The British general election gave Boris Johnson & the Tories a landslide victory

Primeminister Boris Johnson G7 Summit Press conference

People yell at me whenever I try to understand international politics, but here I go again. Back in October, prime minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan got put on the temporary back burner and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn agreed to a general election in six weeks’ time. I wrote, at the time, “it seems like Corbyn is finally willing to go ahead with the general election because he thinks there’s a good chance Labour could win a majority? Is that true? Because from where I sit, Corbyn is possibly the reason why Britain keeps running through these terrible Tory prime ministers – first David Cameron, then Theresa May and now BoJo. The Conservative Party is extremely unpopular and Brexit is extremely unpopular too. So why aren’t people voting for Labour when they get a chance?” Prophetic, huh. Even though it’s widely accepted on both sides that Boris Johnson is an utter buffoon, people still disliked Jeremy Corbyn and didn’t want him to be prime minister. And so now British peeps have this: a landslide Tory victory, and BoJo Unleashed.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party won a commanding majority in the British Parliament, a striking victory that redraws the lines in British politics and paves the way for the country’s exit from the European Union early next year. The Conservatives were projected to win 364 seats in the House of Commons, versus 203 for the Labour Party, according to the BBC, with almost all of Parliament’s seats decided. That would give the Conservatives about a 75-seat majority, their largest since that amassed by Margaret Thatcher in 1987.

As the results flowed in from individual districts, they pointed to a radical reconfiguration of Britain’s political map. The Conservative Party was winning dozens of Labour seats in the industrial north and Midlands, shattering the so-called red wall that has undergirded the Labour Party for generations.

For Mr. Johnson, whose brief tenure has been marked by serial defeats in Parliament, legal reversals and ceaseless upheaval, it was a resounding vindication. Defying predictions that he would be tossed out of his job, the prime minister is now assured of leading Britain through its most momentous transition since World War II.

[From The NY Times]

So, what does all this mean? Many things. It’s now certain that Corbyn will have to go as the head of Labour. He’s a walking clusterf–k, basically, and Labour needs a major overhaul and reboot. It also means that Scottish independence is more certain than ever – the Scots didn’t vote for Brexit, nor did they vote for the Tories. They want no part of any of this. Northern Ireland might want independence too, although Scotland will likely get independence before Northern Ireland. And most of all, this means that BoJo has an unimpeachable majority with which he can push through the harshest version of Brexit and he can just be as fascistic, jingoistic, xenophobic and racist as he wants. And the NHS is probably f–ked too.

Speaking as someone who survived the 2016 American election, all I can say to our British friends is: I’m so sorry and we’re here if you need to vent. I’m not going to promise you that it gets better, but I will promise you that you find the will to keep fighting.

Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn Northern Ireland Press Conference -  Unison, London

Prince Andrew, Duke of York and Prime Minister, Boris Johnson attend the annual Royal British Legion Festival of Remembrance at the Royal Albert Hall on November 09, 2019 in London, England.

Photos courtesy of WENN, Backgrid, Avalon Red.

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199 Responses to “The British general election gave Boris Johnson & the Tories a landslide victory”

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  1. Jodie says:

    “but I will promise you that you find the will to keep fighting.” This. As a Scot that did not vote for Tories getting out of bed this morning was difficult. Thank you for these words x

    • KMC says:

      Another Scot here. It made me tear up a little to read those lines.

      • Nahema says:

        English and truly ashamed of not so great Britain. I honestly believe that most of this comes from the racist and xenophobic people who sadly appear to make up the majority. People are so concerned with Brexit and stopping immigrants without understanding what they’re actually voting for yet again.

  2. Becks1 says:

    I was seeing these headlines last night and I just…..why? What happened? Was it just that people dislike Corbyn that much? Has Brexit become more popular?

    • Becks1 says:

      Oh and I echo Kaiser’s sentiments about being really sorry. Its hard.

    • Prettykrazee says:

      I was flabbergasted as well. I thought the possibility of having an American Health Care System would be enough of a deterrent. I was wrong. Just as I was wrong on 11/16. I am so sorry.

    • Pib says:

      One of the biggest problems is that our mainstream media was super conservative-leaning for various reasons. The BBC’s political coverage in particular has been abominable this election cycle, to the point where a lot of people I know will be boycotting it and stopping paying their license fee accordingly. But also, y’know. the papers are owned by gazillionaires with incredibly poisonous reach and vested interests who have been slandering Corbyn for years. He has v real faults but the dominant MSM portrayal is basically a cartoon villian/idiot at this point.

      Another massive structural problem is that the first past the post electoral system means that, because the Tory vote isn’t split the way the left-of-centre votes are, the Tories get in. Like, imagine there are 100 votes for a seat. The Tories could get 44, Labour get 37, Lib Dem get 14, and Greens get 5. Voter preference is majority left-leaning, but the Tories get in. Hence all the talk about tactical voting being important because the idea is to rally round candidates who have the best chance of unseating a Conservative.

      There’s a lot more to it than that, obviously. Personal things, local issues, a Brexit campaign built on lie after lie, deep-seated issues of class, Facebook, rabid capitalism vs democracy…. But those two issues are the ones I think need real change as a priority.

      • Jerusha says:

        Kind of like the full of it Third Partiers who “voted their conscience” 11/16 and helped to unleash Hell on us in America. So sorry, Britain.

      • Susan says:

        Personally, I think it’s this blaming of everyone else, including the media or Conservative smear campaigns, that is part of the problem. Corbyn die-hards have ignored all warnings that many, many voters have serious and well-thought-out issues with Corbyn and many of his policies. Continuing to ignore that in favor of repeating that he was just wrongly maligned is going to continue to result in more losses to dreadful Conservative opponents.

      • carey says:

        Corbyn was named the TOP ANTI-SEMITES of 2019 by the Simon Wiesenthal Center. How is there no discussion of his dangerous views when speaking of the election?

      • Pib says:

        @Susan My point isn’t that people don’t have very real well-reasoned issues with Corbyn or Labour or the way the left more generally has handled any number of things. It’s that discussing them in-depth and constructively (and thus improving) often feels impossible given some of the current structures.

        I think that’s the thing I feel most frustrated by – the feeling that constructive conversations are near-impossible because you need to untangle a bunch of assumptions or inaccuracies first, or constantly be fact-checking claims that have been repeated in the media.

      • Pib says:

        @Susan (sorry for the second post but I tried to edit to elaborate on why I’m focused on this stuff – I took so long that the site already published the other version!)

        To clarify a bit, my point isn’t that people don’t have very real well-reasoned issues with Corbyn or Labour or the way the left more generally has handled any number of things. It’s that discussing them in-depth and constructively (and thus improving) often feels impossible given some of the current structures.

        That’s also not aided by the left seemingly refusing to recognise that they have to operate within those structures at the moment. Like, if you know your candidate is going to have an uphill battle or an uneven playing field in an election where media coverage is vital, why repeatedly send out a candidate who doesn’t play well on TV to start with?

        But I do also feel angry about those structures. E.g. right now, political conversations I’ve had tend to feel so easily derailed by untangling assumptions or inaccuracies, or fact-checking claims that have been repeated in the media and turn out to be not quite true or not the full story. That’s making being politically engaged feel utterly exhausting. That and the FPTP system both feel like they add a base level of antagonism to an already fraught process and make it harder to do what I think is most important – reaching out to other people and figuring out how to work together, empathise and improve.

        Hope that makes what I’m saying and why I’m focused on it clearer 🙂

      • (TheOG)@Jan90067 says:

        Carey, that was my first reaction, too! And His party is rife with anti-semitism.

    • Mara says:

      The problem is Brexit has been popular for the last three years in most of England and Wales (where most of the population lives and most of the seats are.) It’s only unpopular in London, Scotland, Northern Ireland and certain echo chambers on social media and unfortunately that’s not enough.

      • BellaBella says:

        Are we sure this win for Tories isn’t due to Russia interference in the election? It’s understood that they influenced the last one. I just don’t believe it anymore when xenophobia and hatred win anywhere. I think it is part of a bigger plan to destabilize countries. We live in dangerous times.

      • grumpy says:

        Brexit has been popular for decades. Tony Blair promised a referendum twice – in 2004 and 2005 – nearly 16 years ago. For him to promise 16 years ago means it was an issue long before then. Of course, the man is a born liar so it never happened. Its not Russians, its not grandmas, its that politicians committed the UK to the EU with no mandate from the people and the people have never been happy about it. The public has a long memory. And the fools that go round calling others racist and ignorant and uneducated etc. simply because they have a different mainstream political view can pat themselves on the back because their spite contributed to their overwhelming loss: it motivated people to vote as an ‘F’ you.

      • Sophia says:

        The majority of voters voted for LibDem, Labour, Green and SNP. Not Pro Brexit parties. If Britain‘s election system was more like continental Europe’s there would now be talks of a coalition government between SNP LibDem and Labour. I am kind of shocked that almost none of the British Press address this.Johnson only had 1 percent point more than May in an election that was deemed a disaster, yet this one is called a landslide victory.

