What next in British party poliics?

[expat]

The question is not who should lead Labour, but whether Labour will be the "other main party". ISTM that the Conservatives are still the main party of the Right, and they will not allow UKIP to pick away at that. Therefore the Tories will not move Left; therefore there will be an opposition on the Left. As there should be, independently of which side your own sympathies lie.

It may be that Labour's time has gone now. Ian McCluskey can only hasten the day. If the Labour Party tries to be the party of the unions, it is dead; if not, it is broke.

I doubt however that the Lib Dems (or Liberals as they may soon be rechristened) can do it any more: there was a time when they could justifiably call themselves a "radical left-wing non-socialist party" but the Orange Book and their comfort in coalition with the Tories put paid to that. The Greens can serve the function that the Liberals used to - come up with loads of off-the-wall ideas,of which a few good ones get appropriated by the main parties - but won't make major party status for a generation.

In Scotland the answer is clear; what about the rest of Britain?

[minestrone]

Despite having the most unelectable leader imaginable labour still got 9.4 million votes, the conservatives for 11.3 million.

If they had someone electable they would have won, they are not dead.

The SNP will slowly lose seats in Scotland as they become more irrelevant. They can't win a referendum.

[Ticktock]

Who's Ian McCluskey?

[TestMangler]

Who's Ian McCluskey?

I think Ian McCluskey is the leader of the Untie Onion.

[DodgyAgent]

The ideology of labour and the left is built entirely around politics of envy and negative perceptions of wealth, self reliance and aspiration.
if labour were to invent themselves into a metaphorical version of rugby union where everyone of all abilities, shapes, sizes pulls together for the common good, sharing equal standards (the highest) of preparedness (education) irrespective of size, intelligence, gender, race whilst encouraging the stars to shine at the same time they would be onto something.
The Tories are already moving in this direction so they had better hurry up.

[BrilloPad]

Despite having the most unelectable leader imaginable labour still got 9.4 million votes, the conservatives for 11.3 million.

If they had someone electable they would have won, they are not dead.

The SNP will slowly lose seats in Scotland as they become more irrelevant. They can't win a referendum.

And UKIP got 3.8 million?

Voting change needed - but electorate did not want that in 2011.

Things could get messy! But looks like a Tory government for a while to come.

[d000hg]

WHS:

These kind of celebrations seem most premature.

• Tories are 99 seats ahead of Labour.
• SNP gained 50 seats
• LibDems lost 49 seats

Sure there was some overlap but still, Tories didn't win by beating Labour, they won by picking the corpse of LibDems and the SNP doing the same to Scottish Labour.

In 5 years, anything could happen.

[minestrone]

And UKIP got 3.8 million?

Voting change needed - but electorate did not want that in 2011.

Things could get messy! But looks like a Tory government for a while to come.

I am broadly in favour of UKIP's central issue of the UK removed from the EU's governmental structure.

But in the last week UKIP have really shown why they can be nowhere near a functioning UK government. In that respect the voting system has worked.

[TheFaQQer]

Despite having the most unelectable leader imaginable labour still got 9.4 million votes, the conservatives for 11.3 million.

People said similar things when Howard / IDS / Hague were leading the Tories - as soon as they got someone who could do the soundbites (in the same way that Labour found Blair), they were electable.

[SueEllen]

People said similar things when Howard / IDS / Hague were leading the Tories - as soon as they got someone who could do the soundbites (in the same way that Labour found Blair), they were electable.

Moral of the story is get yourself an electable leader - preferably one with hair, hair that is brownish and who must not be from Wales - then stick to the centre ground and you will be elected when the country gets fed up with the other party.