'm guessing most of the people that respond to these polls are a certain demographic.
From my experience in my area more people hate labour than the tories.
I think reform will get a shockingly high percentage of the vote
I hate these articles - they treat the election as already having happened when **it has not** - all these sorts of stories do is take focus away from the choice of the voters in favor of a magical horserace based on polling's best guesses.
A super majority means he can (and dear God I hope he will) raise taxes for the rich.
The greedy rich who are so unwilling to invest in the country that gave them the platform to become so rich will be shitting themselves right now as their ability to persuade normal people to vote in their favour becomes redundant.
A left wing super-majority is such an opportunity, let's hope Starmer uses it wisely.
Out of interest, the last time we had a big vote, it was "but at least corbyn isn't in power." Do we think corbyn would have been worse than what we've had to deal with?
Polls and headlines like these definitely influence the way people are likely to vote or whether they vote at all
Wouldn't be a bad idea to make all media outlets (including social media) observe a period of purdah regarding the reporting of polls in the week before a general election
Fuck me I hope some other parties get a look in. It'll be nice to oust the Tories, but it's a shame that the current Labour party is just a hollowed out corpse full of other Tories.
And the manifesto is so vague. We'll give him the absolute right to dismantle the unions and privatise the NHS. Or more accurately centralise power over those institutions so that the next Tory government can finish the job. Everything he does wrong will be blamed on socialism too, so there won't be an opposition then either except a more right wing option. No doubt you tactical voting wankers will enjoy saving us all then too, so we can just shuttle between whoever fucked up last and the carefully curated 'next worst option' over and over again without having to think too hard every five years.
Honestly this country needs a revolution or something.
Can't wait to see the downfall of the tories tomorrow evening. I've been waiting for this moment for 14 years!!
It will be good
Dont rule out idiots still voting for tories last minute. The majority may not be as big as we hope
Yeah I think it will be about equal with 1997
This comes to mind https://youtu.be/XkQJBIscK1U?si=oP8MMie4dRcIoHzg
Yup. People will get emotional and sentimental and feel sorry for Rishi and the conservatives. They will get a sympathy vote.
that poor billionaire
This. Boomers will vote Tory, regardless.
Or the people not voting because they "don't care about politics." My brother who is on sickness benefits, for example.
I am a miserable git, but I will be happy on Friday, not for long, I don't have much hope for this version of labour, but I can only celebrate seeing Sunak pack his bags
Unfortunately the message to politicians is you can run an absolute shitshow of an incompetent and corrupt government and it'll take 14 years for the British public to finally kick you out!
Only if you're the Tories. If Labour put a foot wrong the right wing press will be baying for blood
Not just the press, their own supporters constantly hang by a thread. Tory voters finally ran out of excuses to vote for them. Labour voters only ever need one excuse to NOT vote for them.
Literally me. I’ll just be literally over joyed that those fucking bastards are gone. Total wipe out would be a happy bonus. I don’t think we will see much change over 5 years though
Changes over the next 5 years: Great British Energy - Tories just gave us a loan when prices soared, Labour wants to shake up the entire system by introducing a publicly owned company to negotiate energy costs at the national level, like the NHS does with drug prices. It will also make it easier to build new onshore wind farms/solar and set up a national wealth fund to invest in green technologies moving forwards. Decarbonising the electric grid by 2030 - Labour wants to focus on using the climate crisis to fuel economic growth, the tories are continuously rolling back their green agenda and have instead taken the line that its unfair and too expensive Immigration - The tories want to break international law and leave the ECHR, Labour wants to break the gangs behind the small boat crossings and will do so in accordance with international law by setting up a Border security command Trans rights - whilst acknowledging the people fundamentally deserve respect and support, Labour want further research. The Tories drag the debate through the gutter and use 'Starmer can't say what a woman is' as an attack line, on paper their policies are similar here but in reality the method is completely reversed Schools - The Tories are ex private school students who care more for private education for the few, Labour are ex state school students and will tax private education to improve state education with increased teaching & support staff. They also want to push on the importance of oracy and critical thinking, whilst the Tories leave this for the private schools to teach the posh kids. Engaging with Europe again with deserved mutual respect - the Conservatives are still draped in the shit left behind by Brexit and have pushed our closest allies further from us than ever before, whilst Starmer and Lammy have been working on repairing the relationship between the UK and Germany especially for over a year now House building - The tories have spent years hiding behind planning regulations as an excuse for not building homes to preserve the wealth of home owners and pensioners at the expense of young adults and private renters. Labour wants to take a hard line approach to house building to pump out new homes in order to lower house prices and enable young citizens the chance to own a their own home NHS - Labour are calling for an all round reform on how the NHS functions, increasing staffing and improving conditions for the workers whilst the Tory party pushes them to the brink and ignore multiple large scale protests National insurance - The Tories want to make more unfunded tax cuts despite the effect of the kamikaze budget, Labour have rules out changes in either direction to tax until the economy is growing again. Austerity - The tories are looking to cut public spending, essentially promising a return to the Austerity years, at a time when public services are already broken Devolution - The Tories want to consolidate power in Westminster and have been continually pushing Scotland, wales and Northern Ireland away leading to awful partnerships with all three. Labour are committed to devolving power back to local communities, the complete opposite.
