As an aside, it’s been underreported that the Lib Dems held on to every one of their massive by-election wins in once-safe Conservative seats. Unprecedented. Going forward this is bad news for the Tories. They’re not going to be able to shift the LDs out of the GE seats taken from them.
My previous attempt at voting tactically was voting LibDem when living north of Woodstock, when it was irredeemably blue. Seeing Charlie Maynard turn Witney orange is very satisfying - the Chipping Norton set may never recover. 😄
The other interesting fact, noted elsewhere, is the seats of the previous five Conservative Party leaders are no longer Conservative seats. Truss's SW Norfolk, Johnson's Uxbridge, May's Maidenhead, Cameron's Witney and Howard's Folkestone.
I hope Starmer works cross-party with the Lib Dems on things like social care because a) they've got good ideas and b) I think it's in everyone's interests that those seats stay Lib Dem in five year's time. It ensures they've got a reliable coalition partner if they lose an overall majority.
Reavers. The descendants of the Reavers live there.
Coincidentally “Tory” is from the Gaelic for “Bandit” so maybe the Party of Thieves appeals to them?
All the seats they held were between them and the SNP, and the SNP vote was collapsing as fast as the Tory vote. Any seat where the Lib Dems or Labour had a prayer, the Tories lost.
Haven't been to Banbury since the 80s, but my late uncle was a leading light in the local Tory party and the very definition of an old, gin-soaked, British Imperialist.
The idea that Banbury now has a Labour MP will have him spinning in his grave.
Whatever the vote numbers are (I'm no fan of FPTP), I heard an analyst say it was more the hard right Tories that had lost their seats and the parliamentary Tories were now more moderate one-nation types
My takeaway is that being hard right hasn't worked. Not only did they lose seats to Lib Dems but they also lost hard-right MP's. Historically the party has reacted strongly to ballot success and I wouldn't rule out a move towards the centre, hopefully with an open door to the EU.
Precisely this - they can't be a 'little bit hard right' to chase votes as those voters will simplify go for the hard right option. Plus they also lose votes to the LDs. It’ll only work if the opposition is considered unelectable - which like him or not - Corbyn was viewed as.
In a given seat, the one nationers were more likely to hold them, but the headbangers were in the safer seats so the parliamentary Tories are full of headbangers.
