A good point but I think the Muslim community will be pissed with Starmer. I’m sure they are pissed off with Sunak and his bunch as well, but they may pivote from Labour to other options.
I’ve decided not to apply for my vote back as I couldn’t in all conscience vote Labour. I’ve no idea what Starmer stands for and his comments and approach on Gaza have been pathetic. The Tories are dreadful and have destroyed the Country, but I’m not sure Starmer and Labour are any better. Just less nasty perhaps. I wonder how many others may be starting to think that way.
This has been mentioned on here before but it is potentially a real problem for Labour - not for now but for the subsequent General Election. People will vote Labour this time just to get the Tories out, but Starmer will need something special to win a 2nd term.
OK, just like the priests from the pulpit in years gone by, but how will they tell them to vote? Won’t imams be even more pissed off then the average muslim?
Interesting to note that of all the people who voted in Rochdale, 73.32% did not vote for any of the traditional three main parties.
Perhaps our main stream politicians should stop telling people what to think, and actually start listening to what the voters actually do think. Of course having politicians who actually vote according to the views of the electorate who made them MPs in the first place, may be too much for our broken political system to bear.
Every time I hear Sunak declare “what the British people want is…” he then comes out with some claptrap that the Tory party wants. Then yesterday he slags off Galloway’s election ignoring that it was what 39.7% of the people that voted wanted. Being lied to by these people is bad but being treated like an idiot is even worse.
When Sunak used the term ‘beyond alarming’ in relation to the Rochdale result, perhaps he was referring to the fact that the Tories couldn’t even come anywhere near being second. I mean an independent candidate received very nearly twice the number of votes gained by the Conservative candidate. I suspect that for the Tory party, and indeed it’s leader, that is truly something which is ‘beyond alarming’.
I listened to him being interviewed and then saw him on the news. A very nice, unassuming man who wants to do the best for his community. I think more independents are needed rather then these “my Party, right or wrong” types.
I clearly don’t know which constituency you could have a vote in so this might not be relevant, but surely you’d rather help to unseat a Tory by voting tactically than not voting at all?
Also by not even being on the register you are skewing the stats on turnout.
Absolutely, John you must get your vote back, that really nice bloke you speak of in Rochdale wouldn’t have got anywhere near 2nd place and garnering more votes than Tory and Labour combined, if everyone thought that way.
I am determined to vote, which is why I have been trying to find out who the likely candidates are in my constituency. So far, only 2 names but I will get them all in time and decide where I can put it to the most effect.
BTW I heard an interview with the Labour organiser in Rochdale who refused to reveal which way he voted but from what he said I was convinced it was for the Indy one.
@David_Spardo My last address was Ladbroke Grove. so it’s Kensington. It does seem to be a marginal so I better try and hunt out some official proof of address from that era.
From Wiki… "Kensington is a constituency which first existed between 1974 and 1997 and was recreated in 2010. Since 2019, it has been represented in the House of Commons by Felicity Buchan of the Conservative Party.
At the 2017 general election, Emma Dent Coad gained the seat from incumbent Conservative Victoria Borwick by the slenderest margin in England, 20 votes, the first time Kensington had been represented by a Labour MP. Dent Coad was defeated by Buchan at the 2019 United Kingdom general election by a narrow margin of 150 votes."
So unlike many voters, your vote actually has an effect.
I’m quite excited for my UK constituency (the newly formed Wells & Mendip Hills) as although it’s predecessor of Wells traditionally went to the Nasty Party the LibDems took in it 2010 by a small margin (about 500 votes), in the wake of the local MP having his hand in the till. The current Nasty majority is quite big (since a reversal of fortune in 2015) but with it’s reshaping there is a distinct possibility of change, but that is likely to be blown by all those who think that they can get a Labour candidate elected, which is simply going to split the anti-Nasty support.
I’m not a supporter of the LibDems, just someone who will give them my vote if it means less Tory representation.
If Labour had a chance where I have a vote they would get it instead. In fact more or less any party who is best placed to unseat the turgid blob of a Tory MP who currently squats in that seat would get my vote as, sadly the crap voting system means that I have to do so.
I would draw the line at Reform/Reclaim, or whatever they’re called this week.
I may have to contact HMRC