While primarily only the "shire" seats in England were fought, every seat in Scotland and Wales was.
Labour is up 5% since May called the election. You guys are lucky a nutjob managed to become leader of the second largest party and not the first.
Hope is the denial of reality
Twitter Link
Loki are you prepared to accept yet that UKIP are dead?
I'm certain Loki thinks the UKIP lives on in the Conservative Party.
Last night as I lay in bed, looking up at the stars, I thought, “Where the hell is my ceiling?"
That has already been made very clear in previous discussions.
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Not to me it hasn't. I've just searched for the term UKIP posted by Loki and apart from a post he analysed the polls in (no judgement) his prior post from a few months ago was where he was calling me premature for pronouncing the death of UKIP.
Something tells me UKIP is not going to get anywhere close to 12% in four weeks time.
They have taken a huge beating, no denying that (it is disingenuous to talk about their number of seats, their influence was always as a spoiler). We'll see what happens when May has to make sovereignty and immigration-related concessions as part of an EU deal.
They're split between the Tories, Labour, and Lib Dems/Greens ("protest vote"). Mostly Tories though.
Hope is the denial of reality
The importance of how many seats they're standing in is not how many seats they'll win (none no matter what), it is that they are so weak as an institution now they lack the resources both human and financial to even put in paper candidates.
It costs £500 per seat deposit to stand in a seat, that money is refunded if you score at least 5% which any major party is expected to do. The Lib Dems famously in 2015 lost their deposits in a majority of seats costing them £170k. The Green Party lost £221k but that was to be expected for them. UKIP now are so unpopular they'd lose more deposits now than the Lib Dems did last time and they're so bankrupt that they can't afford to do so. Hence they're not even putting paper candidates in like the Greens do.
They're not even spoilers anymore.
They're not spoiling they've passed on! This party is no more! They have ceased to be! They've expired and gone to meet their maker! They're stiff! Bereft of life, they rest in peace! If you hadn't nailed them to the ballot they'd be pushing up the daisies! Their psephological processes are now 'istory! They're off the twig! They've kicked the bucket, they've shuffled off 'is mortal coil, run down the curtain and joined the bleedin' choir invisible!! THIS IS AN EX-PARTY!!
UKIP doesn't usually put up enough MPs contest every seat. 2015, when they were only a handful short, was unusual for them. 377 is a new low, though. At least if you don't count them back in the 90s when they were just getting started. About 100 down on what they usually manage to field.
So, yeah, it's not unusual for a political party to go through rough patches like this, though whether they can actually recover or reinvent themselves with their raison-d'etre (it is funny to use french words when talking about UKIP) taken away remains to be seen. As I said, we'll see what happens with Brexit before we can determine their final fate.
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
UKIP only became a 'major party' after 2012/3 according to Ofcom and before 2013 it was lumped in with "Others" in the opinion poll results. That you don't just have to look back to elections early in the century but back to the 90s (when it was playing second fiddle to James Goldsmith's Referendum Party) to see so few candidates just shows my point, UKIP is fast becoming an "Others" party once more. Yes it is possible that they will recover but it will be from ashes like a phoenix if they do.
This is by far the worst performance candidate-wise that UKIP has put in this century.
2001: 428
2005: 496
2010: 558
2015: 624
2017: 377
1997 UKIP was still nascent but the Referendum Party put up 547. In 1992 neither party existed so this is the lowest since records began for Referendum/UKIP.
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
I'm sure China will be taking careful notes.
Hope is the denial of reality
The UK is going global
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
I guess that's about their obsession with nekkid pictures. Freedom of speech doesn't cover what they named 'the naughty parts'. So of course they want an internet that keeps a close eye on who's watching those.
Congratulations America
My days of not voting Tory are certainly coming to a middle.
When the sky above us fell
We descended into hell
Into kingdom come
I don't think Labour will fret too much about the Tories doing their work for them:
https://www.google.se/url?sa=t&sourc...ThCQVATtoygoxA
"One day, we shall die. All the other days, we shall live."
Remember Rand arguing that the reason for Brexit was for the Tories to liberalize the economy? Can't wait for the new changed goalpost that allows Rand to explain away this policy (which is worse than Trump's skilled immigration proposals).
Hope is the denial of reality
Still the alternative is Jeremy Corbyn so what can we do. Not voting Conservative because they're flawed in this election is like not voting for Hillary Clinton because she was flawed last November. Yes there's two sides but one is batshit crazy and the other is just bad.
Theresa May was nationalist before the Referendum and was on the Remain side so you may want to check your facts.
I was in the audience and horrified when she gave this unpleasant speech two years ago before she campaigned for Remain. http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/poli...2015-live.html
You made your bed, now lie in it. You didn't want Cameron, you got May. You don't get to whine about that and tell us what a good boy you really are. You voted for Brexit and thus you own all of the consequences.
In particular, a major part of the Brexit campaign was hating on foreigners and preventing immigrants from coming into the country. You don't get to protest about that, you voted for it.
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?
I liked Cameron, I voted for Cameron three times (leadership election, two general elections). I also liked most of Cameron's cabinet including Leave leaders Michael Gove (sacked by May when she took over) and Boris Johnson, as well as Remain Chancellor George Osborne (also sacked by May when she took over).
However Cameron was a lame duck. He had already announced his intention to retire before the next General Election. Changing your vote on a constitutional matter the consequences of which will change this nation's trajectory forever based on whether you like or dislike a soon to be retired transient head of government is just plain moronic.
Besides this shows why it was more important to vote for Brexit not less. Brexit wasn't about "hating on foreigners and preventing immigrants from coming into the country", it was about taking "control". If we don't like the way the government is acting then Steely and I and anyone else can vote accordingly. Inside the EU if we didn't like the way the Commission was acting we had no control and our elections changed nothing consequential about the EU.
Steely and I, and all other Brits, now face a very stark choice at the next election like the American's faced last time: like Hillary vote for May's Tories, unpleasant but competent. Or like Trump we have Corbyn's Labour, absolutely insane. Or like Stein/Johnson we can abdicate all responsibility because "they're both bad" and go for a meaningless third party and pass on the decision making to everyone else because its clearly safe to virtue signal like this because the insane choice won't win surely (!)
Not the ideal set of choices but we have a choice at least and next time the choice may be different.
Could be cross-posted under "Britain aims to ban pornography"
https://www.buzzfeed.com/jimwaterson...e-the-internet
The leftward creep continues
Dude, you wanted to "take control" to kick out the dirty foreigners. That's what it always has been about: The rampant racism and xenophobia.
Don't try to paint the turd with gold and sell it as a piece of art. You voted for Brexit, you own the consequences which include having voted for May. And now you'll vote for May again.
So, tell us again how you're "not nationalist".
When the stars threw down their spears
And watered heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the lamb make thee?