#scottish elections

[double-gs]

I need to know something if you're from the UK

[ayeforscotland]

UK Local Election thread

I will be using “#election thread” if you want to block it.

As of 08:30 today this is the number of council seats changed in England. Some English councils started the vote count immediately but a bunch wait until this morning to start.

Tories and independent councillors dipping so far.

[thewuzzy]

[hopefullydreaming]

I’ll have more coherent thoughts on the by election later when I’ve woken up properly, but right now I’m just CACKLING that the Tory candidate lost their deposit cause they got so few votes, I’ve missed this

[elicatkin]

[tomorrowusa]

In the UK, political analysts and journalists have been searching the thesaurus to find synonyms for disaster to describe what happened to the Conservative Party in two by-elections on Thursday.

The by-election results only confirm that the Tories are on a downward spiral.

Peter Walker at The Guardian spells out the implications.

But even though Tory aides will point to the murky circumstances in which the incumbents in both Tamworth and Mid Bedfordshire, Chris Pincher and Nadine Dorries, departed their seats, Labour’s success will send a chill through the spines of Conservative MPs for several reasons. The first is the sheer scale of the losses. The byelection record tables for swings and biggest majorities overturned are becoming increasingly filled with votes that took place since 2019, and there is now another one to be added. Dorries’ 24,664 Conservative majority was the biggest numerically to be lost in a byelection at least since 1945, potentially ever, as Labour’s Alistair Strathern won a majority of 1,192. While Tamworth involved a slightly smaller majority, the swing to Labour’s second new MP, Sarah Edwards, of 23.9 percentage points to her party from the Tories, was even greater than the 23.7 percentage point swing in July’s Selby and Ainsty byelection. The second reason for Labour joy and Conservative jitters is the way that Labour pushed their way to a win in Mid Bedfordshire despite a full-on parallel effort from the fearsome Liberal Democrat byelection machine, one which has delivered four massive wins since 2021. The Lib Dems had insisted that in the mainly rural seat only they could tempt enough Conservative votes to switch to them. In the end, their vote tally rose, but even they were steamrollered by a Labour machine clearly motivated by the prospect of government. The Mid Beds result also carries another bad omen for Sunak and his party: the way that English voters are becoming increasingly good at deciding who they need to club together tactically to unseat the Conservatives.

Increasing numbers of people are voting tactically in these by-elections to specifically defeat Conservative candidates. They may not agree with everything that Labour or the Lib Dems may stand for, but the main point is to remove the Conservatives from power.

Tamworth is was statistically the 57th safest Tory seat in the UK out of the 350+ which the Conservatives hold. It doesn't necessarily mean that Labour and the Lib Dems would pick up almost 300 seats. But in the next general election, which must be held no later than 28 January 2025, the Conservative Party will have to defend many seats which they've been taking for granted.

One fun aspect of the October 19th by-elections is that the unsuccessful Conservative candidates bolted out of the buildings as soon as the results were made known. It doesn't violate any rules, though it's poor election night etiquette.

They probably had some idea where things were headed and wanted to avoid answering questions about the WAY bad night for their party.

To see the extent of the collapse of the Conservative vote, check out the results on a graph.

If you're wondering why the BBC doesn't list every single candidate on those graphics, check out the entire list for Mid Bedfordshire which includes one named Prince Ankit Love Emperor of India.

Here's a list of how parties fared in the 19 by-elections since the general election of 2019. The Conservatives have won just 1 of the 12 in the past 20 months; and that was a narrow victory to retain Boris Johnson's seat for Uxbridge and South Ruislip. More important than the number of Tory losses is their geography – constituencies lost to Labour and the Lib Dems in traditionally Conservative areas.

[pettyprocrastination]

what a scottish saying that means “don’t act impulsively” if anybody knows one? 

[deadrabbitohno]

buffy truss bites the dust. long live the lettuce.

[deetherusalka]

2023 so far has truly zero chill

[the-busy-ghost]

Alright ancient Scottish counties were already weird enough, but I strongly advise anyone who knows Scotland to go and look up the rules for what defined the old shire of Cromarty. 

Now I knew that Cromarty existed, but thought it confined to to the Black Isle or at least vaguely on the east coast north of Inverness- BOY WAS I WRONG. 

You see, Cromarty had a severe case of Enclaves. One of these enclaves included not only Ullapool (yes on the completely OPPOSITE side of Ross, on the west coast) but according to wikipedia one source even claimed that Royston/Caroline Park near Edinburgh was *technically* part of the shire of Cromarty. 

[feathered-serpents]

My mom is currently in Scotland, and she called me and told me that her cab driver from the airport to the hotel was a complete Trumper and spent the entire drive telling her and her friend Q-anon conspiracy theories including the election was stolen and Jews secretly control the world

And listen. I’m American. I don’t know the Scottish political culture all the great. But I’m like 80% sure my mom managed to get a cab driven by the one (1) Scottish guy who actually believes in any of that stuff 

[veradragonjedi]

I don't know who to vote for either. The Greens are transphobes, the LibDems are... Like That.

We're utterly lost.

It's all well and good to critique the UK government, but when you say shit like "fuck the UK," and then Don't give us a better option other than just Don't Fucking Vote, it doesn't help anyone at all. The citizens are still stranded here. We can't just bloody leave.

[branmer]

so glad i live in scotland and therefore have the option to vote for neither tories nor labour. they can both get in the sea

[matrixrry]

.

[thejohnfleming]

I asked the ChatGPT to write a political manifesto for the UK's political parties

(Image by Maximalfocus via UnSplash) Artificial Intelligence has no morals, no thoughts of its own, no beliefs of its own. So I asked ChatGPT to write a 200-word political manifesto for each of the UK’s four main Parties… and another. The AI does not itself ‘believe’ any of what follows; it is just spouting out the emotionless words expected of it… It will be interesting to see what the ‘real’…

[sleepingswift85]

Taking a much needed break from political debate on Facebook, it seems that people don’t like you when you expose populist tendencies in their preferred choice for the next leader of the SNP and being told to ‘grow up’ by people WHO cannot see the wood from the trees