Prediction time: 1. Tidy Tory overall majority on far fewer votes than in 2017. 2. No Corbyn resignation. Labour finally has its long-anticipated, full-scale, no holds barred, civil war. 3. LibDems do worse than they expect. Swinson goes by the end of 2020. 4. SNP win six out of seven of Labour’s Scottish seats, but only half the Tory ones. 5. Independence for Scotland and Irish reunification become dominant constitutional themes post-Brexit. 6. Brexit itself solves none of the issues that won Leave the referendum. 7. Johnson the last Tory PM to win a general election for a generation - at least.
Would love to be mostly wrong. Am most confident about 2, 4, 6 and 7.
5 would only really have been likely with No Deal.
If Boris wins a historic Tory 4th term and delivers Brexit who cares what happens after, you have to go back to Lord Liverpool to find the last Tory leader to win a 5th term
While coming top for a fourth election in a row would be impressive, that it is 4 in 9 years does diminish it somewhat, when many governments only faced 2-3 elections in that time.
Prediction time: 1. Tidy Tory overall majority on far fewer votes than in 2017. 2. No Corbyn resignation. Labour finally has its long-anticipated, full-scale, no holds barred, civil war. 3. LibDems do worse than they expect. Swinson goes by the end of 2020. 4. SNP win six out of seven of Labour’s Scottish seats, but only half the Tory ones. 5. Independence for Scotland and Irish reunification become dominant constitutional themes post-Brexit. 6. Brexit itself solves none of the issues that won Leave the referendum. 7. Johnson the last Tory PM to win a general election for a generation - at least.
Would love to be mostly wrong. Am most confident about 2, 4, 6 and 7.
5 would only really have been likely with No Deal.
If Boris wins a historic Tory 4th term and delivers Brexit who cares what happens after, you have to go back to Lord Liverpool to find the last Tory leader to win a 5th term
While coming top for a fourth election in a row would be impressive, that it is 4 in 9 years does diminish it somewhat, when many governments only faced 2-3 elections in that time.
Yes, the Tories have had 2 years with a majority in the last 22 years.
Prediction time: 1. Tidy Tory overall majority on far fewer votes than in 2017. 2. No Corbyn resignation. Labour finally has its long-anticipated, full-scale, no holds barred, civil war. 3. LibDems do worse than they expect. Swinson goes by the end of 2020. 4. SNP win six out of seven of Labour’s Scottish seats, but only half the Tory ones. 5. Independence for Scotland and Irish reunification become dominant constitutional themes post-Brexit. 6. Brexit itself solves none of the issues that won Leave the referendum. 7. Johnson the last Tory PM to win a general election for a generation - at least.
Would love to be mostly wrong. Am most confident about 2, 4, 6 and 7.
5 would only really have been likely with No Deal.
If Boris wins a historic Tory 4th term and delivers Brexit who cares what happens after, you have to go back to Lord Liverpool to find the last Tory leader to win a 5th term
While coming top for a fourth election in a row would be impressive, that it is 4 in 9 years does diminish it somewhat, when many governments only faced 2-3 elections in that time.
Nonetheless only 3 governments since WW2 have been in office for more than 9 years, the Tory governments of 1951 to 1964 and 1979 to 1997 and the New Labour government of 1997 to 2010. So it would still be a great achievement to win another Tory term
Prediction time: 1. Tidy Tory overall majority on far fewer votes than in 2017. 2. No Corbyn resignation. Labour finally has its long-anticipated, full-scale, no holds barred, civil war. 3. LibDems do worse than they expect. Swinson goes by the end of 2020. 4. SNP win six out of seven of Labour’s Scottish seats, but only half the Tory ones. 5. Independence for Scotland and Irish reunification become dominant constitutional themes post-Brexit. 6. Brexit itself solves none of the issues that won Leave the referendum. 7. Johnson the last Tory PM to win a general election for a generation - at least.
Would love to be mostly wrong. Am most confident about 2, 4, 6 and 7.