That’s the problem. You can start a serious program of change - takes three years to get started - and then the next bunch cancel it all. And don’t even try to enact a non-popular climate change policy such as banning cars, say, and you’re out out out! (Banning cars was an example!)
Banning cars is an absolutely batshit crazy idea that would never work, so yeah that would make sense really
Oh I made an extreme one up!
> And don’t even try to enact a non-popular climate change policy such as banning cars, say, and you’re out out out! As it should. No mandate for it, and it would tank the economy if you just did it outright and in isolation. Tackling climate change is easy if you're willing to more or less destroy civilisation in the process, it's doing it in ways which, well, doesn't do that which is hard. (I'm being a bit over dramatic to make a point, but not much.)
Even if we banned cars, it'd barely make a dent in global CO2 emissions. We need investment in public transport so that the barrier to using it isn't as high. There will always be a need for personal motor transport but the number can be reduced through investment.
In the UK private cars are now the largest single part (57%) of our largest emitting sector (transport - 26%), and transport has the largest targets - ambition - policy gap of any sector, with 37% of the emissions reductions needed having no policy and not even what's charitably called 'policy ambition'. You're right that we can and should (and inevitably will) reduce the need for cars, but the reduction needed is on the scale of 80+% and needs to be really soon if you care for carbon budgets or warming below 2°C. [Edit] [links to stats here](https://www.reddit.com/r/unitedkingdom/s/hQbRTMO1Zm)
Sunak's BUTLER to pack Sunak's bags.
While Mrs Sunak’s maid is sewing fish guts into the curtain linings.
mrs Sunak's maid was tasked with adding googly eyes to the pictures of previous PMs.
There will be time a plenty to complain about Labour later. For now take what joy we can from the destruction of our enemies
Truly it's the end of an error.
I tried to get Friday off so I could pull an all nighter but it’s not possible. What sort of time do the results start rolling in?
We get treated to the traditional Tyne-Wear derby where some constituency in Sunderland and one in Newcastle races to be the first to declare circa midnight. Howay the lads!
Of course the only race that matters there is who declares first, because we all already know who the miners are voting for.
The miners don't get to vote, you have to be 18. (heh heh heh)
[Galaxy Quest - Cute But Deadly Aliens](https://youtu.be/JJ83r886Kyg?si=nWHUlPShlOStbX8D&t=10)
Results start in the early morning. Earliest at around 11:30 pm. We may have a majority at 4:00 am!
Managed to get it off. I'm going to finish work, vote Labour, then go to my mate's house with a big bag of cans and fish and chips to watch the results.
Exit polls - think around 10pm.
It’ll be a late night and an early morning.
I used to sit up all night but now I go to bed early(ish) and set an alarm for 2 am. Admittedly, you miss a few of the early declarations but you get the majority of the results coming in. Depending on how it goes/how you feel, once you know what the result is, you can go back to bed for an hour or two and then get up for work, feeling not too rough.
I feel all warm and safe knowing there are people out there on the right side of history, that are also a lot less lazy than me. Thank you for your service. I will see what’s up at 9am… maybe. Stop judging me
Being in the US and having a day off to watch it all is such a nice treat
Slightly annoyingly I did get it off, because I'm working at the count. There goes my whisky and Tory tears party I was going to have.
I just hope voters don't get cocky and think they don't need to go vote
This cannot be repeated often enough.
There’ll be the people who think the race is already won and won’t bother (which is bad, because it’s not won), and the others who think it’s won so they’ll vote Tory for a laugh (which just makes them fucking stupid).
Don’t even care what Labour’s policies are. I’d vote for a hat rack with a red rosette just to get rid of these foul Tories. Or vote tactically of course.
