Johnson has already put out the idea of spending 80 billion on the North. I thought a spending splurge like that would 'bankrupt the country'?

Anyway, Johnson has his majority now. Labour, Lib Dems and the remain position are all toast. Anything from now on is 100% on Johnson, good or bad. Any excuses about the global financial crisis of 2008 are just wearing very thin. Onwards and upwards into the roaring 20s!

It’s not what they say they will possibly invest it is the things they do in legislation. His withdrawal agreement gives them a lot of leeway with regards people and worker’s rights. I look forward to UK nationals filling the picking, care homes and NHS jobs that were once the domain of those from the EU.
What confirmed my fear was that in his acceptance speech he still peddled the lies about nurse and hospital numbers. He cannot help himself he just lies by nature and don’t forget behind him is Dominic Cummings who facilitates his falsehoods.
I also note that Trump is already saying that Johnson is desperate to do a trade deal, not a strong starting position for negotiations.

It's not just Trump who knows how desperate he is, the EU too, know that he is committed to having a trade deal complete by the end of 2020 and they have already proven to be tougher negotiators than the UK (and by some distance).

Merry Christmas and Happy new year everyone !

I admit I voted to remain and I have not seen or read anything that indicates we will be better out even after 3 years. I don’t think other than vague promises of what it means anyone actually knows what it means. I doubt that many of the working population realise that a lot of their rights and protections come from EU regulations. The withdrawal agreement give only vague guarantees in this area leaving the UK government to decide what they want to include.
I am reaching retirement age so I no longer care but I fear for anyone with still a few years or more to go because in addition to their working rights I expect the retirement age to increase quite quickly to 70. Why have to provide them with a state pension when they can die before they can claim it, that will save money.

Bad news electorally for a Conservative government if it does that. They won't want to turn the 55 to 65 age group over to Labour.

They were quite happy to throw those WASPI ladies under the bus.

32 Million People voted
14 Million Voted for the winners

Here's my take on it

10 people are sat around a table, ready to order dinner. 6 of them are vegetarian, but the consensus is that whichever dish is selected by most people will be the dish served to all.
The 4 Meat-eaters all order steak & chips, whilst the 6 Vegetarians order, 1 Halumi Burger, 1 Green Salad, 1 eggs benedict with spinach, 1 vegan lasagna, 1 eggplant fritter and 1 bowl of tomato soup.....so they all get Steak & Chips !


Stop blaming the electoral system and start looking at yourselves UK. If the Tories are so bad, then the other 6 at the table should have ensured that they collectively stopped them, but as per usual, the flip-flop vegetarian tree-hugging middle class-lefties couldn't agree to unite, so you have a splintered opposition.

Farage Knew what was required....

Yep. People were told how they could vote tactically to get rid of Johnson. They were given as accurate figures as possible. The working class Brexit voters lent Johnson their votes, but the principles were too strong for the left and centre. There are some results where had the Green, Lib-Dem or Labour voters just redirected a thousand or so votes to each other, the Conservatives wouldn't have got anywhere near a majority. They can't complain if they were too stubborn to do so.

Time to move on folks, nothing to see here.

Definitely a failure of leadership on the remain side.

Corbyn is not by nature a 'consensus' man, he's a man of the left. You could see this when there was talk of no confidence votes and looking to install a new government with an interim PM to pass legislation for a second referendum. That would have only been possible with a non-partisan leader without personal aspirations, eg Ken Clarke, Margaret Beckett. But Labour insisted it would have to be Corbyn, which made it a non-starter. He also was buoyed by getting 40 per cent of the vote in 2017 and thought Labour could repeat that or better in 2019 so why bother in any sort of pacts or alliances.

Swinson was like the Theresa May of this election, she gambled and ended up in a worse position. Boris didn't have the numbers for an election till she pushed for one. It seems like Swinson got fooled by some Lib Dem internal polling that they could push 50-60 seats if they went for an election, despite the fact that senior figures in the party warned her it was a bad idea. Also her strategy was to attack Labour, by ruling out ever working with Corbyn in a coalition. She was trying to pull over Conservative voters that couldn't stomach Johnson.

The point that really summed up the lack of tactical thinking was when the Lib Dem candidate in Canterbury unilaterally stood down as it was a Tory/Labour marginal and he realised he wasn't going to win, and Swinson insisted on replacing him with a new candidate. They had literally no chance in Canterbury, she was just doing it to maintain the image of 'not letting Corbyn in to power'. Given her history of willingly participating in Cameron's coalition government as a Minister, it created the impression that Lib Dems were really sort Tories, and there wasn't enough of a voting base to appeal to there.

Farage was far smarter. I think he sensed that the Brexit party would struggle outside the European elections with its low turn out and proportional system, and wanted to at least be seen to be doing his bit for Brexit rather than standing and being humiliated and also blamed for draining some Tory votes. He will be back as a critic of why Brexit has gone wrong, but I think electorally he's a busted flush now as no more European elections takes away UKIP/Brexit or his new Reform party's best chance.

The Lib Dems have a real existential problem now. They haven't been able to capitalise on space in the centre ground of politics. They actually did best when Labour were a more centrist party and they were trying to outflank them slightly on the left (the Charles Kennedy era) over the Iraq war.

I appreciate that this will split people down familiar lines, but here are some snowflake questions about postal votes, and outsourcing our democratic process. https://rickycoxon.wordpress.com/2020/0 ... bour-lose/ It is a long, long way from irrefutable but there’s enough there for me to decide to never request a postal ballot.

I appreciate that this will split people down familiar lines, but here are some snowflake questions about postal votes, and outsourcing our democratic process. https://rickycoxon.wordpress.com/2020/0 ... bour-lose/ It is a long, long way from irrefutable but there’s enough there for me to decide to never request a postal ballot.

Good point.

I think there are a few bigger and more obvious reasons why the Conservatives won by the margin they did, and this may well not even have been a contributing factor. The article contains a few leaps, and acknowledges one or two of them.

I was surprised to find out about the counts being outsourced and the lack of oversight.

No trust on either side, is there?

Gordon Brown threw everyone under a bus!!

you do need to stop using facts, they dont like it.