5 would only really have been likely with No Deal.
If Boris wins a historic Tory 4th term and delivers Brexit who cares what happens after, you have to go back to Lord Liverpool to find the last Tory leader to win a 5th term
While coming top for a fourth election in a row would be impressive, that it is 4 in 9 years does diminish it somewhat, when many governments only faced 2-3 elections in that time.
Also, if you look at it in terms of "total number of seats won in a nine year period", then it wouldn't look that great at all.
Prediction time: 1. Tidy Tory overall majority on far fewer votes than in 2017. 2. No Corbyn resignation. Labour finally has its long-anticipated, full-scale, no holds barred, civil war. 3. LibDems do worse than they expect. Swinson goes by the end of 2020. 4. SNP win six out of seven of Labour’s Scottish seats, but only half the Tory ones. 5. Independence for Scotland and Irish reunification become dominant constitutional themes post-Brexit. 6. Brexit itself solves none of the issues that won Leave the referendum. 7. Johnson the last Tory PM to win a general election for a generation - at least.
Would love to be mostly wrong. Am most confident about 2, 4, 6 and 7.
5 would only really have been likely with No Deal.
If Boris wins a historic Tory 4th term and delivers Brexit who cares what happens after, you have to go back to Lord Liverpool to find the last Tory leader to win a 5th term
While coming top for a fourth election in a row would be impressive, that it is 4 in 9 years does diminish it somewhat, when many governments only faced 2-3 elections in that time.
Nonetheless only 3 governments since WW2 have been in office for more than 9 years, the Tory governments of 1951 to 1964 and 1979 to 1997 and the New Labour government of 1997 to 2010. So it would still be a great achievement to win another Tory term
9 years is not a bad run for a government, true. Although it has been unconventional as far as 9 years go, with so little of it by majority.
Lol what's goin on with Plaid - scared of the voters ?
They are in for a beating, I'm afraid.
The party is in disarray, their target seats have been trashed, & they have immolated themselves for the greater glory of Jo Swinson with their stupid Remain Alliance.
Adam Price will be first leader out the door on Dec 12th.
I expect his LibDem friends on pb.com will offer him a consolation shovel for his dungheap.
Anyone know who is going to present the BBC election coverage?
Watching some of the Canadian GE coverage the other week, I have to say I was pleasantly surprised how nice the various representatives of the parties they had on the panels were to get other.
Perhaps the BBC should invite the likes of Ken Clarke and Norman Lamb, rather than the usual mob that spend all their time spinning and accusing others of this, that and the other.
Prediction time: 1. Tidy Tory overall majority on far fewer votes than in 2017. 2. No Corbyn resignation. Labour finally has its long-anticipated, full-scale, no holds barred, civil war. 3. LibDems do worse than they expect. Swinson goes by the end of 2020. 4. SNP win six out of seven of Labour’s Scottish seats, but only half the Tory ones. 5. Independence for Scotland and Irish reunification become dominant constitutional themes post-Brexit. 6. Brexit itself solves none of the issues that won Leave the referendum. 7. Johnson the last Tory PM to win a general election for a generation - at least.
Would love to be mostly wrong. Am most confident about 2, 4, 6 and 7.
5 would only really have been likely with No Deal.
If Boris wins a historic Tory 4th term and delivers Brexit who cares what happens after, you have to go back to Lord Liverpool to find the last Tory leader to win a 5th term
While coming top for a fourth election in a row would be impressive, that it is 4 in 9 years does diminish it somewhat, when many governments only faced 2-3 elections in that time.
Nonetheless only 3 governments since WW2 have been in office for more than 9 years, the Tory governments of 1951 to 1964 and 1979 to 1997 and the New Labour government of 1997 to 2010. So it would still be a great achievement to win another Tory term
It wasn't a Tory government 2010-15, it was a coalition.
So the big question now..... Will we see the return of Ave it and the legendary Don in the comintg weeks.....
