The Lib Dems have secured a wealthy backer, from a global corporation to help them try to win Sheffield Hallam back from the Labour... and who is this backer you might ask?
Well, its Nick Clegg, whose seat it once was, before he decided to join Meta/Facebook to help them deal with governments (like the one he had just helped push austerity on the UK).
So now the LibDems are led by a Tory Coalition cabinet member & are funded by an architect of that coalition... nothing to see here.
There seems to be something of an inconsistency between what polls are saying with regard to #UKGeneralElection2024 and what the main parties are reported to be doing. I will do my best to outline what I think may be going on. Hope someone will find it interesting.
If one were to make the stylised assumption that any identified #groundgame was 50% effective that would leave the #conservatives with around two hundred and seventy seats and #labour with around two hundred and ninety seats - with the remaining sixty or so seats made up of twenty five #LibDems , about the same number from the #snp and the others making up the remainder.
Here is the (two dimensional) political placing of the parties in the forthcoming UK election from Political Compass....
If you thought you didn't have an awful lot of choice, the fact that all major parties are (on this assessment) siting in the blue (Right/Authoritarian) quadrant will confirm that suspicion
@ChrisMayLA6@melanie@PoliceStateUK It really irritates and annoys me to hear London journalists refer to #Labour and the #LibDems as 'centre left'. Objectively, of course, they're nothing of the sort -- but in the perversely distorted context of English politics, there is some (relative) truth to it.
But it's also really sad, from a Scottish context, so see how far right the #SNP are these days.
Austerity, Brexit, Covid Lockdown Parties, PPE Scandal, Raw Sewage in UK Waterways & Coastal Areas, Economic Crash, Record Inflation, Record Interest Rates, Cost of Living Crisis, Pensions Decimated, Mortgage Rises, NHS in Crisis, Schools Crumbling, Housing Crisis...
For the first time in the 57 years that I have been a political activist the Lib Dems have taken more seats and more councils than the Conservative Party. #ukpolitics#libdems
The Liberal Democrats have won more council seats overall than the Conservatives in the local elections, elections expert John Curtice said.
Curtice told the BBC:
The Liberal Democrats now have 520 councillors, and the Conservatives have 508.
This is a simple headline way of underlining the way in which the results of those local elections have indeed been extremely disappointing for the Conservatives.” #libdems#ukpolitics
I would say one of the big patterns of the night is the swing to independents… double the numbers that were standing for re-election, compared to more like 20% boosts to each of Labour and the Lib Dems.
I’d be interested to know how many of the new independent councillors formerly sat as Labour (and defected over, eg. party position on the Middle East) or as Tory councillors (and essentially defected from a sinking ship)
Today marks the end of my 41st year as a member of Liverpool City Council. I was first elected on 1st May 1975 and served for 9 years. I had 8 years off and have been back on continuously from 1992. I'm now preparing for my biggest challenge. Being Lord Mayor from 15th May.#ukpolitics#libdems
I saw someone saying if the UK had PR 20% of our MPs would be from far right parties. That’s probably correct, but I’d prefer that to the current situation where it’s over 50%
Way back in the dawn of time (2022), we had a local election in the London Borough of #Lewisham. I took to Twitter (which was the fashion at the time), to pillory the candidates. My tweets caused a bit of a ruckus. Ultimately, they got me name checked by the #DailyHate and a bunch of far-right websites.
Anyways, guess what time it is! That's right it's Lewisham mayoral election time! And that means I've read the manifestos so you don't have to.
Funnily enough, he wants to build more social/affordable homes, promote sustainability, reduce crime, and improve education. Some very worthy goals.
But recurring theme I mentioned earlier? #YouAndWhoseMoney? These are nice policies. But the only way a local mayor can implement them is with cash from the central government.