#uk general election 1997

[tomorrowusa]

Britain goes to the polls in July. If things go as expected, this July 4th will be Independence Day for TWO countries. ;)

UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak announced a snap general election for July 4 in a statement outside Downing Street on Wednesday evening, as his Conservative Party faces an uphill struggle to extend its 14 years in power. Sunak said outside Downing Street that he had informed King Charles III of the rare summer poll, firing the starting gun on a six-week campaign that is almost universally expected to conclude in the demise of his Conservative government. Soaked by a downpour as he spoke, Sunak said: “Now is the moment for Britain to choose its future.” He also attacked his opponents, saying that by voting for the Labour Party, Britain would “risk going back to square one.” But he admitted: “I cannot and will not claim that we have got everything right.” Sunak was required to hold a vote by January 2025, and had long resisted calls to be specific about his plans. But a fall in inflation rates, announced earlier Wednesday, provided the backdrop for his announcement.

Like most people, I was surprised by the timing. General elections between June 15th and September 1st have not gone well for the party in power since World War II ended.

The post VE-Day election of 05 July 1945 saw Conservative Winston Churchill himself tossed out of power.

The 18 June 1970 election was a shock defeat for Labour which was defending a strong majority in the previous Parliament.

Labour is currently leading the Conservatives by over 20 points in the polls.

Electoral Calculus last month predicted a Labour majority of 294 seats over the Conservatives. Even a best case scenario for Rishi would be 211 seats out of a total of 650 – or 115 seats short of a majority.

^^^ FYI: Because of various by-election losses and defections, the Conservatives were down to 344 seats early Wednesday from the 2019 results.

Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's announcement of the upcoming general election did not go very well.

Sunak, for whatever reason, decided to make the announcement outside in pouring rain and without an umbrella. By the time he finished his remarks he looked like he was wearing a wet suit.

And as he was making the announcement, everybody near the soaking Sunak could hear a loudspeaker down the street blasting Labour's 1997 theme song, "Things Can Only Get Better" by D:Ream – thanks to Steve Bray.

Various headline writers and commenters could not resist the temptation to refer to Rishi's announcement as "things can only get wetter". 🌧

This is a 3-minute Labour ad from 1997 featuring that song. (BTW: the information at the end about voting procedures is now out of date)

The '97 election turned out to be a landslide for Labour in which they won 418 seats – an increase of 146.

[mapsontheweb]

2024 United kingdom Genedal Elections

Labour leader Keir Starmer has officially become the UK’s new prime minister with his party winning more than 400 of the 650 seats in the House of Commons – the lower house of Britain’s parliament: a historic victory in the U.K. general election, ending 14 years in the political wilderness and sending the ruling Conservatives crashing to their worst defeat in history. Conservative Leader Rishi Sunak conceded defeat in the early hours of Friday morning. Labour gained its second-largest majority after former Prime Minister Tony Blair's 179-seat majority in 1997. The Conservative Party, meanwhile, slipped to its worst-ever result in terms of seats.

by italesia_mapper_

[mydaddywiki]

Peter Bottomley

Physique: Average Build Height: 5’ 8" (1.73 m)

Sir Peter James Bottomley (born 30 July 1944-) is a British Conservative Party politician who has served as a Member of Parliament (MP) since 1975, and who currently represents Worthing West. First elected at a by-election in the former constituency of Woolwich West, he served as its MP until its abolition at the 1983 general election, and then for the Eltham constituency which replaced it, until 1997. He moved to his current constituency at the 1997 general election. Following the 2019 general election, Bottomley became the longest-serving MP and therefore Father of the House.

Cute grandpa type. And the british accent puts him over the top. I wonder if he is what his name implies! Doesn't matter anyway as I'd happily do him.

Born in Newport, Shropshire, England, UK, Bottomley was educated at Westminster School and Trinity College, Cambridge. He previously worked as a lorry driver and in commerce and industry, including in the steel and engineering sectors. He is qualified in personnel management.