Was Don the man who knew the polls before they were published?
We hung on his every post in 2010....
I thought it was. I was shocked he didn't get shut down, because the number of people who have access to that info must be fairly limited when we are talking GE time rather than run of the mill Sunday paper stuff.
Lol what's goin on with Plaid - scared of the voters ?
They are in for a beating, I'm afraid.
The party is in disarray, their target seats have been trashed, & they have immolated themselves for the greater glory of Jo Swinson with their stupid Remain Alliance.
Adam Price will be first leader out the door on Dec 12th.
I expect his LibDem friends on pb.com will offer him a consolation shovel for his dungheap.
Let's get the band back together, cammo, osborn, clegg and Danny can all stand again as a blues brothers stylie .... Not like they are doing much currently
Prediction time: 1. Tidy Tory overall majority on far fewer votes than in 2017. 2. No Corbyn resignation. Labour finally has its long-anticipated, full-scale, no holds barred, civil war. 3. LibDems do worse than they expect. Swinson goes by the end of 2020. 4. SNP win six out of seven of Labour’s Scottish seats, but only half the Tory ones. 5. Independence for Scotland and Irish reunification become dominant constitutional themes post-Brexit. 6. Brexit itself solves none of the issues that won Leave the referendum. 7. Johnson the last Tory PM to win a general election for a generation - at least.
Would love to be mostly wrong. Am most confident about 2, 4, 6 and 7.
5 would only really have been likely with No Deal.
If Boris wins a historic Tory 4th term and delivers Brexit who cares what happens after, you have to go back to Lord Liverpool to find the last Tory leader to win a 5th term
While coming top for a fourth election in a row would be impressive, that it is 4 in 9 years does diminish it somewhat, when many governments only faced 2-3 elections in that time.
Nonetheless only 3 governments since WW2 have been in office for more than 9 years, the Tory governments of 1951 to 1964 and 1979 to 1997 and the New Labour government of 1997 to 2010. So it would still be a great achievement to win another Tory term
It wasn't a Tory government 2010-15, it was a coalition.
As a million Labour leaflets informed us, it was a Tory-led government though.
Plus its not like most LDs want to remember those days anyway.
This is all a bit weird. After all the haggling a 12/12 election is now a near certainty. Why?
The Tories have bought what one might call the HY grand plan. And then, it suits the LDs (or the LDs decided that it did) and the SNP, and Labour didn’t want to be the only ones against.
This is all a bit weird. After all the haggling a 12/12 election is now a near certainty. Why?
Because it wasn't about the date, not really. It was about who would win out over the dates. I suspect the pointlessness of the debate over the date pushed a few more to stick with the standard Thursday.
Given that we'd only just started a new parliamentary session a few days ago with a new Queen's speech, with dissolution next week does that make this the shortest parliamentary session ever, or is there some weirder thing that happened previously?
Wait. I thought it was December 9 election. When did it change???
When Labour’s amendment was narrowly defeated. I haven’t seen an analysis of why they didn’t get the numbers but would guess the various Indy’s weren’t on board
Given that we'd only just started a new parliamentary session a few days ago with a new Queen's speech, with dissolution next week does that make this the shortest parliamentary session ever, or is there some weirder thing that happened previously?
Didn’t they have a few quick ones for the passing of the Parliament Act?
Wait. I thought it was December 9 election. When did it change???
When Labour’s amendment was narrowly defeated. I haven’t seen an analysis of why they didn’t get the numbers but would guess the various Indy’s weren’t on board
At one point the Lib Dems, Greens, and PC where talking about only standing one candidate per constituency, I think it was after the Brecon and Radnershire By-election. Is this still the plan? and if so when will it be announced which party is standing where?
So who has gained or lost by a GE being called now rather than when Boris first tried to get one ?
AFAICS the main change is that Bozo wanted to go to the country with his deal either delivered or obviously blocked, whereas he has been manoeuvred into going when his deal actually got the votes for at least its second reading. Makes people v parliament a tad more difficult, but probably not a huge difference.
