With a week to go until Britain’s election, polls continue to credit the Conservatives with a lead over Labour which, although substantial, is not so great that they can lock in a parliamentary majority. Furthermore, the trend of polling is somewhat in favour of Labour, with the Conservatives apparently having sucked dry the short-lived insurgency of the Brexit Party, while Labour continues to pick off support from the floundering Liberal Democrats. This is illustrated clearly enough in the poll trend chart below, which combines the work of nine polling series.
While all the pollsters have the Conservatives well ahead, the size of the lead covers a wide range, from as little as 6% by the reckoning of the most recent poll from BMG to as much as 15% from Opinium. Given the assurance that the Scottish National Party will dominate north of the border, the former end would certainly be weak enough to leave the Conservatives short of the formidable hurdle that either major party must clear if they are to win enough seats in England to score a majority. The next chart shows local area regression trends for each pollster’s reckoning of the Conservative lead (a little more on the methodology is explained later in the post).
Labour optimists are hanging on to the notion of a pro-Labour “youthquake” that will up-end the pollsters’ turnout models. The importance of the age distribution of the voting population is forcefully illustrated by the chart below, which shows voting intention by age cohort (off very small sub-samples) from a recent poll by ICM Research.
Pollsters are varying quite substantially as to age distribution, as illustrated in the next chart, which has been derived from the weighting data provided as standard from pollsters in the UK (in Australia we can only imagine such things). Kantar looms as an outlier in its expectation that fully 49% of voters will be 55 and over, compared with just 19% for the 18-to-34 cohort. The other pollsters range from 25% to 29% for 18-to-34 and 37% to 43% for 55-plus. None of this has any obvious bearing on the pollsters’ leanings, perhaps with the exception of ICM, whose young age profile has been reflected by relatively modest Conservative leads.
Then there’s their modelling of the population by vote in the 2016 Brexit referendum, which I’m slightly puzzled by in that there is dramatic variation in the size of the various pollster’s “did not vote” cohort (which appears not to be related to their age distributions). In the cases of YouGov, ComRes, Survation and Deltapoll, I had to infer this total from what was left over after “leave” and ”remain” were removed from the total, which may be causing me to miss subtlety. Whatever the case, let the peculiarity of Kantar again be noted in that it proposes a majority “remain” population, despite having a age distribution that skews old. Conversely, Opinium’s weighting to “leave” may explain its apparent lean to the Conservatives.
Now for a quick introduction to the British polling fraternity. First up, the following table shows bias adjustments that have been used to standardise the poll trend measures at the top of this post. These were achieved my comparing their results to a straightforward trend measure of all the polls entered into the model (142 polls from nine pollsters). The results are actually fairly modest as these things go, contrary to the impression given by the range of results in the “Conservative lead trend by pollster”.
All these polls are of the online panel variety, with two exceptions: Survation, a phone poll, and Ipsos MORI, which despite being a big name has only published one poll since the campaign began. Survation is also unique in that it includes Northern Ireland in its polling, whereas the others stick to England, Scotland and Wales.
The pollsters are variable in how they structure their voting intention responses, particularly in relation to the Brexit Party, which is not running in most Conservative-held seats. Before that they had to struggle with which minor parties to include among the initial list of responses and which as a follow-up for those who chose “other party”. It is routine for the Scottish National Party and Plaid Cymru to be included as topline response options in Scotland and Wales respectively.
Can we please keep this post for the UK election – the main thread is still the previous post.
Thanks William im sure way too much work considering the no of uk election afficianados here commenting – which is really disappointingly low. My profuse thanks to Adrian as well for keeping a sophisticated conversation going so well.
I think this election is going to be the ultimate pseph wet dream to dissect. Its the regional seat-by-seat playout of the vote and swing that will determine seat counts. Its possible the Tories will be same or even go down at a national level from 2017 but gain tens of seats… with all kinds of corrolaries in other directions.
I read very little into national voting trends but look for any concentrated application (in a region or in an indicative swing seat) to derive my sense for what will happen.
My latest read is that the Tories will lose a handful of seats to the SNP in scotland, will lose a pitiful handful to the LibDems or Labour throughout England, and will gain a number of seats from Labour in the north and where remain vote goes ~20% Lib Dem in less working class held seats.
The Tory net gain number (ignoring whip removals where they going to win all those seats) needs to be around 10 and that has ranged from almost certain to now still likelier than not imho.
