Current Affairs 2017 General Election

[The binman chronicles]

I am almost certain that none of them would have done as much to repair Labour as a political party either (in terms of bringing the membership numbers back up and restoring the finances), or brought as many former Labour voters back into the fold.

I would take that statememt as fact as absolutely only Corbyn could have done that. But while he has re-energised the party and reinforced the heartlands plus gained new ground in London, (is it brexit though?) he will struggle to get middle England to vote for him as he is seen as the anti-christ. The other leaders would have had a better crack at that imo.

 

[tsubaki]

And how many Tories voted in protest as they didn't want a hard brexit or her absolute failure to show up during the campaign. Same can be said about other parties too.

It's something that is very difficult to tell compared to previous elections.

The fact that she got a very high number of votes (more than any Tory leader since 1992), that the UKIP vote collapsed, that they were running against an actual socialist and that there wasn't a surge in Lib Dem votes suggests that there weren't that many Tory voters not voting Tory as a protest. In fact I'd say she was probably at the upper end of the potential Tory vote in the country.

 

[Old Blue 2]

One of the DUP MPs on News at One: The future's bright. The future's orange.

That's not a political statement, it's a religious statement.

Hmmm...

 

[Bruce Wayne]

And how many Tories voted in protest as they didn't want a hard brexit or her absolute failure to show up during the campaign. Same can be said about other parties too.

It's something that is very difficult to tell compared to previous elections.

Plus the Lib Dems were abject, so 'the 48%' went somewhere, but largely not to them. Of course, it may be that Corbyn pulled a blinder and won large numbers back to him, but the jury is still out for me.

 

[tsubaki]

I would take that statememt as fact as absolutely only Corbyn could have done that. But while he has re-energised the party and reinforced the heartlands plus gained new ground in London, (is it brexit though?) he will struggle to get middle England to vote for him as he is seen as the anti-christ. The other leaders would have had a better crack at that imo.

I think the key bit there is "seen as the anti-Christ".

People see him as that mainly because that is what they have been told to see him as, and if the audience participation debates proved nothing else at this election its that large swathes of the electorate don't understand how our country, our government, our foreign policy and our military (especially the nuclear deterrent) actually operates. If that view of him changes then there is no reason why the floating voters that political operatives court to the exclusion of everyone else wouldn't vote for him as well.

 

[The binman chronicles]

I think the key bit there is "seen as the anti-Christ".

People see him as that mainly because that is what they have been told to see him as, and if the audience participation debates proved nothing else at this election its that large swathes of the electorate don't understand how our country, our government, our foreign policy and our military (especially the nuclear deterrent) actually operates. If that view of him changes then there is no reason why the floating voters that political operatives court to the exclusion of everyone else wouldn't vote for him as well.

That's what we will be watching the next election for to find out! Are those views going to soften on JC? Will the Tories finally implode when choosing a leader? Will the people who didn't want brexit turn on the party that caused it if it goes wrong?

Corbyn has gone in my view from impossible to improbable of winning an election. If he gets positive answers on the questions above then with a bit of fair wind that may blow him over the line.

 

[ToffeeTim]

Could all English politicians stop insinuating that the peace is in danger here. It's not helpful or even remotely likely.

Ta.

 

[neil999]

Could all English politicians stop insinuating that the peace is in danger here. It's not helpful or even remotely likely.

Ta.

dont think peace will be affected, but will make power sharing more 'interesting'

 

[mezzrow]

Even as their world came apart, the bankers clung to denial. By August 2007, the flagship hedge fund of Wall Street’s most prestigious firm was tanking fast – and what explanation came from the man at Goldman Sachs? “We were seeing things that were 25-standard deviation moves, several days in a row.” The bank was getting hit by events that were only meant to happen once every 100,000 years – and they were happening every day of the week. Given a choice between blaming their models or reality, Goldman’s bosses held the world at fault.

You know the rest because, a decade later, you and I are still paying for it. How the banks died, the world economy collapsed and most of us got poorer. How the financiers, mainstream economists and regulators were so detached from reality that they swore blind that such a catastrophe was impossible – even while it was under way.

Their reputation has never recovered. And as an economics journalist, I look across at politics and see the same process at work. Brexit, Donald Trump, Jeremy Corbyn: time after time, the political class has completely failed to understand the world they were governing, policing and analysing. Allow me to be blunt: our political crisis is also a crisis for our political class. And it is one from which I doubt they can recover.

At each major fork in the road, they have sped off down the wrong turning, while decrying the other as unimaginable. Each time, they have crashed.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...lass-economic-failure-crisis?CMP=share_btn_tw

“History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes" - attributed to Mark Twain

And some wonder why everyone seems so jumpy these days. Especially those politicos.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

It does strike me as odd that everyone is carrying on as though Corbyn won the election. 90% of the constituencies in the election failed to change hands. This was hardly a Damascun conversion.

 

[neil999]

It does strike me as odd that everyone is carrying on as though Corbyn won the election. 90% of the constituencies in the election failed to change hands. This was hardly a Damascun conversion.

true, but i saw something yesterday about a huge amount of seats that now have tory majorities of less than 2,000

i NEVER thought a candidate as left wing as corbyn would get as many seats as he can, something has definitely changed

 

[Ruairi77]

Even as their world came apart, the bankers clung to denial. By August 2007, the flagship hedge fund of Wall Street’s most prestigious firm was tanking fast – and what explanation came from the man at Goldman Sachs? “We were seeing things that were 25-standard deviation moves, several days in a row.” The bank was getting hit by events that were only meant to happen once every 100,000 years – and they were happening every day of the week. Given a choice between blaming their models or reality, Goldman’s bosses held the world at fault.

You know the rest because, a decade later, you and I are still paying for it. How the banks died, the world economy collapsed and most of us got poorer. How the financiers, mainstream economists and regulators were so detached from reality that they swore blind that such a catastrophe was impossible – even while it was under way.

Their reputation has never recovered. And as an economics journalist, I look across at politics and see the same process at work. Brexit, Donald Trump, Jeremy Corbyn: time after time, the political class has completely failed to understand the world they were governing, policing and analysing. Allow me to be blunt: our political crisis is also a crisis for our political class. And it is one from which I doubt they can recover.

At each major fork in the road, they have sped off down the wrong turning, while decrying the other as unimaginable. Each time, they have crashed.

https://www.theguardian.com/comment...lass-economic-failure-crisis?CMP=share_btn_tw

“History doesn't repeat itself but it often rhymes" - attributed to Mark Twain

And some wonder why everyone seems so jumpy these days. Especially those politicos.

I'd imagine Corbyn is rhyming more with the rise of Sanders here.
They only thing Trump rhymes with is orange.

 

[Gwladysstreetlad]

I did chuckle and the nonsense spin from the Dim Farron trying to pretend that going from eight MP's to twelve is some kind of impressive achievement. It's still awful, it's eight less then they managed on their maiden campaign in 92.

 

[Bruce Wayne]

I did chuckle and the nonsense spin from the Dim Farron trying to pretend that going from eight MP's to twelve is some kind of impressive achievement. It's still awful, it's eight less then they managed on their maiden campaign in 92.

50% increase you know.

 

[Gwladysstreetlad]

50% increase you know.

It's obviously open season for gross exaggerations atm. That's clearly nothing new, but I dont think its unreasonable to expect our media to at least change politicians when they make such obviously ludicrous statements.