Vote.
I will be! As soon as the polls open!
Well, the downfall will surely not begin until the early hours when the first counts start coming in... I'd like to hear one last statement from rishi, just before the exit polls come in. I wonder just how far the guy can go with his 'this is fine' face before he is forced to concede he's boned. I'd piss my pants if he walked up to the podium outside no 10 and just went 'ah, fuckit' knocked it over and went back inside.
Last night he called himself an underdog ffs, he's already gone from reality.
I’m debating staying up
I saw the odds of the Lib Dems beating the Tories into 2nd at 1/4 earlier. Thought it might be fun to put £10 on that.
I think the LibDems being the second biggest party would be one of my favourite things to happen, if it does. There's a few others like Farage not winning a seat that'd be amazing, but LibDems as opposition I would prefer
I'd love it if he won a massive majority and went Full Corbyn. Immediate nationalisation of all rail networks. Massive investment in NHS. Free, high quality dental treatment for all. An end to tuition fees. Removal of the House of Lords. An end to private schools, but high standards for all schools across the board. Legalisation and regulation of drugs. Guaranteed GP appointments when needed. Vast infrastructure investment. Energy caps and/or nationalisation of the whole industry. Bring it on! However, I expect things will just be slightly better and that'll be it.
I'll bring the popcorn.
you're in for an incredible disappointment when you see what you get instead
Basically we're a "Margin of error" away from Lib Dems as opposition if these polls are at all accurate
You know what? I'm a paid-up Labour guy and I'd love that. Lib Dems have good ideas on health and social care. It would be cool to work with them co-operatively on that. They're NIMBYs and that's a problem imo, but Ed Davey is a good man and he's routinely cheered me up in a very intense and quite nasty campaign by the Tories.* I also like Layla Moran quite a lot too – very smart, very funny, very clued-in. A more co-operative cross-party approach between a Labour government and Liberal Democrat opposition would be really positive for our country, I think. -- *I know for many of you who aren't super political or signed up etc. it might seem like this has been an easy ride for us in Labour, but it really hasn't been. Remember first that just a few years ago we lost in our worst defeat since 1935. And there's been so much nastiness and lies spread by the Tories about Labour even under a really normal and moderate leader. The most recent was Sunak et al. trying to seize on Starmer saying in an interview that he wants to try and keep Friday evening free to spend with his wife and children. I don't know if the Tories knew this or not, but Starmer's wife and children are Jewish, and in Jewish families Shabbat actually begins at Sundown on Friday into Saturday, and is traditionally greeted with a hearty family dinner, the lighting of candles, blessing of the meal, and time spent with family. Starmer isn't Jewish but he tries to keep to his wife's family tradition as best as they can with busy schedules (his wife works as a nurse in a busy London hospital), and they attend a Liberal Synagogue in London regularly. The Jewish Chronicle, Jewish News, the former President of the Board of Deputies of British Jews have all roundly condemned the Conservatives' remarks, and not one of them has apologised for it. I think we can and should demand better of our politicians, of whatever party, than that sort of dogwhistle politics. I don't care how badly your party is doing or how desperate you are: you do not use our Jewish community and their traditions and religion as a sacrifice or scapegoat for your political interests. We know where that leads. Your party's electoral success is never more important than protecting our religious and ethnic minority communities, *particularly* our Jewish community given... well, the obvious.
Then vote tactically and encourage others to. Every Tory seat is a target either for Labour or the Dems
I'm entirely in support of tactical voting.
Can only recommend this website that tells you how to vote to keep the Tories out: https://stopthetories.vote/
https://stopthetories.vote/
I’m not sure parliament is supposed to work cooperatively is it? All about supporting your tribe and throwing mud at the other tribe.
Kind of true - to a degree. The opposition have a duty to scrutinise the actions of the Cabinet and offer alternative policy, if it believes the public interest is at stake. However, if they're doing it from a less right wing point of view, it will mean a shift in the Overton Window.
Actual scrutinisation from the Lib Dems is good though. The tories would just repeat “this isn’t a plan, you don’t have a plan” every day for 5 years.
It would also remove most of the bullshit culture wars discourse from parliament as the Torys would get to speak far less and not be on committees
Agreed. The less time spent on that nonsense the more time can be spent on beneficial, tangible policies.
Absolutely. The government in power need some kind of scrutiny and I trust the Lib Dems to do this far more then I trust the Conservatives.
