Little by little democracy is being dismantled in the UK
At least Hungarians still have freedom of movement.
It’s a dreadful campaign of erosion.
I’m not sure that the UK would any longer meet the qualification of democracy that would allow it to rejoin the EU…
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There was a chink of light in the Lib Dem win in Chesham and Amersham but that needs to be replicated 100’s of times before we get Johnson out.
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Probably due to HS2.
But HS2 was proposed during the last election.
I think partly Labour backed away effectively giving their votes to LibDems.
If you look at the numbers (and correcting for the turnout difference) the Lib Dems won by 8,000 votes after gaining about 11600, Labour were down about 4200 votes, the Tories about 7400.
The Tory and Labour losses nicely add up to the LibDem’s gains. Labour lost the bigger percentage of its vote from 2019 but the Tories lost bigger numbers.
So, presumably, a chunk of the Tories, about 25%, switched sides to LD, traditionally the 2nd placed party anyway (Labour were 2nd only in 2015 and 2017, the constituency having been formed in 1974).
Equally a chunk of voters who had supported Labour for the 2015 and 2017 election returned to the LD fold, or voted tactically (the Labour share of the vote at just 622 is the lowest since 1974).
Wikipedia has a nice graph of the vote in the constituency over time.
The bottom line is the important switch was from Tory to LD. That alone would have won them the election but tactical voting and a natural drift back from Labour filled in the rest to make it a landslide.
So, although the RW commentators are trying to spin this as an embarrassment for Labour I don’t think it is, they are traditionally placed 3rd anyway, it’s a much bigger embarrassment for the Tories as they’ve lost core (albeit presumably moderate) support.
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I agree with this.
Staggering what is happening to Electoral Commission - very much along the lines of 1930s Germany.
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Johnson has a dilemma. The more he talks about levelling up the red wall the more unhappy the blue wall gets because they’re afraid it’s their dosh he’s doing it with.
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I think that Sir Lindsay Hoyle will have something to say about this. He is becoming much more critical of Boris giving out major news at Press conferences instead of informing the House first.
I think he will see this as yet another erosion of due process.
Hoyle has capitulated for too long, I doubt he will make the slightest difference.
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None whatsoever 
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Shows my age but I thought Mitch Benn captured things rather well with this…
He is getting fed up with Boris and his total contempt for MP’s and the House, so perhaps he will not look favourably on this latest attack on the rule of law?