UK Parliament 2024 Election

Discussion in 'Political Discussions' started by SteveFoerster, Jul 5, 2024.

Loading...
  1. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Looks like it will be Labour in a landslide. But the best news of the night is that George Galloway of the Tankies for Hamas Party... er, I mean Workers Party, lost. Good riddance.
     
  2. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    I thought during the last election that Labor's big mistake, besides being possessed of Jeremy Corbyn, was failing to make a strong stand on Brexit. You don't waffle on the biggest question of the day.
     
  3. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    Fighting anti-Semitism and bringing Labor back to the center: this is Britain's next prime minister


    Keir Starmer inherited a fractured party from Jeremy Corbyn after the previous election, but the former chief prosecutor managed to sway voters despite his gray image. Starmer - who is married to a Jewess - has benefited from public disgust from 14 years of Conservative rule, while Labour's pro-Palestinian wing is expected to give him trouble
    When Keir Starmer replaced Jeremy Corbyn as the leader of British Labor after the 2019 election failure, he inherited a fractured and anti-Semitic party that had drifted from the political center to the radical left. Despite his gray image as the former chief prosecutor of the crown, the lawyer managed to rehabilitate the partyand rescue it tonight from the opposition mirage in which it had been stuck for 14 years.
     
  4. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    The problem with that is that there were a lot of working class Labourites who supported Brexit.
     
  5. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Most of them in fact. But Corbyn refused to take a stand either way.
     
  6. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    The funny thing is that given the result you'd think that a majority of the votes would have been for Labour, but they only have about one vote in three.

    In a system of proportional representation, they'd have had to account for others' preferences by cooperating with the Greens and LibDems.

    [​IMG]
     
  7. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    Yeah. The U.S. isn't the only country with a skewed election system.
     
  8. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    The UK has 650 constituencies, and the population in each constituency is fairly even. If you win the highest number of votes in a constituency, then you win the seat. The UK has a plurality system.

    Since the UK has so many parties, it's possible for the candidates of one party to win the majority of constituencies without winning the majority of votes nationwide. Voters aren't voting for their prime minister; they're voting for their MP.
     
  9. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Yes, this sort of disproportionate outcome is one of the problems with first-past-the-post single member district legislatures like those in the US and UK.
     
  10. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Wow! I enjoy the frankness of the British politicians. "We did badly in the elections because we performed poorly, and we apologize."
     
    Suss and SteveFoerster like this.
  11. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    It's not like they can say, "We really won, but the other guys totally cheated!" I mean, that would be crazy, right?
     
  12. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    Either that approach or make excuses. "We didn't do a good enough job communicating our successes." "We had to contend with a misinformation campaign." American culture is to not admit flaws because it's seen as weak.
     
    nosborne48 and SteveFoerster like this.
  13. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    It's all a bluff.
    The major two parties rotate, decade or so one party, another decade the other party.
    Wheel keep on turning.
     
  14. sanantone

    sanantone Well-Known Member

    I counted nine Labour Party prime ministers and 30 Conservative Party prime ministers. The Conservative Party is older, but they still dominated after the Labour Party's formation.
     
  15. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    Labour victories, especially landslides, are rarities in British politics, which has been dominated by the Conservative Party since World War II. Throughout its 120 years, Labour has been in power for only a little over 30 of them.
     
  16. Jonathan Whatley

    Jonathan Whatley Well-Known Member

    Feels like most of the 30 Conservative Party prime ministers served between 2015 and last week!
     
    Suss and SteveFoerster like this.
  17. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Imagine being Liz Truss. The good news is that you get to be Prime Minister. The bad news is that the only thing people will remember you for is not even lasting as long in the job as a head of lettuce did in a fridge. She's the William Henry Harrison of the UK.
     
  18. nosborne48

    nosborne48 Well-Known Member

    But it wasn't Harrison's fault.
     
  19. SteveFoerster

    SteveFoerster Resident Gadfly Staff Member

    Well... he gave a three hour inauguration speech in the cold without a coat.
     
  20. Lerner

    Lerner Well-Known Member

    posted on a wrong chat
     
    Last edited: Jul 10, 2024

Share This Page