The polls have closed after the snap election called by Theresa May. She wanted to increase her majority ahead of Brexit negotiations, and called it at a time when she was a long way ahead in the polls.
Outside the hustings on Monday, members of the Hunt Saboteurs were protesting. Theresa May pledged a free vote on repealing the ban on fox hunting in the Conservative manifesto.
As mentioned yesterday the Greens formed a nuanced ‘progressive alliance’ with the Lib Dems in this area, and there was the unusual sight of Green and Lib-Dem posters in the same gardens, and windows.
Outside polling stations Conservative and Lib-Dem tellers took down polling numbers.
The parties seem to be using the phone more than door to door these days. But the pile of literature in our letter tray was as big as usual. It even included two letters from 10 Downing Street asking us to trust Theresa May with the Brexit negotiations.
There was an out of reach poster of Nicola Blackwood outside the Conservative Club. Lib-Dem posters outnumbered Conservative here in Abingdon. I did not see a single UKIP poster. I liked the Labour’s simple “I’m Voting Labour”, and was impressed by their candidate – the only candidate I met during the campaign.
We went to the polling station at the Guildhall at about 6:30. There was a steady flow of people but no queue. Other people on twitter reported queues elsewhere. We now await the result with interest.
At 05.20, the results suggest a diminished majority for the Tories and possibly 260 for Labour. This is far from the thumping endorsement the Prime Minister wanted.
We have spent six or seven weeks listening to inflated promises from one and all. Now the pigeons are home to roost – and there is no mandate (whatever that means).
Will they never learn? (sigh)
…and OXWAB has a new mp
Will the DUP come to the aid of the party??.
looks like we are orange again. always liked evan harris personally.
The Bloody Electorate! They won’t do what they’re supposed to do!
I didn’t feel an insistence to vote, but voted, without any great enthusiasm, for Layla Moran. I just hope that she’s absorbed the lesson provided by the outgoing, unlamented Nicola and not become an absentee MP. Remember Layla, it’s all about the diamond interchange and only making promises you can keep. Don’t treat your electorate on a need-to-know basis.
And it’s gonna be goodbye to car-crash Teresa.
I just hope the Tories aren’t going to opt for class-clown Bozo Boris as we really don’t need a cabaret artist i/c of one of the two major parties.
My advice … thanks for asking … the Tories should, with humility, ask Gove to step up to the ‘ockey. He’s the only Tory Politician who’s impressed me with his focus and possession of some principles … unlike party-darling Boris, who’s one of Life’s chancers.
Clegg gone … Salmon gone … despite the inconveniences of aging health I could live forever for mornings like this …
Well done to the electorate, you’ve spectacularly just shot yourselves in the foot ! You were given a vote on Brexit and you voted for Brexit, to give us/you the strongest negotiating position ( which is what we needed and you voted for ) T M called for a bigger working majority to bring about the best Brexit terms, and that’s what this election should have been about,
Now, the young ( who historically don’t vote ) were conned into voting labour on the promise of abolishing tuition fees, they niaively voted labour who cannot make any change to tuition fees policy! Then Corbyn & co jumped on the back of the dreadful terrorist events by claims of underfunding on Mays watch as Home Secretary left our police and security forces wanting !
Now we have a political mess !
Sorry CK2, May called the election as she wanted to extend the Tories time in power and push through some unpopular policies on the back of a popular wish for Brexit.
Calling the election had nothing to do with Brexit. She had the majority to carry that through. She over-extended her abilities once she muddied the waters with ‘dementia tax’, etc, or whatever you want to call it. Overplayed her hand. She’s a reckless gambler and a fool. She deserves no sympathy. She’s made things much, much worse. She was in charge of the timetable and she called it like a brainless novice.
CK2 – that sounds more like frustration than anything else. The Prime Minister called an election on a single issue. But General Elections are almost never single-issue events and so it proved this time.
As far as the Brexit referendum is concerned, a majority of those voting voted Leave – but it was neither an overwhelming majority nor a majority of those entitled to vote. And those who remain sceptical of the wisdom of Brexit are surely entitled to express their opinion.
