[Malcolm Armsteen]

the Greens appear to be a damp squid

A dry squid wouldn't last long.

[Oboogie]

the Greens appear to be a damp squid

A dry squid wouldn't last long.

Unless it's basking in the glow of the eggcorns thread.

[davidjay]

Our two (hardworking and genuinely fine examples of how councillors should behave) LDs both won, which was a relief.

[Youngian]

Everyday's a school day

[Youngian]

If Nelson is right, Marmite Farage is even more loathed by those who despised him in 2016. Reform swept the board in Wigan but on 46% of the vote. That's not that impressive for an area that was 70% Leave. Can't see Farage has gained any new electoral demographics when you drill down.

[davidjay]

Trouble is that 52% in a referendum is a narrow victory but in an election it's a landslide.

[Youngian]

What new demographics (beyond the Boris/Nigel 2019 Brexit coalition) has Farage picked up in this election?

[davidjay]

What new demographics (beyond the Boris/Nigel 2019 Brexit coalition) has Farage picked up in this election?

The None of the Aboves who used to vote Lib Dem, together with a few who believe that because their lives didn't improve the day after Starmer won, they'll try someone different.

[Spoonman]

I did say at the time of winning the general election that the first thing Starmer should have said was that it was going to take more than one term to try and reverse 14 years of Tory mismanagement - the fact that he didn't IMO has hindered him from a media & electorate that expects instant gratification & backstage drama.

[Youngian]

What new demographics (beyond the Boris/Nigel 2019 Brexit coalition) has Farage picked up in this election?

The None of the Aboves who used to vote Lib Dem, together with a few who believe that because their lives didn't improve the day after Starmer won, they'll try someone different.

They're not making up for dead people. Farage isn't a young fresh faced anti-politics candidate.

Behind the impressive tally of Reform’s gains – likely to end up well over 1,000 – Nigel Farage should be privately worried.

In last year’s local elections Reform won 41 per cent of all seats contested across England. On the basis of the overnight figures, this year’s tally is around 33 per cent.

“If there were no polls, and there had been no elections last year, this year’s figure would be astonishing. But we do have the record of recent polls and elections, and it seems clear that Reform has peaked. https://www.thelondoneconomic.com/polit ... ur-406003/

[Tubby Isaacs]

If Nelson is right, Marmite Farage is even more loathed by those who despised him in 2016. Reform swept the board in Wigan but on 46% of the vote. That's not that impressive for an area that was 70% Leave. Can't see Farage has gained any new electoral demographics when you drill down.

This is my view, though I think he'll win Wigan and quite a few more places where they've done well. I think, despite what is often said, FPTP will actually help keep him out of government (assuming he even wants to be in it, which I'm not actually convinced he does).

[Tubby Isaacs]

What a heartwarming tale. How fresh!

‘I’ll talk to work on Monday’: what happens when a ‘paper candidate’ actually wins
Tyrone Scott, who didn’t think he had a hope in the election, wants to help the Greens rebuild ‘community cohesion’ in Hackney

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/20 ... -candidate

Four years ago, he was tantalisingly close to power, losing his race to become a Hackney councillor by 27 votes. “It was quite devastating at the time,” the 34-year-old said. Months later, he ran for deputy leader of the party but came second to Zack Polanski, who has since become leader.

So he's actually a very well established politician then? I mean, congratulations and all that, but of all the people who won upset victories, he doesn't seem particularly remarkable. Does he know someone at The Guardian?

Hackney is where Stamford Hill is. I wonder how the residents feel about a lot more prominence for "anti-Zionist" Green Party politicians.

[davidjay]

To steal an idea from elsewhere, on Monday morning Big Tel, whose previous political experience consists of leaning on the bar of his flat-roofed local telling anyone who'll listen that the Navy should sink the dinghies and benefits should be abolished, will find himself in charge of a £50 million social services budget.

[Youngian]

Which Reform council was it that pleaded with previous Tory incumbents for their help as they hadn't clue what to do?
Tricky one that, give them hand for the good of the community or let them swing? A party of know it alls needing help, how ironic.

[Abernathy]

Right. So now Birmingham, my home city, is in effect an ungovernable mess.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cn0p5pq97rgo

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Looks bloody difficult. Belgiumham?

[davidjay]

The only two groups that would work together are the Greens and the indies, but even with the LDs they wouldn't get a majority. The Tories and Libs have worked together previously; again they don't have enough numbers and the Libs won't deal with Reform. I can see the three old parties cobbling together some sort of alliance.

[AOB]

Restore split the knuckledragger vote in Norfolk, a council Reform were expected to gain, but only have a minority.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c3d2krevdpjo

[AOB]

Which Reform council was it that pleaded with previous Tory incumbents for their help as they hadn't clue what to do?
Tricky one that, give them hand for the good of the community or let them swing? A party of know it alls needing help, how ironic.

Maybe BBC news could grow the balls to undertake one of their undercover investigations at a newly elected Reform council. It must be a whole two weeks since their last "look at this bad stuff immigrants are doing" investigation so once they've stopped celebrating Reform at the locals they'll be itching to air the latest "immigrants bad" piece.

[Abernathy]

This from a bloke called Ian Wright on the Fleecebook :

I'm sat here thinking, is this the media's fault, or Farage's? And I don't think it is either. People don't care about the war crimes from Trump, or the £5M bribe to Farage, or the fact that he admitted to marching and singing Nazi songs and antisemitic chants at school, brushing it off as "just jokes." They don't care that the worst of the worst from the Tories are now in the Reform Party, many sacked for their corruption or racism. They'll still vote for them based on hating Black people from a different life style to them. These are the same people who had no problem with white Ukrainians fleeing a war zone coming here, it's just the Black ones they don't like. It's the people that are the problem, not the politicians.
And I can guarantee that if you map the areas that voted Reform against education stats, it will show exactly the same pattern as Trump's, with a clear black and white pattern between lower educational results and voting for Reform. Most of these people couldn't achieve even a basic GCSE, never mind understand that fake news has deliberately targeted them with barefaced lies just to make them angry with content that can be debunked in seconds on Google or AI.
And you know what, I couldn't give a fuck if it pisses those people off that I'm looking down on them. The country is being railed by thick c*&ts who can barely string a sentence together even in text speak, and this is exactly the same pattern that happened in Germany in the 1930s.
The soldiers who died fighting white nationalist supremacists will be rolling in their graves to know they are now being used as an emblem to support the very fascism they died fighting against.
https://www.highereddatastories.com/.../education-and...