So, we wake up to a different country: blue across great swathes of the north of England; the Conservatives the new party of the working classes and Labour apparently now only representing cities, universities, the young; Anglesey is now conservative; Emma Dent Coad has lost: so has Jo Swinson; running through the results, Conservative gains in all sorts of unlikely places, including Sedgefield. The world has been turned upside down.
The world has been turning upside down for some time, a result of diminishing sophistication and the rise of isolationism and jingoism. William Waldegraves treatise is a stark warning
In A Different Kind of Weather ? Charles
What a disastrous night! Seats that didn’t elect a Tory throughout the 20th century did so last night, like my own former seat in Stoke-on-Trent, where all three seats went Conservative. When I became the MP in 1983, 61 of the 62 seats on the Council were Labour !
The only glimmer of good news was that Johnson’s Victory speech was easily the best he made in the campaign, indeed the only decent speech he made.
Yes, a somewhat different tone, after an apparently incompetent, but, in retrospect, highly disciplined campaign. Charles
I can hardly believe the result, what a dark day for the UK.
In A Different Kind Of Weather was a pleasant read, but I was referring to Three Circles Into One, which makes reference to the problem of a divided society that will linger for some time and prove difficult to address in a meaningful way.
Thank you. Charles
A solid majority behind Johnson is the least bad outcome as at least it ends both ungovernment and Corbyn, if not Corbynism. My prediction is that Johnson, a practiced DU(P)mper, will dump the ERG (and Trump) and de facto stay in the Single Market (EU takes 45% of exports) in order to get the trade deal with the EU completed in the impossible timeline of a year. A softish Brexit.
Dear David, Glad to have this glimpse of optimism (or maybe realism). Happy Christmas ! Charles