In no other election are those who lose expected to simply roll over and cease to fight their corner. That’s why Labour continues to exist despite the fact that that party hasn’t formed a government for ages. If you believe a course of action is wrong, should you simply acquiesce in it? Or do you stick to your guns?
The messy outcome of this General Election may give those who are charged with negotiating Brexit occasion to shout less loudly – and I, for one, am in favour of not negotiating by megaphone. It may also remind Westminster MPs that talking about mandates inevitably foolish. As Harold MacMillan reminded his critics, certainties get undermined by “events.”
Well, we have just had an event.
Rather a patronising view CK – although I don’t agree with most of Jeremy Corbyn’s views I do think it is a really good thing for democracy and the country that he seems to have motivated young people to stop disenfranchising themselves.
Let’s hope longer term that other parties stop ignoring issues that are important to young people, such as chronic underfunding of education and environmental complacency.
Newcomer (7) – I agree with this assessment – it happens about once a year 😉
Iain … you mean you only agree with me once a year? For a moment I thought this was the beginning of a life-long friendship …
Lol
Capt K – thankfully the young people I know – both here and elsewhere – don’t have the narrow self-centred approach you attribute to them: they care deeply about the environment, social justice, being part of an international community etc etc.
Romantic idealism is great before the grind of bill paying, raising kids, mortality et al kick in, but I share Capt K’s dismay that so much of our, allegedly media savvy, younger generation fell for someone who has blatantly promised everything to anyone out there without a thought as to how to pay for it, (the rich, for heaven’s sake…). We’ve come within a hair’s breadth of a return to 70’s style union chaos and the bully boys of the hard left, combined with reinvigorated passive-aggressive thought criminality of political correctness throughout our higher education system.
They can’t even seem to realise they lost, big time, such is their delusion.
“Won’t get fooled again…”
Thank you old ghost, in reality those in Abingdon & West Oxon who voted Lib/Dem have effectively voted labour in that its one seat less for the elected government!
Any hope of a diamond at lodge hill has gone forever now as for any other major projects that may have been in the offing, unfortunately I remember pre Nicola Blackwood when we had a very part time mp by the name of Evan Harris, OCC was majority Tory, the Vale majority Lib/Dem and the town council was unanimous Lib/Dem and Abingdon suffers because of a local political atmosphere of bickering and point scoring.
Just heard May has made a deal.with the DUP
Oh the strange but scary irony, after the constant smearing of Jeremy Corbyn for daring to talk to the IRA years ago. Joining up with a far right, climate change denying, misogynistic bunch of homophobes in return for selling NI down the river on Brexit is never the right answer (unless the question is ‘what’s the worst thing I can possibly do to punish the electorate for not following through on my cunning but eminently flawed plan to get a bigger majority?’)
Ha, ha, yes I thought Comrade Corbyn’s terrorism apologetics, security obstructing danger would have gained greater traction too.
I guess in forming a government the mortally wounded Theresa must have been scared into action by Comrade Mcdonell giving her the weekend to form one otherwise he’d – … well I guess he’d have learnt to count maybe. Hubris, hubris.
When I were a lass, the Protestant Irish MPs were always lumped in with the Conservatives … it went almost without saying. I don’t see how that can suddenly be seen as odd. And how can we possibly know whether the election result is entirely the “fault” of the youth? I don’t think it’s possible to extrapolate that material from the election results (confidential ballot and all that). Turnout was its usual (dismal) 70%-ish. The vote was swung by Remainers of all parties voting tactically to create a strong Opposition to temper the Conservatives.
p.s. That’s what democracy is all about!
Yes, the DUP, and the other Protestant parties generally vote with the Tories, just now they can extract a price for doing so, mainly I suspect to lower the effect of the almighty bodge up they made of the renewables project that caused such a furore earlier this year.
The description of them in 16 seems to have dropped of the contemporaneous Momentum Facebook feed, oblivious to the fact that any Comradely minority government would need these votes to pass water let alone a ‘five year plan’.
