Nobody Cares about Britain

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Tirellia]

The results were brutal in my county. We had six Conservative MPs yesterday, now we have one. There wasn't much of an increase in the Labour vote but a huge decline in the Conservative vote in every constituency, even the very safe one.

The best news has been the rejection of the Scottish National Socialist Party followed closely by George Galloway being kicked out and then Jacob Rees-Mogg losing his seat. It was disappointing to see the Greens add a few more MPs, one was more than enough. I was surprised at the number of votes cast for Reform and now of course they are crying because they only won five seats, five more than I wanted to see. The three or four pro-Hamas MPs will be an interesting addition to the Commons, I wonder if anyone will give a damn by the next election.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Liz Truss losing her seat was a welcome end to the proceedings, I thought.

For the benefit of non-Brits, the former Prime Minister (famously outlasted in office by a lettuce) represented one of the safest Conservative seats in the country. Her Labour opponent narrowly defeated her, however, thanks to a spoiler campaign by disaffected local Conservatives who ran an independent Conservative against her.

 

[Tirellia]

I'd forgotten about Truss. Thanks for reminding me

 

[Innula Zenovka]

I'd forgotten about Truss. Thanks for reminding me

Here's more

 

[Innula Zenovka]

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

And now for some facts which are not so often covered in the press, because the UK has a winner-takes-all-system in voting.

This is the vote share of the 2024 GW:

And here the 2019 vote share.

As becomes evident Labour didn't win many votes, but took many seats. And most votes seemed to have migrated from Tories to Reform UK and Green Parties.

So if voting counts would have a bigger impact on the seats by using a different voting system, the HoC would have more members of Reform UK and the Green Parties.

 

[Wesleytron]

As becomes evident Labour didn't win many votes, but took many seats. And most votes seemed to have migrated from Tories to Reform UK and Green Parties.

I've seen it said that it wasn't so much that Labour won but rather that the Conservatives lost, and this has been the 'get the Tories out' election.

I doubt that many, if any, Tory supporters switched to Green, but this has also to some degree perhaps been the election of tactical voting, and what the stats don't show is how many Labour supporters might have voted Liberal (or Reform!) or whoever the polls suggested was likely to win the seat in opposition to the Conservative candidate to get them out. So the vote share for Labour might have been higher if we were using a proportional representation system.

 

[Isabeau]

It is similar here, in both Canada and Quebec, and before a party wins, they will run with the promise of changing the system, but when they win, they do nothing about it.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Both Labour and the Lib Dems ran extremely focussed campaigns, concentrating on optimising their votes in winnable constituencies. Both of them succeeded admirably in this. This strongly contrasts with Labour's campaigns in 2017 and 2019, when they piled up large majorities in constituencies they were guaranteed to win anyway, but under-performed in other seats.

Labour also benefited from the collapse of the the SNP voted in Scotland.

Similarly, the Greens concentrated their efforts on the constituencies they considered winnable, based on their successes in local elections in previous years.

I think the two big takeaways from this election are, first, the electorate wanted to get rid of the Conservatives and, second, they expected Labour to win and felt this was a result they could live with, which is why many former Conservatives felt able to protest against the Conservatives by voting for either the Lib Dems or Reform, depending on whether they were on the left or the right of their previous party.

People may be interested in this article, by an American academic and political scientist now based in the UK whose substack I follow

Lessons from the British Wave

Politics is about dreaming how the world could be. But to enact change, you must win power—and that requires accepting the world as it is.

substack.com

It touches on some of these points but also gives an interesting overview of the election and draws some contrasts with the US.

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

The UK Reform Party seems to a lot of candidates with not much information about them, it's almost that they are hiding, invisible or just made up. Some just look like they come out of an AI picture generator.

Additionally there's little trace of them on the net. Names are like Mark Metlock or Helen Burns.

Reform UK's Invisible Candidates: Who Are They Hiding?

Absent from hustings, media interviews, and social media, why are Nigel Farage's Reform champions quite so elusive?

bylinetimes.com

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Eton College, the most prestigeous private school in the UK with the highest rate of graduates becoming later Prime Ministers (like Boris Johnson), has issued a global ban on smartphones.