I so hope to be wrong on the pleasantly surprised side for once… am so sick of being wrong on the unpleasantly surprised side these last cpl of yrs… I build in an x point pro right disappointment factor into expectations these days, so tend towards the pessimistic end naturally now.
A comfortable Tory majority and scenes of Boris / Rees-Mogg jubilation… Uggh i am dreading but expecting it
Personally, I think it’s a foregone conclusion that the Tories will get back in with a slightly reduced majority. As with here, it doesn’t help Labor that the main sleaze media is backing The Boris.
The blatant anti-labour coverage in the media this election may have overreached this week in attempting to ridicule Corbyn for admitting to not knowing/not watching the Queen’s Speech. I expect such an admission would be seen as a positive rather than a negative amongst the general public.
Labour have now lodged some sort of official complaint to the BBC director general about the appalling bias of the BBC this election. And rightly so. Though I see this less as a deliberate conspiracy than just plain incompetency. There has been some analysis on this over the last week or so, and there is a general feeling that the BBC is rather hopelessly institutionally geared towards supporting the government of the day. This has been made worse this election by a particularly beligerant and frankly contemptuous government towards 4th estate.
Its likely the BBC are simply used to ‘playing fair’ and have no idea how to adjust to a very well planned campaign of deceit and bullying by this government. When Johnson lies – and this is not hyperbole or partisan rhetoric – he literally lies through his teeth by any objective standards – the BBC, when they do manage to pull him up on it, simply label it as “wrong” – as if it was an honest mistake. Now I do not expect the respected media to bandy the ‘L’ word around willy nilly, but there are surely more appropriate terms than ‘wrong’ when exposing bear faced lies. ‘Misleading’ for a start.
The BBC’s appalling coverage has been shamed by some of the commercial broadcasters including channel 4 – who have taken the government to task. And in response, they have been subjected to blatant threats by the government for their efforts. For example when Boris refused to attend the channel 4 climate debate, Michael Gove marched in demanding he stand in for him. 4 held their ground and explained that this was specifically a leadership debate, all the other party leaders were there – and it should be Boris representing the Tories. The next day Boris announced that whatever subsidy the government gives channel 4 will need to be reviewed. Then there is the shameful Andrew Neil no-show. Labour is rightly outraged because Corbyn did his interview with Neil on the specific understanding that Boris was lined up to be grilled too. Now of course Boris has backed out. True to form, the BBC have so far resisted calls to ’empty chair’ Boris – which Sky News had no problem doing to the chairman of the tories in the first week. Boris instead opted to sit with Andrew Marr – a far less ‘grilling’ interviewer. Marr then proceeded to miss a most blatant howler by Boris – claiming that parliament had blocked his proposal for tougher sentencing for terrorists (it was passed).
Labour is not credible in any way, promising freebies for almost everyone an extra £83 billion pa in spending, no tax rises for anyone but the top 5%, all to be paid for by a massive increase in debt. There is room for an increase in debt with low interest rates but it is the indiscriminate abandon of labour’s plans (free university for the middle classes , £56 billion for women impacted by the rising pension age) and totally unnecessary re-nationalization plans that mark it as not serious about governing. Then there is anti semitism, sympathy for Russia under Putin….
Boris is an unattractive spectacle and it is a tragedy we are leaving the EU, but with a choice between a phoney opportunistic nationalist and a genuine retro 1970s high tax high spend high debt socialist, the former will be the safer bet. I will be voting liberal democrat.
Ah the old media bias chestnut. Bias in the eye of the beholder, and many Tories would have a completely opposite view as to the Beebs proclivities.
In terms of what might happen, lets not forget most of the polls massively underestimated the Tory vote in the 2015 election, so the hope that 2017 bis the “norm” may be no more than wishful thinking.
My spices tell me the following is likely:
1. Tories pick up 3-5 London seats from Labor (Kensington most likely)
2. Tories lose 3 London seats to Lib-Dems
3. Tories pick up 3 seats from Labor/Plaid in Wales (specifically North Wales)
4. Tories lose 4 seats in south west to Lib-Dems
5. Tories lose 4 seats in Scotland to SNP
6. Labor lose all Scottish seats (possible exception of Midlothian and Edinburgh South) to SNP
7. Northern Ireland status quo, or DUP up one.
8. Tories to gain 30-35 seats from Labor, in midlands, north west, north east, Birmingham and the posh areas in. north west, such as better ends of Leeds, Sheffield, Bury, Bolton etc.