I don’t blame the youth vote for this situation, just disappointed that among the dreadful political choices we have in this country they appear to have fallen for the same rubbish being peddled in the 80s as a viable alternative to Thatcher, same language, same economic illiteracy, same old faces, same fantasy. We all, but the young especially, deserve something better, rather than race-to-the-absolute-mediocre-hard-style-leftism. But at least Comrade Abbott has changed her hairstyle in the meantime, eh?
I’m not sure this will temper the Tories so much as embolden the EU, who are not our friends in this now. We made the mistake of going for Brexit and now we appear to heading to the fight half-heartedly with one leg tied behind our back.
I’ve been trying to find a good word for here so as not to use the compound that begins with ‘clusterf..’. I can’t, sorry if it offends, but that’s where we are.
Ah, “compound fiasco” was what I was looking for. My teenager, the one with the Momentum feed, tells me the acronym FUBAR is more up to date (but just as rude!).
I’m going to lie down now, it’s all too much.
Old Ghost, ‘fallen for an economic illiterate alternative’? In the same way Tory voters have fallen for failed and illiterate neoliberal economics?
Neoliberalism promised us ‘trickle-down economics’ and balanced budgets. In reality, real wages have been gradually falling since the Thatcher administration, income inequality has grown to levels not seen since the Great Depression, and the deficit has risen since Tory austerity measures.
The current economic system is failing ordinary people. Wages of FTSE 100 bosses rose by 10% in 2015, whilst wages of the rest lagged behind. The banks were rescued in 2008 with a bailout package of £500 billion, Trident will cost £167 billion, but we are told there isn’t enough money for social care, local bus services, libraries, and children centres.
The poorest in society are paying for the actions of the greed of fund managers and investment bankers, who made a quick buck from subprime mortgages without a thought of the consequences. And now we are told we must leave within our means. This is not our crisis but a crisis of the failed economic system of boom and bust.
Corbyn’s Labour isn’t a perfect alternative, but it can’t be any worse than this hypocritical car-crash economics.
FUBAR? An old, old chestnut. Still, retro is in right now.
CK – The younger voters got involved because the brexit referendum robbed them of their future. The older generations originally voted to join the EU, reaped the benefits and then voted to drag us out. I despise Corbyn and the younger generation did not buy into his unsustainable spending promises, they used this election as a mechanism for preventing Theresa May from ripping the UK from the EU regardless of the cost.
Why was it beyond the pale to have the prospect of the SNP propping up Labour last time but it’s OK to have DUP propping up the Conservatives?
Perhaps I’ve missed something but haven’t we actually emerged a more united country? Nicola Sturgeon’s divisive mantra has been silenced and the Government will have to deliver a decent deal for NI that does not see the re-introduction of barriers and check-points.
Yes, the EU has gained more leverage and is coalescing now that Macron has won in France. Maybe they will feel less threatened and change their opening position? It is the EU which will decide whether we have a “soft” or “hard” Brexit (it always was) and if they still wave a £100Bn bill at us before we even sit down, then little will have changed.
Layla won because both Labour and UKIP failed to put up any opposition.Like others I hope she can deliver on her manifesto promises. I often wonder why the Labour Party bothers to put up a candidate in our constituency. Their poor candidate has about as much chance as me winning the Lottery! Still never mind.
Re 23 I’m fascinated how aligning with one side of the sectarian divide will improve things for NI. Any chance you could explain that for me Mr Smith?
Re 25 – as usual looking for an argument?
Note comment 18 too please.
The divide only remains if people stoke the fire.
Not everyone wants to.
http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/northern-ireland/how-martin-mcguinness-and-ian-paisley-forged-an-unlikely-friendship-35550640.html
Mr Smith, I’m not looking for an argument. Just expressing an opinion and politely asking you for more detail on yours.
If you find that argumentative, then I’m sorry. I see it as an attempt at reasoned debate.
I believe the Tory party aligning itself with the DUP is not a positive step in maintaining an already fragile peace in NI. I believe they will attempt to influence a hard border between Eire and NI .
They have views on women, the LGBT community, climate change, evolution and the death penalty that I find variously ridiculous, deeply offensive and dangerous (in no particular order)..