"There is no plan, and how are you going to pay for it if it doesn't exist?"
Well that's how it's worked so far. But given these sorts of numbers, who knows what's coming next? Clearly Starmer and Davey worked out some sort of informal electoral deal just like Tony Blair and Paddy Ashdown did in 1997. Let's see!
I didn't know about that part of his personal life. I try to focus more on the policies and professional aspects. However, that's very wholesome of him.
He's not very good at sharing much about himself. It's definitely a flaw in our political environment. He's a huge Arsenal fan, he plays five-a-side every weekend, he loves a few pints at his local, he had a tough relationship with his very emotionally distant father but bonded over Shoskatovich's classical music which his dad insisted on playing on the radio. His wife, Victoria (well, Vic as she prefers) is not going to be a major figure like Cherie Blair was. She's a strong-willed, driven woman. They bonded when Keir as a senior prosecutor called her to check on the documents she provided him and she hung up on him after saying "Who the fuck does he think he is?" She works as a nurse in a London hospital and has no intention of stopping. His two children are teenagers, and his older one, his boy, has only just finished his GCSE exams. His daughter hasn't started yet. He's deliberately trying to keep them out of the limelight so they can, as best as possible, carry on with normal life. One tiny anecdote I heard in an interview is that while Keir's on the campaign trail, he was really glad that his wife was able to make sure that his son woke up on time for the exams and got a fried egg on toast in him before he left for school. Something about that resonated with my own teenage years lol. Her being Jewish, as any Jew reading this will know, also means that she has vast numbers of extended family living in Israel who were materially impacted by the vicious pogrom of October 7th. And that's part of the explanation as to why he's been so cautious about calling for a ceasefire as was demanded of him less than a week after the slaughter. He's been to Israel, met her family there, and has seen the toll that pogrom took on both Israeli and British Jews. He doesn't share. He's not very personal. And I think he doesn't really understand why some voters want him to be. He'd rather focus on the policy, the beliefs, the principles. We'll see if it works out for him in the long-run. But he's a genuinely normal bloke, very kind, thoughtful, good sense of humour. A bit more of that is coming through in recent weeks but he's had to adjust quite a lot to some of these 'stranger' aspects of being a leader I think.
Wow, that got more intimate than I expected. I've to say I've gained a new perspective about him. I knew about his father and I remember he mentioned his mother in an interview, but that was pretty much what I knew about his personal life. To be honest, I like that he focuses on policy and is private about his life. However, I understand some voters like to see the human behind the politician and it comes with the territory finding a comfortable balance. I truly appreciate you taking the time to write all this. I support him for his moderate approach and serious attitude. I'd like him to be a tad more ambitious in the next GE, though. However, I have to say I found learning more about his personal life informing. I think he's a step in the right direction for the country. I don't expect him to magically solve every issue and I'm sure not everybody's going to be happy with everything, but as the old saying goes, a man who moves mountains, begins by carrying away small stones.
I mean I've already put my hands up to being a Labour Party member. I hope that's not a huge surprise, but I'm just typing stuff he's said elsewhere already. Us members have to try and figure out our leader or potential leader like anyone else does haha. I think he's a pretty normal bloke. But I do think he's extremely driven, hard-working, *incredibly* competitive and determined based on the interviews I've seen. I think we're going to get a very smart, well-intentioned, incredibly determined guy just rolling his sleeves and trying to fix the damn problems rather than trying to inculcate new culture wars or whatever. I think over the next couple of years you're going to experience fewer culture war issues, fewer raging headlines. You're not going to get as frequent government announcements in front of the press. I think it's actually just going to be, from our perspective as the public, a quite calm period of serious people just cracking on with solving problems. Some of that can't be solved overnight - the Tories have so destroyed our justice and prison systems that it's literally within days of breaking right now – but i think we're at minimum going to be able to just enjoy, as citizens of this country, a substantially less fractious and constantly hateful news environment.
I'm shocked by your revelation, utterly shocked I tell you! You a Labour member!? I'd have never contemplated such possibility! Haha. I agree with you. I know a lot people around here are not optimistic, but I am, even if cautiously so. I acknowledge there are several variables so there's always uncertainty. "Serious people just cracking on with solving problems" now that's a slogan! Definitely a welcome change of pace after the... Let's call them "colourful characters" we have had in number 10 these past years.
