...too it would appear.

Yep it seems people would rather have brexit done than live a decent life. And the tories got that spot on. And it seems they prefer a liar to a leftie. I hope they all live to regret it.

Yes, the irony is that these people know what a decent life would be like yet they haven’t a f....ing clue what a Brexit life will be

Corbyn got the campaign very very wrong. His sitting on the fence over Brexit was nonsense and they failed to grasp that mud doesn’t stick to Boris so their negative campaigning was impotent. Throw in Corbyn’s economics and free unicorns this huge defeat was entirely predictable.

None of us thought differently to that did we?

Well no doubt you’ll have five years to bang your gums about. You right, nation thick, what confidence.

Plenty were predicting a hung Parliament.

I think the words you are looking for are hoping for a hung parliament.

No one should hope up for a hung parliament, stagnation followed by fudge.

Nazi Germany said something similar.

Exactly. I am sure some on here despite posting cant actually read.

Erm...

Predictions are generally you think might happen usually influenced by what you want to happen. Like yourself in 2017 we can all get predictions wrong.

As the election drew closer it was pretty clear the direction things were heading in.

Is Brexit done yet?

Bitter?, you’re scraping the barrel now.

You know some people are suffering when they pull people up over their reading ability or grammar.

Nah it'll take years to get brexit done, I have that on good authority.
Corbyn is done though. He's reflecting now. Probably in a neutral country. Sort of "watching from afar" so to speak.

Surely ‘Watching from darn Sarf’..?

[quote="phil"]A

Seats like Redcar, Wrexham, Bolsover, Blyth and Sedgefield turning blue seemed impossible 12 months ago. The Tories have 5 figure leads in seats like Crewe, Nuneaton and Swindon, which were marginal seats in the New Labour years. Its unthinkable.

plus those seats in other parts of the north. keighley, dewsbury, wakefield, hyndburn, rother valley, bolsover etc, etc. be interesting in the next few years as the tories now cannot be described as the party for the leafy south. will the north get more from westminster or will we be seen as mugs once more. it wont be a breath holding exercise from me thats a certainty.

We are in danger of concentrating on the wrong things here.
We should be concentrating on getting rid of Corbyn and momentum and getting labour electable again or we're going to become a one party nation.
They are the tories best allies.
The country needs a strong opposition.
Ignore this at your peril.

No credit for my prediction of 80+ then?

Pssssssst shhhhh you were on the wrong side

Well done you must so proud.

Brokers that people are so bitter at something so predictable.

Have to hand it to you, that's a fair analysis of the Labour campaign - as soon as the Manifesto dropped you got the impression that it was going to be a hard sell for Labour, and Corbyn's entirely predictable prevarication about Brexit - refusing even to take a position - meant that effectively he was failing to address the biggest political issue of the last five years. Boris behaved pretty reprehensibly by avoiding any possible scrutiny, but that did mean he didn't have too much in the way of major gaffes to cope with - though I think that will be a harder sell next time, as you can guarantee that all the other party leaders will follow the same playbook and refuse to be interviewed unless they know his is already in the can.

Corbyn (and his backers) have failed to realise that a Political Party is always a compromise between Idealism and Pragmatism - or at least any one with serious pretensions of power is. He's an Idealist - and always has been, fair play in that he's been a conviction politician and stuck to it - but such people rarely get into real power.

One of the interesting challenges now will be whether the Tories will head back towards the centre in the hope of keeping a lot of the disaffected Labour vote in the next few years. There's been claims that Boris is at heart a "One Nation" Tory - ie somewhat more Centrist than the ERG and others who he has palled up with to reach the top - now he's got enough of a majority that the ERG has less opportunity to wag the dog - so what will he do? The next few months will tell us...

It seems there are already different messages coming out of tory HQ. Theres Boris the centrist who will lead a soft brexit one nation country and then the hardline Boris has a mandate now to go for a hard brexit. Good luck with that Boris. Nowhere left to hide. I predict it will all unravel quite quickly. Especially when despite their huge victory they did appalling in Scotland and cant ignore the SNP. Scotland could be a huge problem for the posh liar.

Are you so marinaded in your own opinion you think others opinions count for nothing, I see your problem now.

Problem is all for Sturgeon rather than Boris... he doesn't need to budge an inch and she can't make him - for all that they've got the majority of Scottish MPs, the SNP's only real hope of getting central government to agree was if they held the balance of power and they don't. Ironically it's Brexit in miniature - we need the EU to give us a good deal but have the weaker hand (ie we need the deal more than they do); Scotland needs the UK government to let them have the referendum, but why should they?

