• tortillaPeanuts@lemmy.world
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    11
    ·
    4 months ago

    Polling looks good for Labour. Kinda crazy the prime minister basically torpedoed his own party because it was so bad.

    • Skua@kbin.social
      link
      fedilink
      arrow-up
      9
      ·
      4 months ago

      They got to announce that inflation is more or less back down to normal levels, so this is about as good as the polling is likely to be. A there was one a few months back that actually showed the Conservatives getting fewer seats than the SNP. To be clear it was only one poll and I do not think it will happen, but for readers that don’t already know this, the SNP only even contest less than 10% of the total seats. The fact that that was ever even close to the bounds of possibility is wild.

      • tortillaPeanuts@lemmy.world
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        2
        ·
        4 months ago

        Yeah I could see it being a strategy to keep as many seats as possible. After looking at the polling, the Conservative party has been declining in popularity since 2020. The best timing for them is ASAP because it’s only getting worse. They are just about as unpopular as they were when Liz Truss was in office.

      • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
        link
        fedilink
        English
        arrow-up
        10
        ·
        edit-2
        4 months ago

        It’s so the votes can be counted overnight and the announcement made on the Friday. Then the incoming government sorts things out over the weekend and we can have a new functioning government on Monday.

        If they did the election on say a Monday then the announcement would be made on Tuesday, then the country would just be in limbo for 2 days while everyone tried to work out what was going to happen. This way, the limbo happens over the weekend where not much business needs to be done anyway.

        • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
          link
          fedilink
          English
          arrow-up
          3
          arrow-down
          1
          ·
          4 months ago

          Are you for real? This is hilariously absurd.

          Forming a government takes much more than just a weekend if you are serious about it and in a democracy there should be a peaceful shift of power from the prior government so having that one run the day to day business until the new one is in place, should be no issue.

          British democracy is even weaker than i thought it was.

          • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
            link
            fedilink
            English
            arrow-up
            5
            ·
            4 months ago

            I didn’t design the system. It’s just how it works.

            Obviously they don’t actually form the government over the weekend they know who they’re going to have in various positions because they’re already in the shadow cabinet positions. It exists because historically the MP who are now cabinet members, and therefore required to live near the capitol, may very well actually be in completely different parts of the country and it would take them a few days to get back to London.

            Especially the government suddenly called an election like they’ve just done.

            • Tryptaminev@lemm.ee
              link
              fedilink
              English
              arrow-up
              3
              ·
              4 months ago

              I know you didn’t design it, or come up with that “reasoning”. To me it sounds like it is just some excuse to have votes on a working day to disadvantage working class people from voting.

              • Echo Dot@feddit.uk
                link
                fedilink
                English
                arrow-up
                2
                ·
                edit-2
                4 months ago

                I know it sounds like that but it’s been like this for hundreds of years. It’s just a holdover, it made sense back then.

                The problem with conspiracy theorists is sometimes they don’t know when to stop. Sometimes there isn’t actually a evil sadistic reason, it’s just a thing.

                Anyway the polls are open for like 10 hours. Somewhere in there you’re going to find an opportunity to vote. I mean I didn’t vote in the last local elections until about 6:00 p.m.

  • AutoTL;DR@lemmings.worldB
    link
    fedilink
    English
    arrow-up
    3
    ·
    4 months ago

    This is the best summary I could come up with:


    Rishi Sunak has vowed to “fight for every vote” as he called an early UK general election for Thursday 4 July.In a surprise announcement, the PM said he would go to the polls this summer as he bids to win a fifth term in office for the Conservatives.It overturned expectations of an autumn election, which might have given his party a better chance of closing the gap with Labour.Sir Keir Starmer said it was “time for change” away from “Tory chaos”.

    There was confusion in at least some parts of the Conservative Party about why Mr Sunak decided to call the general election sooner than was widely expected, the BBC’s political correspondent Henry Zeffman reported.

    In a TV statement shortly afterwards, Sir Keir argued Tory “chaos” had damaged the economy, and a vote for his party represented a chance to bring political stability.Adding it was “time for change”, he criticised the Conservatives’ management of public services, the NHS and record on tackling crime.

    SNP leader John Swinney, who took over as Scotland’s first minister earlier this month, said the election was a chance to “remove the Tory government and put Scotland first”.Lib Dem leader Sir Ed Davey said it would be a chance to “kick Rishi Sunak’s appalling Conservative government out of office”, whilst Greens co-leader Carla Denyer said her party was aiming to elect “at least four” new MPs.And Reform UK leader Richard Tice said the Tories had “broken Britain” but Labour would “bankrupt Britain,” and only his party would offer “common sense policies that can now save Britain”.

    Mr Sunak’s statement is the start of weeks of general election campaigning for the 650 seats in Parliament.It will be fought on the first set of new constituency boundaries since 2010, redrawn to reflect population changes since then, and will be the first where voters have to show ID.The Royal Family has postponed engagements “which may appear to divert attention or distract from the election campaign”, Buckingham Palace said, adding that the King and Queen sent their “sincere apologies” to those affected.

    At the last election in 2019, Boris Johnson won an 80-seat majority after calling a snap poll as he fought to get his Brexit withdrawal deal through Parliament.It was followed by an extraordinarily volatile period in British politics, as the country was hit by the Covid pandemic and Mr Johnson was forced to resign, amid a cabinet revolt over a series of scandals.His successor Liz Truss lasted 49 days in the job before she quit, after a market backlash to her tax and spending plans announced at a hastily-arranged “mini Budget” in September 2022.This is the first general election since 2015 that has not required a vote in Parliament to approve the date, since legislation fixing the time between polls was reversed two years ago.


    The original article contains 836 words, the summary contains 467 words. Saved 44%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!