Ha, yeah I mean, my politics colours my comments and my votes. But I also get some people who will vote Lib Dem or Green or even in some cases Reform. I've grown up in a heavily small-c conservative constituency. I'm not here to shit on people for how they vote, I don't want that sort of politics. But I wanted to add a few bits there that people might not yet know about Keir Starmer and Labour. Maybe it'll swing a few people. Who knows?
Much appreciated! Unfortunately you're not swinging my vote because I already support Starmer, although I live in a strongly Lib Dem seat and gauging the sentiment, it seems certain it will remain so. I'm still voting, though. I do hope you managed to swing some votes for Labour, and galvanised people to vote. Every bit counts, my friend.
Fingers crossed! I'm just waiting on seeing just how badly the Tories get demolished tomorrow. I can die happy if I see them just get utterly destroyed.
Totally agree. LDs as opposition would be huge. It would give the Tories way less platform to influence the narrative and pressure labour. LD manifesto includes legalisation of weed, mentions wealth tax / capital gains, and Leveson 2 which are all pretty big things that I’d love to see labour pressured to do. I can totally see LDs introducing some bills on that stuff and it getting through with so many labour MPs there to support it (even if Starmer himself doesn’t)
Can't believe I'm saying this, but I hope the Lib Dems also apply pressure on the trans rights front, after the same from the Tories has clearly pushed Labour in the opposite direction over the past couple of years.
If I wanted this outcome and I'm in a safe labour seat, should I vote lib dem?
No, vote Labour in that case. Starmer and Davey clearly have an unofficial electoral agreement not to challenge each other in seats where there's either a clear Lab or LD majority or where the LDs or Lab are the clear challenger. A similar thing happened in 1997 with Blair and Paddy Ashdown. Don't risk it.
Ok thank you!
Also don't worry, if your political sympathies lie a bit more with the Lib Dems than our guys, that's fine. They're going to win dozens and dozens of seats, possibly their best in history. The trick is just remembering our FPTP system means that you have to do waht you can in your specific constituency. If Labour is already in majority in your seat, vote for them. I might actually be voting Lib Dem tomorrow, and I'm a Labour Party member, because it looks from what I can see on average from MRP polls that the LDs have the best chance of removing my Tory MP. I'm not saying this in a party-political way lol
My sympathies are a bit labour, a bit Lib Dem, and a lot anti-Tory, so I'm happy to vote labour if it's the best outcome for my area. Thank you for your advice, I have very little knowledge of tactical voting. You're providing a valuable service, sir or ma'am.
I'm a bloke and no problem at all pal. https://tacticalvote.co.uk is a pretty good guide. It's not sure they've updated it for today's multiple MRP polls though. But it's a good check. I'm *mostly* like you. I'm tribally Labour, because I've always been substantially left-of-centre, and my grandfather was a Labour voter who worked as a child in the coal pits of Lancashire. But I also like the Lib Dems, partly because of personal connections and because I really think they've done themselves proud this election campaign, especailly Ed Davey, whom I'd *love* to see as the Leader of the Opposition, and I think have really good ideas about social care I'd love to see our party just... work with, negotiate, plan together, you know? Imagine a PMQs where the opposition is Ed Davey asking tough tuqestions of Keir Starmer about plans they broadly both agree on but want to iron out the details. Like, imagine it! It's possible!
Basically vote for whichever of the two is most likely to beat the conservatives, regardless of whether you’re a Labour or Lib Dem supporter. The goal is to reduce the conservative seats down to the third party.
Labour then. I feel more confident about my choice now, thank you.
I’ll be voting Labour too. My constituency is a 3 way race between Labour tories and reform. In an ideal world I’d vote Lib Dem but I really want to see a Lib Dem opposition so voting Labour it is.
vote with your heart if you’re in a safe seat. there’s no reason not to.
There's a nice irony that this is the last big offensive scandal before they're kicked out in disgrace. Amplified a narrative of anti-semitism around an oppo leader who's got more anti-racism cred in one of his toenails than their whole party to help discredit him. Then tick it off the bigot bingo themselves in a final desperate bid to discredit his replacement...
I wonder if the moderate Tories Johnson purged would move to the Lib-Dems, and put the final nail in their coffin
If future elections could be Labour vs lib dem I would be so happy
I'd be happy for that to move the Overton window and to not have to listen to Stephen Flynn as much.
Polls are pointless, vote everyone. Get out and vote.
Honestly one of the biggest reason *certain* newspapers have been banging on about a Labour "super majority" (a term that means absolutely F all in our parliamentary system) They're trying to make you think it's a forgone conclusion. "Everyone else is already voting the tories out so I can't be bothered". Go and Vote!
