2015 UK General Election campaign & aftermath discussion thread.

The one thing Labour could've done from 2010 onwards is dispel the lie that the economic crash was caused by spending on public services etc.

After the Referendum, nobody dreamed that Cameron would come back to the result with 'OH HAI, English votes for English laws' instead of saying 'hey, thanks for sticking with the Union, Scotland!' and that's probably the thing that sealed the fates of both Labour and the SNP. Divide and rule, peasants - Tories do this better than anything, including actually running a country.

The BBC are currently suffering with an almighty case of Stockholm syndrome: why prop up arseholes who are actively working to destroy you?

How totally depressing

I genuinely thought that Labour would be able to form a centre left coalition

bleak doesn't even come near - closest thing to what I feel:

this might be the most satisfying possible outcome. let the people have what they want, let them have it in fucking shovelfuls, let's have another 10 years of untrammeled English Conservatism.

― vote yay! for constitutional monarchy (Noodle Vague), Friday, 8 May 2015 06:12 (50 minutes ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

and yes, tory party as party as economic stability had rep to shake (idiotically they were borderline economically illiterate in the coalition). But I really do think the most hysterical, panicked and widespread right wing media campaign I can remember had a huge part to play.

I went to bed after my supposedly marginal SW London seat was held by the Tories by an even greater margin than last time. Torn between despairing that the toxic right-wing narrative (and the press was even more hysterical than usual, seemed to combine right-wing desperation with clickbait desperation) actually WORKED on this terrible island, and the usual failure of Labour to provide even the hint of a SNP-style anti-austerity platform. Not sure it's comforting that both are probably to blame. Obviously it's less mourning a Labour loss and more being appalled that after the past five years and that campaign that people went out and voted for more of it.

Turns out there is indeed room amidst despair for schadenfreude though, hahahaha @ the Lib Dems

ha, xp

The BBC are currently suffering with an almighty case of Stockholm syndrome: why prop up arseholes who are actively working to destroy you?

prob cos the people working there are tories

i'm honestly just sickened by this. what the fuck is wrong with people?

Has Ashdown eaten his hat yet? Another Lib Dem lie.

People mostly like untrammeled english conservatism though surely, and have done for decades, unless it massively and clearly screws up the economy in which case they reconsider.

cold light of day apparently comes with a nuclear winter setting

It was my wife's birthday last night and I made the decision to ignore everything before and after the exit poll and I was entirely vindicated in that decision.

There is a gigantic bunfight coming down the line over Europe, I think Cameron might struggle to control his party with or without a majority.

Balls out - by about 300 votes!

edless & castrated

Most Tories wouldn't see Cameron as bringing untrammelled conservatism. The one positive is that they might shut up about shifting to right for a bit.

It really won't.

Kinda expecting Rupert Murdoch to just expire now, like Bert Cooper watching the moon landing.

Possibly not but a key part of their message was that he is a liberal wet blanket who can't win elections. He has capital now. Xp

What, as in 'my work here is done'? Xpost

i'm honestly just sickened by this. what the fuck is wrong with people?

I really hate electorate blaming... I'm pretty sure that people do want an alternative to the Tories and are ready to vote for it - if only they can believe in it. Ed M and co. couldn't and didn't pull together a convincing vision of that alternative.

voting for tories does not equal wanting an alternative. i don't believe that at all.

You have to blame Labour really, their strategy and policies were all wrong from the start. Their problem is that they are losing seats for all sorts of different reasons, a simple shift either to the left or right won't solve their problems.

Still astonished they looked at Jim Murphy and went 'yep, that's the guy for us' though.

More people might have bothered to vote if there was a reason to vote, i.e a credible anti-austerity party that had the momentum of a hopeful and inspiring campaign behind them. This is what's happened in Scotland - engagement and turnout is higher because there's more chance that the vote might actually count for something. We might have rejected independence but we're not accepting the current set-up, and I think if voters outside of Scotland felt there was a genuine choice of values then this run-up might have felt more exciting and the results more optimistic.

hard to say that labour going more anti-austerity wouldn't have lost them as much as it gained.

is what's happened in Scotland unprecedented for a separatist movement? decades of working towards a referendum...and defeat in it resulting in such overwhelming support for the movement

xp think you underestimate just how many people in england are in favour of austerity

Labour completely failed to articulate the argument AGAINST austerity though

It was my wife's birthday last night

Matt DC married, how come no-one told me?

"wouldn't change a thing about Osborne's budget" - they pandered to austerity as much as they could

No coherence or confidence from Labour this election. Really hoping for a clearing away of the dead wood now. New leader, new purpose, new Labour oh wait

oh god the next leader will be chuka umunna won't it

Anti-austerity Labour would be spun as "would spend too much, can't be trusted with the economy", pro-austerity, well we now know what we get there. There isn't really a quick fix here and I don't think the Labour Party have even begun to comprehend the scale of the problem here.

A leader with some charisma would help as well.

Wasn't Umnna was one of the few Labour MPs to increase his majority last night

rushanara ali in my constituency, bg/bow massively increased her majority, by about 20k votes.

actually about 14k

Stella Creasy did too, fwiw

Ben Brawdshaw's majority in Exeter has gone from 2721 in 2010 to about 7,500 if the figures Google are giving me are correct.

Bradshaw.

seems a p impressive person

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rushanara_Ali

despite lack of canvassing.

I'm now quite looking forward to watching the Tories try to win the EU referendum. Brexit would fuck us (and be catastrophic for their biz pals) and they know this.

But thumping the tub for Europe is toxic for them, hopefully pretty much as toxic as thumping the tub for the UK turned out to be for Scottish Labour.

^^^ That is definitely going to be the big theme of the next Parliament, Cameron will have to give his MPs free reign on that issue, they'll destroy him if he doesn't.

The Tories have made a lot of contradictory pledges on tax, spending and borrowing, in anticipation of having to water them down in minority/coalition government. Not sure how they're going to deal with that with a majority.

Miliband about to resign btw.

Charles Kennedy lost his Ross, Skye and Lochaber seat. He was so pissed on qt recently I forgot he was actually still a functional (sort of) mp.

the handwringing on twitter is hard to take, and the stupid jokes or memes to try and raise the mood have the opposite effect.

Started a Chuka Ummuna Obama Hope poster, lost interest during making it. But I bet you see one before the end of the day.

*Umunna*

I haven't read this whole thread yet but agghhhhh.

Now I'm going to read this whole thread (since 1am when I gave up and went to bed) and cry inwardly or possibly outwardly instead of doing any work.

Guh.

a Chuka Ummuna Obama Hope poster

my son is going to be 11 before these fucks are gone.

I was 19 before they were gone last time

I turned 18 about 10 days after the 97 election. Nora's going to be at least 5. I have no confidence in Labour being electable under the current electoral system any time soon.