In 1967, Bottomley married Virginia Garnett who later became a Cabinet Minister (Health Secretary), and a life peer in 2005 as Baroness Bottomley of Nettlestone. Together they have three children.

[mariacallous]

A record number of Cabinet ministers lost their seats on Friday in Britain's general election, leaving only a couple of obvious contenders for the party leadership if Rishi Sunak resigns.

Nine members of Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's top team failed to be re-elected, beating the previous high of seven who lost out in 1997, as the ruling Conservatives suffered a mauling at the hands of the main opposition Labour party.

Grant Shapps, the UK's defence secretary for nearly a year, was the most high-profile casualty, losing his Welwyn Hatfield seat north of London.

Leader of the Commons Penny Mordaunt, who shot to international attention as a sword carrier at King Charles III's coronation last May, lost in Portsmouth North on England's south coast.

A former defence secretary, she tried twice to become Tory leader, and was tipped to try again after Thursday's election, with Sunak expected to stand down.

Other Tory casualties included Education Secretary Gillian Keegan, Justice Secretary Alex Chalk, Culture Secretary Lucy Frazer, Transport and Science Secretary Michelle Donelan.

Veteran minister Johnny Mercer and Brexit champion Jacob Rees-Mogg also lost out, as voters grew fed up with the Conservatives after 14 years in power.

The defeats have already sparked soul-searching among re-elected and departing Conservatives, who said the party had been punished for a series of scandals and infighting in recent years.

"I think that we have seen in this election an astonishing ill-discipline within the party", said former Justice Secretary Robert Buckland, after losing his seat.

Shapps, an MP since 2005, criticised the Tories' "inability to iron out their differences" amid an endless political "soap opera" that saw five prime ministers since the 2016 Brexit vote.

"What is crystal clear to me tonight –- it is not so much that Labour won but that the Conservatives lost," he added.

Right-winger Suella Braverman, sacked as interior minister by Sunak late last year for a series of incendiary comments, was re-elected and finance minister Jeremy Hunt survived a major scare to squeak victory.

Current interior minister James Cleverly also held on to his seat.

Secretary of State for Business and Trade Kemi Badenoch and security minister Tom Tugendhat also won their races.

Most of those high-profile survivors are expected to challenge for the leadership.

Braverman apologised to voters in her victory speech, saying the Tories had failed to listen to voters.

"The Conservative party let you down... we have got to do better and I will do everything in my power to rebuild trust. We need to listen to you. You have spoken to us very clearly," she said.

[casputin]

Current highlights of the UK 2024 General Election

'Things Can Only Get Wetter'

Sunak asking Welsh brewery workers if they were excited for the Euros, only to be reminded Wales are not in the Euros this year.

A record 78 Conservative MPs are standing down (previous record was 72 in 1997) including Michael Gove and Andrea Leadsome which are pretty major losses

This question during a Northern Irish press conference.

This tweet from Baroness Davidson, former leader of the Scottish Conservatives

Do Labour even need to campaign at this point?

[marble-running]

Aight place your bets now, how's the general election going to pan out?

Not enough options for a minor party win and opposition, but I think that's unlikely enough that it's not too much of a loss for the poll.

Also, reminder to uk readers that we need photo ID to vote now, you can apply for a voter authority certificate via the government website.

For anyone interested in uk political lingo:

Currently the uk is undergoing the build-up to a general election, in which we elect our government.

We have three major parties: the Conservatives (they've been in government since 2010), Labour (they were last in government from 1997 to 2010) and the Liberal Democrats (they were last in government as part of a coalition with the Conservatives from 2010 to 2015). The Lib Dems are still considered a major party despite having been in considerable decline since the coalition.

We also have a lot of minor parties, the most prominent of which (at least to my knowledge) are the Scottish National Party (who are still considered a minor party despite having more seats than the Lib Dems), the Green party and the Reform UK party. These parties generally don't get a lot of seats (they get a lot of votes but our voting system sucks ass) but can still influence policy, mainly through the popularity they have with the public (Brexit was in part thanks to the popularity of Reform).