    • AnnaKist says:

      I’m in Australia, and all the pundits here called a Tory win since the election was announced. The comments about Corbyn mostly related to how he rubbed people the wrong way, and that his policies were wishy-washy. Perhaps voters saw him as weak. Also, the media is very right-wing, and they certainly do no favours for any, even perceived, left-leaning politician or organisation. As I stated below, there’s been a definite preference for conservative government since at least 9/11, and I don’t know why. Well, I suspect… BloJo is Britain’s answer to Trumpo, a,d that’s a very bad thing. Hang in there, my British friends. He’s a political animal, but still might eff up before his term ends.

      • Lady D says:

        Corbyn could not give a straight answer to half the questions he was asked. Simple yes or no questions became games to him. From what little I’ve read about him, I wasn’t sure he was even serious about being elected.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      The issue with Corbyn was his fannying around over Brexit – he refused to deal with it head on. All he did was dither and distract over it combined with the fact that he’s spent the past 3 years going out of his way to block it. Regardless how people feel about the vote, everyone wants to move beyond it. His untenable spending plans also didn’t help, many young people were fearful of the debt they would have been saddled with due to the levels of borrowing and taxation he planned to roll out.

      As for Boris’s Brexit, it’s pretty much going to be what Theresa May negotiated.

      Labour need to get their sh!t together pronto and get a new leader in place that appeals to the majority of the electorate as soon as possible as I predict the Boris will fk it all up and there will be another Gen Election in 2 years. I know Keir Starmer is not very PR friendly (he’s not great at public speaking or thinking on his feet) but he is someone who can appeal to the populace even if the party keeps much of Corbyn’s manifesto – he just needs a bit of polish. Saying all that it concerns me that Corbyn has pretty much said he isn’t going to go before he makes sure that his ‘legacy’ is going to be continued – that means he is going to make sure his successor is hand picked by him and his cohorts to meet their far left ideals. Not very democratic is it.

      Re: Scotland. The subject of a 2nd IndyRef is a bitter one and the people are very divided on it and at the moment there is no real desire for it. Johnson will NEVER grant Nippy a 2nd ref.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        Thanks Digital Unicorn for update and explanation.

        Question: Is Corbyn really anti-Semitic or is that just the right-wing media and tabloids like The Fail making up more shit?

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        @Bay – I don’t think he is anti-semitic per se but the way he has handled the whole crisis has been shockingly inept combined with his refusal to admit that there is a problem when all the evidence says otherwise. Like Brexit he refused to deal with it and it bit him in the ass as the press used it to stir up trouble.

      • Vava says:

        How do these UK parties compare to the US Dems/Republicans?
        Tory: Dem
        Conservatives: Republicans
        ??

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        @Vava its:

        Labour – Democrats
        Conservative (Tory) – Republicans

      • Vava says:

        Thanks Digital Unicorn!!! I’ve wondered this for years and finally got the nerve to ask.

      • Mignionette says:

        @Vava I would approximate the US/UK as follows;

        Johnson’s Tory Party – ‘Lite’ version of the current GOP (aka Trump lite)

        May’s ‘One Nation’ Tories = Centre Ground to more ‘authoritarian’ Democrats (aka Andrew Yang)

        Blair’s New Labour = Centre ground / slightly left leaning Democrats (aka Barack Obama)

        Corbyn’s Labour = Bernie Sanders on Steroids (aka AOC )

        Also the current Tory Party have been described as the most right wing post war govt by the former leader of the House Ken Clarke, whom describes himself as a One Nation Tory. They are composed of former back-benchers and disenfranchised not quite Brexit Party voters.

        It’s also important to note that Boris Johnson himself was previously seen as a centrist more neo-liberal Tory. I believe he re-branded the party as Brexit Party lite to appeal to the pro-Brexit voters in the northern working class strong-holds.

        When the dust has re-settled he will re-shuffle his cabinet and re-brand himself and his new party again as one-nation Tories. I will go further and say that Johnson did a deal with Farage (who is now suspiciously and conspicuously absent) to step aside ensuring a land-slide. So in effect the UK was stitched up again by a Tory/ Brexit Party pact.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        Democrats= Limousine Liberals, Labor, Greens, some Libertarians & assorted Fruitcakes

        Republicans= Wall Street, Tea Party, some Libertarians and Religious Evangelicals

        Donald J. Dump does not really belong in either party which is part of the reason why he won the 2016 election.

      • The Hench says:

        @DU, yes, ITA – and in my opinion Corbyn needed to lose in order to give the Labour party the chance to reform itself and get rid of the nutters and the nastiness that have seen many capable, experienced MPs and former ministers driven out and deliberately sidelined. If Corbyn hangs on to appoint a mini-me, the Labour party will continue to be unelectable in an election and a weak opposition that can’t hold the Government to account – not good for democracy.

        On the Tory/Lab vs GOP/Dems question – my understanding is that UK politics leans to the left of the US generally speaking – ie that even the Tories have more in line with the Dems than the Republicans. There isn’t a politician in the UK (unless clinically insane) who wouldn’t support the NHS for example, even if they disagree about how it should be best run and funded. It would be political suicide and they are nothing if not self-interested.

        @Mignionette – what will be intriguing going forward is how the new seats won in the North and Midlands will reconfigure the Tory party. Those MPs will bring a very different set of priorities from their constituents and, if they want a long, political career moving forward (see self-interested, above) they will vote and speak up accordingly.

        What is it they say about the phrase “May you live in interesting times” being both a blessing and a curse??

      • Mignionette says:

        @TheHench – I don’t think the Tories give two fuks about the Northern voters. The mines, ship building and factories have been closing down for decades and they didn’t give a shit then.

        It was a symbiotic and reciprocal relationship of hate/greed. The northern voters used the Tories to give labour a bloody nose and get rid of migrants and darkies whilst the Tories stoked the hatred, indifference, frustration and racism of the Northern voters to build the narrative of ‘Britain first’.

        Like I said above Bozo will re-brand as a neo-liberal more centre ground (if somewhat racist father of 4 mixed race children) one nation Tory and the Northern voters will once again be forgotten do fester and brew in their hate ready for 2024 when once again they will be courted by a new inception of the Tory party.

        Dominic Cummings and his billionaire pals have mined the data matrix and found a winning combination of fear, xenophobia and racism dressed up as nationalism. Why stop now ….?

        Mark my words, when the elite across Europe see the dividends it pays, they will follow suit and implement the blue-print.

        The era of the decent EU politician’s aka the Caroline Lucas’s and Donald Tusks of this world is coming to an end.

      • The Hench says:

        @Mignionette – I hear you and don’t disagree – but if Boris does re-brand as more liberal, centre ground, one Nation Tory, isn’t that reconfiguring the Tory party from where it is now, after its lurch into the hands of people like the ERG?

      • Mignionette says:

        @Hench that was ALWAYS the plan. Re-brand to the far right in order to get the votes. UK politics is ruled by tribalism so they also counted on the more centre ground Tories not being able to stomach a vote for Corbyn. Now they have the liberty and leisure to re-brand again as more centre ground one nation Tories in order to get the approval of the country as a whole.

        The only way Bozo was going to get the the UK out of europe was to scapegoat migrants for all the ills of the country. Figures like Tommy Robinson (Yaxley-Lennon) were just plot devices in the narrative of division. Yaxley-Lennon became a modern day folk hero for the xenophobic northern voters. Muslim males became the common enemy which wasn’t helped by the fall-out of the arab spring, mass migration to Europe and the northern grooming gangs who pre-dominantly abused vulnerable and often under-age working class white girls. Like I have continually said, the Tories read the room, saw the shit show on offer and repackaged it in a way to suit their narrative.

        BUT….now that we’re on the way out of Europe and they have a huge majority and thus a mandate, this gives them carte blanche to put through a whole raft of changes which previously would have been blocked by EU legislation. But now they can do it under the guise of being ‘in the best interests of the country’ and making us more ‘competitive’.

      • grumpy says:

        The Chief Rabbi of Britain told people not to vote Labour, all the Jews I know hate Corbyn, it ain’t made up by the Daily Mail. The Jewish Chronicle: https://www.thejc.com/comment/analysis/jeremy-corbyn-fact-and-fiction-stephen-pollard-1.494040

      • Paige says:

        I’m Jewish and was until recently a Labour Party member, my boyfriend works in the HoP, I’m an organiser of a large Jewish arts organisation, and I know and have spoken with some of the Jewish MPs who left the Labour Party over antisemitism.

        There is no doubt at all in my mind or in the minds of the vast majority of British Jews that Corbyn is an antisemite (87% of British Jews think he’s an antisemite, and something like 42% reported making plans to leave the UK in the event of a Labour win).

        There is no question that the Conservatives and the right wing media have exploited and weaponised Jewish people’s fears, and that Johnson (who is a thousand times worse in a thousand different ways) also has a history of saying antisemetic things which have been ignored.

        But to say Corbyn is not antisemetic or to claim that it’s all due to his criticism of Israel (when most of the reasons he’s accused of antisemitism have nothing to do with Israel in any way but are related to eg the number of Jewish Labour MPs reporting being subjected to racist hate speech like being told “get in an oven” at Labour Conferences, the reports from the non-Jewish Labour whistle blower who quit due to being pressured by Corbyn directly to hush up and suppress accusations of antisemitic hate speech and hate crimes by Labour MPs, and Labour’s new policy of banning Orthodox Jews from becoming Party members, and of examining the social media of any applicant with a Jewish last name and rejecting their application if they find evidence of active Jewish involvement) is to dismiss and downplay the very real concerns and fears most British Jews have.