Overall that’d be Tories up about 30 seats on the present parliament, and hopefully would lead to a Boris Brexit (which I thin k will need 340 MPs) rather than a Rees-Mogg/ERG Brexit, which would be m ore likely in the 325-340 range.
Well, it’ll be interesting to see what happens when Labour loses. It looks like similar causes to here – unpopular leader, too many policies and a hostile media.
I reckon the infighting in Labour will be much worse than what’s happened here. Corbyn and his activists have put a lot more work into shaping the party in their image, it seems from afar.
Glory be!
How to trash an economy!
Such a shame that the bottom 90% are wilfully voting away their future by voting Tory ie voting for Brexit
I don’t know what it is exactly and a dare not make any predictions but I just get the feeling that there’s a twist in this Brexit tale yet to come…
The upward trend for Labour during the election campaign is quite similar to what happened in 2017. Corbyn has again defied his critics, both internally and externally, and is making a real contest of it.
“Ah the old media bias chestnut. Bias in the eye of the beholder, and many Tories would have a completely opposite view as to the Beebs proclivities.”
***
The media in the UK have been far more hostile towards Corbyn and Labour than the Australian media were towards Shorten and the ALP. The further to the left a politician/party is, the more hostile the mostly right wing controlled mainstream media will be, and Corbyn and Labour are well to the left of the ALP. That’s not to say that the ALP didn’t cop hostile treatment, they did, but the kind of hostility that Corbyn and Labour are receiving is mostly directed at the Greens in Australia. This makes sense as UK Labour under Corbyn is actually closer to the Aus Greens ideologically than they are to the ALP.
https://www.politicalcompass.org/aus2019
https://www.politicalcompass.org/uk2019
Very interesting thread –
and yes, I am clutching at straws :p
It is sad that two peripheral issues – Brexit and anti-semitism – have dominated this electoral cycle rather than the structural and systemic issues that shape people’s lives. This is what happens when the media is owned by oligarchs and the political class has very few representatives of the working class.
It isn’t just the right-wing media who are virulently anti-Labour. The Guardian and the BBC have been appalling as well. The media are filled with centrists whose livelihoods depend on reinforcing neoliberal narratives. They hate anyone who campaigns on structural and systemic solutions.
Hey Nicholas old boy – anti-Semitism isn’t a peripheral issue if you are Jewish….
Nicholas, I read the Guardian every day, and I think you are wrong to say it is virulently anti-Labour.
Do you know what the so-called public debt is? It is actually private sector savings in the form of tradeable government securities. It isn’t a problem or a burden.
Do you know how much labour under-utilization there currently is in the UK economy? Heaps. Unemployment, underemployment, and hidden unemployment are big problems in the UK. The economy is nowhere near being fully employed. In the current context the UK Government can increase its net investments considerably without causing an inflation problem.
The “UK Labour is anti-semitic” story is a centrist beat-up to undermine Corbyn. A few hundred people in an organization of half a million have allegedly made anti-semitic utterances on Facebook and Twitter. How exactly does that make UK Labour inherently anti-semitic? How does that make UK Labour any more anti-semitic that the UK population generally?
Ok comrade whatever floats your boat.
I’m sure your opinion matters more than The Chief Rabbi, Grand Mufti, Archbishop of Canterbury and many Jewish Labor members who have walked away in disgust. I’m sure they are all part of the centrist plot.
Brexit is a peripheral issue?
WTF?
Looking at chart 3 it seems that intelligence is inverse to age.
I can’t really understand those saying Corbyn will have done well if he just replicates the last election. Given the Tories state, he should romp it in.
Nicholas reckons that Labour’s anti-semitism has been restricted to words, not actions. I remain unsure why he chose to make that particular point to defend the anti-semitism in the Labour Party.
Buce
What you need to understand is that if it is not the Revolution it is peripheral.
It’s probably fair to say that if Jeremy Corbyn, who I honestly don’t mind, had been replaced by Keir Starmer and Labour had adopted a remain stance they would probably have romped home.
Bellwether, as I’ve pointed out previously, this is a myth.
1. Labour has nothing much left to gain by throwing their entire lot behind the remainers – since the vast majority of them are by now getting behind Labour anyway.
2. The election hinges on a swathe of labour seats whose constituents all voted leave. Lose them and you’ve lost the election guaranteed. Its really that simple.
Whatever the other benefits or curses of Remain, there is one clear matter.
The Left used to support multi lateralism and it used to support internationalism.
