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The 2017 General Election campaign

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The Economist is backing the yellow losers :D
No party passes with flying colours. But the closest is the Liberal Democrats. Brexit is the main task of the next government and they want membership of the single market and free movement. (Their second referendum would probably come to nothing, as most voters are reconciled to leaving the EU.) They are more honest than the Tories about the need to raise taxes for public services; and more sensible than Labour, spreading the burden rather than leaning only on high-earners. Unlike Labour, they would reverse the Tories’ most regressive welfare cuts. They are on the right side of other issues: for devolution of power from London, reform of the voting system and the House of Lords, and regulation of markets for drugs and sex.
We know that this year the Lib Dems are going nowhere. But the whirlwind unleashed by Brexit is unpredictable. Labour has been on the brink of breaking up since Mr Corbyn took over. If Mrs May polls badly or messes up Brexit, the Tories may split, too. Many moderate Conservative and Labour MPs could join a new liberal centre party – just as parts of the left and right have recently in France. So consider a vote for the Lib Dems as a down-payment for the future. Our hope is that they become one element of a party of the radical centre, essential for a thriving, prosperous Britain.
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The Pale King said:
Had a chat with a similarly-minded Auntie the other night. She is culturally, pre-ideologically disposed to vote Tory and never Labour, but the dementia tax and fox-hunting has her spooked and she is contemplating either sitting this one out or voting Lib Dem. I hope there are more like her...
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My FIL (baby boomer, Labour voter in the 70s, working class Thatcherite) was full of smug assurance that he "had to" vote Tory because of the triple lock and Brexit prior to the election, has been sounding increasingly upset and ratty as the rug has been pulled from underneath him. Still think he might vote Tory out of pure stubbornness (he likes winding up and arguing with his son, my out-canvassing-for-Corbyn partner) but I hold out hope. It'll just really hurt for him to do this at this point, so he's precisely the person these attack ads are for; gives them a self justifying reason not to step outside their comfort zone.

eta. fucking radical centre my arse. Fuck off losers.
 
Radical centre

ETA: Raise the standard now folks. If that isn't a battle cry we can all get behind then I don't know what is.
 
Wilf said:
To entirely personalise it... part of May's problem when campaigning is her material in terms of the manifesto and policies. But the other is she's actually fucking dull. But dull in the way of some braying office gobshite who hasn't quite figured out how unfunny they are. Corbyn himself isn't overly exciting, but probably has a degree of self awareness and plays to his 'dull but worthy and honest' image. He's not an ideal leader for charging round the country enthusing people, despite the size of his leadership rallies. But an election really exposes dreadful May is. When it became clear she didn't know how to eat a chip, the tories probably realised they had a problem on their hands.
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May's a rollercoaster of charisma compared to Amber Rudd, one of the best adverts I've ever seen for the idea that most Conservative politicians are alien reptiles in disguise.

Yes, it's personalising it, but that's the way we work in this country in the run-up to a GE, a huge amount of it's about the leader. Plenty of people will cut their nose off to spite their face by voting against their own interests based on whether they do or don't like this or that leader.

And I think it's a factor that May and her team didn't really think through before they called this. May can get away with looking authoritative to a lot of people when they only get the occasional power-dressed, steely-voiced glimpse of her on the news, but in larger doses it becomes parodic quite quickly, the strong-and-stable dalek, the reluctance to engage on a human level with people because either she doesn't have a personality or the one she has is horrible.

Corbyn, on the other hand, was much easier to caricature when people saw a lot less of what he's really like.
 
Teaboy said:
Thinking aloud here but I wonder if the tories decision to make it all about Brexit has backfired a bit as well. Its become clear that the lib dems are bombing and Farron's strategy on focusing on the 48% has been a disaster. UKIP have fallen off the map and May is still gravely banging on about the negotiations like its going to be trench warfare.