        In short, if you are not Jewish you are not qualified to comment. I’m so sick of people race-splaining to minorities why racism doesn’t exist. Not saying that has happened here but it’s happened a TON over the past few weeks and is absolutely a racial microaggression.

      • Dani says:

        Paige – i was in England last month and as a Jew, the antisemitism was stronger there than in the US.

  3. Elf says:

    I live in Glasgow, I was in London yesterday and again today for work. I cannot wait to get back to Scotland, where we had 13 tories yesterday but only 6 today. Heartbroken for the rest of the country, heartbroken to see this majority.
    But… we can’t give up. I want to be hopeful. I want to press on. I want to do the work that needs doing to support those that have already, and still will be, f**ked over by this heartless bunch of c**ts. I don’t want to sink to just thinking that people are stupid. People are better than this. We can be better than this.

    I hope.

    • Nahema says:

      I’m English and yes they really are this stupid. Working class people who can barely afford to pay their bills have voted for more of the same and to stop immigrants from taking their precious British jobs that they think they can fill. It’s stupidity and sheep mentality at it’s finest and if you looked at the total cr@p on facebook leading up to this, you’ll probably see how social media played a big part in it all too. How can they get away with spreading so many lies and misinformation?

      • Pasfolle says:

        One family in the Yorkshire constituency where I was campaigning answered the door with huge ski coats on, I said “Oh I’m sorry, are you on your way out?” but no, it was because their heating had been cut and they were freezing. They were all 4 members, parents and grown kids voting Tory because of Brexit and all the “people coming in”… They were freezing in their own home because of Tory policies, there wasn’t a single immigrant at any of the doors I knocked at around their area, only very local names… I was honestly dumbfounded.

    • Arnk says:

      I also live in Glasgow and I have not met a single tory around here so I had false hope going into this election. At this point I really don’t know if we are better than this. I have no faith in these people to make the right decision, and by the time time they change their mind it might be too late anyways. I just hope the people that inflicted Boris upon us suffer at the hands of the government they chose. It’s what they deserve.

      • CherHorowitz says:

        Sadly that’s the one thing we can depend on with the Tories. Such a sad day. I feel mostly sad for my daughter who has to grow up in this society.

  4. bub244 says:

    Last night was absolutely devastating. When the exit poll came out I just felt sick. The horribly strained services, the declining living standards and this mess with Brexit are all a direct result of 10 years of Tory rule, and yet people voted for them yesterday in bigger numbers than ever. I don’t understand my fellow countrymen and it’s frightening.

    • manda says:

      This is exactly how I feel here in America with the awful people that keep winning elections. I was nauseated when trump won. It scares me; it makes me feel utterly isolated and alone, and I wonder, what has happened? Why is helping people that need it and not destroying the environment an unpopular opinion? Am I crazy? (And then, for some reason, our republicans seem to be, by and large, very vindictive and small people. In the state of kentucky, the outgoing republican governor apparently freed a bunch of dangerous criminals just because he could and just to be like FU to the fact he lost to a democrat. It boggles the mind!) It makes me want to bury my head in the sand because ignorance truly is bliss.

      I am so sorry for the results of your election. I was surprised too, but I guess not very surprised. Like when Trump wins reelection, it won’t be very shocking

      • Darla says:

        Manda, I didn’t know that about the outgoing governor in Kentucky, my god. I’m sorry. God they are so awful.

      • Jerusha says:

        Republicans claim to be Christians. Well, they’re obviously OT Christians. That part is full of a bloodthirsty, vengeful god-slaughter your son to prove you love me, don’t look back or I’ll turn you into a pillar of salt, I don’t like what I created so I’ll drown everybody except one family and one pair of each animal. You can see where Rs get their marching orders and it’s not from proto hippy Jesus and his be kind, love one another bit.

      • manda says:

        To be fair, he also reportedly pardoned some people that probably deserved it, but no, he also let out rapists and child molesters, so no. Crazy vengeful man, and I saw a comment where someone pointed out that Trump would likely do the same thing.

        Yes, it seems that the christians that are in charge aren’t into what Jesus actually taught and believed in, like, at all. I don’t get that either

    • Spikey says:

      Bub, I know it’s no comfort but large swaths of Europe stand with you.

      It’s coming for me too, I’m German. Our next elections are going to be clusterf*cks like we’ve never seen before. The left neither has valid concepts to tackle our problems nor any trustworthy leaders left and so the scum can move forward. The older I get the more Marxist I become. Burn it all down and F*ck Capitalism!

      There was a very good article in the Atlantic a few years back from a journalist cum politician’s wife from Poland (sorry, don’t have the time to provide a link). She described why so many of her fellow countrymen and women let themselves be seduced by the Kazinczy brothers. Her thesis sounds quite accurate to me: If there’s only a way up for the very motivated / talented ones, but almost everyone thinks they’re special and develop some form of entitlement, then a big chunk of your population will be extremely dissappointed. Of course social inequality and institutional barriers (racism, sexism, ageism, etc.) exacerbate this problem. So what to do if you’re barely mediocre but think the world of yourself? You turn to people who promise you the world if you just *believe*. Be loyal. Don’t exert yourself. Believe what ever nonsense they’re telling you, lay back and let them fight for your true-born rights.

      Sounds familiar, anyone? *sigh*

      • Laughingirl says:

        Anne Applebaum. Good article, I think it was in the NYT.

      • What. . .now? says:

        This concept you’ve described is completely universal. This quote:

        So what to do if you’re barely mediocre but think the world of yourself? You turn to people who promise you the world if you just *believe*. Be loyal. Don’t exert yourself. Believe what ever nonsense they’re telling you, lay back and let them fight for your true-born rights. <— For the US, this is the cult of Trump, right there in a nutshell. Nailed it.

        What's frustrating is how people keep falling for it again, again, again and again. I just want to hit my head against a wall. "Why people, Whyyyy?"

      • GreenTurtle says:

        @Spikey, God, not Germany, too. This is all so depressing. We’ve all pretty much known in recent years that Anglo/Western civilization reached its peak and is now in decline, but damn- do we have to sabotage and destroy ourselves this quickly and obviously? And unlike the Romans, we’re apparently taking the entire planet down with us. Thanks for the article recommendation. It sounds very interesting.

      • Lady D says:

        We got so flipping lucky in Canada with our last election. Our options were Trudeau or Trump-lite. I gotta admit, I was frightened going into our recent election. The election before was fun, exciting and full of hope. I say again, damn we got lucky. Boris winning just reinforces that.

    • Marianne says:

      Im in Canada, and even though technically Trudeau (Liberal party) was voted in….it was Scheer that won the popular vote. And it does truly seem scary that this is what a majority of our citizens seem to want…

      • Nic919 says:

        The conservatives got the highest number of votes but if you combine liberal and NDP that total is higher. The problem with the popular vote thing is that because we vote for the individual in the riding, it doesn’t necessarily mean they support the leader of the party. Plus provinces like Alberta over vote in their riding which inflated the total. The CPC brought this American term in to excuse Scheer not winning, but popular vote only really applies when everyone is voting for the same candidates.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        DO NOT FORGET…My girl ‘Hilla-the-Hun” received more popular votes than Donald J. Dump!

  5. Ariela says:

    It was like waking up the morning after the Brexit vote all over again. I have to admit I did expect a Tory win, but not by such a landslide.

  6. Alexandrajane says:

    I can’t stop crying. And it feels like the ‘Liberal left’ biggest issue, time and time again is trying to have a perfect leader and instead of unifying and joining together to fight the huge, terrible problems, we argue and blame. And now we are here. Can blame corbyn as a leader, or Liberals and Labour candidates dividing voters, all of which contributed. But fundamentally we are up against Russia and murdoch so should have looked at the bigger picture and made it work. So broken hearted.

    • What. . .now? says:

      I think that is what stumbles Democrats here in the US so much. Always the quest for the purest, best candidate and if there is one tiny thing wrong or different they get written off. Meanwhile, garbage people with no shame run under the Repub ticket and win! Dems MUST not be so picky. Sure, no garbage people but if you disagree with just one of their items, don’t be like, “NOPE!!! Can’t vote for them—they aren’t voting 100% how I would so forget them!”

      • Alexandrajane says:

        Exactly this. Work together. Look at bigger picture and compromise. Just make it work. We can’t be looking at this again next time. We can only hope, hold account and come back to win.

  7. Lucy2 says:

    I’m so sorry. This is going to be a very difficult time for a lot of people.

  8. Wilma says:

    The answer to the question why an incompetent man won is always racism these days. Working class people voted Tory because of immigration. Would it were different, but that’s it. People blame their own circumstances not on the people who created them, but on the ‘other’.

    • Rogue says:

      @Wilma excellent point. Some have been like turkeys voting for thanksgiving. One area in former strong Labour area is one of the most deprived areas but has voted in a Tory Mp- party that has been in charge for 9 years& brought in austerity and policies that has resulted in record food bank use in this area etc.