It used to sing the ‘Internationale’.
No longer, apparently.
Global Britain, anyone?
Right now I am predicting that the Tories will win the election, however with a narrow majority. If that happens, then I am expecting massive protests, along with maybe rioting to occur all across Britain. Also, the Scottish Parliament might unilaterally call another Independence referendum as well.
Firefox
The graphic that shows the Labour Party in Scotland as significantly more left wing than the SNP, i find really suspect.
The Scottish branch of the London Labour Party routinely in Scotland forms coalitions with the Tories to form Government at Local Government level and at national level routinely favours the Tories over the SNP.
Scottish voting intentions (YouGov):
SNP 44% (+2)
Conservative 28% (+6)
Labour 15% (+3)
Lib Dem 12% (-1)
Greens 1% (-3)
Seats projection:
SNP 44 (+9),
Conservatives 9 (-4),
Liberal Democrats 4 (n/c),
Labour 2 (-5)
http://scotgoespop.blogspot.com/2019/12/its-happening-full-scale-yougov-poll.html
So, if Labour does lose, what does this mean for the left? After the ALP lose, the claim seems to have been it was partly because they weren’t left enough. Don’t think we can day that about Corbyn.
Not sure where we go from here.
If Boris Johnson and the right wing neo-liberal extremists win it will be a great triumph against anti-semitism, i gather.
As i am quite perplexed, i gather i may not be woke enough.
Or is it that i am unwoken??
Boerwar seems to be very woke. 🙂
Vote Tory to save the UK from the terrible scurge of racism and bigotry. You know it makes sense. :p
Anyway, an insightful and interesting analysis for a chamge, on the current state of play. Youthquake vs older former labour diehards balking at Corbyn… who will win? A twitter thread:
https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1202982233520386048?s=19
“The graphic that shows the Labour Party in Scotland as significantly more left wing than the SNP, i find really suspect.”
***
It’s a bit hard to compare those two though, as the Labour positioning on the “compass” is for the whole UK Labour Party, while the SNP is obviously only in Scotland. Perhaps if you were to compare just the Scottish branch of Labour with the SNP then it might reflect what you’re saying. As for why they are where they are, they offer a written explanation of the “compass” here: https://www.politicalcompass.org/uk2019
It’s just like here in Australia how the various state branches of the ALP aren’t all exactly the same as the federal party. For example, the ACT and Vic branches of the ALP are far more progressive/left leaning than say the NSW or QLD Labor branches. Premier Andrews and Chief Minister Barr are from the Labor Left faction, while Premier Annastacia “Adani” Palaszczuk is from the Right faction. These various governments/branches would have to have their own positions on the compass separate from one another, and also separate from the Federal ALP.
“So, if Labour does lose, what does this mean for the left? After the ALP lose, the claim seems to have been it was partly because they weren’t left enough. Don’t think we can day that about Corbyn.”
***
This isn’t just a left vs right election though. Some people are voting for parties that they may not normally vote for in order to achieve the Brexit outcome that they want. There are Leavers and Remainers on both the left and the right. Corbyn himself is a Leaver.
Having said that, if Corbyn were to end up as PM, it would certainly be a massive pendulum swing to the left in world politics. If Johnson wins, aside from Brexit, not much changes and it’s just business as usual for the right wing establishment. There will be a big shift somewhere in the world sooner or later. It’s coming. It’s just a question of when and where.
Expat Follower, the PB comments are biased towards the left. Had Labour been doing well in the polls, there would have been much more comments on the UK election articles.
YouGov insta poll of this morning’s Boris/Corbyn debate. Boris won by 52-48 overall, and performed well on issues except the NHS. Corbyn regarded as more trustworthy by 48-38.
Britain Elects @britainelects
·
51m
On who came across as more Prime Ministerial in #BBCDebate:
Boris Johnson: 54%
Jeremy Corbyn: 30%
On who came across as more in touch with ordinary people in #BBCDebate:
Jeremy Corbyn: 57%
Boris Johnson: 29%
On who came across as more likeable in #BBCDebate:
Boris Johnson: 55%
Jeremy Corbyn: 36%
On who came across as more trustworthy in #BBCDebate:
Jeremy Corbyn: 48%
Boris Johnson: 38%
On who performed best in the #BBCDebate:
Boris Johnson: 52%
Jeremy Corbyn: 48%
via
@YouGov
Representative survey of viewers
·
On who performed best during the section of the #BBCDebate on…
Brexit:
Johnson: 62%
Corbyn: 29%
NHS:
Johnson: 38%
Corbyn: 55%
Government spending:
Johnson: 48%
Corbyn: 43%
Security/anti-terrorism
Johnson: 55%
Corbyn: 34%
Two more polls suggest Labour’s recovery has stalled in the last week, although Boris’ net ratings tanked from +2 to -20 in Ipsos.
