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Those by-elections (potential and otherwise) in full

In the last six general elections the number of people who didn't vote has exceeded the number of votes of any single party. Between 1945 and 1997 the average turnout was 76.3% but the average has dropped to 64.7% in the six elections since.
Are results due to "the floating vote" or people choosing not to vote? I believe the latter is the biggest factor.
My suspicion is that the last election was an anomaly. A rejection of the hard left possibly? Or a vote for someone with a particular personality? Or someone who would deliver the Brexit referendum maybe?
None of these will be relevant factors at the next election so it will be interesting. Neither leader has any charisma so it will be a level playing field on that front :)
It certainly looks like Labour's election to lose at the moment but I think it will be a lot closer than it looks today.
 
My suspicion is that the last election was an anomaly. A rejection of the hard left possibly? Or a vote for someone with a particular personality? Or someone who would deliver the Brexit referendum maybe?

I would agree the last election was an anomaly, and suspect it was because of mix of the three things you mention, but sort of in reverse order - getting Brexit done, electing a clown, and lastly rejecting Corbyn.
 
another interesting stat from the past...
2001 election (Tony Blair's second)
Tory vote fell 1.3m
Labour vote fell 2.8m
Lib Dem vote fell 0.4m
other parties total vote fell 0.4m
people who didn't vote went up 5.5m. (electorate increased by 0.5m)
 
so the anti-Labour people here are now criticising them for not getting votes from people who didn't vote? tough crowd.
Well, yes. Should they not be seeking votes from people who didn’t vote? Are those people just congenitally unable to vote or something? Or could it be that they also comprise a valid target for parties? Over 60% of people in these by-elections were not inspired to get out there and choose either party. Labour’s inability to speak to any of those 60+% is certainly a reasonable point of criticism
 
Well, yes. Should they not be seeking votes from people who didn’t vote? Are those people just congenitally unable to vote or something? Or could it be that they also comprise a valid target for parties? Over 60% of people in these by-elections were not inspired to get out there and choose either party. Labour’s inability to speak to any of those 60+% is certainly a reasonable point of criticism
It's not about speaking to them. A large proportion of them are people convinced that nobody in politics will listen to them.
 
Well, yes. Should they not be seeking votes from people who didn’t vote? Are those people just congenitally unable to vote or something? Or could it be that they also comprise a valid target for parties?
Yep. Non-voters is not some fixed in stone category - 2017 (and even 2019 to an extent) proved that many "non-voters" are happy, indeed even eager, to vote when they feel they have some group that represents their interests.

Time has proved what many were saying years ago - New Labour's stupidity of simply assuming voters have 'no where to go' was not just a disgusting political strategy it was a fundamentally flawed electoral one too. Ask Hilary Clinton.
 
Well, yes. Should they not be seeking votes from people who didn’t vote? Are those people just congenitally unable to vote or something? Or could it be that they also comprise a valid target for parties? Over 60% of people in these by-elections were not inspired to get out there and choose either party. Labour’s inability to speak to any of those 60+% is certainly a reasonable point of criticism
We simply don't know. Local election turn out is always lower. The idea that Labour huge %gain was somehow not a success because of the low turnout is silly and it's that I was arguing against.
 
We simply don't know. Local election turn out is always lower. The idea that Labour huge %gain was somehow not a success because of the low turnout is silly and it's that I was arguing against.
If you’ve done shitly at something but your opponent has done even more shitly, that does not make you a success. It just makes your opponent an even bigger loser.
 
If you’ve done shitly at something but your opponent has done even more shitly, that does not make you a success. It just makes your opponent an even bigger loser.
pretty much nobody actually thinks they did shitly out in the real world though. The turnout was completely in line with local election averages. They won a massive percentage swing.
 
pretty much nobody actually thinks they did shitly out in the real world though. The turnout was completely in line with local election averages. They won a massive percentage swing.
They put a huge amount of resources into mobilising the vote because of the symbolic significance of overturning a big deficit. And then fewer actual people turned out to vote for them than previously. Thousands of people who voted for them in 2019 couldn’t be arsed to vote for them in 2023. Wow, much win.
 
take the blinkers off. we can agree to disagree. I look forward to them doing so shitly in a GE and winning a landslide.
 
I fully expect the Tories to do even shitlier. That doesn’t make me impressed with Labour, though. Wow, you put people off a bit less than the other lot. How inspiring.
 
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