(03:00 am GMT)
I’m sat in Hong Kong watching the UK election results coming in in BBC and it seems it’s going to be a thumping Conservative victory. (64 majority projected).
To give the BBC presenters their due, they’re reporting the Tory landslide with brave faces. Remember BBC is staffed by arch Remainers and pro-Labour, even as they are obliged by Charter to be neutral.
Why are Labour losing votes in previously strong Labour seats?
My own main reason: because Labour is no longer a party of the working person. It’s a party of the urban educated upper-middle class.
I saw a chart a while ago that I can’t track down again: it showed percentage of Labour Party members who have a university degree (Y axis) by year (X axis). It goes up at a 45 degree angle. So that today the majority of Labour supporters are uni educated. Thats a big change from its origins as a party for the Working Man. Previous Labour voters, non-uni educated, in the country have to go Tory. And puts Greater London firmly in the Labour camp, with its upper end residents. If you’re working class you have to go Tory. How does one decry this?
By the way, it looks like Labour will win fewer seats (currently 196) than the so-called “disastrous Michael Foot election” of 1983, where he got 209 seats
ADDED: Total votes Conservatives: up 2%. Labour: down 8%. LibDems: up 4% Greens: no change.
ADDED: How could I forget? Voters are also telling Labour “no thanks” to mass Nationalisation. Labour were planning to nationalise Water, Energy, Telecoms… I was in the United Kingdom in the 1970s where all those were run by the government. And they were dire. Three months wait for a phone line. Energy shortages. Three day working week. Governments are just not good at running businesses.
And, of course, Brexit. People were just sick and tired of all the faffing around, even those who’d voted Remain wanted it to finish per the 2016 referendum. Labour’s message on Brexit was confused, to be the most charitable.
ADDED: my goodness! Jo Swinson leader of the LibDems just lost her seat to a Scottish National. By 100-odd votes with 83% turnout. BBC calls it an “astonishing result”. LibDems are huge Remainers. (03:47 am GMT).
I’m sat in Hong Kong watching the UK election results coming in in BBC and it seems it’s going to be a thumping Conservative victory. (64 majority projected).
To give the BBC presenters their due, they’re reporting the Tory landslide with brave faces. Remember BBC is staffed by arch Remainers and pro-Labour, even as they are obliged by Charter to be neutral.
Why are Labour losing votes in previously strong Labour seats?
My own main reason: because Labour is no longer a party of the working person. It’s a party of the urban educated upper-middle class.
I saw a chart a while ago that I can’t track down again: it showed percentage of Labour Party members who have a university degree (Y axis) by year (X axis). It goes up at a 45 degree angle. So that today the majority of Labour supporters are uni educated. Thats a big change from its origins as a party for the Working Man. Previous Labour voters, non-uni educated, in the country have to go Tory. And puts Greater London firmly in the Labour camp, with its upper end residents. If you’re working class you have to go Tory. How does one decry this?
By the way, it looks like Labour will win fewer seats (currently 196) than the so-called “disastrous Michael Foot election” of 1983, where he got 209 seats
ADDED: Total votes Conservatives: up 2%. Labour: down 8%. LibDems: up 4% Greens: no change.
ADDED: How could I forget? Voters are also telling Labour “no thanks” to mass Nationalisation. Labour were planning to nationalise Water, Energy, Telecoms… I was in the United Kingdom in the 1970s where all those were run by the government. And they were dire. Three months wait for a phone line. Energy shortages. Three day working week. Governments are just not good at running businesses.
And, of course, Brexit. People were just sick and tired of all the faffing around, even those who’d voted Remain wanted it to finish per the 2016 referendum. Labour’s message on Brexit was confused, to be the most charitable.
ADDED: my goodness! Jo Swinson leader of the LibDems just lost her seat to a Scottish National. By 100-odd votes with 83% turnout. BBC calls it an “astonishing result”. LibDems are huge Remainers. (03:47 am GMT).
