Disastrous Night For Labour

[joggerjayne]

After the last Election, Labour told us (again and again and again, yaaawn) that the new Government had NO REAL MANDATE, coz they had received NO REAL MAJORITY from the electorate.

So the mid terms are where the voters traditionally boost the Opposition and kick the incumbent administration.

But only 32% bothered to turn out.

And Labour only got 39% of that 32%

So the Trots were only endorsed by 12% of the electorate.

Or, put another way, 88% of the population have rejected Labour.

By their own criteria, that was a disastrous night for Labour.

[murraymints]

shame on you lot that did not vote....don't start counting in Scotland 'till today...

[mickrog]

Its mid term in government....this is the usual pattern of local elections....in a general election I am sure people will realise that the bunch at the head of the Labour Party are not capable of governing.....and this is from me a lifelong Labour voter.

[joggerjayne]

In fact, at the moment ...

Labour 39%

Conservative 31%

Lib Dems 16%

So ...

(1) the Trots were only 8% ahead of the Conservatives, whom they describe as having been rejected by the voters.

(2) the real tally is: Alliance Government 47%, Labour Opposition 39%

Whichever way you look at it, the Trots have been badly thrashed.

The big question is ... where are my beloved Greens??

[Gromit]

Yes terrible.

500 new Labour councillors. Tories minus 280, Lib Dems minus 130.

All achieved with a cr@p leader and no new policies.

[TheNovice]

think the press and the BBC (stop gloating wil you!!!) could have wrote the headlines a year ago, or dug up the headlines from any mid-term election over the last few decades!

Apathy rules, but will the politicians take any notice of that.... of course not. They will gloat, excuse and lambast but I guarantee not one will answer how they will re-engage the electorate.

[joggerjayne]

Gromit ...

As Labout kept telling us after the General Election, the "apparent" victory hides the fact that the majority (88% in this case) do not support the outcome.

[TheNovice]

Protest vote - simple as that. Milliband and his troupe still have to come up with policies rather than rhetoric.

[Gromit]

// where are my beloved Greens?? //

Others - minus 80 councillors.

Expect that is a brilliant result by your measuring.

[joggerjayne]

Gromit ... yes

[Sqad]

No sympathy for the Electorate at all........sorry.

At the election the voters were swayed by TV debates and the young charismatic Liberal leader Nick Clegg put on an extrovert performance. Voters left the traditional main parties and voted for the outsiders (including Brighton I may add with the Green Candidate) and so one is reaping what they have sewn.

No typical Labour policies.
No typical Tory policies.
Just a shambles.

Don't blame the politicians, blame the naive voters.

[joggerjayne]

Go Green !!

[Gromit]

Go Green !! - I think they just went.

[VHG]

>>>how they will re-engage the electorate.

Maybe by movng voting to the weekend would help, instead of a wet Thursday.

I was in Belgium a few years ago over a weekend and they had an election. People could vote both days, Saturday and Sunday.

Everyone off work, more time to vote, much more relaxed.

What do we do here, expect people to vote before work, or after work, and on a wet cold Thursday most wont bother.

Lets switch voting in elections to a weekend as a matter of urgency.

[joggerjayne]

Good thought, VHG

[TheNovice]

Can't see weekends doing the trick, especially if we're picking the weather slots for people to vote in, what about people who go away weekends, or the ever growing bank of people who work weekends.

Don't think Thursday is the problem somehow, been that way for many a year and almost everyone is near their polling station (on a weekday) for a couple of minutes between polling hours ....which cover a 15 hour period.

[sir.prize]

and Nick Clegg says he's disappointed. Well, there you go!

[d9f1c7]

The whole election was faked, none of it really happenned it was all filmed by the BBC in a studio.

[daffy654]

I didn't vote, then again I'm not even sure we had a local election as we had no polling cards or postal votes (which we signed up for) through the door.

[Davethedog]

So using your figures over 6 millon voters deserted the Torys

[Davethedog]

Or should I say using your vernacular over 6m people deserted the facists