    • Darla says:

      As much as I believe Corbyn played his role, I agree Wilma. And this is a global problem that will not get better, because the coming climate crisis will create refugees in numbers heretofore unknown. I am terrified because I fear that democratic liberalism is giving way to the rise of an authoritarian, xenophobic right, and my gawd, this is going to be so bad.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      I think a lot of working class people voted Tory because of Brexit pure and simple – many of these people voted to leave the EU and Boris was the only one who campaigned to deliver it. Labour refused to deal with it head on and it cost them. The damage Corbyn has done to the party will take a long time to repair. Through him they have lost the trust and respect of the people.

      On the ground Labour campaigners have been saying for weeks that the issue has been Corbyn – people didn’t trust him, he wasn’t seen as a leader, people didn’t think he was able to deliver on his promises, people said that he couldn’t sort out the anti-semitic issues in his party so how could he sort out Brexit and the country. People viewed most of his manifesto positively but they didn’t trust him to deliver on it. He kept proving what the press were saying about him – they said he was a security risk and he kept pulling stunts where he was ‘leaking’ confidential gov papers. Thats not the kind of behaviour people want to see in their leader.

      • Darla says:

        Believe me I do not dismiss the role of the putrid Corbyn. I only wish the american left would wake up and realize he’s bernie sanders. But they never will.

        However, why is the working class so pro Brexit? I believe it’s racism. It’s the rising global anti-immigrant sentiment.

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        @Darla – yes its mostly racism and also because the EU is viewed as a corrupt anti-democratic institution. I know many farmers and fishermen who voted to leave because of the CAP (Common Agricultural Policy) which punishes small farmers in favour to giving all the money to large corporate farmers (and incidentally about 60% of the CAP budget goes to France to support their large corporate farms in subsidiaries).

      • Darla says:

        That’s interesting thank you DU.

      • LadyMTL says:

        I have a friend in the UK who’s very much working class, and we spoke the day before the election. He told me he was voting Tory because a: he wants Brexit to go through and b: he despises the EU.

        It didn’t sound much like he cared Corbyn at all, or about possible Scottish independance or anything like that, he basically wants England to “take back control” of their country (I’m paraphrasing his words, obv.)

      • Wilma says:

        France used to get about 20% of the CAP budget, they now get about 17%. The way the budget is distributed is up to the member states themselves. Often bigger businesses will get more because they are better at lobbying their government. In the end the whole subsidizing of agriculture is meant to keep African countries from being able to compete on the European market.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        “In the end the whole subsidizing of agriculture is meant to keep African countries from being able to compete on the European market.”

        @Wilma, It is also to keep the USA out of the European agriculture market.

    • Pasfolle says:

      Yeah, my favourite has been “we didn’t court the racist working class enough”. Um, okay, were we supposed to try and outdo Boris on that? I’m not sure many of us would have been on those doorsteps for the past 2 weeks if we had been asked to “pretend to be racist’…

  9. tmbg says:

    I’m sorry to all of you who voted against Trump Lite. We’re living in dark days.

  10. Rogue says:

    A combination of people in England& Wales confirming they really want Brexit and having an unelectable candidate who scared the city with his plans. The UK is seemingly just not into far left policies. Labour has to move centre left of it hopes to gain power again. Strong opposition probably something USA may need to bear in mind for who goes against Trump next year.

    Yesterday a United Ireland was trending and the SNP will surely want a new independence referendum. Scotland seems to want to stay in the EU. The future of the union is very interesting.

    Having the dominant right wing media& sadly even the BBC in Tories’ corner also helped. They’ve not been held to account at all. And UK media including Sky News today seemingly confirmed a hierarchy of racism- anti semitism- unacceptable. Anti black or Muslim racism- crickets.

    • Darla says:

      How can we expect the US to keep it in mind when we see even the labour party in the UK, after their historic defeat, won’t keep it in mind. They are going to stay with a far left leader, apparently hand-picked by Corbyn and his Bernie-sized ego. I wish this would scare the US left straight but it won’t. We are going to have to go with Biden, and believe me, it pains me to say that, we could have done better for a centrist! I’m a centrist in many ways for god sakes!. but we didn’t do better, and so we have to ride the horse with the best shot at getting us to the destination, broken down and panting tho it might be. I mean, by time the election comes Biden may not even know who he is, but does it matter? Can he be any more senile than trump? I’d say no. So let’s get a good VP in there and go.

      God bless our sensible neighbors, the Canadians. I believe a lot of Canadians didn’t really want Trudeau, but they looked at us and said, oh hell no. And they went with the horse that could get them there. Americans are not known for being sensible.

      • Mignionette says:

        Some Canadians may not like Trudeau but over-all he is like-able, Being charismatic as a statesman is KEY. Corbyn was universally hated except by his cronies and Corbynistas. I’d say I’m a mid-leftie centrist and I have to even admit to detesting him. I ignored all the media spin and even then found little of substance I could connect with. When it came down to it, he did not connect to the electorate.

        When you despise the very people that will fund your ambitions, you deserve to be given a bloody nose by the electorate. People like to be wooed not threatened by their elected officials,

      • Darla says:

        That’s true Mignionette. I certainly find Trudeau quite likeable, and some more things ending in “able”. And Corbyn pushes my buttons the way Sanders does. So arrogant! Ahhhhh. If Corbyn had any self-awareness he would have stepped down long before the election. With the right leader, the UK could have beat this back. It’s so upsetting. So upsetting. Also scary because i see seeds of this in the US. No two people or two situations are precisely the same, but…there are commonalities.

      • A.Key says:

        “Being charismatic as a statesman is KEY.”
        Very true, and precisely why I believe democracy is absolute sh*t. Because people don’t vote for the most sensible and logical solution, they vote for the most likable person. Always have and always will.

    • Pixie says:

      @Mignionette You can dislike him, but Corbyn was in no way ‘universally disliked’. He made huge strides in 2017 against Theresa May’s government, and there is a reason he was the only eligible leader for the Labour party. It was just 3 years ago that thousands of people took to the streets in different cities to show their support for him against the internal governmental opposition he was facing. Not to mention, how popular he is with young people/millenials. I think he has been unfairly and harshly smeared by the mainstream media, and there is no doubt that has worked to some extent. Yet, this loss can’t be laid at his footsteps entirely. The people chose white supremacist capitalism over equality and socialism, and that is not because one guy was so ‘unlikeable’.

      • Mignionette says:

        See this is the sort of response I recd every day leading up to the election when debating Corbyn supporters.

        I feel like there was such a myopia that in the end I just stopped responding and ignored the constant attacks. Once the Corbynista’s had warn down even their possible allies they effectively existed in an echo chamber where reality was suspended.

        Please go and review the exit-polls and statistics post election. Also read the accounts of campaign canvassers who almost universally state that Corbyn was a huge problem in so many ways. This is what they were told on the doorsteps of England up and down the country. He failed to gain traction with the people. We may not like that, but ultimately that is what the electorate decided.

        I agree that the media picked a side, but casting the usual rehetroric aside there was A LOT to criticise. When your cheif strategist is Seamus Milne, you’re effectvely fukked as a politician. I urge you to read up on Mr Milne and then you’ll understand why tradutional northern voters abandoned the labour party and the patronising tone rhetoric that took over.

        Also past labour leaders have been subject to the ever increasingly British right wing media, but they know how to court good publicity and build on it. Corbyn branded himself as a man of the people but somehow in live interviews managed to come accross as a misanthrope even to my labour leaning sympathiser eyes.

        I repeatedly tried to find redeeming features, but he kept disspaointing. The UK electorate is notoriously fickle. The idea is to get into power and then work with what you have and persuade people that populism is not the way. Resolving the anit-semitism issue would have been a remarkable measure of good will. But the reality is Corbyn’s pride and ambition came before the millions that needed him who will now suffer under the buffoonery and empathy bypass of a Johnson govt.
        Hate and carelessness have been legtimised bc the alternative was unplatateble by the electorate.

        I’m done tryng to explain this, there were so many reasons why Corbyn failed , least of all because he was just a crap politician .

      • Pixie says:

        @mignionette Seems like you are conflating personal feelings with political analysis. You are more than entitled to think of Corbyn as ‘arrogant’, ‘misantrophic’ and ‘prideful’, but there is no analysis that evidences the electorate agrees with you on those points. I have read and researched many accounts of canvassers and many agreed that the main issue voters had with Corbyn was that he was weak and indecisive on Brexit. For all accounts and purposes, Brexit and the way the Labour party handled it was the main reason the Tories won, as evidenced by all the Leave/Labour areas that turned Conservative. That is perfectly legitimate criticism and considering Corbyn has been a life-long Eurosceptic, I question his stance on Brexit. Although, had he chosen to campaign for Brexit and inevitably lost, many would undoubtedly be questioning why they didn’t campaign for a 2nd referendum. In any case, rewriting history by claiming other Labour PM’s would have done a better job is intellectually dishonest, at best. Ed Miliband and Gordon Brown had different more centrist policies and approaches and both succumbed to criticism and lost their respective elections. A brand of nationalist, right-wing politics is consuming Europe as a result of white supremacy and austerity and whilst Corbyn is not above critique, the loss of this election is much deeper and complicated than his likeability. You are accusing me of myopia, so I would recommend some self-reflection here.

