Follow the Polls

It was far better they weren't "Debating" and had a chance to answer. More of this sort of interview with audience questions imo works best of all. Starmer relaxed a bit more I could see a really nice and decent person hiding in there.

I dipped in and out. I thought Sunak looked tired and defeated, but Starmer was gaining in confidence as the programme went on.

I also think that moderate Tories will have been reassured by Starmer. His reply about the vat on private schools was excellent.

Poll

Starmer 64%

Sunak 36%

I watched the second half with Sunak but, after being traumatised by the last debate chickened out of watching it from the beginning. My partner phoned up after it ended to say how impressed he was with Keir.

Tonight s TV debate - Starmer has upper hand.

"LONDON, June 12 (Reuters) - British Labour leader Keir Starmer performed better than his election rival Rishi Sunak in live television interviews broadcast by Sky News on Wednesday, a snap poll by YouGov showed. YouGov said 64% thought Starmer performed better, while 36% thought Sunak had done better."

(the debate is reasonably well summarised on BBC I Player if you want a flavour) with some clips)

This is a really odd story.
www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cm55x95xj54o
It does make you wonder how secure the nomination system can be if it’s possible for the same person to stand in multiple seats - needs to be sorted.

Politico poll of polls dated 10/06

Labour 44%
Tory 21%
Reform 15%
Lib Dem 10%

Wipe😡

This is a poll from Redfield and Wilton dated 10 June.

Labour 45% (+3)
Conservative 19% (–)
Reform UK 17% (–)
Liberal Democrat 10% (-2)
Green 5% (-1)
Scottish National Party 3% (–)
Other 1% (-1)

Politico -which is an average of all polls haven’t published any new data this week.

What does seem to be happening though is that Labour are not really moving or maybe a bit upwards. But the Tories seem to be losing out to reform and the Lib Dem’s.

As I previously said - poll below 20% and Tories are in whip out territory. So perhaps expect drastic action🙂 might liven things up a bit.

I don’t think the parties have got the money to pay for leaflets etc. Their election funding depends on how many votes they got in the last election ( at least that’s what I was told when campaigning, at the time, for the LibDems ).

Casdon just one leaflet here - from the Greens. Apart from that … zilch!

I am a Remainer. Brexit was, is, and will continue to be, a total disaster for this country, economically, culturally and socially. Increasingly, the numbers who are in favour of Brexit (and able to vote about it) are declining, due to Leavers changing their minds;, attrition of older voters; more young people able to vote; a wider and deeper evidence base of the costs; and so on.

I am quietly confident that within the next two Parliaments, we will have negotiated a very different, far more co-operative, better for Britain, deal with the EU, and I believe rejoining is inevitable, although I wouldn’t like to put a timescale on that. I don’t have to vote for the LibDems for this to happen.

In the meantime, we need to rebuild all the other things this government has destroyed, and if I were in a seat where it made a difference, I’d vote tactically to get shot of the Tories so that can begin.

As it is, I’m in a safe Tory stronghold, so may well vote LibDem because I think several of their policies are very good.

Even if it means voting for a party that has candidates like this?
A Reform UK candidate claimed the country would be "far better" if it had "taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality" instead of fighting the Nazis in World War Two.
Ian Gribbin, the party's candidate in Bexhill and Battle, also wrote online that women were the "sponging gender" and should be "deprived of health care".
In posts from 2022 on the Unherd magazine website, seen by the BBC, he said Winston Churchill was "abysmal" and praised Russian President Vladimir Putin.
A Reform spokesman said the comments were not "endorsements" but "written with an eye to inconvenient perspectives and truths", while his remarks about women were "tongue in cheek".
Mr Gribbin declined to comment.
In July 2022, Mr Gribbin posted on the Unherd website: "Britain would be in a far better state today had we taken Hitler up on his offer of neutrality…. but oh no Britain’s warped mindset values weird notions of international morality rather than looking after its own people."
The same month he wrote: "In Britain specifically we need to exorcise the cult of Churchill and recognize that in both policy and military strategy, he was abysmal."
The previous month he criticised women, writing on the site’s message board: "Do you think you could actually work and pay for it all too like good citizens?
"Men pay 80% of tax – women spend 80% of tax revenue. On aggregate as a group you only take from society.
"Less complaining please from the 'sponging gender'."
He added that women are "subsidised by men to merely breath (sic)".
In January 2022 he posted: "Men pay 80% of tax. Women take out 80% of expenditures.
"Square that inequality first by depriving women of healthcare until their life expectancies are the same as men, Fair’s fair."
In December 2021 he wrote female soldiers "almost made me wretch (sic)" and were a "total liability".
From the BBC website….

As do I MayBee70. 😁

Urmstongran

They have vowed to reverse Brexit! 😱
Surely many who voted Remain will want to vote for them now anyway?

Those of us who voted Remain will vote for whichever party they think is best for the country. It’s what we do.

They have vowed to reverse Brexit! 😱
Surely many who voted Remain will want to vote for them now anyway?

I actually think that the Lib Dem’s would make a much more effective opposition, because the Tories are so far out there that they aren’t really in a position to make a sensible opposition.

Casdon

I think the Lib Dem’s are playing a clever campaign, concentrating on their target seats and getting themselves in the news. Maybe the stunts have worked.

They're also getting themselves out there. Our seat is Conservative, but hopefully, will shift to Lib Dem. A few weeks ago, DH had a personal phone call from the LD candidate over an email he had sent him. That decided it for DH who has up until now been a Tory voter. I'll follow suit!

I’ve worked quite a bit with LibDems, especially over Brexit, and they are a lovely bunch.

Well they certainly seem human, with humane policies.

I think the Lib Dem’s are playing a clever campaign, concentrating on their target seats and getting themselves in the news. Maybe the stunts have worked.

You Gov btw

Look at the libs😮

I mean yes ‘Reform close gap on Tories to 1 point’ is true, but it is a secondary story here.

No election leaflets of any kind have come my way, though the local Labour candidate introduced himself on a local elections leaflet in May.

But we're relatively isolated, we don't get much attention.

I’ve had the Tories round, nobody else, buts it’s a very safe Tory seat so others don’t put a lot of resources in

Urms I take it you’re referring to the new Sky/YouGov poll, which shows the LibDems up 4 points whilst Reform are up only 1?

And which show a 61% minimum preference for progressive parties (more if the SNP, Plaid and independents were included) compared to 35% maximum for the right?

Data says:
LAB 38% (-3),
CON 18% (-1),
RefUK 17% (+1),
LDEM 15% (+4),
GRN 8% (+1)

Honestly, you cannot rely on Telegraph headlines or clickbait for accurate interpretations of this stuff.