General Election 2019

The divide is clear, although Parliament does not now reflect that divide, so the likelihood is that the debate and action will move away from Parliament. 

On the result, it's what I feared, horrible flashbacks to the 1980's as Labour loses touch with voters allowing the Conservatives to push to the right. Although a number of Lib Dems are now in a winnable second place most fell agonisingly short, the concern for Labour must be in how far back they are now in seats that they need to win to have any chance of even getting to a hung parliament. One bright note was that my constituency (Halifax) showed a much smaller swing than most areas of less than 3% and tactical voting seems to have made a difference.

Let me clarify my point. I love london, my main focus has been London, and I have spent a great part of my budget on London trips. I am rather convinced that I will look for other options. That has nothing to do with the costs of visa, it has evetything to do with the fact that I will have a different feeling towards the UK. It’s becoming a ‘foreign’ country. I have never been to New York because I always preferred London because it was so easy. I really think this is the moment for me to try new things like new york. As I have said I am a visitor of London for ages. In that time I have see a big change. From an old fashioned city it has become an exciting and thrilling place, in part thanks to the all the immigrants/visitors (tnx to the EU), I am afraid London will become less attractive. I wasn’t really impressed by the London from 1986.
So I definetly will change my focus, as a matter of fact I have already canceled a trip. But that’s my personal view.

If you're a British citizen, you don't need a visa. You are part of the visa-waiver ESTA programme that's more like a pre-arrival clearance thing. And it could in theory be free, but they like to charge $14 which was supposed to support the US tourism industry.

I could see something similar happen here post-Brexit, but $14 every two years wouldn't break the bank all things considered. I assume though that they will wrangle something free as they do with other European nations outside the EU, that will stamp your passport for free. Even many countries far outside Europe let people enter for free. 

The idea of visiting a foreign country for leisure wasn’t necessarily accessible to the masses prior to joint the EEC. Yes, some rich folk could achieve it in the 1960s, but international travel wasn’t the norm.

Theatre has moved beyond being something only the middle classes can afford and prior to the 1980s the idea of a long term long running show was alien - which I assume means there wasn’t enough tourists to support them in the same way they do now (among other factors behind a long runner, and yes, I’m ignoring The Mousetrap).

So I suppose I was just questioning if the impact of EU membership on west end sales over the decades rather than suggesting a drop in sales as a result of Brexit.

What happened last night was probably what people thought should have happened in 2017. The Labour Party has a long way back having been wiped out in a lot of areas. There are some seats that they will win back but with the SNP having a strong hold in Scotland and parties not contesting the 18 or so NI seats. Labour will be hard pressed to win well over 300 seats in England and Wales alone.

People calling for JC to resign immediately doesn't make sense as with their Deputy Leader having stood down to leave the Party totally leaderless with an un elected interim put in place would make matters worse. I don't see how JC can stay on for any length but let the party take stock over Xmas and New Year and then hold a spring leadership election to fill the two top jobs.

The Party may have moved so far to the left that their rump doesn't want to go back to the more centrist left ground and after they have suffered big election defeats the remainder of any party tends to be the more hardcore element.

Hopefully Brexit can now be delivered and we have a broad One Nation Conservative Government who can take us forward.

There will be calls for another Scottish Referendum but the way Sturgeon and co did all they could to block Brexit I don't see Boris allowing them another vote any time soon.

I was sad to see Dennis Skinner lose his seat after 49 years as although my politics are very different from his, I respected him for his principles and he was hugely entertaining to watch in Parliament.

Jo Swinson losing her seat was funny and I'm not making any further Jungle jokes but their is a rumour that she and Anna Soubry are trying to get a last minute panto gig as the Ugly Sisters in a production of Cinderella.

I don't think that is quite true. I immediately thought the same I will admit. Johnson for (at least) ten years does feel abhorrent.

But I think the Labour party could win back lots of the seats lost in the Midlands and North East in particular. Don't think they won a seat with a referendum result of vote Leave >55%. But they lost seats votes predominantly to the Brexit party, with small percentages to Tory, Lib Dem and SNP. These votes could be up for grabs again at the next election. We will have to see who takes over the Labour Party and the state of the UK after five more years of Boris. Five years could seem a very long time in some of the poorest constituencies in the country if some of the Brexit warnings come true.

Think I heard a stat that the Tory vote only went up 1.42% with massive swings to their party. So there could be lots to play for at the next election. Have to see where we are in five years time.

Wow, that last paragraph is out and out nasty.

My worry is that where we'll be in five years will be with Labour's chance of winning anything back much reduced through gerrymandering changes to the constituency boundaries. Fully expecting the Tories to bring in this, voter ID, and anything else they can think of to minimise the chance of a democratic win for anyone else.

I still think it's peculiar that when you have a majority of voters voting against Conservatives (so a minority for Conservatives), or basically, more votes for the opposition, the Conservatives can win so much seats with a minority vote. This system is totally wrong in my opinion.
Now we have the majority of the country disappointed. And stuck with a government that a minority voted for.

The last paragraph is a joke. Neither lady is ugly but they are called the Ugly Sisters in panto. Some places call them wicked Stepsisters when they are played by females. There was a similar joke about the House of York offering themselves up as a Panto Package as Baron Hardup, the Wicked Stepmother and the Ugly Sisters.

There is a great meme going around of Jo Swinson in the window of the 2nd hand shop from the Bagpuss TV series which might amuse people.