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Thursday, 23 May 2024

A bitterly uninteresting contest



As everyone knows by now, the UK general election is to be held on July 4th, so it may be worth having a brief look at the main protagonists, the most formidable political actors on the stage – Rishi Starmer and Keir Sunak.

What can we expect from these two political heavyweights over the coming weeks? Well to begin with it is worth adding that each man is likely to be assisted by former prime ministers David Blair and Tony Cameron, so there is to be no lack of political experience.

As this is an initial toe in the water post, suppose we look at an optimistic scenario compared to a more pessimistic scenario.

Optimist.
Both major parties crash and burn.

Pessimist
One major party crashes and burns.

Prophet of Doom.
Neither major party crashes and burns.

So, a stark contrast from the beginning, optimist versus pessimist versus prophet of doom. Expect a bitterly uninteresting contest.

9 comments:

dearieme said...

I propose to treat it with a complete ignoral. The seat we live in is Labour vs Liberal so I suppose I might vote Reform. Or just spoil my ballot paper with advice containing lots of Fs.

DiscoveredJoys said...

I was thinking similar thoughts and I came up with a wheeze which, whether it 'worked' or not, might be more entertaining.

Imagine if every elector had one vote, as now, but they could cast it for a member of a particular party, or against a member of a particular party.

You could end up with a Party member winning the most 'for' votes in a constituency only to be knocked back into negative numbers by the 'against' votes.

Sort of a micro proportional representation, taking into account a wider perspective.

A K Haart said...

dearieme - we'll be taking a short holiday so I probably won't bother with a postal vote.

DJ - that could be interesting. We seem to need some alternative to first past the post, although we also have a problem with the quality of candidates.

Tammly said...

Wow! There's so many things to have to avoid this year, Eurovision, The Olympic Games, the Euros the usual party conferences and now a general election campaign! I'm fairly confident I can do it!

A K Haart said...

Tammly - don't forget COP29.

Bucko said...

My prediction is that Labour will win, but with the lowest voter turnout in history. They will still take power though, and still declare that the people have spoken and that they fully endorse all the crap that Labour will do over the next four years.
If I can be bothered to go to the poliing station, which is unlikely, I will just write some obscenity on my form. It's that kind of childishness that they have brought me to

A K Haart said...

Bucko - we'll be on holiday and I won't bother with a postal vote. Otherwise I'd vote Reform, but only as a protest, it doesn't feel important enough to make much effort.

Anonymous said...

Dolly the cloned sheep (peace be upon her) would be elected in my neck of the woods of she was wearing a blue rosette, so I doubt that my vote would make any difference. I was thinking of voting for the Monster Raving Loony Party, but they are already in government, as well as being the King's (allegedly) Loyal Opposition.
Penseivat

A K Haart said...

Penseivat - our blue rosette seems fairly safe too, but we'll be on holiday and I won't bother with a postal vote. The problem with the Monster Raving Loony Party is as you say, they are in government already so a vote for them seems rather like supporting the establishment.