      • Mignionette says:

        The idea that personal feelings not forming part of our political identity and whom we vote for is naive. So I’m happy to take that one. And by the way that’;s another critique I have of his campaign, it was often so abstract and intellectual that it alienated the very people he needed to appeal to. Granted as David Lammy said its a challenge to unite the needs of liberal london voters with the more socially conservative voters in the North, but I am still scratching my head trying to work out how an organisation like Momentum who spend their time insulting supporters on social media was really very helpful….?

        I’ve been reading the tweets of prominent Labour MP’s today and sadly they all agree with my assessment. Examples, Yvette Cooper, David Lammy, Alistar Campbell and the list is endless.

        Even Guardian columnists are not holding back in their assesment and some are pulling out articles they wrote in 2015 no less ! And guess what back then they were bullied into silence and told to get on board or risk loss of access. Why when you have so little good media would you threaten those seeking to help you?

        The Mirror a traditionally left leaning paper all but refused to endorse Corbyn this election and actually threw him under a bus. Why ? Notice they didn;t endorse Johnson but made it very plain they were not pro Corbyn.

        If my personal frustration is showing, it’s because I see the effects of poverty everyday. I live in central london in a very juxtaposed area that straddles millionaires in penthouses not far from council extates with the highest rates of child poverty possibly in the capital (35% in some parts). These are the peple JC let down with his experimental brand of politics. And guess what I’m not far from his ward in North Islington (10 – 15 minutes at most) but we never saw him around these parts and the papers around here are VERY pro Corbyn, yet I can count on one hand in 2 years the number of times I saw him on the front cover despite the fact his Foreign Sec lives in the next ward to me.

        His campaign was a mess. End of.

      • Pixie says:

        @Mignionette To clarify, it seems as though you are conflating YOUR personal feelings about Corbyn with political analysis and projecting those feelings unto the electorate. I gather you don’t like the man, and that is well within your rights but your anecdotal evidence cannot be generalised to the wider public. I saw your comment below where you spoke of wanting an end to food banks, poverty, support for the NHS and the need for social care. Those are the exact things that Corbyn and Momentum have been campaigning for, and I would argue they have done so quite effectively. As a black, immigrant socialist, theirs was the first manifesto that has ever spoken to me and the issues that affect communities like my own. All the Labour members you mentioned are VERY much centrist leftists, and it doesn’t surprise me in the slightest they have been so quick to offer this analysis. I imagine more than a few in the party will be making their own leadership bids soon. Citing mainstream media outlets and their treatment of Corbyn is just further evidence of the structural opposition he faced. Look, clearly there were issues with the campaign, or else they would have done better. I am arguing that this is not all down to Corbyn and how unlikable you seem to think he is. To dismiss socialist principles as an ‘experimental brand of politics’ is pretty ahistorical and lacks the nuance this election analysis requires. Our fellow Brits let us down by choosing nationalism and capitalism over socialism and they would have done the same this year, no matter who offered them the message.

      • Nic919 says:

        I’m not British and so I don’t have a dog in this fight, but the polls showed extremely high negatives for Corbyn himself as opposed to the Labour Party in general in the weeks prior to the election. That’s a huge problem and why they lost. I agree that he was getting a lot of negative media coverage that perhaps may not have been fair, but when the leader is not viewed as likeable, the party can’t win. Boris benefitted from so many people disliking Corbyn.

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        One of the issues with Corbyn was that he, like Trump, only spoke to his supporters/Corbynista’s. No real effort was made to speak to everyone else. His and Momentum’s message basically was ‘if you don’t like what we are saying then f@@k off and vote Tory’ and thats exactly what millions of people did.

      • Pixie says:

        @Nic919 I can see how it would look that way from an outsiders perspective, and I think much of that is due to the framing of mainstream media. However, almost all poll and canvasser analysis shows that the reason Corbyn was disliked was because of his weak stance towards Brexit. He did well 2 years ago, but after internal/external criticism changed tactics. The public felt that he wasn’t being a good leader in that respect, but still largely considered him more trustworthy and authentic than Johnson. In fact, Johnson spent most of this election with his unlikeability polls around the 45-50%, with the majority of the public finding him consistently untrustworthy. Johnson has never been a popular politician and was consistently critiqued for his racism, bigotry and islamophobia but the british public ultimately didn’t care about those things. It would be very easy to pin this on the likeability of the candidate but the analysis doesn’t support that conclusion. The more prescient question across Europe and the US, isn’t why leftist candidates like Corbyn or centrists like Clinton lose, it’s why racist, nationalists keep winning. Focusing on likeability is a cop-out, IMO.

    • Pixie says:

      @DIgitalUnicorn I wholeheartedly disagree. Momentums entire tactic has been grassroots organising, and taking labour voters from big cities like London and canvassing door to door in the North, Midlands etc. Labour spent far more resources on reaching voters in smaller/more rural parts of the country than the Tory’s did. Just so happened that Conservatives had more power in the mainstream media and thus more reach. You can criticize the campaign but there is no need to rewrite history.

  11. AnnaKist says:

    Bleeeech. I know it’s not just me now, that there has been a real and global shift towards conservative government, and it makes me wonder why. I want to move to New Zealand. Le sigh.

  12. Ninks says:

    Brexit is going to bring us to a United Ireland and independent Scotland and the dissolution of the union. All under the watch of the Conservative and Unionist party. That’s 800 years of karma in action.

    • Sierra says:

      Yep the only good thing about this.

      Scotland & Ireland and maybe even Wales will all leave UK.

      England will stand alone and suffer centuries of horrible karma.

    • Zapp Brannigan says:

      I would not count on a United Ireland just yet, the Good Friday agreement has an article that will allow a United Ireland if a majority on both sides vote for it, so you are asking the Republic of Ireland to vote yes to taking on approx 1 million people, the majority who are employed in government roles in the UK, the public sector constituted 31.3% of the region’s workforce. So what do those people do for employment then? They would in effect be voting to be unemployed.

      A poll in September showed there is a slight majority for Irish unification among people in Northern Ireland. The survey asked voters for their preference “in the event of a referendum on whether or not Northern Ireland should remain part of the United Kingdom”. A total of 45% told the Lord Ashcroft poll they would vote to stay in the UK and 46% said they would choose to leave and join the Republic. So those people would be split and a large number do not want to join the Republic.

      The UK gave no consideration on Northern Ireland at all in this Brexit mess and it is a bit rich to think that the Republic should sink itself economically to deal with a part of the Union that is now inconvenient to the UK.

      In the early days of Brexit after the vote it was suggested that rep. of Ireland should also leave the EU to make life easier for the UK so they would not have to deal with the border, would any nation honestly allow another country to hold a vote and then decide that a separate state should abide by the result, would the USA allow Mexico or Canada to hold a vote for them and dictate what the USA should do?

      • Mignionette says:

        The Billionaire Oligarch’s gave EVERY thought to Ireland as part of their Brexit Plans. They’re hedging on instability => Market volatility => risk => margin => profit.

        I think people will soon realise that Brexit was about removing one of the centre piece jewels in the EU project. In time that destabilises the EU => check-mate for Putin.

      • Darla says:

        See, it’s global. It’s not just in the US that “all roads lead to Putin” (nancy pelosi). It’s global. I watch in horror. He will live a long time yet, and he is far from done. We will not recognize the western world when he finally is.

    • Jodie says:

      Completely agree. The union worked for a century or two but Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales are often forgotten about in favour of England. Living in Scotland, there is a definite feeling that independence will happen soon and there is an absolute push for it. Just last night there was an independent march in Glasgow, our biggest city, with another planned in January.

  13. JulieCarr says:

    I feel like people are so shortsighted. Who cares if you don’t like Corbyn? Get Labour in, then push for him to be replaced.

    • Susan says:

      Labour have lost every election in which Corbyn has been the leader before this election and yet it has been impossible to shift him out of power. Why would Labour suddenly abandon him once he finally delivered an election? Logically, the opposite would happen. Corbyn and his followers’ positions would be strengthened (they would be proclaiming a “mandate”) and he would be entrenched even longer. It’s naive to discount too that there is a LOT of fear of Corbyn and for many he is not a less-bad option so any amount of time in office for him, even if cut short, is unacceptable.

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        Even thou he says he’s going to resign he’s still refusing to go – he’s now saying he’s not going until his successor has been appointed and by that he means someone he hand picks to ensure his ‘legacy’ of left wing extremism is kept in power. He is not going to go without a fight.

      • Mignionette says:

        @DU – what he and Seamus are really saying is that he won’t stand down until they have a replacement that can continue their ulta-marxist project spinkled with hints of continued anti-semitism.

        Dumb and dumber.

        For the labour party to survive they need a complete re-branding, but Corbyn was so scared of being out-shone by his own MP’s that he has effectively alienated and banished anyone vaguely electable from the front benches.

      • Pasfolle says:

        Mignionette, can you point to which parts of the manifesto were ultra-marxist and anti-semitic? If you can’t then you are in fact the one who “handed Boris Johnson his victory”.

  14. Mignionette says:

    The Labour Party are still refusing to accept that Corbyn handed this victory to the Conservatives. With any kind of extremism comes the counter punch. When you alienate the mid-left and center ground and don’t listen to the hate festering in the Northern strongholds, you have it coming to you.

