This is my short video for this morning. In it, I argue that for all practical purposes, this election campaign is over. It's time to move on and face the dire reality of a Starmer / Reeves / Streeting government.
The transcript is:
Can we vote now, please?
Lots of people are saying that to me. They're fed up with this election campaign.
The Tories and Labour are slugging it out and making absolutely no difference with anything they're saying because the Tories are obviously out of ideas and Labour, if it has any, won't talk about them.
Nigel Farage is making an idiot of himself, and the other parties are making good points. But they're not getting the attention that they need and the headway that they desire.
So, most people have already decided who they're going to vote for.
Why do we have to suffer another fortnight or so of election campaigning before we actually go and put our cross in the box?
Let's get on with it. Let's move on into the world where we have a Labour government and we can start criticising them for their failures.
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I couldn’t agree more. Except for one thing. I detect (in absolutely no provably way) that as this campaign progresses it’s the Greens and Independents that appear to be benefiting. They are getting their points across and are making headway. That has to be a good thing.
Agreed. Six weeks wasted time when there are so many urgent issues to address.
You’d give a large chunk of the civil service a heart attack if the election was moved! Otherwise, I agree that people are probably ready to vote.
The French can do it. Why is that ours are just soooo long.
Isn’t it a hangover from the days when people actually canvassed physically with outdoor public meetings (as Corbyn did, but nobody else for years….), travelling the country by train etc? I can remember Wilson addressing a meeting in public half a century ago, then many large meetings in public halls, then smaller and smaller and less meaningful ‘hustings’. TBH I’d like to see all candidates exposed to large public meetings!
No! Not yet. Outside England, and especially in Scotland, it is more than a 2.5 horse race. For sure, ultimately all the other countries in this benighted conglomerate will get what England votes for. But NI, Scotland and Wales have significant other voices that need to be heard in the English parliament, this faux democracy, where a donors contributions count for more than the votes of those who exercised their franchise right. Its hard enough for the other parties to break through media sychophancy as it is. They need all the airtime and campaigning time the next two weeks provide.
I would suggest if people in England have had enough, they use the off button.
I note a new poll today that the SNP are only 6pts behind the SLabs now, so the gap is narrowing.
Even given my own reservations, I’d like to see that trend run for a couple of weeks more here in Scotland.
Perhaps the announcement yesterday by Anas that there definitely will be no new Indyref will concentrate minds a little more.
No! We can’t vote yet!
I haven’t *received* my postal ballot yet, let alone sent it in!
Which is a more serious note: my mother voted by post in the referendum. After having sent in her ballot the campaign went stratospheric – it was only in the last fortnight that Elliot and Cummings thought they could really win – and Mum realised she had been given more / vital information and should have voted *for* the EU, not against it.
I think the kernel of your post is that all *electioneering* should end “now”, but a period of reflection before casting the vote would be beneficial. A period of purdah for all would be “nice”, and I believe some countries (France? at least, I think) do enforce that.
NO. NO. We can’t vote now. I will be working as a poll clerk and I’m not ready yet. The ballot boxes aren’t done, the signs aren’t ready, the polling station buildings aren’t booked until 4 July. No, don’t do it!
Ok…
But next time, let’s do it quicker….
Pleased to report that (to my surprise) my postal ballot form arrived here in France 3 days ago and was completed & put in the post back yesterday. So my vote has now been cast.
Having discovered (also to my surprise) that sometime since I left UK in 1984, a small boundary change in my constituency has moved me from a somewhat marginal seat (where deciding who to vote for was problematic) to the neighbouring one with a huge Labour majority, so I felt free to vote Green with zero risk of helping the Tories!
Personally, Anne, I would like to see a ban on exit polls. I think the French may do that?
I can remember the time before exit polls and we had to watch the results come in to get an answer. There was the swingometer of course, but there was still an element of uncertainty.
This is just about me enjoying the results.
“Nigel Farage is making an idiot of himself”
He always has and always will. Why are you “shocked”? Shocked, I say!
Well, one must admit that Farage is entertaining and interviews well even if he spouts nonsense.
Lord Farquhar Farage is generating a huge revenue stream for the Political Media Industrial Complex. Many people I like (i.e. Jonathan Pie) are making a boat load of £BPS and $USD off the election and Farage.
Every national US election cycle runs two years. After a national election we get a two-week break then everyone starts running again for the new election cycle.
The UK has it better than most with regards to election cycles.
I am starting again on 5/7
Ok, maybe 6/7
You already have my vote so please remove my name from your mailing list and Robo call list! LOL! LOL!
🙂
Definitely give yourself at least one day off! Your output has been prolific over the last few weeks.
I take most of the weekends off
Including from reading on this stuff
I could not do this otherwise
Fun factoid I stumble on while walking to the pub:
Record numbers of seats won by governments, and majorities:
Ramsay MacDonald, National, 1931 election: 554 seats, 493 majority.
Stanley Baldwin, National, 1935 election: 429 seats, 243 majority.
David Lloyd George, Coalition, 1918 election: 520 seats, 239 majority.
Stanley Baldwin, Conservative, 1924 election: 412 seats, 209 majority.
Tony Blair, Labour, 1997 election: 419 seats, 179 majority.
Because there are 650 MPs in the House of Commons now, as opposed to 659 in 1997 (and 615 in 1924), Keir Starmer needs only 415 seats to overtake Blair’s majority.
There is one very good reason for the delay. As a member of a local Make Votes Matter group which campaigns for PR I was encouraged to attend a local hustings and submit a question about our electoral system. The hustings have only appeared this week – it takes time to get them organised after all candidates are confirmed.
The hustings I attended was one in my constituency and all five candidates were there.
It was really interesting hearing their answers and watching their reactions to questions. Although I know I have to vote carefully in my marginal constituency I came away with the clear impression that I could only consider voting for two of them. Of the three I ruled out, one read answers from a script (and sometimes chose the wrong script); one was full of opinions, needed no script and talked nonsense much of the time; one was the current MP and came up with stock answers rather than thinking more deeply.
My husband’s question on PR was selected, it was enthusiastically received by the audience, and four out of the five candidates were very much in favour of PR. One said he wanted it because he would rather people didn’t have to vote tactically for him but could vote for who they wanted.
I have not been to a hustings before. The one I went to was really well organised and chaired. I would encourage everyone to attend a local hustings and, ideally, support the campaign for a fair electoral system at them.
Thanks
@Tessa H –
Is a UK “hustings” equivalent to a USA “Town Hall”??
Yes
I know posters get tired of me asking what seems like stupid questions but I want to make sure I understand exactly what is being discussed before I start running my big Yankee Yap.
I just learned two years ago when an MP was physically attacked that a “surgery” was an MP’s local office. Yanks think of a “surgery” a place where one gets an out-patient medical procedure.
I apologize in advance for trying the patience’s of my fellow posters.
Politicians have ‘surgeries’ at which those they represent can make appointments to come to see them for advice, usually on some form of regulatory issue.