Pupils will be handed out instead a Nokia feature phone with no internet connectivity.

The reason why is that the college is concerned about the pupils' behaviour and mental health when exposed to continous use of smartphones.

Eton bans smartphones for new pupils

The school will issue boys with an offline Nokia handset instead amid wider moves to improve children’s mental health and behaviour

www.thetimes.com

 

[Innula Zenovka]

The UK Reform Party seems to a lot of candidates with not much information about them, it's almost that they are hiding, invisible or just made up. Some just look like they come out of an AI picture generator.

Additionally there's little trace of them on the net. Names are like Mark Metlock or Helen Burns.

Reform UK's Invisible Candidates: Who Are They Hiding?

Absent from hustings, media interviews, and social media, why are Nigel Farage's Reform champions quite so elusive?

bylinetimes.com

 

[Soen Eber]

What would you even call them? The phantom menace cabinet? Ghost MP's? The "haven't been caught yet" opposition?

 

[Bartholomew Gallacher]

Even more good news from the UK: the sugar tax introduced in 2016 is really effective. According to experts the amount of sugar consumed by children from soft drinks halved in the 3 years after announcement.

In fact it is so effective, that extending to cover high sugar food and drink products is now a no-brainer according to the experts.

Dr Nina Rogers, the lead author of the study and part of the University of Cambridge School of Clinical Medicine, said: “The findings of our study are encouraging and show that the UK soft drinks industry levy is linked to a significant reduction in daily sugar intake in adults and children. These results are consistent with previous research which show a reduction in household purchasing of sugar from soft drinks one year after adoption of the levy.”
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/article/2024/jul/04/australia-sugar-tax-diabetes-parliamentary-report

She added: “The new UK government might want to consider extending the tax to other (currently exempt) drinks which have a high sugar content, or even to some foods. They might also want to look at restructuring the tax to apply a per gram of sugar/100mls rather than threshold-based levy.”
Dr Kawther Hashem, a lecturer in Public Health Nutrition at Queen Mary University of London, said: “This new analysis drives home the importance of policies designed to improve the nutritional quality of food and drink. In particular, the soft drinks industry levy (SDIL) in the UK has proven to be an effective lever to encourage food and drink manufacturers to reduce sugar.
“With a new government now in place, policymakers are urged to consider applying a similar levy to other discretionary products that are key contributors to sugar intake, such as chocolate confectionery, to shift diets towards a healthier direction.”
A Department of Health and Social Care spokesperson said: “This government will take action to prevent ill-health and tackle the obesity crisis head on, easing the strain on the NHS and helping people to live well for longer.
“We will introduce tight restrictions on advertising junk food, alongside banning children from being able to purchase sugary, high-caffeine energy drinks.
“By building a healthier society, we will help to build a healthy economy.”

https://www.theguardian.com/society/article/2024/jul/09/childrens-daily-sugar-consumption-halves-just-a-year-after-tax-study-finds

 

[detrius]

"If you ban candy for law-abiding citizens, then only criminals will have candy!"

 

[Free]

"If you ban candy for law-abiding citizens, then only criminals will have candy!"

 

[detrius]

Gangsta cat.

 

[Innula Zenovka]

Britain has elected the most godless parliament in its history

Half the cabinet, including Sir Keir Starmer, chose the non-religious option to profess allegiance to the King

www.thetimes.com

Evernote Link

Andrew Copson, chief executive of Humanists UK, said: “For the first time ever, the number of those affirming versus swearing an oath has come close to reflecting the beliefs of the population as a whole. We’ve known for a while that the UK is one of the least religious countries in the world. We now have one of the least religious national parliaments in the world, too.”

 

[detrius]

Britain has elected the most godless parliament in its history

Half the cabinet, including Sir Keir Starmer, chose the non-religious option to profess allegiance to the King

www.thetimes.com

Evernote Link

Yeah, because the liar and serial adulterer with the hairstyle that looks like dried capellini was totally godly.