Tactical voting could spell the Tories’ worst election in 100 years, shock poll shows | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tactical-voting-general-election-tory-defeat-sunak-starmer-b2407871.html

#TacticalVoting
#Tories
#GE
#SplitOppositionVote
#LibDems
#Starmer
#Pincher
#ByElection
#Tamworth
#Greens
#ElectoralCalculus
#RedWall

Want to find out more about Ed Davey & the Lib Dems? The listen to this interview with Labour spin doctor, Alistair Campbell, & former Tory cabinet minister, Rory Stewart.
#LibDems
#EdDavey
https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/15da9b25-ffcc-425e-839b-4eb1368bb598/episodes/79b85d26-929e-4d6f-95e9-d27892cb4060/LEADING34-ED-DAVEY-LEADING-THE-LIB-DEMS-FIGHTING-THE-TORIES-AND-A-COALITION-WITH-STARMERS-LABOUR?ref=dm_sh_4GCqWXgDxRVM8woiNi2zYn36R

'Revoke licence' call by Lib Dem over Southern Water 'dry spilling' | Hampshire Chronicle
https://www.hampshirechronicle.co.uk/news/23773607.revoke-licence-call-lib-dem-southern-water-dry-spilling/

#LibDems
#SouthernWater
#Sewage
#DrySpilling
#ThamesWater
#WessexWater

But whenever real leftist transformation was possible, liberals threw in with conservatives: think of the smearing and defenestration of #Corbyn by #Labour's right, or of the #LibDems coalition with #DavidCameron's #Tories, or of the #Democrats' dirty tricks to keep #Bernie from appearing on the national ballot.

7/

“Meanwhile, the Lib Dems are hoping to appeal to the true blues by the fact their candidate is involved with the Women’s Institute.”

Yeah, that should swing it their way… 😂

#Byelection #Labour #LibDems #NadineDorries

https://inews.co.uk/opinion/battle-mid-bedfordshire-nadine-dorries-2582870

@murchadhfinn My biggest fear, and it seems increasingly likely, is that #Starmer will take Labour into a coalition with the #Tories should the numbers be the only way to beat a hung parliament after the next GE. #tactical voting has never been as important as it will be in 2024. #Greens & #LibDems must get enough votes to ensure this cannot happen. Irelands 2025 GE will be vital for similar reason. @irelandpolitics @ukpolitics

@AnthonyFStevens
Ironically the #labour recovery was due in part to #corbyn having to make concessions to #starmer and others in the early autumn of 2019 over the possibility of a second referendum. The #libdems chose to be in denial about this - and were sustained in this by most of the #tacticalvoting websites - #GinaMiller being an honourable exception. Had this not happened #labour would have had twenty or thirty more seats than it did and the #libdems could have had up to a dozen more.

@AnthonyFStevens

The #snp concentrated - quite reasonably - on recovering seats that they had lost to both the #conservatives and #labour . So I cannot criticise their conduct in the campaign. They went along with the #Conservatives choice of December for the election because they thought it would improve their chances. The #libdems chose to believe some of the earlier opinion polls and concluded that they could win more than a hundred seats. They continued to after #labour began to recover.

@AnthonyFStevens
It would be absurd to blame the #snp. They calculated that they would gain seats and achieved it. The problem with the #libdems is that they did not gain seats so either their strategy did not work - which may have been bad luck rather than the "hubristic incompetence" I suggested it was - or the strategy actually was to give the #conservatives an overall majority - which I really do not think it was. Of course #labour contributed to its defeat. It is just not the whole story.

@AnthonyFStevens
With regard to the #snp you have a good point. At least in the short term their tactics in 2019 paid off. The same cannot be said to apply to the #libdems - who were guilty of "hubristic incompetence" on an industrial scale. Their approach did not gain them seats overall but helped to lose #labour around twenty or thirty. And of course some of those operating #tacticalvoting websites may have been actual "bad faith actors".

@AnthonyFStevens

In my view the result in December 2019 was rather overdetermined. #labour failed to respond organisationally to June 2017 as well as the #Conservatives did - and that is a charge against #Corbyn and to some extent #momentum .However even if they had - given the games the #libdems and the #snp were playing - not to mention the sheer amount of disinformation #tacticalvoting websites were putting out it would have at best reduced the size of the #conservative majority!

https://mastodon.scot/@alexlac51/110845255818963145
alexlac51 - In #Scotland we have:    

Labour Policies, set by #Labour in #Westminster...    

Conservative Policies, set by #Tories in #Westminster...    

Libdem Policies, set by #LibDems in #Westminster...    

#ScottishIndependence is the only way to stop this happening    

#YouYesYet

Lib Dem chief in North Britain, and angry misogynist, Alex Cole-Hamilton is in trouble.

He should be nowhere near front line politics.

#LibDems #AlexColeHamilton #COVIDIDIOTS #Scotland #politics #PartyGate

https://www.thenational.scot/news/23696331.alex-cole-hamilton-faces-calls-resign-breaking-covid-rules/

I’m not in favour of compulsory voting but the most frustrating political position for me is when people say they’re not going to vote for anyone

We need to move to PR but in the meantime voting for the party that most closely reflects your views at least gets a message out. And who knows if enough people do that you could get an MP elected

#Labour #Tories #LibDems #GreenParty #SNP #PlaidCymru #FPTP #PR #UKPol

Government must help ambulance crews over ‘worrying’ waiting times – Lib Dems | The Independent
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/government-lib-dems-msps-scottish-government-credit-b2384357.html

#Scotland
#Ambulance
#LibDems
#WaitingTimes

"The American system does not favour third-party candidates: they typically cost established candidates elections rather than having a chance of winning.

Third parties are commonplace in Europe, such as the UK’s Liberal Democrats." -- The Monocle Minute

Oh, you mean the Liberal Government of 1906? 🤔 Or the Conservative-led coalition in 2010? 😆

Pretty sure the third party in the UK for this century is the SNP 😏

#UK #UKpol #UKpolitics #politics #SNP #LibDems

The third byelection result - #somertonandfrome - fits the pattern of a misconduct byelection leading to the loss of the seat. It forms part of a pattern of predominantly rural #conservative seats falling to the #libdems under such circumstances - first #northshropshire , then #tivertonandhoniton and now #somertonandfrome !

Labour show their true bigoted, mudslinging colours.

This is the party that had both Starmer and Doddy pledging that they would not use trans people as 'A political football'.

Yet here they are doing exactly that 😡
They are not to be trusted * at all * by all LGBT+ folk.

Good for the #SNP and #ScottishGreens for calling out #Labour hypocrisy.

Radio silence from the #LibDems and #Greens on this

https://www.thepinknews.com/2023/07/25/labour-anneliese-dodds-gender-recognition-reform-scotland/

#LabourTransphobia #SirQueerHarmer

The seven misconduct byelections were in two #labour seats and in five #conservative ones. #labour lost one misconduct byelection #hartlepool to the #conservatives - their sole gain! - but retained the other #cityofchester very comfortably. The #conservatives lost four out of five - #northshropshire , #somertonandfrome , #tivertonandhoniton and #wakefield - but just retained #uxbridgeandsouthruislip . #wakefield was taken by #labour while the other three went to the #libdems !

First a bit of context setting. There have been fifteen parliamentary by-elections in #England since the #UKGeneralElection2019 - and one in #Scotland. Six of those in #England occurred while #RishiSunak has been #PrimeMinister and the remaining nine while #BorisJohnson was. Of the fifteen seven saw the previous party holding the seat replaced. #labour lost one seat (to the #conservatives ) while the #conservatives lost six - two to #labour and four to the #libdems !