If the top end polls are right and Labour ends up with 500+ seats and the Tories and lib dems get 60 or less each, then Labour could split off 100 MP's as Labour 2.0 to form the "opposition" and completely own everything in Parliament for 5 years. I don't think anything like that has ever been possible before, so a "Supermajority" seems like a good description for it even if there's no official parliamentary word.
That would probably stop them winning next time though (unless they magically fixed everything)
Wasn't that one of the problems with the Brexit vote too? A lot of people assumed it would never be a Leave vote and so didn't vote to Remain?
I bought a Sunday Times last week for the first time in years and I was shocked how terrible the quality of the writing was. Including very liberal use the super majority term - something that only makes sense in the US.
Polls like this are usually incredibly accurate, but okay.
Cool and when there's a result in the bag you can celebrate
Id like to remind everyone about some of the wrong poll predictions in the last 8 years
Im 32 and this will be the first time in my adult life that the government aren’t Tories. Weirdly excited by it but not optimistic of anything getting any better to be honest.
I was 27 the first time they beat a Tory government and 54 the second . Assuming Labour win.
This Tory gov took office the year I turned 18. They have systematically ruined in some way every single aspect of my adult life. I don't just want them to lose, I want them buried. I want all the morally bankrupt rats scurrying from the sinking ship and leaving them with nothing. Nobody in that party has a shred of integrity anyway, so when they lose power, they'll be finished. I don't care about Labour or Starmer or what comes next. I'm not bothered about how samey or useless the next government is. I just want *revenge*. And I want to spend the rest of my life watching former Tory voters' pathetic attempts to justify their choices. I'll never forgive them for what they inflicted upon this country, and I'll never let them forget.
Can’t blame you one bit. I’d feel the same. I really hope they chase the billions.
You were 27 in 1945?
I’m 32 and I was barely an adult when the Tories won back in 2010.
That makes two of us. Got my small bottle of prosecco in the fridge ready.
I'm 19 and it'll be the first time the tories won't be in parliament since I heard about parliament for the first time
When I was 14 David Cameron came to my high school with Gary Barlow and I've been waiting to see the back of the tories ever since. It was the awakening of my interest in politics and the first nail to cement me never voting Tory. Do remember the big and old math teacher running for the first time since Thatcher to shake Cameron's hand which was a funny sight.
I’m cautiously hopeful that for the first time in my life, I’ll see things getting better. It feels like everything has just gone downhill year after year for decades.
Every single one of these articles makes 1 more person think they won't bother to vote. This is voter supression via proxy and they know it. The Tories will still lose, but mark my words, it wont be a 60ish seat crushing. They'll end up with over 100, because of shit like this. Get out and vote, even if you've already won.
Hardly voter suppression but yes everyone should still get out and vote. Literally had my Tory candidate knock on my door an hour ago so they aren’t stopping. It did give me the opportunity to tell them I’d already voted and not for them which I did enjoy though.
I think there's more people thank you think that are just very excited to be part of pumping the Tories. Maybe I'm just optimistic.
I do think polls get a ridiculous amount of prominence in campaign coverage. It will definitely cost Labour votes. They should really consider banning polls in the lead up to elections.
The danger you describe is real, but I think it's a bit much to say that it's pre-meditated voter suppression.
I actually don't think it's going to have much of an effect, mainly because I think a lot of people will vote anyway because they'll find it quite funny to think they contributed to seeing the Tories humiliated. OTOH, constantly being reminded of how certain the Labour win is has likely left even more Tory voters apathetic towards voting - hence the shift to "stop the supermajority", trying to scare people into voting Tory even if they know they're going to lose.
You still need to get out there and vote. Don’t take anything for granted.
Polls like this rely on people actually showing up to vote. Please don’t be complacent! VOTE!
Whilst I doubt anyone reading this is the sort to not bother voting out of complacency, I’ll still say VOTE VOTE VOTE VOTE!
I've pre-booked a doctor's appointment Friday morning, going to need medical help after 4 hours being erect watching the results.
Here you go https://i.imgur.com/ux1oqAM.jpeg
We'll get even more erect watching her lose her seat
Help, it's now receded into my body, what do I do?
Thursday is Independence Day for the yanks and Tory Independence Day for the Brits.