At one point the Lib Dems, Greens, and PC where talking about only standing one candidate per constituency, I think it was after the Brecon and Radnershire By-election. Is this still the plan? and if so when will it be announced which party is standing where?
I am pretty sure the LDs and Greens have been in talks recently at national level. The dynamic has shifted with the Greens fading away post-Euro elections, but if I had any influence (which I don’t) I would argue for the LDs making the Greens a generous offer. As for PC, B&R was seen as a success by both sides but our local commentator downthread may be closer to the mark.
So who has gained or lost by a GE being called now rather than when Boris first tried to get one ?
Labour loses massively - Boris would have had to campaign without having obtained his Deal, which could have gifted Labour the entire Remain bloc in a "Stop No Deal" campaign.
So it turns out Hillary Benn may have saved Boris and the Conservative Party through his attempts to snooker them. Delicious poetic irony if so!
Postal votes 2 weeks before Xmas. What could go wrong....?
A Royal Mail strike?
The royal mail union on strike buggering up Labour's postal vote operation would be delicious
Even without, there’s the Christmas post to worry about, with sorting offices awash with cards (decreasingly) and Amazon parcels (increasingly). The posties won’t be too keen to deliver the election leaflets on top of everything else (although they get paid handsomely for doing so) and RM will need some sort of priority system to make sure the PVs themselves don’t get lost in the wash.
Pathetic editorial from the Guardian. In fairness I suspect that this isn't exactly what they think. But focusing everything on Boris, not a parliament that keeps saying 'no' or a leader of the opposition with the worst ratings ever? A great newspaper is on the slide.
In 2015 the graun gave Ed Miliband the benefit of the doubt, not because it was a natural Labour paper but because he was closest to its soft liberal outlook. They're clearly scared of momentum.
So who has gained or lost by a GE being called now rather than when Boris first tried to get one ?
AFAICS the main change is that Bozo wanted to go to the country with his deal either delivered or obviously blocked, whereas he has been manoeuvred into going when his deal actually got the votes for at least its second reading. Makes people v parliament a tad more difficult, but probably not a huge difference.
I think Boris would have been in a worse shape a month ago before he achieved his deal.
Few voters know the details of parliamentary votes so they will tend to believe what they want to.
I suspect Labour have been the losers from the delay.
At one point the Lib Dems, Greens, and PC where talking about only standing one candidate per constituency, I think it was after the Brecon and Radnershire By-election. Is this still the plan? and if so when will it be announced which party is standing where?
They might do that in a handful of seats, but I doubt it will be widespread.
So who has gained or lost by a GE being called now rather than when Boris first tried to get one ?
Labour loses massively - Boris would have had to campaign without having obtained his Deal, which could have gifted Labour the entire Remain bloc in a "Stop No Deal" campaign.
So it turns out Hillary Benn may have saved Boris and the Conservative Party through his attempts to snooker them. Delicious poetic irony if so!
A counter argument is that the Tories will find it harder to enthuse leavers with an actual deal than they would with Brexit on the line and the hardnuts able to imagine their own personal dream deal (or none). And Farage, if he chooses to, can attack the deal from the other flank.
So who has gained or lost by a GE being called now rather than when Boris first tried to get one ?
Labour loses massively - Boris would have had to campaign without having obtained his Deal, which could have gifted Labour the entire Remain bloc in a "Stop No Deal" campaign.
So it turns out Hillary Benn may have saved Boris and the Conservative Party through his attempts to snooker them. Delicious poetic irony if so!
A counter argument is that the Tories will find it harder to enthuse leavers with an actual deal than they would with Brexit on the line and the hardnuts able to imagine their own personal dream deal (or none). And Farage, if he chooses to, can attack the deal from the other flank.
“This is as good as it gets” isn’t as inspiring as threatening to leave without a deal unless the EU gives way.
