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0 pointsRoark667mo ago0 comments

And that is exactly how someone like Trump could win (there are worse people than Nigel Farage). I'm amazed people have not thrown out these two parties in the UK already. Yes, the voting system makes it hard, but not impossible. It happened before.

However, I think the key reason why Conservatives and Labour are so entrenched is that people make their voting habits a part of their identity. I had a number of face to face conversations about politics with people born and raised in the UK. Every single one agreed with me about many stupid things the back then conservative govt pushed (the idea to ban encryption and more). And every single one of them said they will continue voting Conservative. Why? Because this is who they are. It's a part of their family identity (being quite well off financially, having expensive education etc). And they only see two choices, with the other being much worse.

This is how democracies die. They even agreed with this being far from optimal, but they see no other option.

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ifwinterco7mo ago

That was true until recently, but in the last 12 months it's all cracked wide open.

Reform are leading in the polls, the lib dems are picking up disaffected tory wets, new left wing parties are threatening labour from the left on gaza etc.

A long time until the next election but right now it's all to play for

bigfudge7mo ago

But this essentially has to collapse down to 2 or 3 parties unless these preferences are for graphically concentrated. Which they don’t seem to be. Reform might wipe out the tories with Lib Dem’s cleaning up the scraps, but that doesn’t really move us forward. In fact it’s likely to entrench the moderate left into holding their nose and voting labour?

ifwinterco7mo ago

Yes, with first past the post it will probably get pretty messy. Right now Reform are polling so well they would get a majority, but I'm not sure they'll sustain that until 2029, and whether they'll actually fix anything is questionable.

My gut sense is labour have pissed off people (including or perhaps especially the left) so badly that they are toast at this point. Those left wing votes are up for grabs by anyone who makes a decent case for them

account427mo ago

Oh no not Trump. We wouldn't want that, better vote for the other extreme who will end up passing largely the same kind of laws but with slightly different excuses.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse

0 pointsRoark667mo ago0 comments

This is how democracies die. They even agreed with this being far from optimal, but they see no other option.

0 comments

ifwinterco7mo ago

That was true until recently, but in the last 12 months it's all cracked wide open.

Reform are leading in the polls, the lib dems are picking up disaffected tory wets, new left wing parties are threatening labour from the left on gaza etc.

A long time until the next election but right now it's all to play for

bigfudge7mo ago

ifwinterco7mo ago

account427mo ago

Oh no not Trump. We wouldn't want that, better vote for the other extreme who will end up passing largely the same kind of laws but with slightly different excuses.

j / k navigate · click thread line to collapse