telstarbox
Established Member
When was the last time a party voluntarily called a GE while being significantly behind in the polls (if they existed?)
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UK General Election 2024
- Thread starter Bayum
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I am very pleased the election is on 4 July. It doesn't clash with any planned holidays or hospital appointments. This matters to me because I work in polling stations and don't want to lose my additional income stream.
Whoever wins, I win, with extra money.
If anyone here would like to work at the general election, contact your local authority's Election department. They are always in need of people.
Whoever wins, I win, with extra money.
If anyone here would like to work at the general election, contact your local authority's Election department. They are always in need of people.
Busaholic
Veteran Member
- Joined
- 7 Jun 2014
- Messages
- 14,241
Assuming a literal interpretation (i.e. a date finally chosen as the last legally possible) then most elections will have been called earlier
DynamicSpirit
Established Member
One other thing that may have influenced him... the strong suspicion that more Tory MPs were in discussions about defecting to Labour over the coming months. By calling an election now, he may have pre-empted that.
Blindtraveler
Established Member
Sadly, along with about 99 percent of other work streams and employers. I can't imagine my local Council having a use for a blind person working at the elections or I would have been doing it basically since I was old enough or in other words, 22 years this autumnI am very pleased the election is on 4 July. It doesn't clash with any planned holidays or hospital appointments. This matters to me because I work in polling stations and don't want to lose my additional income stream.
Whoever wins, I win, with extra money.
If anyone here would like to work at the general election, contact your local authority's Election department. They are always in need of people.
AlterEgo
Veteran Member
There will be a general election on 4th July.
brad465
Established Member
Likewise, although having changed areas I'm hoping they will offer me counting work in Taunton. I got plenty of it in Bath (2017 x2) Maidstone (2019-2022). They didn't get in touch regarding the locals, but they may not have needed that many, so I'm hoping a higher turnout GE will lead to something.I am very pleased the election is on 4 July. It doesn't clash with any planned holidays or hospital appointments. This matters to me because I work in polling stations and don't want to lose my additional income stream.
Whoever wins, I win, with extra money.
If anyone here would like to work at the general election, contact your local authority's Election department. They are always in need of people.
What I would say is it's also very good work experience if you're either fresh out of school/University and/or unemployed: all the election work I did in Bath occurred just as I finished my final year of Uni and got me plenty of admin and team work experience (from postal vote admin before the election and counting hall work) that I used on the journey to my first full time job in December 2017. As I result, as much as I despise Theresa May, I owe it to her calling that snap election for getting my career going ironically.
Have you tried asking them? I'm not 100% familiar with the Equality Act but they must at least have to consider someone with disabilities and be able to make reasonable adjustments.
If you are in a different local authority area, you might need to apply again. Also, it doesn't hurt to remind them in case they accidentally missed you out.
brad465
Established Member
I applied at the start of this year by means of sending the forms as they requested. I will probably email them again tomorrow stating my availability, including the election night itself.
PG
Established Member
Which is, hopefully, something that they don't do with your vote
Blindtraveler
Established Member
Sadly for things like this, myself and people with similar challenges for neatly into the" too difficult" category and whilst they can and do make reasonable adjustments for some groups there are people who are far easier to accommodate than myself
You are sadly talking to the person who spends his life on public transport, but whose local council wouldn't give him a job in the public transport planning and development unit at his local Council despite being imminently suitable for said position and who basically sat back and relaxed while they got around it on a mirror technicality that was so well negotiated that the best employment lawyer in the world wouldn't have been able to crack it
I even failed spectacularly to secure a job as father Christmas last year, of all the jobs that you'd think would be a shoe in for pretty much anybody. As long as they had the right personality and preferably a few extra pounds around the middle, you'd think that would be the one you couldn't fail at, but it certainly didn't work when I tried it
Something that won't happen now or at least will be delayed is the online meeting I had scheduled with the prime minister for a couple of weeks time. I had written to him copying in my local MP when the latest crackdown on pip and other benefits was announced a few weeks back. Basically asking him if he personally knew just how difficult the world of work actually was for all the people he thought should be in it and how unwilling the majority of employers and organisations were to consider a disabled worker of any kind and my email gen. Such a large amount of interest from the prime minister and his office staff that he wrote back practically begging me to come to a meeting with him so that he could learn a lot more, reading between the lines. I think basically one of his strategists on the finance side had basically said to him that we have a looming black hole with the welfare bill again and to avoid falling into it, we need to do XY and zed without actually thinking of the consequences. He might not be everyone's favourite person, but I respected him for his responsiveness to this and his willingness to meet with someone who has been out there fighting the system for what feels like a lifetime but is in fact only half of one. We all see if he is still so keen to listen. Should he win again in July? And or if his replacement in downing Street? Also would like to listen to what it's really like before making decisions that not only involve millions of pounds but millions of lives as well
Gloster
Established Member
So did Sunak call the election so hurriedly, or so it seems, in order to prevent him being ejected by his own MPs? ‘Bravely fighting an election’, when you can attribute the loss to plenty of other people, will look better on a CV than having been turfed out by his party. And if the MPs kicked him out and got the election delayed, you can bet that the replacement would be someone acceptable to Reform for when they have to have an election and need a pact, i.e. very hard right.
Not long ago all this would have appeared to be just wild conspiracy theories, but the system (and the Conservatives in particular) have gone completely off the rails. Has anybody asked the public what they want? No, I didn’t think so.
Not long ago all this would have appeared to be just wild conspiracy theories, but the system (and the Conservatives in particular) have gone completely off the rails. Has anybody asked the public what they want? No, I didn’t think so.
What are we referring to here, just for clarity?
railfan99
Established Member
Is the level of the UK's debt (at about double my nation's in percentage of Gross Domestic Product or whatever measure you use) an issue?
