UK General Election 2024

The outcome of the general election in the UK was almost a foregone conclusion although the pollsters over estimated the extent of the Tory defeat.

The Reform Party under Nigel Farage, is not one I would vote for but more voted Reform than Lib/Dem, yet Reform won only five seats whereas the Lib/Dems won more than ten times as many.

Some say that the answer is to alter the UK voting system from first past the post, to   a proportional representation system. A referendum about this set up under the Lib/Dems when they were in coalition government with the Tories, resulted in the majority of voters seeking to keep the first past the post system. 

None the less I was moving slowly towards prefering the PR voting system until I learned recently, that about a year after their own general election using PR, the Dutch have only just formed a government. Perhaps first past the post is the least worst system? 

Locally in Wimbledon, the constituency boundary has altered bringing in more voters from Kingston. There have been local Tory and Labour MPs previously but  not as I recall ever a Lib/Dem. This time the Lib/Dem candidate won which was in my opinion a shame, as the Labour candidate was a woman supported by the strong, recently retired head of the  local  Catholic girls' comprehensive school who was well supported (both the former head and the political candidate). 

On schools, one of the final acts of the outgoing government was to lift the restriction on the religious intake of schools seeking to become academies, which seems good for Catholic education.

The Labour party appears to have moved to the political right with the Tories move being towards the political left, so differences now appear small, but we shall see.

At least in the UK, the outgoing Prime Minister telephoned the new PM when the election results signified the latter's victory. Removal from and to Number 10 Downing Street then took place shortly thereafter and the new government got under way by this morning. Other systems, for example that in the USA are far slower.

Although many newspapers talked of  post election Tory 'fighting', presumably what really is meant is quarreling, as there is generally little actual  political party fighting.

Quite how the French election will pan out tomorrow is hard to say. Will there be real fighting on and/or off the streets? Will the right wing be voted in by the majority of the people? Will President Macron be able to take much political action over the next two years if his party does not do well tomorrow? Who will be the next French PM?

Governing the UK will be difficult in any event with the Russian war in the Ukraine still raging; the Jewish people kidnapped by Hamas still largely held captive by them and with a small number of new MPs being Hamas orientated. 

Doubtless there will be uproar in the UK when Labour tries to increase the tax on petrol for the first time in years;  what will the new government also do as regards medical unions, train drivers council tax and immigration?

We shall see.