It was indeed a huge win, and a welcome rejection of militant socialism and anti-semitism. Thank you Yorkshire, and North Wales!
Equally heartening for those of us who live in the Scottish “blue wall” was that six out of ten Gallovidians and 55% of all Scottish voters cast our ballots for the pro-union/anti-independence parties.
It is no surprise that our socialist nationalists (whose party emblem shamelessly apes that of the Vichy French Milice) are touting this rejection of independence by Scottish voters as a “mandate” for yet another poll. But fortunately, the SNP’s endless whining for an IndyRef2 is like living next to a railway. At first the noise is a minor irritation but within a week or so one ceases to notice it.
Airborne_Again wrote:
So I would say it has everything to do with the system.
But the conservatives still got the most percentage of the votes?
if you to try to say that labour and liberals would get together as a losers coalition then the conservatives would just have to add in brexit party vote share and their figure would be higher again.
We have a system which I agree has its issues, but it does seem to have worked for the country.
I just hope that we do actually get things done in a reasonable time with no delays.
Off_Field wrote:
if you to try to say that labour and liberals would get together as a losers coalition then the conservatives would just have to add in brexit party vote share and their figure would be higher again.
What I’m saying is that if you look at the votes there is no clear popular support for Brexit. The UK seems as evenly divided on the issue today as it was three years ago.
But if you do count the votes:
Conservatives+Brexit party: 45.6%
Labour+Liberal Democrats+SNP: 47.6%
Off_Field wrote:
I just hope that we do actually get things done in a reasonable time with no delays.
without picking sides, this is the one thing that will not be “done” for quite some time…
Like any divorce, you have a rough agreement, and then the lawyers fight over the everything for years costing everyone money…
Airborne_Again wrote:
What I’m saying is that if you look at the votes there is no clear popular support for Brexit. The UK seems as evenly divided on the issue today as it was three years ago.But if you do count the votes:
Conservatives+Brexit party: 45.6%
Labour+Liberal Democrats+SNP: 47.6%
Airborne, no, it was clear. Only a European (Or Jeremy Corbyn) could see it as anything other than a massive vote for Boris. i write as originally a remainer..
The thing is… you can’t have it both ways. If the UK had PR (proportional representation), parliament would fill up with enough nutters to make this one look like a really great option for Sweden 
Coalitions don’t work well in the UK, and I think this issue runs deeper than might at first appear. The UK, like every country, has great many faults, but one thing it does have is a really high level of transparency, of both the corporate world and of government organisations. You can usually find out how to do something and get it done by following clear rules. It matters much less “who you know” or who you bribe (with a brown paper envelope, or a bottle of wine). This level of transparency doesn’t seem to be delivered in countries running under constant-coalition governments.
Obviously there is much analysis in the media of why and where etc but this piece, in an organ popular on the European mainland, is interesting reading. The Brits just don’t like a candidate who is not – to use a term nowadays unfashionable in Europe – patriotic. Brits are a bit like the Americans in that they do believe in their own country. They don’t mind it slagged off on a pilot forum but an election is a different proposition.
Actually, describing good old Jeremy as “unpatriotic” is being unbelievably kind, and the Brit working class (which delivered most of the swing this time) didn’t like that at all.
I saw Grant Shapps in some discussion the other day and he’s one of the sharpest MPs. Sure his desk will be covered with stuff like the HS2 railway (cancel or not, or which bit to build).
JasonC wrote:
Only a European (Or Jeremy Corbyn) could see it as anything other than a massive vote for Boris.
So Brits are not Europeans now? Anyway, sure it was a massive vote for the Tories. I’m arguing it wasn’t a massive vote for Brexit. The parliamentary situation is, of course, very clear.
A&A – I am not sure if the exact analysis you are looking for is out there, but it probably is, or will be. The Guardian – one of the few UK papers not behind a paywall – won’t be much good for this because it’s a Labour and Remain paper. The BBC might have something here.
It seems obvious that all the definite Brexit voters voted for Boris because he was the only option offering that clear choice. So he probably got the whole 52% who voted “out” in the 2016 referendum. And it is definite that a lot of Remainers also voted for Boris because they did not support Jeremy (or other Labour policies). The definite Remain voters had the Lib Dems as the only option…
Whether you call that a “vote for brexit” is a matter of opinion, but a vote for x is a vote for x regardless of underlying motives If you promised free avgas for ever, and were going to bring back Joseph Stalin, and I voted for you, then I definitely voted for both free avgas and for Stalin
I didn’t expect such a clear result, with Johnson being such a controversial figure. But then again, as Peter said, his clear stance on Brexit got him most of the Brexiteer vote. Corbyn’s dithering on Brexit, on the other hand, split the Remainer vote, which in the British FPTP voting system spells doom.
With the German MMP voting system, the Tories would probably still have been the largest party, but the other parties would have had a majority and able to form a coalition government.
Edit: Also Corbyn was probably the worst choice as opposition leader, because few politicans are so unpopular as him outside their narrow core supporter base.
And there we were thinking Brexit is done now or will be by the end of January.
Boris is acclaimed for the deal he has done with the EU despite Mrs May having been forced by the DUP to turn that deal down. The EU are happy as they got what they wanted in the first place and the UK are happy that they have a new strong and stable government backed by the majority of the UK, well except for Scotland and NI. A government that can stand up to us nasty Europeans who you believed were telling you what to do.
So merry christmas UK and bon courage for 2020.