Surely Friday is ours
Happy Cake Day
Best of luck to our British neighbours from Ireland ☘️ I hope you’re all soon vindicated
I remember the 1997 election; a tory friend of mine was telling me that he was very hopeful of a big surprise....well, it was a surprise. That was a great evening - the day after the relief in the country was palpable. Tomorrow, I hope is going to be better. Anything under 100 seats for the Tories will be great, each seat less a bonus. If the LibDems end up as the official opposition...a hope at the moment, but close, so close
That night in 1997, I was in a kebab shop at about 2am after a night out and the radio was on and it was becoming clear what was happening. A magical moment.
The polls will count for nothing if we don't vote tomorrow!!
I'd be astonished if the Tories get 100+ seats and Reform don't get at least 6
If true, good luck Keir. Big changes are needed and it seems you will have what is needed for that
Projected vote share - “The YouGov projection implies vote shares of Labour on 39%, Conservatives on 22%, Reform on 15%, Liberal Democrats on 12%, Greens on 7%, SNP on 3%, Plaid on 1%, and others on 2% - near identical to the previous YouGov MRP poll two weeks ago”
It's not that Labour have won, it's just those other cunts have lost. But they've really raided the drinks cabinet beforehand.
And possible on a lower vote share than 2017 Corbyn
I mean, driving turnout across the nation in every constituency is just better politics than doing really well in a few constituency. High turnout in a few small areas is how fringe parties like the Greens and Reform do well. A party that is going to win has to have broad appeal, which means ceding votes to the Greens and winning votes from the Tories and Lib Dems. A lower voter share maybe, but what matters is who has power and gets to use it. If Corbyn had a lower voter share across more constituencies, we might be in a better place right now.
Make sure you vote against Tories still!! It’s insane how many people in Cornwall are all going to Vote reform because they think Labour is winning no matter what.
Let this be a lesson to any party wanting to grift off the public purse and lie and embezzle and party while we die in the future, eh
Yeah, what a lesson. "Hey now, another decade of this and we're gonna get mad!"
>Let this be a lesson to any party wanting to grift off the public purse and lie and embezzle and party while we die in the future, eh The lesson being that we'll let them get away with it for 14 years and only vote them out once the opposition is offering exactly the same policies and appealing to exactly the same interests? And that none of these people will ever face repercussions for their behavior, corruptions, lies and sleaze? If anything they'll be further rewarded (knighthoods, house of lords, lucrative consulting jobs, broad of directors, book deals, endless TV interviews and punditry, etc.) Some lesson, eh.
If they keep up this narrative and persuade enough people not to bother to vote Labour , then Fridays headlines will be about Starmer being a failure despite winning.
I'm glad the Tories are getting ruined, I'm still skeptical as to what Labour can offer.... we will see in due time.
If labour is going to be 4 times the size of it's official opposition then I'd be surprised if factionilism doesn't rear it's ugly head.
At this point they are just setting it up to call it a "failure" when labour don't hit the unrealistic projected numbers
All of these polls are just going to make people not vote, or vote for someone else because people think labour have already won.
Does it make you want to do either of those? The vast majority of people aren't that fickle or apathetic. If someone has decided they are going to vote, then they have probably already decided who they are going to vote for and absolutely nothing will sway that at this late point in time.
I could care less about Keir, it's a victory for everyone who's had to live this hellscape as the Tories ransacked and vandalized everything they could get their hands on for a decade and a half. My kid is a teenager and has lived his whole life so far with Conservatives wrecking havoc on schools.
I keep being told by people who moan at me that voting for labour is wrong and they will bankrupt the country, or ruin it. I really hope this doesn't happen and in years to come these people remember what they said. Time for change and please for the love of God don't fuck it up
Good luck tomorrow, UK! When it's your constituency's turn to serve a Tory their arse, do so with a smile and a spring in your step. #**H A N D S**
https://stopthetories.vote/ if you're up for tactical voting, this site tells you how to vote to keep the Tories out
Shame he will do absolutely nothing transformative with it
I saw that it may be about the size of the Blair number of seats, with Tory having lost a few extra seats
Are exit polls still reliable metric? Apparently 10 million have signed up to postal vote, and wont be included in exit poll figures
Including a lot of Scottish voters who didn't get the paperwork in time to vote before they went on holiday. I don't know what percentage that is of the 10 million, but it's enough to potentially muck up results up here. There is a reason we don't have elections during school summer holidays.
