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Whilst I increased my vote slightly by 171 (2021 share in brackets) by persuading Labour and Green voters to support me against the Conservatives clearly our tactics of not mentioning Reform were a mistake. The Reform candidate did not put out any literature. From a few hours standing at polling stations, I think that many of the Reform voters did not usually bother to vote in local elections but had turned out this time. I expect in future elections to expend effort encouraging non voters (turnout was 38%) of the dangers of not voting.

County Council result Bruntingthorpe Division (very rural South Leicestershire)
Reform 34% (New)
Conservative 31% (60%)
Liberal Democrat 21% (18%)
Labour 7% (13%)
Green 7% (9%)

FPT-ing @Icarus in order to highlight this: many of the Reform voters did not usually bother to vote in local elections but had turned out this time.

This supports two contentions: Reform is NOTA; Reform support was underestimated by most pollsters and canvassers because they miss (or avoid or discount) habitual non-voters.

That highlights the challenge for Reform. In significant chunks of the country, they now run things. If they do that well, good for them. If not, they become AOTA. What happens then? Because, however desirable I might think it is, I doubt that the answer is an acceptance of centrist realism.

If accepting ‘centrist realism’ means accepting your life is poor and is not going to improve under whatever govt you have, as has been the case in many areas since the GFC, then it is not going to happen.

So called centrist realism needs to work for the whole country. It has not so far and just blaming the voters for being wrong, as happens, doesn’t help.

Whilst I increased my vote slightly by 171 (2021 share in brackets) by persuading Labour and Green voters to support me against the Conservatives clearly our tactics of not mentioning Reform were a mistake. The Reform candidate did not put out any literature. From a few hours standing at polling stations, I think that many of the Reform voters did not usually bother to vote in local elections but had turned out this time. I expect in future elections to expend effort encouraging non voters (turnout was 38%) of the dangers of not voting.

County Council result Bruntingthorpe Division (very rural South Leicestershire)
Reform 34% (New)
Conservative 31% (60%)
Liberal Democrat 21% (18%)
Labour 7% (13%)
Green 7% (9%)

FPT-ing @Icarus in order to highlight this: many of the Reform voters did not usually bother to vote in local elections but had turned out this time.

This supports two contentions: Reform is NOTA; Reform support was underestimated by most pollsters and canvassers because they miss (or avoid or discount) habitual non-voters.

That highlights the challenge for Reform. In significant chunks of the country, they now run things. If they do that well, good for them. If not, they become AOTA. What happens then? Because, however desirable I might think it is, I doubt that the answer is an acceptance of centrist realism.

Whilst I increased my vote slightly by 171 (2021 share in brackets) by persuading Labour and Green voters to support me against the Conservatives clearly our tactics of not mentioning Reform were a mistake. The Reform candidate did not put out any literature. From a few hours standing at polling stations, I think that many of the Reform voters did not usually bother to vote in local elections but had turned out this time. I expect in future elections to expend effort encouraging non voters (turnout was 38%) of the dangers of not voting.

County Council result Bruntingthorpe Division (very rural South Leicestershire)
Reform 34% (New)
Conservative 31% (60%)
Liberal Democrat 21% (18%)
Labour 7% (13%)
Green 7% (9%)

FPT-ing @Icarus in order to highlight this: many of the Reform voters did not usually bother to vote in local elections but had turned out this time.

This supports two contentions: Reform is NOTA; Reform support was underestimated by most pollsters and canvassers because they miss (or avoid or discount) habitual non-voters.

And hence if Reform sells out to, or turns into, the ‘old politics’, many of those folks will go back to sitting polling day out in their armchairs.

Ms Z,

Welcome,

This political discussion board has been around for quite some time - long enough that we can become nostalgic about it. Oh, it's not as good as it used to be when OGH had total control, and all that.

However it still has its good points. Even the most political accept that others may have different viewpoints, and someone who can amuse as well as ponticate is always welcome.

I suggest that you and some others are being rather gullible!

This recently-created account claims to work in AI - the very subject a certain poster is banned from discussing - and from its first ten posts there are three on AI, with a familiar prediction of doom for human jobs, one anti-trans, one helpfully providing a link for background to an earlier post by - hey presto - that same certain poster, on his specialist subject of shrivelled penises, includes British English spellings despite claiming to be American, and last night s he started going on about me and my dog. And displays a broader vocabulary than I would expect from an American working in tech.

I really don’t think we needed to drag Sherlock from his theatre seat to solve this one? All that is missing is the random word in capitals.

The dog was a dead giveaway. I don't think LilaZ posted again after I unmasked them yesterday evening, though it seems I was too subtle for many.

Note also that LilaZ popped up right after certain people had been threatened with a permanent ban for mentioning banned subjects - with an "innocent" question about what is banned...

Ms Z,

Welcome,

This political discussion board has been around for quite some time - long enough that we can become nostalgic about it. Oh, it's not as good as it used to be when OGH had total control, and all that.

However it still has its good points. Even the most political accept that others may have different viewpoints, and someone who can amuse as well as ponticate is always welcome.

I suggest that you and some others are being rather gullible!

This recently-created account claims to work in AI - the very subject a certain poster is banned from discussing - and from its first ten posts there are three on AI, with a familiar prediction of doom for human jobs, one anti-trans, one helpfully providing a link for background to an earlier post by - hey presto - that same certain poster, on his specialist subject of shrivelled penises, includes British English spellings despite claiming to be American, and last night s he started going on about me and my dog. And displays a broader vocabulary than I would expect from an American working in tech.

I really don’t think we needed to drag Sherlock from his theatre seat to solve this one? All that is missing is the random word in capitals.