[None of these parties, besides the Conservatives to a small degree, have any presence in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland's got a pretty different system.]

Parliament is divided into the government (the ruling party, currently the Conservatives), the opposition (the largest none-government party, currently Labour) and the other none-government parties and independent Members of Parliament.

[st-just]

Morally speaking I think Keir Starmer arguably is worse than Joe Biden (though currently much less capable of actual harm, at least to people outside the UK), but it's kind of odd to talk about people having to go to extreme lengths to "get people to vote for" Starmer when all opinion polls suggest his party is currently on track to win a historically unprecented landslide victory in less than a year.

I mean, I really don't get the appeal myself but every indication is that the next general election is going to make even the 1997 contest seem close. The Tories are currently on their lowest numbers since polling began and Labour are on track to win as many as 500 seats (of 650). If people really are resorting to extreme measures to get people to vote for Starmer, maybe Biden's party should try to copy them? Because whatever they're doing at the moment obviously isn't working anything like as well.

Oh yeah tbc my 2nd hand understanding from tumblr and also brittish relatives is that in actual material political terms the Tories have so thoroughly and utterly shit the bed that a literal bag of shit would probably win in a landslide. (One of the reasons why labour's current dedication to rightward 'triangulation' is so depressing - it's not even arguably neccesary)

The equivocal Biden strategy would just be 'the Republicans have been in power since 2010, and also the economy is measurably significantly worse than it is"

All that said the reblogged post was less about consequential political campaigning and more about people being annoying on tumblr. Same as the Biden version tbh

[eaglesnick]

“The world is governed by very different personages from what is imagined by those who are not behind the scenes.”

Benjamin Disraeli

When the nation overwhelmingly voted the Conservative government out of office they did not expect to be electing Tony Blaire as Prime Minister, but that is exactly what they have done. Sir Keir Starmer may be fronting the new Labour government but it is Tony Blair who is Prime Minister behind the scenes.

The signs were there a year ago for all to see. The Financial Times reported that Starmer had told them:

“Labour should stop trashing Tony Blair - a hate figure for many on the Labour left - especially after pushing the UK into the Iraq war. ‘We have to be proud of that record in government and not be arm’s length about it.’ “ (FT: 07/06/23)

In December the same year we have this headline:

“The moment Keir Starmer revealed himself to be a hardcore Blairite”. (Independent: 12/12/23)

The Blairite government of 1997- 2008 did some good things. Sure Start and adequate funding for the NHS are the most frequently cited examples of good Labour policies. But his list of failures is greater.

He tore up the principle of free university education at the point of delivery and introduced tuition fees. Thanks to Blaire:

Almost 1.8m people owe £50,000 or more in student debt” (BBC News:  02/07/24)

That is a collective student debt of £90,000,000,000.

Blair’s legacy of economic mismanagement goes further and has affected all of us. In 1997, when Blair was elected to office, average income was £15,000 a year, while the average house price was £65,000. When Blair left office in 2007, the average wage had risen to £20,000, but the average house now cost £190,000. In short, under Blair, house prices nearly trebled in price while wages only increased by a third.

The sad fact is, Blair, like governments before and after him, failed to make housing a priority and we are all suffering the price of that policy decision today in the form of a chronic housing shortage, unaffordable rents, and property prices beyond the reach of the vast majority of the population.  

At the same time as house prices were rocketing, the Blair government presided over a massive fall in industrial output. Investment Monitor (24/11/20) reported that manufacturing:

 …”declined in importance with regard to its role within the British economy faster under Blair than under any previous prime minister. The industry accounted for more than 20% of GDP in 1997; by 2007 – when Blair left Number 10 to be replaced by Gordon Brown – this had fallen to 12.4%, and when Labour were voted out of office in 2010 the figure was 10%.

