@Bread , You have more faith in the British voter than
l do then Bread??
It is because people can’t be arsed that we get the crap we do !!
Donkeyman! 
PM speaks for first time since North Shropshire defeat
Boris Johnson has given his first reaction to the North Shropshire result, telling reporters during a visit to a vaccination centre that it was a “very disappointing” night for his party.
“I totally understand people’s frustrations, I hear what the voters are saying," he adds.
“In all humility, I’ve got to accept that verdict”.
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humility
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/hjʊˈmɪlɪti/
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noun
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- the quality of having a modest or low view of one’s importance.
Obviously, “humility” is just another word for BJ - like everything he utters, it’s meaningless … 
How is labour doing Omah ?
Saw a clip of a Lab MP saying that the Lib dems only got in since they can say what they want, which may differ from constituency to constituency, since they know they’ll never form a government and so won’t be held down to any national and consistent promises of policy.
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11 of the 14 candidates lost their deposits. That says a lot for “pressure groups” and single platform parties doesn’t it?
I was shocked by how big a swing to the Lib Dems this by-election gave them - 37% overall (inc. Labour) but, as someone has already said, Starmer can’t crow over the result because Labour lost 12.4% of the total vote since the 2019 GE.
One candidate, Boris Been Bunged, of the Rejoin EU Party garnered just 58 votes - now that made me laugh 
because it just goes to show how much support there is for Brexit in what is a predominantly agricultural area of the UK.
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Reclaim have received millions from conservative donors to support them stirring things up for the government. Thats how unhappy conservatives are with Boris, his lies, hypocrisy and above all, how he is handling the pandemic. The same with labour who are basically just an extension of the conservative party now, with Starmer agreeing with everything Boris says apart from how much he pays for wallpaper.
For Lawrence Fox and Richard Tice to lose their deposits compared to the damage they inflicted on the tories (and labour) it was their free money that was very well spent. On to the next one…
Brexit is not the priority for North Shropshire (and everywhere north of posh remainers who love lockdowns in London) - that was also clear in the election last night.
Fun times !
Lib Dems opposed the lockdowns.
It was a huge swing, do you think the LibDems could make a come back nationally?
They have always been seen as the ‘soft’ Tory option by people disenchanted by the Tories but can’t quite bring themselves to vote Labour
Poor bloke ( I presume it was a bloke?) with his 48 votes!
But that doesn’t really show that the voters there are still keen on Brexit
People vote tactically for who they think will get in and voting for him would have been a waste of a vote
But they seem to have chosen to switch their vote to the LibDems who were against Brexit from Johnson who rode to power promising to achieve it?
Why? don’t know, but some of them could be because they are fed up with how Johnson’s Brexit turned out.
Personally, I don’t think Brexit had much to do with this result. It was the piss poor performance and sleaze accusations over the last few months that has done for them this time round. As you say, the Lib Dems are the soft option for disgruntled Tory voters (V and I have considered doing exactly this in the past) and, from the results, it seems they are the soft option for the Labour Party too ATM.
Boris certainly needs to get his finger out and starts to do what we elected this Tory government for.
I sincerely hope so.
This result has sent a clear message to the Tories that Boris is letting us - and them - down. If repeated in a general election, how many Tory MPs will lose their seats?
On the other hand, the Limp Dems taking more seats is not to our advantage, as they are simply Labour Light and would follow the Labour party line.
Several things might happen.
The Tories could elect a better leader - possibly - and come out on top in 2024 though with a smaller majority.
I’m pretty sure that Labour would go nowhere as Compo and now Starmer have blown it for the party. Their traditional supporters have finally kicked them into touch.
The Limp Dems will probably gain some seats in 2024, but not many.
The disappointing thing to me is that Reform UK has not gained any substantial numbers of votes. Particularly disappointing because I am sure that they would do what the ‘old Conservatives’ have done in the past - Maggie Thatcher, for example - who would have done something about the continuing invasion across the Channel and the re-taking of control of part of our country (N. Ireland) and our fishing areas by the EU. Somehow I can’t imagine the Conservatives ever regaining control of what was once ours.
Still, as I have said before, the future of this country lies with its voters.
Hi
There is a danger here of focusing on the wrong things.
North Shropshire voted for Brexit, the only ones unhappy about the outcome are the big farmers etc who are having to pay more for their labour.
Covid is not the main health issue, reductions in GPs and the resulting increases in waiting times to see a GP are.
Ambulance stations have been closed and ambulance waiting times have greatly increased, severely impacting on peoples health, daily stories locally about this.
Nobody here is bothered about HS2 and it’s £Billions, what matters are the reductions in the bus services.
It is the little things that impact the most on a person’s life, and which get them angry.
Boris and his advisors need to realise this.
Well said. Those three are the main things that most people are concerned about. Certainly, they concern me.
The money Boris is wasting on HS2, which no-one will ever use, could help with the other two.
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@Percy Vere , agricultural but Tory Percy !!
For 200 years they say ??
Donkeyman! 
Well, that big majority for the Liberal Democrats sent Boris and the Tories a message - I wonder if this will prompt the Tory MPs to make their move to oust him from party leader?
A safe Tory seat like that constituency was most unlikely to veer over towards Labour, so I’m not surprised about that - I’m surprised they went as far a voting for Lib Dems, to be honest! - though I don’t know who the independent candidate was.
I noticed voting turnout was less than 50% too - so maybe lots of Tories just abstained?
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Mid pandemic with figures going bonkers, lot of other unresolved issues? Nobody in their right mind will want to take the helm. They’ll.wait until the next election and irrespective of the outcome will make a move then. Might as well let BJ carry on taking the blame for the whole goddamned awful horlicks that’s likely to be the next couple of years, then go for a proper clean out.
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Yes, I think that’s going to be a forthcoming trend now.
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What amuses me is that the Limpdems seem to imply it was their policies that won the election for them, when in reality they were just the least of the worst on offer, hardly reason to celebrate I would have thought… 
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It’s laughable isn’t it Barry? I think it was Mrs Thatcher who said that mid-term protest votes happen only because those Tories who use them know that when they wake the next morning the Conservatives will still be in power.
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Do the Limp Dems have any policies?
No, of course it was only a protest vote against the Tories. A wake-up call to Boris to resign before it’s too late.
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That’s just their spin on things, Barry, as I’m sure you know. I was surprised they only had a blue balloon to burst and didn’t bring on the 
and the dancing girls. 