    When the children and grandchildren of miners are voting for the Conservatives, it has become clearly evident that the Labour Party is broken. Furthermore Johnson positioned his party perfectly as Brexit Party Lite. He read the dark and putrid room of hate, stoked it for good measure and watched as miserable souls with nothing more to lose in their Stockholm syndrome induced haze again voted for their abuser. Much like a down-trodden wife who keeps taking back an abusive spouse in the hopes that this time ‘things will be different’ and he will finally ‘take care of her and the kids’. Instead Johnson used those very same voters to triangulate the electorate as a whole like the Narc spouse he truly is,

    The UK got the leader it deserved. The most vulnerable will suffer and austerity related deaths will surge. A painful pill to swallow and the ultimate price to pay for hate, but sometimes you need to blow up the building so that you can lay new foundations and build something new in it’s place.

    I’m a brown faced immigrant who came to the UK as child not speaking a word of English. My parents worked hard to give me and my siblings a better future. Statistically I’m in the top tier of female earners in the UK, but have always voted Labour. I believe in universal healthcare, education and supporting the most in need in society. Things that helped me in life. That being said, I voted for labour this time (in a safe seat) through gritted teeth. I do not recognise this labour party, but I voted for them not for myself, but the little brown faced girls face with the challenges and hurdles I had to overcome. I voted for an end to food banks, child poverty, for every doctor/ nurse working in an over-burdened NHS, for every rough sleeper, addict needing treatment, person suffering from mental health issues, for the lack of access for the elderly and disabled to social care, every old person who can’t switch the heating on this winter.

    But then….the UK chose hate and facism over hope. That’s all I got. I’m saddened but life goes on. I have urged people today to consider closing down their facebook accounts or at the very least being careful with the data they place online. After-all this is what Dominic Cummings and his henchmen have exploited to cripple the UK. They will now line the pockets of the few at the cost of the many.

    As a side note I wish Scotland and Ireland good luck, get out now while you can and stick two fingers up to the long running indignity and imposed servitude of the Union. In a few years I predict the Brits will become migrants themselves. Lets see how the EU receives us then….

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      ITA with you. If Labour had a different leader and shadow cabinet they would have stomped to victory 2 years go.

      Yes, we got the PM we deserved. And I agree, sometime we need to burn what we know to the ground for something better to rise from the ashes and I hope Labour learn and make serious changes to themselves as they could be poised to be the ones leading this.

      The Corbynista’s are refusing to understand that some of his policies were too extreme for a large part of the populace.

    • Darla says:

      Such an interesting post, thank you for sharing.

    • Sarah says:

      Thank you for sharing this. I came here to vent my frustrations and fear about where we’re going next and I agree with you wholeheartedly. If recent world events have taught us anything it’s that populism and xenophobia can win votes/elections. My only hope now is that the labour party come to their senses and address their leadership issues. Please, we need an alternative. In the meantime it’s only going to get worse.

    • Jerusha says:

      👏🏻👏🏻👏🏻Beautiful.

    • What. . .now? says:

      Great post.

  15. Sierra says:

    Time for David Miliband to come back to politics and rejoin as Labour Leader.

    He is the only man right now who can bring back Labour.

    • Mignionette says:

      Agreed 1000+++

      The unions pushed him out in favour of his brother Ed and then when that wasn’t enough they decided let’s go one step further and get Corbyn…. nightmare.

      • Tanguerita says:

        Absolutely. I believe that Labour would have won with pretty much any other leader. ANYONE, but this weak vain antisemitic asshole.

    • Sarah says:

      You know what I was wondering about this yesterday. It’ll be interesting to see what happens and please can it not be yet another car crash.

  16. sue denim says:

    I’ve recently learned that for the 2016 brexit vote, the leave campaign spent some $100 million, via Cambridge Analytica and the like, targeting about 80,000 undecided voters, just bombarding them w lies and fear mongering. Compared w just $7 million for the remain campaign. You have to ask where that money came from and why, who really benefits from leaving, beyond the trade and jobs rhetoric…? Which leads to Putin, and a cabal of plutocrats who didn’t want EU laws to tighten tax policies, which we know from the Panama papers benefitted even the BRF. These are v dark times for “democracy.”

    • MaryContrary says:

      Yes, I absolutely see Putin’s hand in this as well. Frightening times.

    • Sarah says:

      I’ve never particularly considered my self a ‘socialist’ (or a conspiracy theorist) but I’m increasingly aware of just how much the big money in the world can pretty much buy what it wants these days. When it all comes crashing down I hope we can get to a better place although I fear that will be towards the end of not after my lifetime and we have decades of horror ahead of us.

    • Susan says:

      Labour under Corbyn wasn’t exactly an anti-Brexit party either.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        Correct me if I am wrong but I do not believe Corbyn ever came out loudly against BREXSHIT.

      • Digital Unicorn says:

        @Bay – He didn’t, he’s been sat on the fence from the beginning and thats the problem. All the other parties made a stance, except Labour.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        @Digital Unicorn, A person visiting Florida from Kent, England and staying in the house next door to mine who is related to some local “councilor” in Kent said that if you reached into their souls and could see the true beliefs, Corbyn is really a BREXSHITER and BoJo is really a Remainer.

        I have no idea if this true nor do I know what a local “councilor” is or does. However, the Kent, England visitor’s relative was very connected to politics or so she told me.

      • Mignionette says:

        @TampaBay I agree with that assessment. There are MANY pre-2016 interviews with Bozo lamenting the positives of the EU and single market. Bozo even grew up and schooled in Europe where his father was an European civil servant.

        Bozo is simply a sociopath who saw an opportunity to be King for the day so he sold his soul to dark money and power, re-branded himself and went for the jugular fear based racism as a political tactic. The various twists and turns since then as they say is history. I personally loathe the man, but you cannot knock his tenacity and ability to read the room and see opportunity.

        Corbyn on the other hand is not too dissimilar in his thirst for power and ambition. He just doesn’t have the mettle to follow through and lacked the intellectual rigour and capabilities which were needed to outsmart a snake in the grass like Johnson. He fell into every single one of his traps with his pompous sentimentality and that invariably alienated him from the electorate who could see he lacked the strength and conviction of a leader of the 5th largest world economy,

      • The Hench says:

        Yeah, Corbyn always hedged on Brexit and his ‘plan’ for it if he won made no sense whatever. He handed the win to the Tories. At the end of the day he is not a leader. As events hit him, whether Brexit or anti-feminist rhetoric and abuse or the anti-semitism or the proof of his support for Hamas/the PLO/Hezbollah/the IRA, he just didn’t deal with any of them. In one of the last debates he didn’t even seem to understand that the ‘deal’ currently going through parliament was part of the withdrawal agreement and not a trade deal with the EU.

        @Bay – yes, I would agree to some extent with the Kent visitor. I personally don’t think Boris ever wanted Brexit – he campaigned against Cameron and the remainers as a way of raising his profile and as if it were part of some jolly Oxford debating society outing. At the time, none of them, Cameron included, even dreamed that the country would vote out. Now, as Mignionette says, he has grasped the opportunity for power.

    • Betsy says:

      This sounds reasonable to me. Big money is behind this bull crap.

    • A.Key says:

      Sure, it must be Putin and not the fact that a very large percentage of the British population is racist and hates immigrants….
      Putin didn’t force anyone with a gun to circle leave. If he did influence the campaign then the idiots who fell for it have only themselves to blame. In the end it all came down to people expressing their inner dislike of outsiders and non-British people.

  17. Lara says:

    I believe that the United Kingdom will be no more. I believe that members of my family who rely on things like Universal Credit will be ruined and I believe that when the NHS inevitably becomes privatised I will be in fear for my life constantly due to a major heart condition and the need for operations every 5 years that I won’t be able to afford and I won’t ever be able to get insurance due to my condition. So yeah great

    • Eyfalia says:

      Well, you have to leave the UK now and if you can move to one of the European countries.

    • Ann says:

      I’m so sorry to hear your story and I wanted to say that I understand a little bit how you feel. My husband has a health condition and we rely on the NHS to keep him alive. It’s scary to think of the NHS in the hands of the Tories. BUT don’t give up just yet- there are so many people just like you and me who will continue to fight for free health care and support for the most vulnerable. I can’t and won’t stop campaigning as long as the NHS still exists to protect.

      Despite all the (very unhelpful!) comments on this post saying “the British people have got what they deserve”, let’s not forget the majority of the popular vote was for progressive parties (Labour, SNP, Greens and Lib Dems), NOT the tories. This is categorically NOT what the majority of the UK asked for.

    • The Hench says:

      Hey, Lara – I’m so sorry to hear of your heart condition. I am severely disabled and also require the NHS to help keep me alive. However, if it helps at all, care is still provided free of charge to patients even within the parts of the NHS that purchase from private providers. There are also many instances that those services provided to the NHS by private providers cost the NHS less and benefit patients with shorter waiting times. I can’t help you on UC but I hope that helps reassure a little on the NHS.

      • Lara says:

        Thank you all. It’s so nice to see people trying to help others when it feels that part of society has fallen away.

  18. Enn says:

    I’m so sorry to our UK friends. I forsee us going this way next year as well. These are hard times and dark days.

  19. Jenns says:

    Reading Twitter last night was like reliving the 2016 election in America all over again. I really feel for the people in the UK today. I cried the day after when Trump won.