More importantly, when Blair came to power in 1997, income inequality, after years of Thatcherite policies, was at historically high levels, and relative poverty was on the increase. Despite 11 years of a Blairite Labour government ordinary working people saw little change in their economic position, yet under Blaire the rich and wealthy flourished.

“Income inequality changed little...those on relatively low incomes did a little better than those with incomes just above average. However, those right at the top saw their incomes increase very substantially with the result that, on most measures, overall inequality nudged up slightly.”  (Institute for Fiscal Studies: 2013)

In short, under Blairite policies the rich became richer at the expense of ordinary working families.

The Labour Party came into existence to better the lot of working class families. This goal was written down in Clause 4 of the Labour Party Constitution part of which states:

“To secure for the workers by hand or by brain the full fruits of their industry and the most equitable distribution thereof that may be possible upon the basis of the common ownership of the means of production..."

Implicit in the notion of “common ownership” is the equal distribution of the wealth generated by those commonly owned industries. This was one of the binding principles of the Labour Party up until 1995 when Tony Blaire tore up this socialist, egalitarian ideal and replaced it with a bland statement that amounted to little more than a wish list but no clear indication how those wishes were to be achieved. Gone was the commitment to secure for workers just wages, gone was the commitment to nationalization, and gone was the Labour Party's commitment to socialism.

Twelve years after leaving office, Margaret Thatcher was asked what she considered to be her greatest achievement and is famously reported to have replied: "Tony Blaire and New Labour". What she meant by this is that Tony Blaire had abandoned Labours historical commitment to socialism and greater economic equality, and had instead adopted her philosophy of minimum state protection for workers, the pursuit of corporate profit at any cost, the deregulation of the financial industry and the privatisation of  public assets.

What resulted was the financial crash of 2008, a massive housing shortage as public bodies were no longer allowed to build houses, the gradual erosion of workers pay while the rich became even richer, and national assets such as water and railways being run for private profit rather than providing a decent public service.

Starmer will pursue the same policies as Blaire because he is an unashamed Blairite: This was Sky news headline on 23/05/23:

“Sir Keir Starmer promises his Labour reform will be like Tony Blair's Clause IV 'on steroids'

So next time you look at our new Prime Minister remember who is the puppet master and who the puppet.

[aurianneor]

2024 UK general election: choosing the Right or the Left.

The Left and the Right are two ideologies that recognise the importance of having elites. For the Right, some people are considered to have fewer rights than others: women, black people, workers, etc. The elite is composed of Oxbridge. The people have to sacrifice on their housing, health and education to give to the elites. The Right take advice from the richest. For the Left, elites are appreciated but the people are not asked to sacrifice for the elites. The elites are there to inform the people and help them to do better.

For the Right, everyone has to support their leader and repeat their ideas. That’s Rishi Sunak’s or Nigel Farage’s programme. For the Left, a plurality of opinions and strong debate are expressed.

Poverty in the UK has escalated since 2011 to reach 19% of the population. The cost of leaving has increased exponentially up to 12% per year. Energy has increased by 19% since 2022, rent 69% and food 40%.

Cost of living statistics UK: 2024 – Finder: https://www.finder.com/uk/banking/cost-of-living-statistics

Meanwhile, since 2017, tax havens have increased (to avoid paying tax). The UK rich people are getting richer. The top 10 billionaires in the UK are three times richer than 15 years ago. With the Tories in power during Brexit, work standards have been lowered (security, social and environmental measures) to the profit of the owners who became even richer. The Tories signed free trade agreements with developing countries with low security social an environmental standards creating an unfair competition with the UK workers. The British producers can hardly sell in those countries. Those free trades only benefit the owners of the factory there.

