Remainers are the fantasists on here but it's somewhere to let off steam. The Tories won a London constituency on a 51% vote of a turnout of 34%. The Rejoin the EU, LibDems , and Greens lost their deposit. Labour got 34%; I wonder what his views were on the EU.
It will be said Old Bexley is a Tory stronghold but London has become a Labour city with the huge "white flight " to the shires. Boris did buck the trend by defeating Ken Livingstone twice. Vote Leave won the referendum and Boris won the general election. The voters spoke and will again. The EU is not doing much to change voters minds here.
What does that mean? What tangible benefit to staying in? Pay bigger contribution?
Labour were kicked out in 2010 replaced by a Tory/LibDem coalition. Cameron promised a referendum on the EU, only the second since the referendum on EEC. Other countries had a referendum on the Maestricht treaty on the founding of the EU; more than one till the result was what was wanted by the politicians. Tories win in 2015, referendum takes place; out wins. Theresa May goes to the electorate with her policy of stay in the EU in all but name. Effectively loses her majority. Boris goes to the country with get Brexit done and wins a huge majority. The voters spoke. Even in pro EU Scotland the voters just stop short of giving the SNP a majority that they have to go coalition with the Greens.
Tell that to the voters who spoke in 2015, 2016, 2017, and 2019. I am sure they are all avid readers of a railway forum. DigitalSpy, much more widely read, closed all there political threads in March 2021 because they became so divisive and moderators not that impartial.
To pick up on some points here (I'm not having a go here just to be clear):
In 2010, it was the turn of New Labour to concede defeat as they had ben in power since 1997. Before then, the Conservatives were in power from 1979-97.
The EU referendum in 2016 although leave got the most votes, it was not overwhelming as it was around 51%-49% and split thoughout the regions of the UK, meaning that it was very divisive. I still maintain that if Cameron had thought it through properly (based on the divisive nature of the Scottish independence referendum in 2014), he would have had it in legislation that for any change to the status quo, a minimum of 75% must have voted Leave for it to have had an overwhelming clear majority which would not have been so divisive.
Northern Ireland, Scotland, and Gibraltar had all voted overwhelmingly to Remain, while large parts of England and Wales had voted to Leave. After the Scottish independence referendum in 2014 (and before then), Cameron announced live on TV that if Scotland voted No to becoming independent in 2014, it would still be a member of the EU. Also, Cameron also publically announced that he wanted Scotland to be a leader of the Union.
Regarding the SNP going into coalition with the Greens, the devolved parts of the UK have a proportional representational voting system, of which the Scottish Parliament uses the Additional Member System calculated using the d'Hont method (the more constituencies you win in a region, the less likely you get any more MSPs on the regional list). The local councils have multi member wards with the Single Transferable Vote system of proportional representation that is used, where candidates are ranked in order of preference. At least the Scottish Parliament does get governments that it has voted for, unlike in General Elections (that still use First Past the Post) that no matter how Scotland votes in General Elections, it has not had the government it has voted for since 1979 (similar can be applied to my native West Midlands), of which I have listed below:
1979 - Mainly Labour, got Conservatives
1983 - Mainly Labour, got Conservatives
1987 - Mainly Labour, got Conservatives
1992 - Mainly Labour, got Conservatives (only just, due to a late swing in the day to the Conservatives)
1997 - Mainly Labour, got New Labour (which were not new, and were most certainly not Labour)
2001 - Mainly Labour, got New Labour (which were not new, and were most certainly not Labour)
2005 - Mainly Labour, got New Labour (which were not new, and were most certainly not Labour)
2010 - Mainly Labour (with the only constituency changing hands was my former one of Glasgow North East from Speaker to Labour), got Conservative-Lib Dem coalition
2015 - Overwhelmingly SNP (with 56 out of the 59 constituencies, with the remaining 3 being 1 each to Labour, Conservative, and Lib Dem), got Conservatives (only just, due to errors in the polling methods)
2017 - Mainly SNP (reduced to 41 constituencies), got Conservatives with some support from DUP
2019 - Mainly SNP (increased to 48 constituencies, including the unseating of the Lib Dem leader at the time Jo Swinson. Her lips moved with every single word she spoke which explains how Swinson lost her seat), got Conservatives
No matter what the voting pattern of Scotland is at General Elections, since 1979, Scotland has not had the government it has voted for. Although I do understand the reasons how Scottish nationalism has become fashionable nowadays, I do not support the SNP's version of independence. I would like to see the whole of Great Britain (assuming Northern Ireland is returned back to the Irish) having progressive federalism, but this topic would be better for the thread I started a while ago in this section of the forum rather than here.