Are you going to spend your life dreaming up snuggly fantasy scenarios for comfort. Defeat is not a problem, it’s how you handle it. You can’t.

Johnson is claiming he will govern under a one nation all-together policy. That means he needs to bring all 4 corners of the UK together. If he just blunders along with Brexit without Scotland being involved he breaks that promise. He cant have this all ways up.

I think you are seriously misreading me. I am no card carrying labour member and their defeat will affect me a lot less than you imagine. The fact I would prefer to live in a fairer and more equal society shouldnt be scoffed at. We should all want that. The fact is large swathes of the North have decided they dont. I can live with that comfortably. Time will tell if they can.

The SNP are nationalists. They do not wish to be part of the UK. No one is driving them out and If the SNP get a sniff of a chance to go they’ll go.
End of . You can‘t sweet talk them or bribe them to stay, the clues in that dirty little word ‘ nationalist’, they’re driven people with a latter day Braveheart / shortcake tin rose tinted vision of Scotland.

Infact I might decide that a tory majority suits my personal circumstance better and become one. Maybe selfish personal gain is the way to go.

Dont dispute that but if this election has given the tories the right to do what they want with Brexit then the SNP have a bigger mandate in Scotland. They have 80% of the seats. In any fair society that cannot be ignored.

Pearl and Dean moment over.
You obviously cannot live with it comfortably or you wouldn’t have been all over this board like dead flies on a windscreen. Looking for problems at this stage smacks of tugging the reins on a dead horse..

[quote="Watching from afar”]

Dont dispute that but if this election has given the tories the right to do what they want with Brexit then the SNP have a bigger mandate in Scotland. They have 80% of the seats. In any fair society that cannot be ignored.[/quote]


Let them. One time I’d have been concerned, but now it’s a case of if you elect these people then get on with it.
It’s just a nagging toothache, a barking dog, sort it.

[quote="Watching from afar”]

Dont dispute that but if this election has given the tories the right to do what they want with Brexit then the SNP have a bigger mandate in Scotland. They have 80% of the seats. In any fair society that cannot be ignored.[/quote]


Let them. One time I’d have been concerned, but now it’s a case of if you elect these people then get on with it.
It’s just a nagging toothache, a barking dog, sort it.

Again you are making assumptions. I have a very live and healthy interest in politics. My wish last night was for a hung parliament not a labour victory which was never on. So now us political watchers move on and thats on to how Johnson deals with the very large issues he now has. I am already over the election. Now I want to see how he does his Brexit. Or if. It never ends.

I think you'll find a lot of people will be surprised by the post Brexit Boris PM.

Boris is not right wing, he is a centrist Liberal minded politician, More Ken Clarke than IDS. His record as London Mayor shows that. He didn't get everything done that he wanted but that is the way of politics. Boris's buses for example failed. Boris's bikes however did not. Nor did his social housebuilding policy or his environmental policy - he implemented Red Ken's plan when he easily could have cancelled it. He introduced the minimum wage long before it was government policy. He was very inclusive culturally despite the left's accusations of him being racist.

Boris now has a huge majority but here's the rub. His majority is made up of working class seats and working class voters. Even if he wanted to, Boris cannot renage or out he goes next time round. He will build the hospitals he's promised. He will employ the nurses, doctors and police. He will implement an allowance before national insurance is paid which is great news for the low paid. He is taking the NHS out of politics by having it managed by a cross party committee.

The biggest challenge is to bring the country back together. After months of slagging off from the lefties I hope you'll forgive me a bit of smugness but getting past that, this country has to reunite. A gentle Brexit which is what we'll get backed up with centre ground policies and an immediate end to the horrendous austerity policy is a good start. You've got Boris for ten years in my view so you'd better hope I'm right.

Hang on though. Is that sort of how I explained the northern regions suddenly turning tory? So I view those regions like you do Scotland. Are we that dissimilar?

There’ll be no ‘no deals’, he was never going to do it, but again it depends on the intransigence of who you negotiate with.

I dont dispute what you say about Johnson being a cenrist at heart. You sort of missed out a few things there though that cant be ignored. Johnson is a liar. I doubt a PM has lied as much. He has a very extreme right wing of his own party he has to negotiate. If he tries to bring the country together as one, and I hope he does, he will be negotiating a very very soft brexit and the ERG wont accept that.

Then theres Scotland that cannot be ignored. They dont want any Brexit. So how does he square that one?