So who has gained or lost by a GE being called now rather than when Boris first tried to get one ?
Labour loses massively - Boris would have had to campaign without having obtained his Deal, which could have gifted Labour the entire Remain bloc in a "Stop No Deal" campaign.
So it turns out Hillary Benn may have saved Boris and the Conservative Party through his attempts to snooker them. Delicious poetic irony if so!
A counter argument is that the Tories will find it harder to enthuse leavers with an actual deal than they would with Brexit on the line and the hardnuts able to imagine their own personal dream deal (or none). And Farage, if he chooses to, can attack the deal from the other flank.
So who has gained or lost by a GE being called now rather than when Boris first tried to get one ?
AFAICS the main change is that Bozo wanted to go to the country with his deal either delivered or obviously blocked, whereas he has been manoeuvred into going when his deal actually got the votes for at least its second reading. Makes people v parliament a tad more difficult, but probably not a huge difference.
I think you may be right, There may not be enough anger in leave supporting Labor voters to brake the habit of a live time and vote Con, or former non-voting lave supporters to tern out on a cold winter night. Conversely now a deal is on the table there may be some remain supporting Con voters might have voted LD or Lab to stop a No-Deal brexit, but are more relaxed about the new Deal.
Pathetic editorial from the Guardian. In fairness I suspect that this isn't exactly what they think. But focusing everything on Boris, not a parliament that keeps saying 'no' or a leader of the opposition with the worst ratings ever? A great newspaper is on the slide.
In 2015 the graun gave Ed Miliband the benefit of the doubt, not because it was a natural Labour paper but because he was closest to its soft liberal outlook. They're clearly scared of momentum.
The Guardian is a Remain paper, with Remain readers. Labour isn’t a Remain party. The paper needs to come out for the LibDems.
Johnson's strategy is essentially the same as May's in 2017: rely on a party led by Nigel Farage to win votes that would otherwise be Labour.
A Gillian Duffy moment for the PM, or a scandal to hit either of them, or if Nige doesn't put his back into it, and it's over.
Boris is weak on the private schools. What has he got? 1. They save the country billions of pounds. 2. Labour's opposition to them is old-fashioned. I wonder how those will play.
Corbyn is not a strong leader but he is more at home than Michael Foot was speaking with ordinary people. This is going to be a two-party race.
1. Two year parliaments. Another Americanism coming over here.
2. Another election on the old boundaries. The folk at the boundary commission must be close to jumping off the window ledge.
I do expect a BJ majority government to vote the new boundaries through. once that's happened once it'll be less controversial in following years
If they have a majority and a full term it would be more appropriate to task the commission with starting again.
It's a possibility but it'd be simpler to do it early and let the dust settle before another election. that being said any other kind of government would do nothing.
So who has gained or lost by a GE being called now rather than when Boris first tried to get one ?
Labour loses massively - Boris would have had to campaign without having obtained his Deal, which could have gifted Labour the entire Remain bloc in a "Stop No Deal" campaign.
So it turns out Hillary Benn may have saved Boris and the Conservative Party through his attempts to snooker them. Delicious poetic irony if so!
A counter argument is that the Tories will find it harder to enthuse leavers with an actual deal than they would with Brexit on the line and the hardnuts able to imagine their own personal dream deal (or none). And Farage, if he chooses to, can attack the deal from the other flank.
“This is as good as it gets” isn’t as inspiring as threatening to leave without a deal unless the EU gives way.
That won’t be the message though. Presumably he’s going to go with “once this is all out of the way, through my stunning deal, we can X, Y, and Z”. We’ve been shown the “get Brexit done” slogan but the manifesto will presumably be part two.
So who has gained or lost by a GE being called now rather than when Boris first tried to get one ?
Labour loses massively - Boris would have had to campaign without having obtained his Deal, which could have gifted Labour the entire Remain bloc in a "Stop No Deal" campaign.
So it turns out Hillary Benn may have saved Boris and the Conservative Party through his attempts to snooker them. Delicious poetic irony if so!
