Labour lost the recent General Election very badly because the British people rejected them. Their personalities, their policies and their political philosophy are not what the British people want. Labour cannot handle these facts, so they have cognitive dissonance. And as part of this they try to say the the Conservative government is somehow undemocratic because 76% didn’t vote for them. This is spectacularly stupid for several reasons:
- The Conservatives got 36.9% of the total vote. But UKIP got 12.6%, DUP 0.6%, UUP 0.4%. 36.9 + 12.6 + .6 + .4 = 50.5%. So more than half the voters rejected socialism. Which means Labour and The Greens and the LibDems were all rejected. In fact the figure is even worse for the left because in Scotland many non Socialists voted SNP.
- The British General Election is 650 separate LOCAL elections to select LOCAL representatives. These representatives (MPs) then go to Westminster to choose the Government. So looking at the overall vote for the entire nation is plain ridiculous. It is not what the election was about. Before shouting off people should learn how our democracy works.
- People have very short memories. Tony Blair won the 2005 General Election with just 35.2% of the vote. Even LESS than David Cameron got in 2015. Why weren’t the left complaining and protesting then that this wasn’t democratic? And notice that the Conservatives weren’t complaining and rioting in 2005. Because the Conservatives are more intelligent and understand democracy.
- The left are complaining about First Past The Post (FPTP) and are saying we should have a different voting system. What eludes them is that they lost under every system  and that the only possible alternative would have been a Conservative + UKIP coalition.
- Labour complain that the lefty vote was split with The Greens and the LibDems. But the non lefty vote was also split, with UKIP.
I have written in a previous article (click here to read it) why Labour lost. Until they understand the reasons laid out in the article they will continue to lose. Labour are now the natural party of opposition, as they were when Margaret Thatcher was Prime Minister.
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I’m a bit confused…unless you’re playing devils advocate! You make valid points, especially in regards to the choices open to the electorate over a month ago and the voting percentages in relation to history, however you headline the piece with an image that 99.999% of those marching through London on Saturday would completely disassociate themselves with. The many thousands on the demo represented folks, like yourself, who can clearly see beyond their own noses and recognise that a world predicated on selfishness and self aggrandisement is a world that is morally defunct and destined to go the way of the dodo.
Of course we were all very disappointed on May 8th..but were we that surprised? Does that make us bad losers or does it make us even more energised to share our progressive messages? Very much the latter! I saw the opposite of losers in London on Saturday. I saw passion, commitment, good humour and a recognition that the current direction of travel is intrinsically wrong.
Your headline image says a thousand words but it speaks for no one other than one very bad loser.
As for cognitive dissonance I think you’ll find that applies far more to tories and ukippers than to Labour or other parties of the left because the media is so controlled by the right. Once the genie is out of the bottle in terms of left leaning thinking you cannot put it back in..to do so defies our true nature.
If Labour and progressive politics really is the natural opposition then it’s up to all those who believe in something better to attempt to change the zeitgeist…and it will change in time if we are to have any chance of surviving as a species!
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Rob,
Austerity, it seems, doesn’t extend to gold iPhones and £100 Nike Air Max: