Comment on Green Party wins Gorton and Denton by-election with Labour pushed into third by Reform
moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 1 week agoWhat’s great about those numbers is Con+Reform is soooo far behind Lab+Lib+Greens.
Because of our crappy first-past-the-post system though, the most likely next government (if an election were held soon) would be a Reform government, or maybe a Reform/Conservative government.
Reform’s support in recent polls has only been around 24% - 30%. So around 70% of British voters don’t support Reform. Nonetheless, because Reform polls better than any other individual party, they could run the next government. Like how Labour in 2024 only got 34% of votes, but this gave them 63% of seats.
If the anti-Reform vote continues to be split between Labour/Greens/LibDems/SNP (and even Tories, since there will be Tory voters who don’t like Reform) then Farage will be the next prime minister. Surely the best counter to Reform would be a big tent centrist or centre-left party with wide appeal.
jabjoe@feddit.uk 1 week ago
I don’t disagree. I think FPTP is immoral and a liability. I’m disappointed in Labour to looking to address it despite their membership overwhelmingly supporting it. They hope to pay on “it is us, or Reform” which is party before country and could backfire and massively damage the country.
moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 6 days ago
True. I don’t think it’s a popular message with the public. Clearly people in Gorton and Denton thought “actually we don’t have to vote for Labour as the only alternative to Reform; we can vote for the Greens instead”.
jabjoe@feddit.uk 5 days ago
It didn’t work of the Democrats either. It should of because how awful Trump is and Kamala seamed good, but how good she would be wasn’t the focus. But their system is even worse than ours.
moderatecentrist@feddit.uk 5 days ago
True. I think voters want to see politicians who embody values that voters like. The pitch of “vote for us just because we’re not quite as bad as the other guys”, without stating appealing values of your own, doesn’t really inspire anybody