Britain Elects @britainelects
·
5h
Westminster voting intention:
CON: 43% (+1)
LAB: 34% (-)
LDEM: 13% (-)
BREX: 3% (-1)
GRN: 2% (-1)
via @PanelbaseMD, 04 – 06 Dec
Chgs. w/ 28 Nov
Westminster voting intention:
CON: 44% (-)
LAB: 32% (+4)
LDEM: 13% (-3)
GRN: 3% (-)
BREX: 2% (-1)
via @IpsosMORI, 02 – 04 Dec
Chgs. w/ Nov
Britain Elects Retweeted
Keiran Pedley @keiranpedley
·
12h
Leader satisfaction ratings:
Johnson
Satisfied 36%
Dissatisfied 56%
Net -20
Corbyn
Satisfied 24%
Dissatisfied 68%
Net -44
Corbyn up from -60 to -44 since Nov
Johnson down from +2 to -20
In 2017 at this time Corbyn was -11 and May -7.
Some qualitative research from Sky’s Lewis Goodall in this Twitter thread. Lower-educated voters despise Corbyn, and the lack of progress on Brexit has undermined their faith in the whole system, so they’re either voting Tory or not voting.
https://twitter.com/lewis_goodall/status/1202982233520386048
Having said that, centre-left leaders did badly in the UK (2015), the US (2016) and Australia (2019). Maybe UK 2017 was an aberration.
Deeply concerning thing coming from that Goodall thread is the linking of Corbyn’s bad popularity to an incessant social media campaign against him.
While its still in the balance at this stage, I take Goodall’s point in his conclusion, that there are just too many seats where the tories might ‘luck it’, and that is more than enough to secure a majority.
I suspect Tory HQ have known this state of play for quite some time, and they knew that all they needed was an election, and the odds were always going to be in their favour, no matter what the circumstances were.
There is a wonderful article by Hans van Leeuwin in the AFR this weekend.
The basis of the article is his setting off to various seats and listening to stray locals in the pub. He writes well. He is a keen observer, listens well, provides a grasp of the local historical and economic context, and provides insights into local and regional zeitgeists.
‘Big A Adrian says:
Saturday, December 7, 2019 at 10:38 am
Deeply concerning thing coming from that Goodall thread is the linking of Corbyn’s bad popularity to an incessant social media campaign against him.
While its still in the balance at this stage, I take Goodall’s point in his conclusion, that there are just too many seats where the tories might ‘luck it’, and that is more than enough to secure a majority.’
With the addition of the Greens’ left vote, currently running at about 3% in the polling, it might just be that it is Corbyn who would luck it in the marginal seats.
There is an interesting “vox pop” video on the Guardian website. I would recommend watching it.
The tone of the whole thing was probably set by an interview with someone who worked with disadvantaged children, who complained about funding cuts under the current government, but who could not bring himself to vote Labour. This individual aside though, the message that I got from watching this video was that members of the English working class certainly know their place. Those interviewed mostly claimed their dislike for Jeremy Corbyn (echoes of Bill Shorten) and were either not going to vote or, alternatively, were going to vote Tory. There were the odd one who was going to vote for the Brexit Party. In relation to this, any mention of Brexit usually had a racist undertone to it.
Stuart, those working class, mostly older socially conservative traditional labour voters were the key to Corbyn’s “success” in 2017. On the surface it is easy to see how the socialist, pro-working class message would make these voters a shoe-in for Corbyn. However there is actually more to it than this. In 2017 many of them backed Corbyn on the understanding that Corbyn was going to get Brexit done. Back then brexit simply wasn’t an issue – it was just after the referendum, and everyone – including remainers were accepting the idea that brexit had to be done. The betrayal these voters feel over Labour’s shift on this position shouldn’t be underestimated. Nor should anyone undervalue the importance of Corbyn’s attempts to keep these people onside.
Of course that this kind of phenomenom can even exist – that downtrodden working class folk treated so callously by the conservatives would actually set conditions for *NOT* voting for the same callous conservatives instead of such a clear pro-working class party – obviously points to some other significant factors at play here.