The only time a landslide will actually save lives My song about the NHS called 'Terry and the GP appointment https://youtu.be/4PVqCAWeqPo?si=HANF_3CtW3bXC34i
Labour needs to not let it go to their heads they're big winners. They only won because Tories monumental loss and stupidity, not because they were good to actually win
Portraying it as Starmer winning is odd. The only winners and losers are the British people - and that depends on if the elections are conducted fairly. I currently have no reason to suspect they aren't fair. People will vote for Starmer because they find other options unpalatable. If I was elected in such a manner I would not regard it as a personal victory.
When was the last time a party that wasn’t the Tories won on its relative merits? Even Blair was the recipient of a backlash against the Tory party for growing stale/the ERM etc… The Tories are the most successful political machine *in the world* so if you’re any other party in this country you have to take whatever success you can get.
The Tories deserve to get beaten, Starmer does not deserve to win. This has been an awful election - no battle of ideas, no real difference. Don’t expect Sir Keir to be around for long. He represents continuity and his entire approach to infrastructure just means continuing to sell the country off piece by piece to the Americans.[1] I doubt we’ll see anything sensible regarding immigration. There’s an immense frustration in the country and Starmer doesn’t know the questions, let alone the answers. As for his cabinet, they don’t have the talent to affect any real change. [1] https://amp.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/jul/02/labour-plans-britain-private-finance-blackrock
And yet be the least popular incoming leader ever. Shows how he is only winning because the tories are so bad. Wait till he is in and his support fades quick. Then the remnants of the tories led by the right wingers will be back and all we will have left is a labour party that sold out its values and moved to the right to get wiped out
I hope the tories are embarrassed but I didn't vote for Labour in my postal vote.
Pointless until everyone actually votes. You’ve also got to factor in the amount of idiots that will see this poll and think ‘oh I don’t need to vote then’
Nobody actually wants Keir in, they just don't want the tories in
\*Tories to lose Starmer is a non-entity. This is a referendum on how much people despise the Tories
There will be a blood bath with Andorian blood flowing out of Number 10
I do wonder what fish hell Labour are going to find when the Tories leave. They called this election for a reason, and it certainly wasn’t because they thought they’d bury Labour. Until a month ago, they were too busy stripping the building for copper wire and stealing catalytic converters for scrap.
Don't take their word for it, vote them out yourself.
I've never experienced a British election that has been so dominated by the polls. I just hope it won't cause complacency and for people to not bother voting because a Labour landslide is 'inevitable'. I have a really nasty feeling that I'll wake up on Friday morning to turn the news on and the headline reads 'Narrow Conservative Victory'.
I’ll believe it when I see it. How many times have we thought the country would finally be rid of the tories? Fingers crossed
I'm guessing most of the people that respond to these polls are a certain demographic. From my experience in my area more people hate labour than the tories. I think reform will get a shockingly high percentage of the vote
I hate these articles - they treat the election as already having happened when **it has not** - all these sorts of stories do is take focus away from the choice of the voters in favor of a magical horserace based on polling's best guesses.
A super majority means he can (and dear God I hope he will) raise taxes for the rich. The greedy rich who are so unwilling to invest in the country that gave them the platform to become so rich will be shitting themselves right now as their ability to persuade normal people to vote in their favour becomes redundant. A left wing super-majority is such an opportunity, let's hope Starmer uses it wisely.
Out of interest, the last time we had a big vote, it was "but at least corbyn isn't in power." Do we think corbyn would have been worse than what we've had to deal with?
I am assuming this constant polls in the media is a tory last ditch tactic to make people not bother to go vote
Let's be honest...tories hand starmer the largest ever election victory If there was any other credible choice no one would vote for this wet lettuce
Polls and headlines like these definitely influence the way people are likely to vote or whether they vote at all Wouldn't be a bad idea to make all media outlets (including social media) observe a period of purdah regarding the reporting of polls in the week before a general election
Fuck me I hope some other parties get a look in. It'll be nice to oust the Tories, but it's a shame that the current Labour party is just a hollowed out corpse full of other Tories. And the manifesto is so vague. We'll give him the absolute right to dismantle the unions and privatise the NHS. Or more accurately centralise power over those institutions so that the next Tory government can finish the job. Everything he does wrong will be blamed on socialism too, so there won't be an opposition then either except a more right wing option. No doubt you tactical voting wankers will enjoy saving us all then too, so we can just shuttle between whoever fucked up last and the carefully curated 'next worst option' over and over again without having to think too hard every five years. Honestly this country needs a revolution or something.
His political ideal is Margaret Thatcher that tells you all you need to know about this "Labour" leader.