    It’s very hard to not just say f**k it and let the world burn(literally) if that’s what people are voting for. If they hate immigration right now, just wait 20 years when heavily populated areas of the planet because inhabitable and people are going to need somewhere to go. Also, when more and more infections diseases and outbreaks occur, your’re going to need that healthcare. So good f**king luck.

  20. emmy says:

    As an EU, non-UK citizen, I feel very torn about this. On the one hand, it mKes me incredibly sad an it is frustrating as hell to see people all over the world consistently vote against their own interests. On the other hand…. well, let’s get effin Brexit done then. The people voted. Now we all need to finally deal with the consequences. We have other shit to do as well.

    Also, let’s not ignore the very real possibility of another case of Russia interfering and corporations buying elections (if only through buying the media).

    • Elisa says:

      Another EU-citizen here: while I feel sorry for all the Brits who didn’t vote for Bojo, I’m glad he now has a clear mandate and the EU can hopefully soon again concentrate on issues neglected because of Brexit. Also, I will open a bottle of champagne when Farage’s Brexit party will be gone from the EU Parliament.

  21. Leo says:

    So is this the moment we start blaming the voters? I’m tired of this scenario. A horrible dictator-enthusiast wins an election and the excuses start pouring in. The people were misinformed, biased media, bad campaign on the opposition side, unlikable leader… And my favorite: not my president/PM and we are better than this. Stop. Just stop. People want this. Yes, there’s a number of people who don’t have a good enough judgment to wade through all the bullshit (I’m not saying this in a snarky way), but most people vote for these shits because they like them: they like the licence they give them to hate everything different from them, they like their boorishness, their appearance of strength on the backs of others.

    Just face the real problem – people want this. It’s a bitter pill to swallow but we are not getting anywhere if we are going to keep deluding ourselves that next time, it will all be better, we just have to pick a more perfect candidate and run a slightly showier campaign.

    • Darla says:

      ^^^^^

      100% agree. We need to start holding the people accountable. I do believe Corbyn is almost uniquely unlikeable, and played his role, but this is happening globally, and people, WHITE people really, need to be held to account. No passes from me!

    • heygingersnaps says:

      It says a lot about the character of the people who voted for boorish johnson after all his antics, views and beliefs. I just think that this must be what being a child in an abusive relationship feels like, the other party is horrible but the abused partner keeps choosing to stay for more.

      • BayTampaBay says:

        @heygingersnaps, I think many people voted for BoJo for the simple reason they did not like Corbyn. The same thing happened in the USA 2016 election. Many people voted for Dump because they simply did not like my girl Hillary. If Biden had run in 2016 and received the Democratic nomination, I have no doubt he would have easily and resoundingly defeated Dump. The election would not have been even close to a close-call.

      • heygingersnaps says:

        @BayTampaBay, no, the people voted for the tories because they think & agree with their racists views even if the tories’ policies will not benefit them but as long as they think they are sticking it to whomever they think is the enemy they are happy to think the tories winning is something to gloat about.

        I am not a fan of labour and corbyn myself but how they handled themselves during this brief election campaign is much better compared to how boorish and the tories handled it via lies, cowardly antics, posturing and throwing minorities, immigrants and whoever they can under the bus & yet still people voted for them, says it all really.

    • Tourmaline says:

      @Leo: ‘People want this’. Yep. That’s what must be reckoned with–I don’t know the answer to this problem but pretending that if we could only explain it better, they would not want it, is indeed a form of denial.

    • olala says:

      Preach! And amen! I keep repeating this over and over again! We must realize it is people /masses. It can shock someone who thinks progressively and liberally but the truth is the change is made only by small percentage of society. The rest is a mass. Uninterested to look to search but keem to respond when their basic instincts /emotions come to play. In this case this reaction with ballot.
      It is possible also to turn progressive woke society intoo dumb mass. Can take few years but easy peasy. I saw the process firsthand in Poland.

    • A.Key says:

      I totally agree. I’m so sick of this “oh the people are dumb sheep and Facebook/evil communists/aliens made them vote the way they did”.
      No.
      People voted of their own free will and a LOT of them are conservative racist aholes. It’s just the way it is. And this is democracy at its finest – if most people are racist aholes then that’s what you get as leader. It’s not about what’s right, it’s about what most people want.

    • Pasfolle says:

      Completely. Time to face unpleasant facts about my neighbours…

  22. EB says:

    I was watching BBC last night, and one of the Labour representatives said (not verbatim), “well we lost and we need to do a better job of convincing people to our way of thinking.” THAT is the problem. You can’t put together a party and platform and expect the people to go merrily along while you ignore their concerns. You have to work with what the people want, and clearly it wasn’t what Labour was offering with Corbyn at the helm. I knew this would be a landslide, just like I know we in the US have a bigger reckoning coming if we don’t get our crap together.

    • Mignionette says:

      I am sorry to be the bearer of bad news but I suspect it will be worse in the US. But the decisions made will be reversible in the long term. Brexit isn’t.

      If anything the US need to learn to embrace voters and find out what they want instead of demonizing them. As one political journalist pointed out last night, ideals without power are worthless.

    • BayTampaBay says:

      ““well we lost and we need to do a better job of convincing people to our way of thinking.” ”

      Well no; Politicians need to discover what people really want and come up with workable plan to help them achieve it.

    • Pasfolle says:

      Actually Labour policies were very popular, there was mild concern about how they were going to be funded (which I found relatively easy to alleviate by pointing to appropriate independent sources on their phones) but on the doorstep it was all about Brexit and the smear campaign against Corbyn.

  23. A says:

    I’m so sad corbyn lost what a incredible man and for all the minorites who will be affected. At the same time i’m happy watching all the coloniol countries and usa destroy themselves like they destroyed the rest of the world.

    • Darla says:

      Here’s a ruskie now

      • A says:

        Nah here’s a somali who has never been able to live in her home country because of colonolism and necolonilsm.

    • Allergy says:

      So we should all get destroyed now for something that happened decades ago? How is that helpful for anyone? It won’t help you. It won’t make those “colonial countries” any better if the West crumbles.
      What a f****** shit storm this all is.

      • Pixie says:

        @Allergy You think colonialism and neocolonialism is a thing that happened decades ago? Maybe if more people understood history, we could avoid things like this happening over and over again.

      • Allergy says:

        No I don’t, and when exactly colonialism happened and where it happens now was not really my point. Maybe if more people understood comments without ten thousand word explanations, we would avoid things like this happening over and over again.

      • Pixie says:

        @Allergy so when you said ‘we should all get destroyed now for something that happened decades ago’, that’s not what you meant? It’s not my fault your comment made no sense.

  24. heygingersnaps says:

    Seeing the exit polls last night predicting a tory majority made me go to bed with dread in my stomach.
    This is probably what some Americans felt when dump got elected. I genuinely feel sick and this is the only election (so far) that’s made me feel this way.
    It says a lot about the people who voted for the tories even after all the lies & the way boorish & party behaved. I just can’t. Unfortunately, they will reap what they sow once cuts to public funding and privatising of the nhs amongst other things start to push through.

  25. Mabs A'Mabbin says:

    This was the very first news item hitting my ears this morning. I was making coffee. I stopped and sighed heavily. Then drank my coffee black. I always have creamer, just didn’t feel like feeling better. Weird.

  26. Kelly says:

    And the billionaires have bought themselves another country.

  27. Lummy dee says:

    My country is worse. We are led by a brutal dictator who claims to be a democrat

  28. Veronica S. says:

    In some ways, I worry more for the U.K. than the United States. We have this idea that because of the NHS, they’re better off to handle crises like this, but honestly…America is a clusterf*ck, but it’s a massive country with some fairly powerful states rights. Your federal government can go to shit, but you may still be able to escape to a better state because of the protections in place for localities. Which is why what Trump is trying to do to California ala emissions regulations is a big deal – overthrowing that will have massive repercussions down the line.

    Of course, saying this counts mainly for American citizens. I’m well aware of our tendency to lash out and harm others globally during our historical rough spots, mind. Western nations are currently just reaping what we’ve sowed elsewhere.

    • Tourmaline says:

      This is a good point, I hadn’t thought of it that way. At least in the U.S. there is a federal system of government and a LOT of power and authority is left up to individual states. It provides a small but not meaningless measure of protection if the federal government goes insane — depending on what state you live in of course.

      • Veronica S. says:

        At this point, I consider the loss of women and minority’s rights a matter of time when it comes to federal protections, so choosing your state delegates carefully is going to be a serious issue in the next few decades. My friend and I were talking about this re: abortion rights the other days that liberals are finally waking up to the fact that there is something to the states rights argument conservatives have bantered around for years. At some point, we’re just going to have to let some people reap what they sow and create our own havens to get through it.

      • BarbN says:

        Exactly. I have never been so glad to be a Californian as I am right now. Born and raised here, love this wonderfully progressive state although we have our problems for sure.

        I just want to say that as a major Anglophile, I am fascinated by, and very appreciative of, all the thoughtful, well-written posts from the UK folks on this site. It’s great to read and take in your points of view about what’s happening politically, socially, and culturally in your realm.

  29. Lala11_7 says:

    The Cold War is FINALLY over.

    Russia won.

