Whatever Part of the World Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II Owns Right Now.

[Macaroni]

It's a bit funny that what seems like a seismic shift is a mere 1% increase in Conservative votes. nothing massive happened in the british society but electoral rules make it look massive. anyway i guess everyone will be so sick of conservatives after 13 years that the opposition will finally be able to stitch together an electoral alliance.

Spoiler: North East vote summary

Corbyn was fighting against a full stack. As seen above, even those of the working class who held onto their anti-Tory grudge were given a nice 'out' through the Brexit Party.

 

[BenKenobi]

Congrats to the Tories, now we can finally get over with the thing.

 

[Kentucky 『 ＨＥＩＧＵＩ 』 James]

>Implying there won't be an entire year of more delays

 

[BenKenobi]

But...but...the ditch 

 

[Adorno]

I assume the reason so many voters in the north shifted to Conservatives is Brexit.
They oppose immigration, which was the driving force behind Brexit.
It shows a general trend in all of (western) Europe, that voters turn right because immigration is the most important political topic.

 

[DanAngleland]

I assume the reason so many voters in the north shifted to Conservatives is Brexit.
They oppose immigration

Do we?

...immigration, which was the driving force behind Brexit.

Was it?

 

[AreJohn]

It's a pretty safe assumption.

 

[Adorno]

I could be wrong, of course. But that's how it looks from beyond the North Sea.

 

[Calradianın bilgesi]

I assume the reason so many voters in the north shifted to Conservatives is Brexit.
They oppose immigration, which was the driving force behind Brexit.
It shows a general trend in all of (western) Europe, that voters turn right because immigration is the most important political topic.

I haven't seen an analysis of exit poll or panel data on individual level, but on regional level it looks like in Remainer constituencies Conservatives and Labour voters switched to Libdems and SNP, whereas in Brexiter regions Labour voters switched to Conservatives.

 

[DanAngleland]

I could be wrong, of course. But that's how it looks from beyond the North Sea.

I think the fact that immigration is a touchy topic meant that it got more mention than it deserved in the media, and it is a fun stereotype to lampoon for comedians (one of my favourite comedians, Stewart Lee, has done it quite a bit). Anyone who I've spoken to about it who was thinking about voting, or did vote for leaving, talked only of the country not having voted for the political union that has developed over the decades. People like my parents, who changed their mind after talking to me and my siblings, were already young adults when the UK went into the European Common whatever it was back then, and it's totally changed now. I don't think immigration was mentioned by either side. The few Brexiteers I've heard talk about it since always mention the same things; didn't vote for this political union, we were just meant to be going into a simple economic union, corruption in the EU, much of the country being forgotten about by European and national Government etc. That last point is probably more common in the north actually, because feeling less favoured by our Government than the south has always been a complaint, but it's also the sort of thing one heard before and after the election in vox-pops all over the country.

Besides which, I don't think Brexit really has such a strong a north-south correlation. Yes there were more of the strongly leave areas in the north, but there were strong ones in the south too. I just googled a bit and of the top five leaver constituencies, two were in Lincolnshire (that stretch of east coast north of East Anglia), two were in Essex and one in Norfolk (going by stats in a BBC article):https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36616028. Even London as a whole was 40% leave! If immigration had been the main reason for voting leave, how does one explain almost half of London voting for it? It was a close run thing nationally, remember. As an interesting side note, according to these stats Scotland was the region with the lowest leave vote at 38%.

I haven't seen an analysis of exit poll or panel data on individual level, but on regional level it looks like in Remainer constituencies Conservatives and Labour voters switched to Libdems and SNP, whereas in Brexiter regions Labour voters switched to Conservatives.

I voted Lib Dem and, though I didn't expect them to come close to winning, had hoped they would do far better than they did. I was rather disappointed actually; they are the one party that were brave enough to commit to stopping Brexit, and I really admire them for that, yet again people don't dare to do anything different and vote mostly for the same two parties, even though they both look like disasters. Corbyn dithered to the last, fence sitting before dangling a leg over one side at the last minute. Boris is a minor league Trump in terms of embarassment and dishonesty, a man whose only ambition and talent was to get himself in power, not to do anything worthwhile once he got there, and in any case the Tories have sunk to new lows over the past decade. The Lib Dems were our one hope of reversing Brexit, and getting someone in who was a decent person untainted by indecision and things like the never ending anti-Semitism accusations that Labour is blighted by under Corbyn. I don't know if things would have been radically different if we had an actual every-vote-counts system rather than number of seats, but it might have done simply because of all the tactical voting that goes on due to the current system.

 

[Macaroni]

...immigration, which was the driving force behind Brexit.

I recall sovereignty having polled as the main driving force for leave voters in 2016, while immigration was of course a close second.

Spoiler

Spoiler

Source data for the above chart and much more can be found here:
https://lordashcroftpolls.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/How-the-UK-voted-Full-tables-1.pdf
https://lordashcroftpolls.com/2016/06/how-the-united-kingdom-voted-and-why/

 

[Antoine de Saint-Exupéry]

Lib Dem

decent person

 

[Adorno]

I could be wrong, of course. But that's how it looks from beyond the North Sea.

