Will the divisions in the UK ever be healed?

Dinahmo There's loads of polling evidence that former Farage supporters transferred their support to Johnson.

I’m not elite because I can’t spell Pinocchio

Wales tends to weigh the Labour vote rather than count it - although not so much in north Wales, Growstuff!

My own constituency has gone from back and forth from Labour to Conservative throughout my adult life and we are blue at the moment but that would’ve been down to the Corbyn factor - folks up here couldn’t stand him!

I worry about what future trade deals we are going to get, USA, you can't trust Trump to keep to a deal. Upset him and he will just stick high tariffs on our goods, after all he is hoping to get re-elected under his slogan of American First. Then there is China, other countries around the world are cutting back on their trade links as China really screws them. Take the building of a dam in Burma for electricity, the deal was China was going to have all or most of the ectricity for 15 years and then gradually reducing their amount of usage. Burma pulled out of the deal leaving a half finished dam. The reason the were worried that no maintenance would take place or very little which would leave them with an unstable dam and huge costs. They have done this other countries. As for Europe , well that is anyones guess but it can't be as good as the one we had under the umbrella of the EU.

There will be divisions and name calling for many years and I really fear for this country.

Pantglas I'm a bit of a nerd at following polls and trends over time. There is absolutely no doubt that the Tories' voter base is the elderly - mainly the so-called "baby boomer" generation.

There are a number of fractures in society, which I can't ever see being healed in my lifetime. Most of them concern values and culture rather than traditional class and/or wealth divisions.

Does that just apply in England Growstuff? That all Labour voters change their minds once the become pensioners? I think the miners in South Wales would rather die than be deemed turncoats in their old age!

I haven't a clue Pantglas. If you look at voting trends, they gradually shift from about the age of 45. The people coming up to middle age will have had different life experiences from the current "boomers", so who knows how they'll react? I know I don't, but I can observe what's happening and has already happened.

How many miners does South Wales still have? The same would once have been said of voters in North East England. The future depends on how much investment there is in Wales and what kind of investment it is.

Party political affiliations are changing. It's already happened in other countries and I very much suspect that there will be a very different political landscape in 10 or 15 years.

Don't forget, pantglass that although a large percentage of pensioners vote toriy, that still leaves some who don't. I know of very few tory voters

Maizie The flaw in democracy is that minorities are ignored.

The Conservatives have pandered to their core voters, who are mainly "boomer" home owners, who have done well from the post war years.

Unfortunately, for them, the sh*t has hit the fan. The old formulae don't work, so they're going for the populist/nativist vote.

They made promises, so they need to deliver them. I suspect they can't. If they even try, they're going to have to raise taxes, which will upset the traditional shire Tory voters.

I only hope that Labour under Starmer has seen though all this and has a viable counter-argument.

I suspect Cummings has promised Johnson some kind of magic wand, based on his own self-proclaimed brilliance, which is why Johnson can't sack him.

Interesting article from Nick Cohen:

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/30/dominic-cummings-boris-johnson-evil-geniuses-hardly-lazy-incompetent

For those who might be worried that it involves a lot of reading, it's quite short.

It would be interested in listening to any intelligent comments about it - for or against.

I dont know anyone who moved from Labour to Tory I know a lot of people who moved from Labour to SNP .The most left leaning party on these islands .Not UK because I dont think it ever WAS a United Kingdom it was England ruling the rest of us whichever way they think they aquired us they dont believe its a union ...in any union all parties can freely leave when they want,they dont have to get permission from the people /country they want to leave .Just how England dealt with the EU in fact ..they didn't have to go on bended knee and beg to be allowed to have areferendum .A treaty ...any treaty can be nullified just by one of the parties choice to go their own way .Someone needs to explain that to WM ..who seem to think they OWN Scotland and hav ethe right to rule us against our will ..Saor Alba

I saw that article too Growstuff
It's just more proof that he us untrustworthy. It interested me also as I love the "wayback machine" and have used it myself to see what sites used to say.

I've also found it useful once to prove to a seller that they advertised a product differently when it was bought by me and once to demonstrate a course deviation at a university!

Some sites unfortunately aren't saved though. Lucky this one was.