Their policies do not reflect the opinions of the majority of NI people ( while they got most seats, they only got 36% of the votes) and so giving them additional influence can only be seen as divisive favouritism.
There are serious concerns about the source of the nearly half million pounds they secretly put into funding anti EU propaganda in England (obviously no longer secret but still not clear where it came from and why).
That’s why I think the Tory party using them to prop up their pitiful election result in order to hang on to power will not improve things in NI, or anywhere else.
Surely it’s not unreasonable to ask why you believe the opposite to be true?
Out of interest, what would have been the ‘best’ result in this election?
Working backwards, what would have been the ‘best’ result over the EU referendum?
I’m really quite confused now. Everyone is giving their opinion on what is wrong. But… what was ‘right’?
That’s an easy one
Best result in the election. Significant Labour majority, Jeremy Corbyn as Prime Minister.
Before that best result in EU referendum, decisive vote to remain.
And yes, I’m aware that the one may well have precluded the other.
I have a different answer. The best result may well have happened, depending on the outcome of the summer election for the leadership of the Tory party. As I’ve previously commented here, if they decide to elect Ruth Davidson then we may finally have a centre right party without all the class and generational baggage that alienates people and gets in the way of the policy debate
Iain, I’ve always thought Tony Blair’s New Labour was a centre right party.
Plus it’s not the class or generational baggage that alienates me from the Tory party, it is actually their policies.
I did mean with proper centre right policies, ie economically conservative, socially liberal – not the ones in the current tory manifesto 🙂
Point taken Iain 🙂
Re Ruth Davidson, wouldn’t it be a bit weird to have a PM who’s not allowed to take part in some votes?
Forgive me, I still don’t understand Corbyn’s appeal: ‘socialism’? Really? In the 21st century?
Where in the world has this ever worked? I’m not trying to be snidey, but I can’t think of a single country where it has held sway for any length of time without resorting to state suppression, famine or chaos. Quite often all three.
Help me out with an example here.
Old Ghost, it would be helpful if you defined your terms, in particular ‘Socialism’ and ‘worked’.
By my understanding Socialism can never be made to work on a country by country basis as by definition one of it’s aims is the global removal of capitalism such that the means of all production is in the hands of the all people and there is no additional production of goods without a defined need. While there are non socialist countries able to export goods and services into a socialist country and entice workers out of it it cannot work and thus all attempts at socialism on a country by country basis are forced into the use of totalitarian measures to prevent over produced goods from non socialist countries coming in and prevent workers who hope to become part of the capitalist elite from leaving.
The current Labour party manifesto is not a Socialist manifesto but rather a manifesto of social reform. It does not seek to destroy capitalism but rather to distribute its benefits more fairly. After all in a socialist state there are no rich to raise taxation revenue from and no corporations to tax the profits of. While it includes some proposals for nationalisation, these do not include ‘ the means of production’ but rather those services that we all need to use and that should not be making further profit for individuals with little social accountability. Things like public transport, health care and education. Like Jeremy Corbyn I would broadly describe myself as a Socialist, but having heard him speak I believe that we also share a realism that recognises that it’s more practical to reform capitalist societies with an eye to social equality and justice than to destroy them completely.
That’ll be a no then?
What happens when those with money remove it from your grasp, as has happened historically, do you move the high tax burden downward to the lower petit bourgeois and workers, and wait for them to mobilise their vote against you, or what? You’d also have given a fair amount of power back to the unions (as opposed to the workers) so you’d have another power base in contention too, risking paralysis and division (hallmark of Leftism) like the winter of discontent of ’79.
Seems those cunning capitalists have you coming and going, and that the lessons of the ’70s and ’80s have been too conveniently forgotten (or never learnt in Corbyn’s case) during the hard Left’s 30 year coma.
I’ve a lot to do for the next few weeks so probably won’t check back in, I respect you as a thinking person Reductio, and am pleased to have ‘met’ and your thoughts. All the best, Old Ghost.
I don’t think it is that easy a question to answer. Otherwise the results would have been so very different. What is it that you are missing?