Keir Starmer won an astonishing 3.2 million fewer votes than Corbyn did in 2017, yet the collapse of the Tory party and our deeply disproportional voting system delivered him an enormous majority.
Labour's already lost 3.2 million voters since 2017, and if they drive away another 2.9 million with their diabolical "more of the same" austerity and privatisation profiteering agenda by the next election, they could find themselves in the same position as the Tories are in now!
This is how the “centre” works. Keep things moving to the right of the political spectrum, one step at a time. When you get in power you do continue the last right-wing government’s policies. People get very angry and very desperate and they are attracted by the simple solutions offered by the fascists. The UK’s next government is very likely to see Nigel Farage as PM.
I was clearly a target vote for Reform, I had several of their leaflets delivered. They were promising both zero immigration and zero NHS waiting lists. Of course, there would be zero NHS waiting lists if they get rid of it entirely.
We also received some desperate tory toilet paper. My husband had a letter from ‘the Right Honourable Boris Johnson’, whereas my letter was deeply sinister. It was presented as a letter from my older self, written in 2044. Fortunately, it missed the mark by approximately a planet.
This also doesn't take account of tactical voting, where people voted for a party they didn't want to try to stop a party they disliked even more. If voters knew every vote counted they would be more likely to vote for what they believed in. A better system would be to rank the candidates in order of preference. FPTP ALWAYS results in a government most people didn't vote for. It really works only in a two-party system where there are clear policy differences between the two parties. When both believe in high immigration, high taxation and big state there is nowhere for voters to go if they don't agree.
Labour's already lost 3.2 million voters since 2017, and if they drive away another 2.9 million with their diabolical "more of the same" austerity and privatisation profiteering agenda by the next election, they could find themselves in the same position as the Tories are in now!
https://theleftlane2024.substack.com/p/here-is-what-the-headlines-should
We need to work to get PR done....and make seats won match votes cast.
See my figures above.
This is how the “centre” works. Keep things moving to the right of the political spectrum, one step at a time. When you get in power you do continue the last right-wing government’s policies. People get very angry and very desperate and they are attracted by the simple solutions offered by the fascists. The UK’s next government is very likely to see Nigel Farage as PM.
First past the post delivers again. Election reform please.
Thank you for your analysis AAV. Learned a lot about the UK reading your commentary.
I was clearly a target vote for Reform, I had several of their leaflets delivered. They were promising both zero immigration and zero NHS waiting lists. Of course, there would be zero NHS waiting lists if they get rid of it entirely.
We also received some desperate tory toilet paper. My husband had a letter from ‘the Right Honourable Boris Johnson’, whereas my letter was deeply sinister. It was presented as a letter from my older self, written in 2044. Fortunately, it missed the mark by approximately a planet.
Proportional to votes cast:
Labour 33.8% = 220 seats
Tories 23.7 % = 154 seats
Reform 14.3% = 93 seats
Libdems 12.2% = 79 seats
Greens 14.3% = 44 seats
"Others" 2.9 %= 19 seats
SNP 2.5%= 16 Seats
Sinn Fein, Pl Cym ,Workers Party 0.7%= 4.5 seats each
SDLP snd UUP 0.4%= 2 seats each
This also doesn't take account of tactical voting, where people voted for a party they didn't want to try to stop a party they disliked even more. If voters knew every vote counted they would be more likely to vote for what they believed in. A better system would be to rank the candidates in order of preference. FPTP ALWAYS results in a government most people didn't vote for. It really works only in a two-party system where there are clear policy differences between the two parties. When both believe in high immigration, high taxation and big state there is nowhere for voters to go if they don't agree.
Corbyn was against electoral reform too