Did you see in the guardian article about the reaction to Sunak’s DDAy Debacle that they now can’t find enough people to appear at campaign events for the Tories. Noticeable in that footage of the GP reaming Sunak a new one, is how few people they’ve managed to find to stand behind him holding placards. Might as well not bother
That's true, but Labour still had a moderate/right component of the party that was ready to move in when it went bad. The current Tories appear to have a choice between an extreme right, a very extreme right and a takeover by Nigel Farage.
'Others, in seats like Suffolk, had already realised they could oppose Labour this time by voting Green'.
Which seat in Suffolk? I think the Economist seat predictor doesn't have the Greens on anything over 10% in any Suffolk seats (albeit up from around 5% in 2019).
I think that's a reference to a bunch of Tory district councillors in Suffolk districts being defeated by the Greens, rather than anything happening in the general election per se.
The new Suffolk Combined County deal should be an interesting study with the county having a directly elected mayor - oops sorry, I mean directly elected 'leader' they don't like the name 'mayor' in Suffolk. It will be even more interesting if the new directly elected leader of the county council is a Green! The district councils are not constituent members and I think they should be worried; these new strangely named combined county authorities could be a precursor to unitary status...
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the sentence structure at the end of your linked New Statesman column, but you said that there are two other possibilities explaining Sunak's behaviour and I can only see you go on to describe one of them. What's the other?
I also wonder how much the beating they got in the locals, and the resentment of high-handed impositions of candidates from head office, will play into the campaign. The significant loss of councillors will have an effect on the number of people who will be prepared to man the phones or go round knocking on the doors. If the candidate doesn't have local party support, people will be less likely to campaign on their behalf.
I am constantly amazed by the resilience of the Tory vote in polling. Still nearly 25% in some polls? And I can imagine there might be quite a few "shy Tories" who find it hard to tell their allegiance publicly. What more could the Conservatives possibly do to put those people off...?
Did you see in the guardian article about the reaction to Sunak’s DDAy Debacle that they now can’t find enough people to appear at campaign events for the Tories. Noticeable in that footage of the GP reaming Sunak a new one, is how few people they’ve managed to find to stand behind him holding placards. Might as well not bother
I don't disagree with anything said, but I remember very similar articles about The Death of Labour after the 2019 General Election...
That's true, but Labour still had a moderate/right component of the party that was ready to move in when it went bad. The current Tories appear to have a choice between an extreme right, a very extreme right and a takeover by Nigel Farage.
Great piece, thanks.
'Others, in seats like Suffolk, had already realised they could oppose Labour this time by voting Green'.
Which seat in Suffolk? I think the Economist seat predictor doesn't have the Greens on anything over 10% in any Suffolk seats (albeit up from around 5% in 2019).
They won't come close to winning, but they're attracting a certain type of ex Tory voters.
I think that's a reference to a bunch of Tory district councillors in Suffolk districts being defeated by the Greens, rather than anything happening in the general election per se.
The new Suffolk Combined County deal should be an interesting study with the county having a directly elected mayor - oops sorry, I mean directly elected 'leader' they don't like the name 'mayor' in Suffolk. It will be even more interesting if the new directly elected leader of the county council is a Green! The district councils are not constituent members and I think they should be worried; these new strangely named combined county authorities could be a precursor to unitary status...
Thanks. I didn't know about that. Interesting, I wonder how much it is a very local vote against Sizewell nuclear power station expansion.
Maybe I'm misunderstanding the sentence structure at the end of your linked New Statesman column, but you said that there are two other possibilities explaining Sunak's behaviour and I can only see you go on to describe one of them. What's the other?
I also wonder how much the beating they got in the locals, and the resentment of high-handed impositions of candidates from head office, will play into the campaign. The significant loss of councillors will have an effect on the number of people who will be prepared to man the phones or go round knocking on the doors. If the candidate doesn't have local party support, people will be less likely to campaign on their behalf.
I am constantly amazed by the resilience of the Tory vote in polling. Still nearly 25% in some polls? And I can imagine there might be quite a few "shy Tories" who find it hard to tell their allegiance publicly. What more could the Conservatives possibly do to put those people off...?
The shy Tory thing is a myth - it was just a polling error, not people being ashamed to admit who they were voting for.