I think the fact that immigration is a touchy topic meant that it got more mention than it deserved in the media, and it is a fun stereotype to lampoon for comedians (one of my favourite comedians, Stewart Lee, has done it quite a bit). Anyone who I've spoken to about it who was thinking about voting, or did vote for leaving, talked only of the country not having voted for the political union that has developed over the decades. People like my parents, who changed their mind after talking to me and my siblings, were already young adults when the UK went into the European Common whatever it was back then, and it's totally changed now. I don't think immigration was mentioned by either side. The few Brexiteers I've heard talk about it since always mention the same things; didn't vote for this political union, we were just meant to be going into a simple economic union, corruption in the EU, much of the country being forgotten about by European and national Government etc. That last point is probably more common in the north actually, because feeling less favoured by our Government than the south has always been a complaint, but it's also the sort of thing one heard before and after the election in vox-pops all over the country.

Besides which, I don't think Brexit really has such a strong a north-south correlation. Yes there were more of the strongly leave areas in the north, but there were strong ones in the south too. I just googled a bit and of the top five leaver constituencies, two were in Lincolnshire (that stretch of east coast north of East Anglia), two were in Essex and one in Norfolk (going by stats in a BBC article):https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-36616028. Even London as a whole was 40% leave! If immigration had been the main reason for voting leave, how does one explain almost half of London voting for it? It was a close run thing nationally, remember. As an interesting side note, according to these stats Scotland was the region with the lowest leave vote at 38%.

I haven't seen an analysis of exit poll or panel data on individual level, but on regional level it looks like in Remainer constituencies Conservatives and Labour voters switched to Libdems and SNP, whereas in Brexiter regions Labour voters switched to Conservatives.

I voted Lib Dem and, though I didn't expect them to come close to winning, had hoped they would do far better than they did. I was rather disappointed actually; they are the one party that were brave enough to commit to stopping Brexit, and I really admire them for that, yet again people don't dare to do anything different and vote mostly for the same two parties, even though they both look like disasters. Corbyn dithered to the last, fence sitting before dangling a leg over one side at the last minute. Boris is a minor league Trump in terms of embarassment and dishonesty, a man whose only ambition and talent was to get himself in power, not to do anything worthwhile once he got there, and in any case the Tories have sunk to new lows over the past decade. The Lib Dems were our one hope of reversing Brexit, and getting someone in who was a decent person untainted by indecision and things like the never ending anti-Semitism accusations that Labour is blighted by under Corbyn. I don't know if things would have been radically different if we had an actual every-vote-counts system rather than number of seats, but it might have done simply because of all the tactical voting that goes on due to the current system.

Good points. I think the pro-Brexit groups were smart to early on pivot the question of Brexit towards an immigraton issue.
Not just unskilled immigrants from Africa and the Middle East (and the crime they do),
but also eastern European immigration, within the EU, of workers taking jobs from the British ('single market'). The disaster of losing all those didn't seem to bother anyone at that time.

You say "immigration is a touchy topic meant that it got more mention than it deserved in the media".
But it was one of the most important questions to many voters, only second to how the EU has gained too much power/influence overall. Why shouldn't it get a lot of attention?
The fact that it's touchy means that especially left wing parties prefer to avoid it, leaving that entire political field open to the right.
It makes it really easy for those on the right to stand out as the only ones who have an answer to the problems of immigration.
And I think voters will go a long way, and vote for just about anyone claiming to have a simple answer - regardless of where they stand on many other political issues. We see it many places in Europe p.t.

 

[The Nutty Pig]

This is a sickening story, both in the acts of the men who committed the crimes and the incompetence of the all the government officials involved.

https://www.manchestereveningnews.co.uk/news/greater-manchester-news/paedophile-grooming-gang-left-roam-17562300.amp

"also revealing she had repeatedly told social workers she was being injected with drugs and raped. It finds no action was taken to protect her."

 

[Adorno]

Russia's government has resigned, hours after President Vladimir Putin proposed sweeping constitutional changes that could prolong his stay in power
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-51120166

"These changes, when they are adopted... will introduce substantial changes not only to an entire range of articles of the constitution,
but also to the entire balance of power, the power of the executive, the power of the legislature, the power of judiciary," Mr Medvedev said of Mr Putin's proposals.

"In this context... the government in its current form has resigned."

Mr Putin also suggested an increased role for an advisory body called the State Council.
The council, which is currently chaired by Mr Putin, comprises the heads of Russia's federal regions. Mr Putin said it had proved to be "highly effective".

Other measures include:

- Limiting the supremacy of international law
- Amending the rules that limit presidents to two consecutive terms
- Strengthening laws that prohibit presidential candidates who have held foreign citizenship or foreign residency permits

 

[Harkon Haakonson]

"- Strengthening laws that prohibit presidential candidates who have held foreign citizenship or foreign residency permits"

This is an interesting measure, given how many Russian oligarchs like to roam and live abroad in extreme luxury.

 

[Feragorn]

Britain loses its marbles over Brexit.