this post was submitted on 29 May 2024
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UK Politics

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19
There's little enthusiasm for Labour. Does it matter? (www.politicshome.com)
submitted 1 year ago by frankPodmore@slrpnk.net to c/uk_politics@feddit.uk
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[–] HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 8 points 1 year ago (2 children)

It will be a low turn out election. So honest.y do not under estimate the tories ability to pull a rabbit out. Low turn out is to their advantage.

Just remember under FPTP refusing to vote for the lesser of two evils. Is a vote for the greater.

Also watch local polling. This election changes many tory safe seats. But also seems to be predicting changes in the most likely party to win against tories. So keep an eye on the numbers in your constituency. So you can choose the lesser evil most likely to lose a tory a seat.

[–] VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I'm in NI specifically Lagan Valley which will probably put dup in again also I can't even fucking vote labour here. My vote will count for fuck all. I wish people in mainland UK would remember that the scots and norn Irish don't fucking vote Tory.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Who do you plan to vote for, if you don't mind my asking?

[–] VaultBoyNewVegas@lemmy.world 2 points 1 year ago

No one. Dup has a stronghold in lagan valley. Plus no matter who is elected as an mp from Northern Ireland usually makes fuck all of a difference to parliamentary arithmetic. Also we don't have many questions on pmqs and I support a united Ireland so I disagree with sending people to London anyway. If I was voting for a representative in the Dail then that would be different.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What makes you think it will be low turnout?

[–] HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Lack of enthusiasm. To many voters not inspired by any party.

Oh and polling is predicting it.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago

Yeah, good points. I think it will be a differential turnout and it will be low overall... but only because the right wing voters stay at home, while the centre and left come out in force to administer a kicking to the Tories. I.e., even a higher turnout won't save the Tories, because it's not the left that have the enthusiasm problem. It's just negative enthusiasm.

[–] sanguinepar@lemmy.world 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Would have thought though that if any voting bloc would be apathetic, it'd be the Tory voters.

[–] HumanPenguin@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago

Left wing voters with no one representing there views. Can get pissed of as well.

Fptp is far from a motivating system. Some of voters really do not think starmer will be any better.

I personally tend to be anything but the tories. But many in the UK are less political and do not see starmer as anything but another living politician.

[–] Emperor@feddit.uk 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It probably does matter because, in 1997, everyone was fired up and not only enthusatic to get the Tories out but to get Labour in. Now it's just the former. Don't underestimate spite though.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago

In '97, Blair was unusually popular but people weren't enthusiastic about Labour, which is what the article's about!

[–] flamingos@feddit.uk 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

What's the point of this comparison? Starmer's government isn't going to be like Blair's, Blair inherited a good economy. Is the point that we shouldn't bother with policies because the only way to get elected is for the sitting government to become unpopular?

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not at all. The point is to ask whether or not it matters if there's little enthusiasm for Labour and to make a historical comparison suggesting that it doesn't. Nothing about policy at all!

[–] flamingos@feddit.uk 1 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The point is to ask whether or not it matters if there’s little enthusiasm for Labour and to make a historical comparison suggesting that it doesn’t.

Again, what conclusion are we suppose to draw from this? Because the one I draw to is that the political platform doesn't matter, that the reason Miliband and Corbyn failed to unseat the Conservatives is not because of any policy or political failings, but because they weren't against a sufficiently unpopular government.

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago

Miliband or Corbyn would have won if they'd made their party more popular than the unpopular governments they faced, as Blair did and Starmer seems to have done, but they didn't. Had they made themselves relatively popular (less unpopular), they wouldn't have needed a great deal of enthusiasm to also win.

[–] cupcakezealot@lemmy.blahaj.zone 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

labour might win but it won't be a landslide; people overlook the fact that a lot of people say one thing to pollsters and then vote another way in the polling booth.

it'll either be a hung parliament or a slim majority.

and if labour does get into power, what happens then when all the tories that did vote for them go back to the tories now that they're not in power and starmer purged all the labour voters from the party?

[–] frankPodmore@slrpnk.net 1 points 1 year ago

people overlook the fact that a lot of people say one thing to pollsters and then vote another way in the polling booth

Pollsters don't overlook that, they specifically take it into account! If that was happening we'd be seeing it in actual election results (like the locals and the by-elections) or through discrepancies in other questions in the polls (like 'Who you trust on the economy?' Or 'Who is the best leader?').

It's not true that Starmer has purged the Labour voters. The overwhelming majority of people who voted Labour in 2019 are still planning to vote Labour. Most of the 2019 Tory voters who Starmer has won back voted Labour in 2017 and before. Maybe they'll stick with Labour, maybe not. Frankly, that's a problem for the next election.