As for his 70 new hospitals thats an absolute pipedream that will not be delivered even if he does get 10 years. They couldnt be built in 10 years. Unless thats another lie and what he calls hospitals most people call doctors surgeries.

As for your smugness. You have earned the right. Smug away. By the way if he somehow does find the cash for all of those hospitals that suits me as we would be building at least one of them as one of the few firms big enough to fund one. But there isnt a local building firm big enough to build one in the North east so those thinking they will get jobs out of it are deluded.

Not really, the Scots are running on toxic nationalist fuel and it’s like a drug, without independence they have nothing, rather like Brexit, the SNP’s problem will come if they ever get independence when the voters realise they aren’t going to find happiness in Braveheart on Sea.
The North has been de-industrialised for over 40 years and NO party given a shit about it. The EU is seen as the people who build a community centre when your steelworks close down. People are resentful but they don’t want independence they want to be treated as an integral part of the country, not just forgotten about. I repeat my belief that no party has done anything of consequence for the north of England for 40 years, that’s the problem.
Moving some of those nice government depts out of the south of England up here would help.

Again we sort of agree. Except I believe the SNP want more than independence. They also want to be in the EU as do I. Thats somewhat of a contradiction I suppose, but I see their point. They are governed currently by Westminster and Brussels. Scotland is a country afterall. I wonder how we would feel if we were governed by Holyrood.

I dont dispute what you say about Johnson being a cenrist at heart. You sort of missed out a few things there though that cant be ignored. Johnson is a liar. I doubt a PM has lied as much. He has a very extreme right wing of his own party he has to negotiate. If he tries to bring the country together as one, and I hope he does, he will be negotiating a very very soft brexit and the ERG wont accept that.

Then theres Scotland that cannot be ignored. They dont want any Brexit. So how does he square that one?

As for his 70 new hospitals thats an absolute pipedream that will not be delivered even if he does get 10 years. They couldnt be built in 10 years. Unless thats another lie and what he calls hospitals most people call doctors surgeries.

As for your smugness. You have earned the right. Smug away. By the way if he somehow does find the cash for all of those hospitals that suits me as we would be building at least one of them as one of the few firms big enough to fund one. But there isnt a local building firm big enough to build one in the North east so those thinking they will get jobs out of it are deluded.[/quote]

I think the ERG are now an irrelevance. Their power disappeared once the majority went past 50. Scotland is a problem, I can see Nicola Sturgeon trying the Catalan approach. Ultimately its far from certain that she would get a majority in a referendum however I would suggest that the Jocks deserve the right to have. I don't see how it works logistically though. Free movement of people to Scotland? How do they get there when they can't get past Dover unless they open a ferry from Calais to Dundee.

As for immigration Boris (and me) has no issue with immigration where skills are needs. It's the unfettered immigration that is the issue. We have limited space and social resources so it has to be managed. I'm not for saying no to immigration, just no to uncontrolled immigration. If we're going to bild all this infrastructure we're going to need a lot of EU builders.

I dont believe that many Scots want independance but a huge number want to remain in the EU. Thats an equally difficult conundrum for them as it is for Johnson. I believe many in Scotland voted SNP as reluctantly as many Northern working class areas voted tory. This is why I think Johnson has more problems to resolve than a party with such a majority should have.

I dont disagree on immigration. I have never considered the majority of tories to be that far right on it. the problem again is that many slightly dumb people have voted tory this time to get brexit done. And that in their foolish heads is getting rid of the niggers and foreigners. Once they realise Johnson wont do that they will be right cheesed off. If they had understood this they would have voted UKIP or the Brexit Party. Johnson cleverly took their ground and reeled all the racist lot in. He now has to manage them.

This galls me with the SNP, they talk as though they’re the poor relations and bang out about being free of Westminster’s grip. If they’re being held in chains by Westminster they’re fur lined gold chains. Does the little leader think she’s going to strut into Europe and stand first amongst equals? She’ll be part of it ok, but she’ll soon find that ultimately she has to fall into line with German and French wishes in the interests of ‘solidarity’. There’s a pecking order and Scotland with a population the size of Yorkshire will best fall into line in the EU.
We can agree to disagree over EU membership.
I’d rather they stayed in the UK, but not at any cost.

Again I agree. But I think they should reserve the right to find out for themselves.

You must excuse me, Milo needs to point Percy at the privet.

15 minutes for a pee and 10 minutes offering out next doors doberweiler while having a crap .... and that was just me.