A counter argument is that the Tories will find it harder to enthuse leavers with an actual deal than they would with Brexit on the line and the hardnuts able to imagine their own personal dream deal (or none). And Farage, if he chooses to, can attack the deal from the other flank.
Even Farage knows that if the Tories lose this GE, then Brexit is gone forever, with a strong likelihood of a socialist government messing up his finances. I suspect Banks has probably come to the same conclusion, and will be reluctant to disintegrate Boris' right flank.
Besides, Brexit was never just about Brexit, it's about the culture war as a whole. And knowing that the people they hate will cry and whine if Boris is elected gives Brexity types a powerful incentive to put a cross in his box no matter what their feelings about his Deal...
Wait. I thought it was December 9 election. When did it change???
When Labour’s amendment was narrowly defeated. I haven’t seen an analysis of why they didn’t get the numbers but would guess the various Indy’s weren’t on board
Comments
FPT:
The party is in disarray, their target seats have been trashed, & they have immolated themselves for the greater glory of Jo Swinson with their stupid Remain Alliance.
Adam Price will be first leader out the door on Dec 12th.
I expect his LibDem friends on pb.com will offer him a consolation shovel for his dungheap.
Perhaps the BBC should invite the likes of Ken Clarke and Norman Lamb, rather than the usual mob that spend all their time spinning and accusing others of this, that and the other.
https://twitter.com/REWearmouth/status/1189282586469818369
Plus its not like most LDs want to remember those days anyway.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dkc0RZ8Ym1Y
Bring it on - let's put Labour back in their box and get Brexit done!
What a slogan....given to Lab on a Christmas platter
AFAICS the main change is that Bozo wanted to go to the country with his deal either delivered or obviously blocked, whereas he has been manoeuvred into going when his deal actually got the votes for at least its second reading. Makes people v parliament a tad more difficult, but probably not a huge difference.
https://commonsvotes.digiminster.com/Divisions/Details/734?byMember=false#notrecorded
- Remembrance Day. Someone will try to trip up Jezza and it might backfire.
- NATO summit. Trump risk for Boris but based on the telegraph article he’s going to use it to say “the NHS is not for sale”.
- OBR report. Has to be a major story. There’s probably a BoE forecast due too.
- GDP numbers?
- EU summit?
- What else?
1. Two year parliaments. Another Americanism coming over here.
2. Another election on the old boundaries. The folk at the boundary commission must be close to jumping off the window ledge.
So it turns out Hillary Benn may have saved Boris and the Conservative Party through his attempts to snooker them. Delicious poetic irony if so!
Pathetic editorial from the Guardian. In fairness I suspect that this isn't exactly what they think. But focusing everything on Boris, not a parliament that keeps saying 'no' or a leader of the opposition with the worst ratings ever? A great newspaper is on the slide.
In 2015 the graun gave Ed Miliband the benefit of the doubt, not because it was a natural Labour paper but because he was closest to its soft liberal outlook. They're clearly scared of momentum.
Few voters know the details of parliamentary votes so they will tend to believe what they want to.
I suspect Labour have been the losers from the delay.
https://twitter.com/owensmith_mp/status/1189285858307985409?s=21
LAB = 😀
A Gillian Duffy moment for the PM, or a scandal to hit either of them, or if Nige doesn't put his back into it, and it's over.
Boris is weak on the private schools. What has he got? 1. They save the country billions of pounds. 2. Labour's opposition to them is old-fashioned. I wonder how those will play.
Corbyn is not a strong leader but he is more at home than Michael Foot was speaking with ordinary people. This is going to be a two-party race.
Polling from 2016-17:
Besides, Brexit was never just about Brexit, it's about the culture war as a whole. And knowing that the people they hate will cry and whine if Boris is elected gives Brexity types a powerful incentive to put a cross in his box no matter what their feelings about his Deal...
https://commonsvotes.digiminster.com/Divisions/Details/733