Rishi Sunak’s Conservatives on Friday suffered two crushing UK parliamentary by-election defeats but averted a “3-0” drubbing by unexpectedly holding on to Boris Johnson’s old Uxbridge seat.
The grave problems facing the British prime minister were highlighted when the opposition Labour party secured its biggest-ever by-election win in the once-safe Tory seat of Selby and Ainsty in Yorkshire.
Earlier the centrist Liberal Democrats demolished a massive Tory majority to win the seat of Somerton and Frome, opening up a dangerous new front for Sunak in the Tory heartlands of England’s South West.
And this is why Starmer isn’t being ‘bolder’, for those of us who were wondering.
The rapid expansion of ULEZ to the suburbs is a bold policy. Everyone knew it would be controversial but Khan went for it anyway because it has already been shown to be highly effective (London’s air quality has improved faster than anyone thought possible since the earlier expansions of ULEZ).
The result of this unequivocally sensible policy? Of a politician taking bold but effective steps to improve public health and quality of life? Labour lose a winnable seat.
Politics isn’t fair. Starmer knows it.
Shall we also mention the swing? From a fairly good majority of 7,200 in a constituency that been very Tory even in its previous boundaries going to a majority of 495 votes after a recount that is not a resounding victory for the tories but a close escape.
I saw some people pointing out that Uxbridge has a big university and all the students have just gone home for the summer. We shouldn’t put too much emphasis on hypotheticals but it genuinely could’ve swung the by-election for Labour if it had been held during term time.
Don’t students vote in their home constituencies, not the ones where they study?
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You can actually register in both, which is useful for local elections where you can vote in both. But in a general election, you can only vote in one. I assume that you can vote in any byelections.
There seem to be a number of ideas around the ULEZ, some of which are perhaps reasonable and worth discussion (e.g. the costs of upgrading or renewing existing vehicles, challenges involved with certain commercial vehicle types) and some of which are, frankly, unhinged (e.g. conspiracy theories that the whole thing, ULEZ, 15-minute towns, LTN and so on are part of some elitist plot to limit individual freedoms).
I find the conspiracy folks and their freedom particularly odd.
It has always been the case that your freedom to swing your arm ends where my face begins; freedom is not without constraints.
So on the one hand, those who subscribe to the conspiracy theory want the freedom to pollute.
On the other hand, there is a fair amount of overlap between this conspiracy theory and the desire to limit the freedom of cyclists by removing cycle lanes and introducing licensing and taxation.
Internal consistency and clarity of thought are not particular strengths it seems.
Who tf is still voting for them? Who are these people?
Who tf is still voting for them? Who are these people?
I’m suspicious at this point. No proof, but known-to-be corrupt and dishonest government rigging elections seems like an increasingly simpler Occam’s razor explanation for apparently remaining tory support.
