And today's topic for discussion is...

[davywavy]

What can we learn from yesterday's election results? I've got my thoughts, but what are yours?

Comments

[(Anonymous)]

The punters are shorting dave.

No one much cares for ed or the other one. Any party which bites the bullet and faces up to the popular hatered of the 'eu' will have a head start at the next GE.

[davywavy.livejournal.com]

My take is that, barring the unexpected, Labour have already lost the next election.

[(Anonymous)]

Whilst they are doing their best, I wouldn't count on that, as the tories are also going hell for leather to lose it too.

[(Anonymous)]

Kind of agree with what Hislop said when Boris got made Mayor of London. "I don't know what it's going to mean for politics, but it's a great day for comedy."

H

[drplokta]

What we mostly learn is that you can get lots of protest votes by pushing populist but impractical policies, secure in the knowledge that you'll never have to actually deliver on them. Of course, occasionally there's a political disaster when a party that does this actually does find itself in power.

[nicnac.livejournal.com]

That the govt needs a cohesive policy on immigration, rather than the utter disaster of UKBA.

[(Anonymous)]

Well, no one really believed Nick about tuition fees anyway. Voting lib dem was a bit like playing a bard.

[(Anonymous)]

It needs a policy full stop. One in the national interest would be handy. And they should actually tell us what it is.

[zenicurean.livejournal.com]

It must've been great to be Nigel Farage in these elections. He gets to rake in votes by complaining about immigration, the EU, the budget, &c... but his people cannot reasonably be expected to affect any of these things through council politics. Since everyone already treats local elections as a crystal ball through which to predict the results of other, more important elections, the UKIP has been handed a free celebration, but also mercifully absolved from needing to have anything especially interesting to say about stuff their candidates have actually been elected to deal with.

It also seems they've fallen victim to what I call the Populist Protest People Rush -- they've been in such a hurry to recruit people that their vetting process has been a total shambles. Lots of people with little experience about how politics works, how media works, and who have strong opinions about things? People who might not have even grasped they can't carry on publicly like they were just any old private individuals? I have no doubt there'll be many more stories about UKIP politicians stuffing their feet in their mouths.

[sesquipedality.livejournal.com]

Nothing.

Local elections predict nothing, and mean nothing. The electorate don't consider them real and don't vote as though they are real.

If the results have no meaning, no conclusions can be drawn from them.

[(Anonymous)]

I see the Moonwalk tent is going up behind Battersea power station

H