Corbynomics: A Dystopia

Conrad

I've heard several commentators say on current form May could win a Thatcher 1983 style landslide with over a hundred seat majority.


I reckon we're looking at a 3 term PM

Moby

Electoral reform is clearly needed on a fairness basis.......... but at least first past the post keeps Labour as the second party in the game when things change. They can hemorrhage seats to the tories for years but unless the third party looks like a competent alternative they will always be positioned to be the alternative when things go wrong for Cruella as they inevitably will sooner or later.
UKIP look a busted flush and indications are targeting Labour in the Northern heartlands won't provide them with the rich pickings they thought they would get. So they don't seem to be the existential threat to Labour many thought/hoped they would be.

Terrible result for Labour in Copeland and things clearly ain't going to start to change until Corbyn takes responsibility and resigns. Listening to McDonnell on R4 this morning.....what an odious, sinister individual!

Conrad

Spidernick wrote: »

To my mind this further skewing of percentage of seats versus percentage of votes received is just more ammunition to those of us who feel that First Past The Post is not fit for purpose and that electoral reform is essential.

.

I was all for proportional representation, but I'm now not so sure as I encountered the argument that under FPTP, mainstream parties become broad churches of compromise, whereas under PR you get say a dozen parties each with members utterly rigid and committed to only one world view.




As to your point about on requiring a robust opposition, Corbyns Labour are very distinct from the Tories and so represent a clear alternative opposition. The fact the opposition might not be all that popular is for me not relevant.


The opposition consists of Labour, SNP, Lib Dems and Greens, all constantly squealing for ever more spending and focusing their energy on identity politics, transgender loos, grandstanding on Trump and all the other things that allow them to amass virtue status points.

martinsurrey

Spidernick wrote: »

To my mind this further skewing of percentage of seats versus percentage of votes received is just more ammunition to those of us who feel that First Past The Post is not fit for purpose and that electoral reform is essential.

Do none of you on here want an effective Opposition? Surely a well-run democracy needs this and so Corbyn limping on will be bad for the country as a whole.

I agree a strong opposition is a good thing to keep everyone held to account, I doubt many people here would disagree.

On the whole those who disagree are on the far ends of the political spectrum, and the majority are, much closer to the middle.

We had a chance to change FPTP

mrginge

It does seem a bit bizarre that today we have a broad spread of parties across the political spectrum and yet the big complaint is that the Labour Party is useless and unelectable.

Well tough. If you're a centre-left blairite then the answer is simple. Join the lib dems. Leave the Labour Party to the far left socialists. I'm sure the they would be delighted to have a huge raft of new members who pretty much share their ideology identically.

Corbyn, McDonnell, Abbott ...etc are laughing in the MPs and voters faces because they know that you're all too tied to this ridiculous notion of lifelong support to actually grow a pair and stand up for your apparent beliefs.
I have zero sympathy.

Spidernick

martinsurrey wrote: »

We had a chance to change FPTP

That old chestnut. AV would have given the Tories even more seats in 2015, so is hardly the answer!

I cannot put it better than this rebuttal of the government's response to the PR petition:

https://www.makevotesmatter.org.uk/news/2017/1/28/parliamentary-petition-for-pr-tim-ivorson-responds-to-the-governments-response

Mrginge,

There is no way in the world I would ever join the sell-out LibDems and it is going to take many years for them to be forgiven for selling their souls for a brief taste of (some form of) power. I feel politically homeless at the moment and there must be tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people like me. A new party might be the answer, but whether that will ever happen is another issue.

westernpromise

Hilarious really. The electoral system is broken because Labour's not winning. All that's needed to make it fair is for it be rigged so that Labour does win. As it is, the fairest thing about it is that Labour's sure to be second in MPs no matter how loony it gets.

Excellent, delusional stuff!

Presumably if Khorbiyn advocated liquidation of the middle classes and royalty, abolition of rival parties, total disarmament, and the adoption of Russian as the national language, and Labour dropped to 5% in the polls, that would be the fault of the electoral system also? To ensure an effective opposition, we must gerrymander the voting system so that no matter how overtly deranged and evil Labour's policies are, it's still in with a shout.

Riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiight.

Wake up children. If you want a strong opposition, come up with some policies that appeal to the electorate. It's how it's been done in the past. Khorbiyn, Miliband, Broon, Major, Kinnochio, Foot, Callaghan and Heath all bombed for a reason. Try thinking about what that was.

Demanding electoral reform for party political advantage because your party has freely chosen to make itself unelectable is not a mature response to your problem.

mrginge

westernpromise wrote: »

Demanding electoral reform for party political advantage because your party has freely chosen to make itself unelectable is not a mature response to your problem.

Pretty much sums it up.

:T:T:T

michaels

I think the Tories might have preferred to just lose Copeland and for UKIP to take Stoke. Labour lose both and Jezzer is toast, UKIP gain Stoke and potentially Labour is toast (for good).

In fact part of the problem is the Tories did quite well in Stoke, splitting the non Labour vote. Had the Tories been less popular UKIP might have carried it.

mrginge

Spidernick wrote: »

Mrginge,

There is no way in the world I would ever join the sell-out LibDems and it is going to take many years for them to be forgiven for selling their souls for a brief taste of (some form of) power. I feel politically homeless at the moment and there must be tens, if not hundreds, of thousands of people like me. A new party might be the answer, but whether that will ever happen is another issue.

Well it appears you are now in the same boat as all those die-hard socialists who had to put up with the blairites running 'their' party.

Guess you'll just have to suck it up in the same way that they did.