Suck it, fucktards.
(Am I allowed to say fucktard here? I hope so; banning it outright is a bit PC-gone-mad for my taste)
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Careful now, the Ukip snowflakes might need a safe space with languageālike that!
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The Conservatives have just lost Henley-on-Thames in the Oxfordshire county council elections 
The Green Party was wiped out though (by Labour) 
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Somerset CC has gained 2 Green councillors thanks to the Independent Republic of Frome (the mini-Brighton where the town council is non-party-political). Somersetās large retired population still make it massively Con, but I suspect the secret sauce of Frome is that it is a rather convenient commute for people at the U of Bath.
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It means more dickhead semi-fascists voting Con, unfortunately. I preferred it when there was this ingenious method of excluding 4 million actually barking voters from participating in elections.
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Larry Sanders will be standing for the Green Party in Oxford East.
There will be no Green Party candidate in Oxford West and Abingdon, they are asking Green voters to vote Lib Dem instead. Despite my issues with the Lib Dem party I think it is a good idea.
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I donāt know. I think the drift to UKIP actually helped to detoxify the Tories because they were no longer filled with the near far right*. The ones who were left looked sane by comparison. Itāll be interesting to see what happens to the Tory brand now theyāre returning home.
*the far far right being ensconced in Britain First, EDL, BNP and all the many, many factional offshoots
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I donāt know. The Conservatives are generally very good at maintaining a united front in all but the most extreme circumstances, even, and up to raging internal warfare, which limited the further-right and anti-EU āwingsā from making the public argument against policy.
UKIP was āoutside the fenceā and did make the public arguments, and gave the same wings of the Cons more leverage to drag concessions and policy in that direction - and of course, the āunited frontā aspect meant that it was more difficult for the moderates to argue against that.
And I got the impression that UKIP policy matched-up well enough with the far, far right nutjob partiesā agendas, that it attracted, and amalgamated their votes into a usefully large block, that also added pressure, if not seats - and lo, policy slid even more right, and a referendum promise was offered.
(But seriously, thatās another rant for another day - they frightened me, but even so, they got 10% of the entire vote - more than the SNP, iirc - but not one seat off that? The system is broken.)
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They got one seat- Clacton. But then lost it when Falange fell out with their only MP.
The comparison with the SNP does show how broken first past the post is, though. The Scottish Nationalists cleaned up in Scotland, winning every seat but three there, with almost exactly 50% of the vote. UKIPās 12% of the vote was spread across a load of constituencies, meaning that they never got going anywhere.
Still, you canāt be too sorry for the kippers, because even with that 1MP, they still got 100% of what they wanted because of Cameron being incredibly, mind-bogglingly stupid.
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I stand corrected, and agree with every word.
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Indeed.
āThe last time I tried a referendum, we only came this close to breaking the country and the Union beyond repair - you know, I think Iād jolly well like to do that again!ā
Though, if Iām being fair (for some reason that I canāt think of right now) I suspect that the EU referendum was put on the table because they didnāt expect to win cleanly:
āThis will attract anti-EU votes, call UKIPās bluff, de-fang the far-right wing of oneās own party, put Labour on the back-foot about the EU ā and then we can safely give it all away (albeit for as many concessions as possible) to the Lib Dems as an expensive bargaining chip for the inevitable repeat coalition.ā
"Terribly sorry, all, but had to compromise with those damned Liberaā¦
(pause) What do you mean we won?!"
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Youāre right. As much as I dislike them, they attracted a lot of people who felt they werenāt being listened to and with the share of the vote they had they should have had MPs.
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Thanks - I wish wasnāt, mind.
Itās less solidly-evidence-based (lots of other factors involved) but Iām positive that that ānot feeling listened toā you raised also translated to āoutā votes: People who didnāt think their electoral vote mattered (and letās be fair, for a lot of us, it doesnāt), who saw an opportunity to throw a spanner in the works of any kind, to try and change things and took it, both spite and desperation are valid there.
It also helps explain why the most disadvantaged areas voted āoutā, even though theyāreā going to suffer most through loss of EU support that government wasnāt providing on its own.
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It also explains a lot about Scottish politics. The Tories ignored them (especially using them as a testing ground for all sorts of shit, like the Poll tax) so they moved to Labour and the Tories were dead in Scotland foa generation.
Fast forward to now, Labour banked the votes and seats and took them for granted, so they shifted to the SNP. The SNP now has its own problems with a comfortable incumbency, so anyone pissed off with them is shifting to the Tories (I think Labour are dead for a generation)
In fact, I think itās a problem for Labour all over that itās ignored itās core vote, hence Corbyn, because at least heās talking their language even if heās not doing anything.
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My paranoia is kicking in.
One possible reason I lost my vote is because the electoral register is being checked against DWP records.
My DWP records are restricted access because I am a trans person, and at risk of violent abuse if that data were to be leaked. No one can access my DWP record without security clearance, which no-one can get without a day or two of waiting.
Someone has checked my vote against my DWP record, found that they couldnāt access it, and decided that I donāt exist.
My paranoia is that this is a deliberate attempt to disenfranchise trans people (or at least those who have restricted access records). I have no evidence of this though, other than previous shitty treatment of trans people by religious groups, TERFs and MRAs.
It may be worth noting that there are several trans people standing for the Green party, Labour and the Lib-Dems at this election (although not in Oxford East), and there have been relatively recent transphobic campaigns against trans people running for election to local councils.
My last attempt to get back on the electoral register has been rejected. I have two days to sort out this mess, and I have to get to a wedding in Newcastle on Friday.
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Itās bad when the hopeful, best case is that theyāre merely incompetent, not bigoted arseholes.
Wonder what the penalty is for willfully (or even incompetently) denying someone their vote? Seems like it should be kind of a big thing.
Nevertheless, my empathy, and no small anger, for your frustrations.
All power to your elbow for success against the bastards. (Or revenge, after. Or both.)
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Or steel-capped boot, if you prefer
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Somebody lend Corbyn a BFG9000, stat.
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Theyād only use it on the Blairites, though, and possibly their foot.