The UK’S Rich Are Getting Richer – Statista: https://www.statista.com/chart/amp/27505/uks-richest-are-getting-richer/

Deregulation and standards after Brexit – what Naomi Klein’s ‘disaster capitalism’ can tell us – City University of London: https://www.city.ac.uk/news-and-events/news/2019/10/deregulation-and-standards-after-brexit-what-naomi-kleins-disaster-capitalism-can-tell-us

Trade deals: What has the UK done since Brexit? – BBC: https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-47213842

In the past, when the left has rallied, it has benefited the country: the population has increased its standard of living without sacrificing public spending or the performance of its economy. Let’s remember the spirit of 1945 and the New Labour in 1997. In 1945 was created public service of steal, health (NHS), rail and energy. In 1997 the left multiplied by four the budget for public health, reduced youth unemployment by 75%, they doubled the budget of public education, they introduced the minimum wage, 2 million people have been helped out of poverty. From 1997 to 2007, there were ten years of consecutive growth. The Labour of 2024 has the same ambition as the one in 1945 when they want to restore public services of energy and rail.

The Spirit of ’45 – Ken Loach – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Spirit_of_%2745

Labour governments’ achievements – Shrewsbury Labour Party: https://www.shrewsburylabour.org.uk/labours-top-50-achievements/

What’s more, the stock market did better when the Left was in power. The ones who suffered were the ultra-rich who had ill-gotten gains (tax breaks, tax reductions, etc). The ultra-rich don’t need the poor to struggle to benefit from their wealth. The Left isn’t milking them for all they’re worth, it’s just asking them to contribute their fair share. The economic crises have occurred when the Right was in charge : 1982 (Margaret Thatcher), 2019 (Boris Johnson). The Right didn’t deal with Covid very well: they didn’t stop economy soon enough and had many death. They gave the money borrowed to support the economy to the ultra-rich.

Early 1980s recession – Wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Early_1980s_recession

UK swiftly exits its third recession in 16 years – Resolution Foundation: https://www.resolutionfoundation.org/press-releases/uk-swiftly-exits-its-third-recession-in-16-years/

Labour is right: billions were lost to Covid fraud, and the public deserve a reckoning – The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2023/oct/11/labour-billions-covid-fraud-pandemic

COVID, CONTRACTS, AND CONFLICT: THE YEAR CORRUPTION TOOK CENTRE STAGE – Transparency International UK: https://transparency.org.uk/COVID-contracts-conflict-2020-2021-year-corruption-took-centre-stage

The neo-liberals and the identitarians point to the bad guys; they target the foreigners, the “lazy” or the misfits. They give priority to the ultra-rich, who have more rights than others.

A very strong and very democratic state is needed to protect the workers against unfair competition from badly-treated foreigners and against the social and environmental dumping of foreign products. The people need to be richer so that they can buy quality goods and have quality public services (health, pensions, education, etc.). This wealth has been captured by the ultra-rich, not by immigrants or ‘idlers’. Britain is rich but inequalities are high.

Believing that the solution to the problem is to attack the poor, the disabled, the people of colour, etc. by treating them badly (inadequate pay, fewer rights) hurts the whole system: old diseases like cholera re-emerge, poorer working conditions are accepted, and so on.

Many people are angry and worried about their livelihoods, their health, their children’s education and so on. Providing public services for everyone everywhere will be very expensive. Neoliberals are asking the poor to have less (by cutting pensions and public services) because they think they don’t deserve enough. The identitarian right-wing is calling for the poor to be made to pay. The right is diverting people’s anger away from the bourgeoisie. The Left is calling for the ultra-rich to pay the price of these reforms, but they will still be very rich. To restore prosperity to the people, taxing capital and controlling prices is the way to go.

Even then, the laws passed by the House of Commons must not be blocked by the House of Lords, which is not elected by the people and is not a power check serving the people.

It’s a shame that the Brits don’t have the right to a referendum on popular initiative and that the only way to express themselves is by electing representatives!

