I think teh general concern now is to obliterate the Tories, rather than try to influence the make up and attitude of the incoming Labour government.
Which isn’t to say there aren’t elements on the left who are arguing for votes for the Green party (e.g.) on the grounds that it will temper the inevitable majority. But that’s a fringe position.
Next time round however…
There was certainly a big push yesterday to get more voters registered by the deadline. Only about 2/3rds of 18-25 yr olds where registered to vote at the start of the week, compared with over 90% of pensioners.
It’s hard to argue with a majority around 300.
But the Labour left will, and probably sooner rather than later.
It’s not like the Tory right have been any quieter.
The cycle is quite weird, where a party gets in by appealing to moderates and immediately starts a gallop off to the extremes, ignoring the centrist policies that got them in in the first place.
The Tory manifesto is very hard right this time, very little centrist thinking at all, and there just isn’t enough of that kind of voter around to win an election.
Which Labour government went way off to the left? Genuine question, not a snarky response.
Most (probably) pensioners are registered to vote because they’ve done it
once and don’t have to do anything to remain registered.
66% of 18-25 year-olds is around the same as the turnout at general
elections, so not too bad !
What fraction of 18-25-year-olds were eligible to vote in the previous general election?
Approximately 2/7ths.
That may be an effort to prevent a migration to Reform. And/or the laying down of a marker to establish that whoever comes next had better stick to the right, and the position will be to let the other guys move in our direction if they want to look like they’re seeking consensus (much as the position of the American right has been).
Gordon Brown was hardly “way off to the left”, but was significantly more left wing than Blair. That probably wasn’t the only, or even the main reason he lost, though.
The ones who aren’t politically engaged probably don’t know Labour is expected to win, so they’ll go vote.
There’s a growing scandal over betting on the election. Even one of Sunak’s police protection detail has been arrested, and now….
Tory director of campaigning being looked into over election bet
This election campaign has been a total nightmare for the Conservatives from start to finish. And it’s all self-inflicted.
They need a major scandal to hit Labour or Reform, which of course could still happen. I’m confident we will see more revelations about the questionable views of Reform candidates at the very least.
There’s been a few individual Labour candidates in trouble over old tweets, but in one sense that reinforces Starmer’s desired “we deal with nutters” image.
More on the Labour left here:
And (oh dear me) more Tories caught up in gambling investigations;
As opposed to the Tory practice of elevating them to PM?
Delicious!
I had assumed from the headline that they were betting on what the result of the election would be (which seems a bit unseemly but not too problematic since they can’t know) but the bets were actually regarding when the election would be called for. Which was at the Prime Minister’s discretion and they could have benefited from inside information.
Jesus.
That’s what’s being investigated, though I doubt there’s cast-iron evidence of anything more than a lucky guess, given the ongoing speculation about dates. But that still doesn’t look good in the light of professional codes of discipline.
There was a leaders Question Time last night, some BBC analysis here:
Nothing in there about the betting issue, but it was certainly mentioned, and Sunak was visible angry, and has promised to boot out Tories find to have broken the rules.
I heard Gove on the radio talking about how the gambling scandal was just “a small number of individuals” and that we shouldn’t judge the whole party on their actions. I wanted the interviewer to fire back with “Would you be saying that if they were Labour?”
The one I heard yesterday was Samantha Goggin talking about wars started by past prime ministers and including the Falklands in the list. (go to 0:35 in the video)
To me, not as bad a faux pas as almost anything else Reform says, but unlike nonsense on climate change and foreigners, this one would piss off their base.