It seems to me that most people have moved on now. A few headbangers on both sides are still mad furious about it but everyone else is just getting on with their lives and trying to make the best of the situation. Corbyn has done well by focusing on these issues whilst May and her lot just look miserable and tired and offering nothing but grim foreboding.

Dunno, it just seems to be they have misread the mood of the country a bit.
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I have been watching/listening to lots about the election, lots of interviewees, callers, still very much concerned with Brexit.
 
kabbes said:
I have come to realise I have just as little idea on this as anybody else. In fact less so, because the City and leafy Surrey Hills are, much to my surprise, not particularly representative of the wider country.

Within my bubble though, definitely. Not so much that there will be a shock Labour win in true blue constituencies. But Corbyn was perceived as a total joke, whereas now he seems to have a grudging respect. The manifesto was a huge win. Nationalisation of the rail service is really popular even amongst the middle-aged Tory lifers. Anybody who has to sit in a Southern or SouthWestern train every day welcomes it. There is also a general view that utilities are natural state ventures, and this is largely as a result of seeing that our private providers are, basically, German and French state institutions. If they can do it, why can't we?

I also haven't heard any grumbles about corporation tax. The people I deal with professionally, who are the ones I talk to about such things, are used to dealing with tax rates across the world and they know that 26% is still pretty cheap, actually. I think there is a general shrug at that. You only get taxed on profits anyway, so it doesn't put up your gross expenses or anything. Nobody has sad anything about higher personal taxes at the top end, but they wouldn't because, you know, British. We don't talk about our income.

So the manifesto came across as thoughtful, reasonable and with a distinct vision. They might not vote for it (generally, they won't), but they weren't going to anyway, and at least they have respect for it.

Respect, I should add, that they did not have for Miliband's effort. He and his party remained a joke to the bitter end.

Now, how any of that translates into how Labour is viewed in the rest of the country -- well, that's what I come on Urban to find out.
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its a shame we even have to consider such people.
 
treelover said:
I have been watching/listening to lots about the election, lots of interviewees, callers, still very much concerned with Brexit.
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I guess that's why we're seeing such a swing to the lib dems then?

Joking aside, of course its a factor just not the only topic in town like the tories and lib dems are making out.
 
Anyway I've had my first labour flier through the door today. I'm a bit surprised to get one really as its a straight tory v lib dem shootout here, even the greens have dropped out to help the libs. Anyway the leaflet has a big picture of Corbyn on the first page so perhaps they are not so ashamed of their leader now.
 
treelover said:
its a shame we even have to consider such people.
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:Shrug: They're just people. There's a lot of them -- millions, probably -- just living their lives, products of their environment and upbringing. There's no point demonising them. Better to gradually show them that atomisation and capitalism hurts us all and take them with you on your journey. That's society for you.
 
Sue said:
I'm an expert in picking up and drinking (non-symbolic) pints. I also have significant chip eating experience. I should very probably be the leader of a major political party.
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I'm sure you can do better than zac 'two hands' goldsmith in the pint holding game.

Zm1E0Jg.jpg
 
MightyTibberton said:
My mother was just on the phone and reports that posters she's seeing - this was in Hereford - don't say "Vote Conservative" they say "Vote Theresa May".

For years, the Tory press have been telling themselves that May is some sort of Big Beast superhero and even some sort of sex symbol (kitten heels, anyone?!?!), but I don't think she comes across terribly well. She's never been challenged before.

At the G7 and NATO summits, if anyone rivalled Trump in the "looking out of place" stakes it was her. And as America drifts further from the international community I wonder how TM's rush to hold hands with the Terry's Chocolate Putin in the White House looks? (This is a bit of a personal interest of mine, but I actually don't think international affairs play that great a role in elections - unless there's a war on.)

All very inconsequential and persoality-based, no doubt, but if the Tories are banking on someone looking Strong and Stable - some Thatcher 2.0 - they'd better get her to start looking, you know, strong and stable soon.
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Leaflet here has Charlotte Leslie "Standing with Theresa May". It's a complete cult of personality deal
 
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