10 Labour policies to change Britain Under the Tories, the NHS waiting list has tripled, and drastic action needs to be taken to get patients seen and receiving the care they need. 10 Labour policies to change Britain: https://labour.org.uk/updates/stories/10-labour-policies-to-change-britain/

WATCH LIVE: Keir Starmer launches Labour’s manifesto. – Labour Party: https://youtu.be/gyna0dYUUSI?t=2061

Labour’s fiscal plan – Labour Party: https://labour.org.uk/change/labours-fiscal-plan/

Kickstart economic growth – Labour Party: https://labour.org.uk/change/kickstart-economic-growth/

Expert economists back Labour’s plan to end economic stagnation in UK – The Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/article/2024/jun/19/labour-plan-end-economic-stagnation-uk-economists

Woman who pulled out 12 teeth with pliers says government failing on NHS dentistry – ITV News: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZdWonwyrNiY

Genesis – Selling England By The Pound (Full Album Remastered) With Lyrics: https://youtu.be/GEE3T35C7Y8?si=fCicsBgsqtLVm850

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Législatives 2024: choisir la gauche ou la droite.: https://www.aurianneor.org/legislatives-2024-choisir-la-gauche-ou-la-droite/

Restricting personal wealth: https://www.aurianneor.org/restricting-personal-wealth/

A slice of the cake: https://www.aurianneor.org/a-slice-of-the-cake/

Oui au Référendum d’initiative populaire: https://www.aurianneor.org/oui-au-referendum-dinitiative-populaire-petition/

Immigration: https://www.aurianneor.org/immigration-2/

Living with dignity: https://www.aurianneor.org/living-with-dignity/

Rob the poor to feed the rich: https://www.aurianneor.org/rob-the-poor-to-feed-the-rich/

Le RIC – Référendum d’initiative citoyenne: https://www.aurianneor.org/via-httpswwwyoutubecomwatchv-e2lnzwuy4ks/

Price ceilings and price floors: https://www.aurianneor.org/price-ceilings-and-price-floors/

The Senate, the power to piss people off: https://www.aurianneor.org/the-senate-the-power-to-piss-people-off/

Humiliated by the Republic: https://www.aurianneor.org/humiliated-by-the-republic/

Nos ancêtres les marrons: https://www.aurianneor.org/nos-ancetres-les-marrons-il-nexiste-quune-seule/

[dertaglichedan]

UK General Election live: Exit poll predicts landslide for Starmer – but not quite a 1997 result

The Conservatives are predicted to suffer the most crushing defeat in the party’s history, with an exit poll projecting a massive Labour landslide.Keir Starmer’s party would win 410 seats – slightly less than Tony Blair’s total in the 1997 election – while the Tories would face humiliation with just 131.

Meanwhile, Reform UK would overtake the SNP to become the fourth-biggest party in the House of Commons with 13 seats.But we won’t know the final results for each party until tomorrow morning when all votes are counted. The 2024 turnout is expected to rival that of the 2019 General Election.

***Conservative in the UK is like 2015 liberals here. So, not sure how bad it will get now. Hope not.. Hope I'm wrong.

[tomorrowusa]

It's difficult to imagine a worse start to Rishi Sunak's campaign for the July 4th general election in the UK.

He made the announcement of the upcoming election outdoors in pouring rain and without benefit of either raincoat or umbrella. By the time he completed his remarks he looked like he had taken a shower with all his clothes on. And during his announcement an anti-Brexit activist down the street used a sound system to blast the Labour Party's 1997 election theme song "Things Can Only Get Better" so that everybody outside 10 Downing Street could easily hear it.

Then, after taking a day or so to dry off, Sunak visited a brewery in Wales where he made a gaffe related to the Wales national football team.

Rishi Sunak scores own goal at Welsh brewery with gaffe over national team’s Euros absence

Rishi then headed off to Northern Ireland. In Belfast, he conducted a photo op at one of the most inauspicious places in the city – the site where the doomed luxury passenger ship the RMS Titanic was built.