I have been paying close attention to Corbyn during this campaign – I tune in to every campaing speech, every press conference, every post on social media he makes. And yes I concede to leaning towards his ideology anyway – but I have to say, the standard attack lines we see served up against him – he’s ‘weak’, muddled, unrelatable, uninspiring etc – I really just don’t see any of that in his public appearances. To any objective observer, the labour manifesto is appealing and has cut-through, and whats more, Corbyn’s delivery of the party lines has been concise, disciplined and unwavering. No one can seriously fault his performances on the campaign trail thus far. The problem for labour is clearly not the message, and certainly not the delivery of the message. The problem is, and I’m sorry to get into the tired old ‘media bias’ swamp again -but it is that the media just don’t want to deliver labour’s very strong message, and instead want to talk about all the other crap – antisemitism, laying wreaths for terrorists 100 years ago and not watching the Queen’s speech.
I would love to see a survey or focus group asking the average voter the first things that come to mind when they hear the name “Jeremy Corbyn”. I’m pretty sure words like “anti-semitic” and “terrorist sympathiser” will come up much more than say “life-long campaigner against racism” or “dedicated to social justice”. Lets be real here – this is a real life social engineering experiment before our very eyes. Regardless of your political affiliations, this should actually be scaring us. Its like the most powerful people behind the 4th estate all got together and cooked up the ultimate challenge for themselves: to tar the most anti-racist poltician who had been fighting for minorities virtually his entire life – as an anti-semite.
The campaign against Corbyn has been so successful, that working class people are now considering voting against the most pro-working class leader and manifesto seen in decades.
“With the addition of the Greens’ left vote, currently running at about 3% in the polling, it might just be that it is Corbyn who would luck it in the marginal seats.”
***
Corbyn is what is keeping the Green vote from rising in the UK. In 2015, when Ed Miliband was Labour leader, the UK Greens received 1,111,603 votes (+2.7%). In 2017, with Corbyn as Labour leader, the UK Greens received just 512,327 (-2.0%). The UK Greens vote won’t be very high and they are encouraging tactical voting anyway with the main goal being defeating the Tories. Corbyn is the kind of true left wing Labour leader that Greens like me can support. He’s not a fake lefty like some…
Having said that, the environment is being severely neglected in this Brexit dominated election and those who do vote Greens will no doubt be doing so to make a statement about that. After all, climate change is a far more pressing issue for the wider world than whether the UK is in the EU or not. But it is what it is and the UK has to sort this Brexit mess out one way or another, so it’s understandable that it’s overshadowing everything else.
Unfortunately this is what happens when the media is chock full of centrist careerists, with almost no people with working class backgrounds and working class priorities. The focus of a “woke” centrist is always on aesthetic and cultural narratives, not economic class, not material living standards, not public services – and they have no compunction about lying if it hurts a left-wing leader who does focus on the important things.
Thanks for engaging, Adrian. I concur with most of what you have said. However, I can only conclude that if members of the English working class (a much more easily defined group than the Australian working class) are prepared to vote against their own interests, it must be because, historically, they know their place.
Why do you believe those two would have any insight into what is happening here? They are just as susceptible to centrist media narratives as the next guy.
Some centrists have left because they don’t like having a left-wing leader and never did.
Many Jewish Labour party members support Corbyn and are disgusted by the smear campaign against the party.
Many Jewish leaders don’t believe that Corbyn is anti-semitic or that UK Labour has become anti-semitic under his leadership. Their voices don’t get much coverage in the centrist media, but they exist.
Firefox
‘Having said that, the environment is being severely neglected in this Brexit dominated election and those who do vote Greens will no doubt be doing so to make a statement about that.’
Yep, the Greens Statement will be voiced through Prime Minister Johnson’s lips.
Brilliant. Absolutely brilliant.
The Alf Garnett working class Tory has always been a mystery to me………just like the Cabbie in the “Seven Up” series who proudly said he had voted Conservative all his life………………..Well, may they reap what they sew, and as the old song used to say……..”The Working Class can kiss my……..a5$ss…………..
The US had Archie Bunker…………..I suppose Kath and Kim would be the equivalent here?
In any case may stew in their own juices for the next four years…………………………
I flew back from Spain to London 3-4 years ago and sat next to one such specimen. Nice lady whose only real wish was to “get them bloody foreigners out of England…………………….” She was from the wilds north of Birmingham…………………………