[The Weeping Angel]

In some good news

[mattomac]

Polls are pretty much tied up as well.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion_p ... l_election

[Yug]

RacistUK down, Greens down, Lib Dems down. Could populism be losing its popularity? Let's hope so.

[Oboogie]

RacistUK down, Greens down, Lib Dems down. Could populism be losing its popularity? Let's hope so.

Hopefully, although the timing's unfortunate for Labour.

[Boiler]

Screenshot 2026-07-27 at 16-44-06.png (107.39 KiB) Viewed 1629 times

[Tubby Isaacs]

The Reform plus Tory score there is uncomfortably high. For all the claims made for PR, that would give them a good chance of forming the government.

[davidjay]

The Reform plus Tory score there is uncomfortably high. For all the claims made for PR, that would give them a good chance of forming the government.

And they'll do a deal before you can say "Merger".

[Tubby Isaacs]

That's what I'm worried about. While the Greens stand candidates v Labour everywhere because "complicity in genocide" or something.

Anyway, I thought the Greens were the real opposition to Reform. On that poll they seem to be 5th.

[davidjay]

Never forget that the Tories will do deals with anyone in order to win elections and the Left will fall out with anyone in order to lose them.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Bev Craig elected in Manchester, on a truly pitiful turnout.

Craig (Labour): 309,535 - 66.3%
Astley (Reform): 157,178 - 33.7%

[Tubby Isaacs]

The polling was accurate then. The Tories came 5th. Reform didn’t get all the second preferences they might have done from Restore and the Tories. Wonder which group held back?

[The Weeping Angel]

Don't worry, Kemi's come out against net zero.

[Bones McCoy]

I wonder whether the uncomfortable element of voter intelligence was in play with those transfers.

I'm far from on board with social Darwinism (misnamed) or eugenics.
But I do hark back to the earliest Scottish elections held with transferrable votes.

They didn't run as predicted with around sixty percent of voters rolling up and marking their X as usual.
A lower than expected proportion of votes were transferred and counting ended earlier than expected.

Post analysis showed a greater proportion in the posh areas had read the instructions or listened to the information broadcasts and numbered down 1, 2, 3.

Shift this to Greater Manchester and consider the typical Restore/Reform aligned voter - or Tory who'd consider them a credible second place. T.A.P.S?


Other causes also spring to mind.
* Traditional Ken Clarke / Michael Heseltine Tories who consider N.F. beyond the pale.
* New "Move fast break stuff" Tories who think N.F's star is setting - scandal and all that.
* Restore hard men with internicine distain for Reform "softies".


I say Let them fight!

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Reform = TAPS.

[Abernathy]

I once stood for election (unsuccessfully) at an “all-up” city council election in a ward that had to elect two councillors, so voters had two votes. At the count, I kept seeing ballot papers that had one vote for me, and the second vote for the (then) BNP candidate.

I felt strongly that I didn’t want those fucking votes. If I could have relinquished them, I would have done.

[mattomac]

Four of those areas have student populations and due to moving accommodation as students do that’s a sizeable chunk gone.

[Youngian]

I once stood for election (unsuccessfully) at an “all-up” city council election in a ward that had to elect two councillors, so voters had two votes. At the count, I kept seeing ballot papers that had one vote for me, and the second vote for the (then) BNP candidate.

I felt strongly that I didn’t want those fucking votes. If I could have relinquished them, I would have done.

A balanced ticket

[The Weeping Angel]

This is good.

[Boiler]

Good. About time we started attacking these cunts directly.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I'm not the biggest fan of Aditya Chakraborty, but he's done a decent John Harris style article where he's visited Luton.

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... -175535507

The bit that jumps out at me most of all though is what he says about Unite and Sharon Graham.

Some Unite members grumble to me about their leaders not fighting hard enough, and cite among examples a key meeting with the business secretary, Jonathan Reynolds, which the Unite head, Sharon Graham, did not attend but sent an aide. (When I checked this with Unite’s press office, it replied with lawyers’ letters and a statement saying Graham had “a pre-arranged meeting” but that she had negotiated directly with both Starmer and Reynolds on a government package of support to keep Luton open.)

Is this really the best use of members' subs? Sending legal threats to a very sympathetic journalist?