Sunak's election tour branded shambolic after Titanic Quarter visit inspires sinking ship comparison As James McCarthy from BelfastLive reports, Rishi Sunak was visiting the Titanic Quarter in Belfast this morning. This is what happened when Sunak was asked if he was captain of a sinking ship. [ ... ] While harmless on their own, the danger with incidents like this is that quite quickly they enable the media (or at least those parts of the media that aren’t slavishly loyal to the Tories) to establish a ‘loser narrative’, and once that’s in place, it can be near impossible to shift. What then happens is that every trivial mishap gets reported as a campaign calamity. There is some evidence that Sunak is getting stuck with this label already. His ‘things can only get wetter’ election announcement was as a genuine presentational disaster, and two of the most memorable things that happened on day one (yesterday) were a Euros gaffe in Wales, and a Q&A with workers that was not quite what it seemed. Labour mocked both of these in a vicious campaign video last night.

While every campaign has its gaffes, few campaigns make them semi-predictable events. And when they are clustered close to the start of a campaign, it becomes difficult to change the narrative.

[head-post]

Voting under way in UK general election

Rishi Sunak will remain leader of Britain’s Conservative Party if he loses today’s election to ensure an “orderly transition” of power to Labour. There had been fears in the country that the party would descend into an internal struggle for the party chief’s chair. The Cabinet has already directly asked the prime minister to stay on as party leader until September, The Times reports. (Updated at 11:12 a.m.)

British voters go to the polls Thursday for a crucial general election seen as a referendum on 14 years of Conservative rule.

The snap vote, called by Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, is being held months earlier than necessary and has caught most of his Conservative Party members by surprise. The opposition Labour Party suffered its biggest defeat since 1935 in the last general election but has since recovered under the leadership of Keir Starmer.

Thursday’s vote comes after a six-week campaign that has seen all the main parties scour the country for votes. Much of the debate has centred on the economy, the cost of living, the state of Britain’s public services, tax and immigration.

Polls of Brits

A YouGov poll, the latest in the UK before today’s election, has revealed that Labour will achieve its highest representation in the UK since 1832, breaking Tony Blair’s 1997 record.

According to the poll, the Labour Party will win 431 of the 650 seats in Parliament, a mono-majority. A number of other opinion polls show that the gap will be huge at all, Labour could take 484 seats.

For the Conservatives the polls show an unfavourable picture – about 20%, and the Reform UK Party could take about 16%.

Candidates’ positions on the Ukraine issue

The positions of the first two parties on Ukraine are not particularly different: Sunak promises to support Ukraine “whatever it takes”, Labour leader K. Starmer says their support is “ironclad.” Labour is also prepared to work “to create a path to Ukraine’s NATO membership” and to “diplomatically isolate Russia”.

Meanwhile, Reform UK Party Leader Nigel Farage believes Ukraine and Russia should begin negotiations through mediators. He also criticises NATO’s eastward expansion, believing that Ukraine should be a buffer state.

As early as Friday morning, the leader of the winning party is due to appear at Buckingham Palace in front of King Charles III, ready to form a Government.

Predictions of the election outcome are already coming true and opinion polls are confirming them. The Conservatives are losing the trust of voters and unfulfilled promises on Brexit could cost the party the general election.

Read more HERE

[mariacallous]

The 6th of December 2023 was a political anniversary barely anyone noticed. Election Maps UK, a data cruncher, announced that exactly two years before, on 6 December 2021, the last poll was published showing a Conservative lead. Since then, 736 polls had come and gone, and not one of them showed the Tories in front.

On that same day Paul Krishnamurty, a professional gambler, and a consultant to the betting firms, gave me a stat anyone putting money on British elections ought to remember. In 1997, Labour won with a landslide and reduced the Conservatives to 31 percent of the vote (30.7 percent to be precise). It was the Tories’ worst result in the modern era and kept them out of office for 13 years.

Ah, how today’s Tories dream of 31 per cent. As of 6 December, 2023, the Conservatives had not hit 31 percent in 168 consecutive opinion polls.

You might say that there is about a year to the next election, and that things can change. And there is truth in that. You might say that governing parties almost always make up ground before a general election. And that is undeniable too.