    • Mignionette says:

      Yep. I have been telling people this for the last three years and only recently have they started to believe it.

    • Pixie says:

      Nah white supremacist capitalism won. Again.

    • GreenTurtle says:

      Indeed, it did. And Putin will continue to reap the benefits of a weakened Europe and NATO because this wave of ultranationalist hate is still growing and spreading. How useful for the ultra powerful that people’s base instincts (racism, xenophobia, jealousy) are so predictable and easy to exploit.

    • Pasfolle says:

      Agreed. Also Putin and white supremacist capitalism are not incompatible.

  30. Carabee says:

    At least in America the majority of people actually voted for the right person and party, but the system screwed us over. Brits can’t even say that.

    • Sophia says:

      You have not really looked at the results then, have you? Britain can say exactly that. The majority of people voted left leaning SNP Labour LibDems and Greens. It is only this stupid election system that lets the winner per district take it all (first past the post) that leads to this huge Tory majority in parliament now. If percentages of vote or majority counted anything pall the articles would now be about how Britain finally had enough of stories and voted in a left leaning coalition.

  31. Well-Wisher says:

    Europe has made its peace with the UK leaving thev EU now they are probably looking for a proper replacement. I am sure they will find a suitable one. We are living in interesting times.

  32. kerwood says:

    I guess if there are any winners here, it’s Americans who will no longer have to put up with shade from smug British people because Trump is their President. Johnson is nothing to be proud of. But everybody loses when intolerance and trying to move BACKWARDS in time win.

    Looks like the Brexit vote WASN’T a fluke.

    • Linda says:

      @Kerwwood
      There are no winners here particularly Americans as Trump is definitely winning a second term.

  33. S808 says:

    The US and the UK elected the leaders they deserve. I only feel sorry for the poor POC who will bear the brunt of these horrible decisions as always.

  34. Eyfalia says:

    Landslide??? He got 1 % more than May got in the last election. And her result was called disappointing.

    • BayTampaBay says:

      In the UK it has to do with seats in the House-of-Commons not the popular vote.

      Bojo has a “landslide” majority in the House-of-Commons.

      I wonder how long it will be before the Conservative Party turns on BoJo when he cannot deliver on his election promises.

  35. TG says:

    Great. Let the conservatives take full responsibility for Brexit.

  36. smee says:

    This makes me even more concerned about the 2020 elections in the US….

    • TG says:

      Yes. I’m always baffled when people believe the propaganda and vote against their own interests. But they keep doing it.

      • Mignionette says:

        @TG two words: BASE INSTINCT

        Stoke the fear, division and racism enough = winning formula. It’s a proven management technique to pit your resources against each other. In their drive to please you and gain the upper hand they develop a form of tribalism that keeps you in power.

      • TG says:

        Yeah, I see how they do it. But it just baffles me when people keep falling for it.

      • Mara says:

        Does anyone have any practical ideas on how to change their minds (thinking ahead to UK election 2024).

  37. Maplesbass says:

    I’m absolutely terrified for the NHS. I have incurable cancer and am lucky to be on a clinical trial (because I have a shit version of a shit cancer) funded by a charity and two pharmaceutical companies and it costs just under £400,000 per year to keep me alive.

  38. Pixie says:

    The sad and simple truth is that when it comes to power, most poor white people will choose the side of white multi-millionaires and billionaires and corporations, before they ever even consider standing in solidarity with the poor, marginalised people of colour with whom they have an awful lot more in common. If lines of solidarity were drawn across class lines instead of race/religion, this would never have happened. It’s an age old pattern that wasn’t broken today and I’m not hopeful for the near future.

  39. olala says:

    What can I say…they’ve got what they deserve! Yep shock to someone but not to me. Xenophobic entitled society with imperial grandeur stroke. Honestly they can go and f..k themselves. Hope Ireland will unite at last and Scotland will gain independence.
    Re press etc etc. Please do not think people are “poor uninformed babies” i hate that constant infantilization of adults with brains. There are plenty of information to find and easily as well if there is a will to do so. So yep let them jump over the cliff.
    Rant is over

  40. Ye says:

    The world is going to shit. I was sad about it but then I remembered climate change and nothing really matters anyway. Nature will figure it out without us.

    • mercury says:

      To think that “the world is going to shit” because of the leadership of UK/whatever is going on in the United States is a form of supremacy and the notion of a manifest destiny over other nations. The world will still exist. China will continue, Nigeria will carry on. So will Jamaica. So will Canada, etc. You are not the center of the universe. Life does not revolve around your country.

      • Tourmaline says:

        Umm climate change is going to affect China, Nigeria, Jamaica, Canada etc. too, sorry to say.

  41. My heart is heavy tonight for my beloved UK. Dear God, what a state we are now in. This in the UK, Trump Kushners here in the USA. Help us all. Sending love.

  42. Flffgrrrrlr says:

    Genuinely, thank you.

  43. Birds eye view says:

    Where do i begin?. the Scottish Independence referendum in 2014 divided the country almost in half. the result wasn’t accepted by th SNP and they decided to put everything into overturning the result despite their.’once in a lifetime’ promise The labour party was dessimated. Then th EU referendum took place. the SNP decided this was another way they could further their separatist agenda and from day one tried to overturn the result. So now we have Scots who would normally vote labour voting SNP to keep the ‘Toaries’ out and Scots who would normally vote labour voting Tory to keep Scotland in the union. so no-one is voting for who they want..its all down to brexit and Indyref2…meanwhile the SNP’s record in office is appalling, noone is dealing with the real issues of poverty, food banks, the falling standards in education and waiting lists on the NHS. no one wins we r all losers in this nightmarish chess game.

    • Digital Unicorn says:

      The SNP need the IndyRef drama to hide behind for the way they mis-managed Scotland for years. They can’t really keep blaming Westminster as they are in charge of how to spend the budget and have for years had the power to raise Council Tax (Scotland has some of the highest council tax in the country – i live in zone 2 in London and I pay less than my dad who live in a small town on the west coast and this includes single person discount). What is the SNP doing with all the money – its not going into public service thats for sure?

      • Birds eye view says:

        it certainly isn’t going into the public sector..I’ve just been made redundant due to budget cuts.

  44. thea says:

    ugh. i can’t believe they voted for that clown. the guy who ran away from piers morgan (piers morgan!) and hid in a fridge. the guy who sent his dad to the debates in his place. and speaking of his dad, he had the audacity to insult brits saying they are too stupid to know how to spell pinocchio. and then he took it further and said we wouldn’t even get the literary allusion, because you know pinocchio is such an esoteric literary reference.

    you know I never thought trump had a chance of winning 2016 until the brexit vote. i can only hope that this isn’t foreshadowing for 2020. please america, please be smarter than the brits.

  45. robyn says:

    Thank you posters for your thoughtful insights. These are scary times. I am shocked Boris won and it has made me fear more than ever Trump has a shot in 2020. I can’t help thinking Russia stuck a wedge in all this as well with propaganda and money. Putin wants to destroy the UN and its post war alliances and he’s winning in many places.

    I’ve always thought Trump would be a harmless joke were it not for his enablers and supporters. The US has shown how democracies can slide into authoritarian governments. The smaller but louder group willing to cheat for ideology accepts bullying, lies and distortions to get its way and the bulk of the society has to suffer.

    Sadly, with the world so desperately needing US leadership at this very moment with climate change, Trump is in charge and he can’t even handle a sixteen year old girl.

  46. Rando says:

    How did the Brits not see this coming? Corbyn was the 2016 Clinton equivalent. People didn’t like him, and even if they agreed with his party they weren’t going to vote for him.

    How could the Labour party not adequately prepare given the atrocious polling numbers for Corbyn? Why didn’t they find another figurehead if they were serious about winning?

    This is the exact same issue the Dems will have in 2020. It utterly and completely sucks that individual egos are getting in the way of party politics.

  47. Starseed says:

    A lot of people bought modest homes in the 80s which are now their children’s future pensions. Corbyn said he’d like to have a good chunk of that to fund other things, which meant some of us would have our parents hard earned cash redistributed. Years of going without holidays and living parsimoniously to help their children’s future. For me that’s a deal breaker. Tax Amazon, tax Costa yes, but leave small businesses and inheritance thresholds as they are thank you. I liked lots of ideas of Labour but they would bankrupt the country because so many people would take their investments elsewhere. Their promises were like Santa’s greatest Christmas list. Great ideas but funding would cripple people who work hard and have saved. Unfair to state this as Tory voters motivation, probably, but honest. I will now go and get my flak jacket and tin hat.

  48. Starseed says:

    A lot of people bought modest homes in the 80s which are now their children’s future pensions. Corbyn said he’d like to have a good chunk of that to fund other things, which meant some of us would have our parents hard earned cash redistributed. Years of going without holidays and living parsimoniously to help their children’s future. For me that’s a deal breaker. Tax Amazon, tax Costa yes, but leave small businesses and inheritance thresholds as they are thank you. I liked lots of ideas of Labour but they would bankrupt the country because so many people would take their investments elsewhere. Their promises were like Santa’s greatest Christmas list. Great ideas but funding would cripple people who work hard and have saved. Unfair to state this as Tory voters motivation, probably, but honest. I will now go and get my flak jacket and tin hat.