We’ve already had a dress-rehearsal for a “don’t know” in the form of the last general election result.
Thinking back to the 90s, every GE has returned a message of sorts, however the 17 election was very inconclusive.
92 - getting very tired of the Conservatives but don’t quite trust Labour / Kinnock
97 - totally sick of the Conservatives time for something fresh, and want to give the Conservatives a kicking
01 - still reasonably content with New Labour and still don’t rate the Conservatives one bit
05 - fed up with New Labour now but still not keen on the Conservatives
10 - totally fed up with New Labour now, let’s give the Conservatives a go but not with a full mandate
15 - Conservatives have been okay, let’s give them a nudge further, and punish the LDs
17 - Nomansland!
I think the real issue is the country as a whole is very divided on some issues, as well as a certain amount of division being injected by the likes of the SNP. A good PM/government would have found a way to reconcile this, but May simply isn’t a good leader.
A winner-takes-all system like ours is not set up to bring about reconciliation but operates rather to formalise polarity. And that's what they do, so that every few years wqe just swing madly from one side to the other and what was black yesterday is white today. It's a system that is utterly incapable of, and uninterested in, trying to bring the sides at least to some degree togethe after something as divisive as a referendum won by a very narrow majority. And there's no hope at all when a weak premier is concerned simply to act in the interests of her own party, with no concept at all of acting in the national interest. (And it doesn't help at all when "Her Majesty's Loyal Opposition" simply fails to do its job and oppose constructively.")
A bit of a delay in posting due to this thread opening up on this page.
From my time residing in Scotland, there does appear to be some distrust of the Conservatives, which explains for a good number of years the results in General Elections have been mainly Labour (both versions - the traditional Labour and Tony Blair's New Labour). From 1979 onwards, the results of General Elections have not reflected the voting pattern in Scotland at all, 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 during the day of voting)
1997 - Mainly Labour, got New Labour (they were not new, and were most certainly not Labour)
2001 - Mainly Labour, got New Labour (they were not new, and were most certainly not Labour)
2005 - Mainly Labour, got New Labour (they were not new, and were most certainly not Labour)
2010 - Mainly Labour, got Conservative/Lib Dem coalition
2015 - Overwhelmingly SNP with 56 out of 59 constituencies, got Conservatives (only just due to errors in polling methods)
2017 - Mainly SNP, got minority Conservatives with support from Northern Ireland's DUP
Since the 1979 General Election, there has been a democratic deficit in that Scotland has not had the government it has voted for. While I am not a supporter of the SNP's version of independence, I do understand the disenfranchisement that has led to various individuals going for Scottish independence. Personally, I would prefer progressive federalism for the three countries of Great Britain (Northern Ireland can be returned to the Irish, which that would be for a different thread) with powers not just resting with London, Edinburgh, and Cardiff, but for the regions too.