To be fair, you lack Oz's huge mineral wealth in iron ore, thermal and met coal and gas, so it's not a like-for-like comparison.
Every State, Territory and the sole Federal Government in Oz is Labor (we spell it without the 'o'). They are tax and spend merchants, and my state of Victoria is basically broke, only having had a Liberal-Nationals ('Coalition' - conservative) for four years since 1999.
Be careful for what you wish, even though from afar (which may give a misleading impression) the Conservatives haven't been united.
To be fair, you lack Oz's huge mineral wealth in iron ore, thermal and met coal and gas, so it's not a like-for-like comparison.
Every State, Territory and the sole Federal Government in Oz is Labor (we spell it without the 'o'). They are tax and spend merchants, and my state of Victoria is basically broke, only having had a Liberal-Nationals ('Coalition' - conservative) for four years since 1999.
Be careful for what you wish, even though from afar (which may give a misleading impression) the Conservatives haven't been united.
Trainguy34
Member
Ah, that makes sense, thanks!
birchesgreen
Established Member
Arn't the new food import checks expected to be chaotic and greatly increase food prices, inflation only fell because of big drops in energy costs, i believe food prices are still rising.
YorkRailFan
On Moderation
Corbyn couldn't have been any worse than the past 14 years.
Snow1964
Established Member
And apparently there are still about 100-110 seats without an announced Labour candidate, although one source is suggesting upto 30 of these have been selected but not announced, leaving 80 still vacant.
Revealed: Member anger as around 100 Labour candidates still not unveiled - LabourList
Labour has approximately 100 general election candidates left to publicly announce, LabourList can reveal, despite the party twice…
labourlist.org
If anyone wants to check their local area, there is a Labour candidate lookup
I don’t think the level of the debt is an issue in of itself. Compared to other G7 countries it’s not that bad, only Germany is lower.
However both major parties tie themselves in knots around having a goal of eventually reducing the debt to prove their economic competency.
What happens in Australia is not very relevant to the UK.
The UK Labour Government of 1997-2010 had a rule to keep net debt below 40% of GDP. That was only broken by the response to the 2008 financial crisis, when, in effect, the UK Government nationalised a lot of private sector debt by bailing out the banks.
Recent increases in UK net debt as a percentage of GDP are the responsibility of the 2019-24 Conservative Government, especially very generous borrow and spend policies in response to Covid and the global energy price shock.
And don't forget Liz Truss! In contrast, the UK Labour Party's shadow Chancellor of the Exchequer (finance minister) is Rachel Reeves, an economist who worked at the Bank of England. She is well qualified to understand the issues regarding public sector debt.
High UK net debt as a percentage of GDP is a symptom of he fundamental issue with the UK economy, which is negligible GDP Growth since the 2008 financial crisis, nearly all of that period being under Conservative or Conservative led coalition government. The 2019-24 government leaves GDP per capita lower at the end of the parliament than at the beginning.
Yea I’ve done it before. It’s a long day / night (depending on the role) but it pays very well for the work required and at short notice they’d probably require anyone they can get as some people probably have holidays booked.
Howardh
Established Member
- Joined
- 17 May 2011
- Messages
- 8,338
A few questions about the timing - couldn't come soon enough for me! - the BBC and ITV (maybe Sky too) will probably both host leaders' debates but with Euro football, Wimbledon and maybe the cricket world cup filling the schedules, finding a slot won't be easy!
Mcr Warrior
Veteran Member
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- 12,372
Don't see why not. BBC have BBC1, BBC2, BBC3, BBC4 and their news channel. ITV have ITV1, ITV2, ITV3 and ITV4. Maybe best, though, if the leaders' debates aren't scheduled for prime time on the evening of Tuesday 25th June 2024.
As someone who lives here, Labour could not possibly be worse than the Conservatives. The last five years have been dire in every way. And they've certainly lost any claim they once had for good economic management.
The hugely risky Brexit, for example, which was basically a Conservative vanity project to help the Tories stay in power longer than they might have done otherwise. And Liz Truss' proposed tax cuts for the rich, at a time when there was little money around, which severely harmed our financial position.
For the first time ever, I'll be doing the same.
Away on 4th July. I suspect, given the time of year, the number of postal votes will be significantly higher than any other recent election.
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Pakenhamtrain
Member
After one of the largest infrastructure spends in the state's history it has to be said. Multiple road and rail projects over the last decade.
Projects map
Though if the Tories get into bed with Reform, they will utterly lose any remaining appeal they may still have to the moderate centre-right. They will unambiguously be seen as a party of the hard-right, comparable to Le Pen, Meloni and the rest - perhaps even Trump.
Such a deal will help colour additional parts of the southeast yellow, I suspect.
After one of the largest infrastructure spends in the state's history it has to be said. Multiple road and rail projects over the last decade.
Projects map
bigbuild.vic.gov.au
It's not really my place to comment on Australian politics but I do envy the public transport systems of the Sydney and Melbourne areas, from what I know of them.
Look at the opinion polls. Look at the recent byelection results.
Look at the general mood.
Consider that the "Boris" election of 2019 was a bit "odd" in all sorts of ways.
Is Boris standing for the Tories this time? Would the Tories have had such a majority in 2019 without Boris? I think the answer is a definite "No" !
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telstarbox
Established Member
That's not necessarily true - If Reform UK take something like 10% of the vote and these mostly come from former Tory voters, Labour only need a lead of 2-3% over the Tories.
The strength of third parties is very important, as you can see Labour won a majority in 2005 with 35% of the vote because the Lib Dems were a strong third on 22%. Conversely they won 40% of the vote in 2017 and still didn't win a majority.