But turn from the polls and look at the by-elections and local elections in which Tories have gone down to extraordinary defeats, and you wonder what they can save from the ruins. It is as if about three-quarters of the public has made a collective decision to destroy the Conservative party with any and every weapon to hand. Electors voting tactically and determinedly have overturned the largest Conservative majorities. If you dig into the details of the polling, the voters prefer Labour and damn the Conservatives on every conceivable issue.

Meanwhile, Keir Starmer looks like a winner. I grant you that he hardly sets hearts ablaze. And yet, and yet, he has the enormous advantage of being a lucky leader. Through no action on his or the Labour party’s part, corruption allegations have ended the SNP’s dominance of Scottish politics, opening the prospect of Labour retaking seats in Scotland, which would transform the balance of power nationwide.

Starmer is lucky that after years of ultra-left posturing, his own party appears serious about taking power. But most of all Starmer is lucky that British Conservatism is having a nervous breakdown.

I was delighted to interview Robert Ford, Professor of politics at the University of Manchester, and one of the most thoughtful analysts around.  When Boris Johnson won the December 2019 election the Conservatives had a majority of 80 and looked set to rule the UK for the whole of the 2020s.

Yet within three years Tory hopes turned to ashes and they are staring catastrophe in the face. There is a decent chance that the 2024 general election could join the 1906, 1945 and 1997 elections as a moment of Tory obliteration.

There are four reasons why

[scotianostra]

The Vigil Cairn.

This cairn on Edinburgh's Calton Hill, commemorates the vigil for the Scottish Parliament. The vigil continued from the evening of the fourth Conservative general election victory in 1992 for 1980 days, until 11th September 1997, the day Scotland voted for devolution and the restoration of a Scottish Parliament.

Symbolically, it was held next to the Royal High School building, at the foot the Calton Hill, which was to be the location of a new Scottish Parliament in the late 1970s, and opposite the Scottish Office in St. Andrews House, a UK Government Department which ran Scotland on behalf of an administration based in London. The monument is topped by a brazier, which had become a symbol, having been kept burning throughout the vigil.

A quotation from the Hugh MacDiarmid poemGairmscoileappears at the base of the monument:

For we ha'e faith in Scotland's hidden poo'ers The present's theirs but a' the past and future's oors.

[feminidades]

Patricia Janet Scotland, Baroness Scotland of Asthal

I s a British diplomat, barrister and politician, serving as the sixth secretary-general of the Commonwealth of Nations. She was elected at the 2015 Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and took office on 1 April 2016. She is the first woman to hold the post.[1] She was elevated to the House of Lords in 1997 and, as a British Labour Party politician, served in ministerial positions within the UK Government, most notably as the Attorney General for England and Wales and Advocate General for Northern Ireland. She is a dual citizen of the United Kingdom and Dominica, where she was born.

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Which decade was associated with the phrase 'Cool Britannia' in the UK?

'Cool Britannia' was a name for the period of increased pride in British culture during the 1990s. The success of Britpop groups such as the Spice Girls, Blur, and Oasis led to a feeling of optimism in the United Kingdom. The name is a pun on the title of the British patriotic song "Rule, Britannia!", which is based on an 18th-century poem by James Thomson. The phrase 'Cool Britannia' was originally coined in 1967 by the Bonzo Dog Doo Dah Band and reappeared as the title of a British TV show in 1996.

The mid-1990s became a celebration of youth culture in the UK. The era was symbolised with imagery such as Noel Gallagher's Union Jack guitar and Geri Halliwell's Union Jack dress, which she wore at the 1997 Brit Awards. The previous year, England hosted the Euro 1996 football tournament, which encouraged a resurgence of patriotism.

The 1990s also saw a change in politics with Tony Blair beating the Conservative Prime Minister John Major at the 1997 General Election. During a conference coinciding with Euro 1996, Tony Blair gave a speech in which he alluded to the lyrics of the football anthem 'Three Lions', saying "Seventeen years of hurt never stopped us dreaming. Labour’s coming home." The following year, the Labour party won a landslide election.