Reform comes third!

[GrannyMac]

In Kingswood and Wellingborough, Labour wipe the Tories out, but Reform have their best results so far, with over 10% of the votes in both. Lets hope they can gather momentum!

https://news.sky.com/story/by-election-results-sunak-oversees-unwanted-record-with-latest-pair-of-defeats-13072713

[Ashy]

The real story is that the turnout was half that at the general election. I'm glad that reform didn't lose their deposits but they'll have to do better.

[Scrumpy]

Conservatives showed their disappointed by staying away..
Adding the Reform votes to the Conservative votes would have made little difference to the outcome..


Johnson... May... Truss sound like a bloody comedy act.. 
 Johnson... bought the party down.. In my opinion..

[klondike]

Adding the Reform votes to the Conservative votes would have made little difference to the outcome..

It could have at Kingswood but the Tories would have needed virtually all one of the Reform votes and that is very unlikely as I suspect some of their votes must have come from previous Labour voters and had Reform not stood some would have either not have voted at all or gone for some other party. It may have been a smaller defeat for the Tories  but it would still have been a defeat. Given the current state of affairs after 14 years or Tory governments they could expect no better. IMO they deserved 0 votes.

Labour           Damien Egan   11,176   44.9   +11.5
Conservative   Sam Bromiley   8,675   34.9   –21.3
Reform UK   Rupert Lowe   2,578   10.4   New

I think that pretty much puts paid to Sunak's "Vote Reform get Labour" as the differential at Wellingborough was even greater. "Vote Conservative get Labour" is just as true. Plus you would be rewarding incompetence and lies.

Maybe the Tories will take note and maybe change their policies a little. I doubt they will though as these days they seem to be completely out of touch as well as incompetent.

[JBR]

Conservatives showed their disappointed by staying away..
Adding the Reform votes to the Conservative votes would have made little difference to the outcome..


Johnson... May... Truss sound like a bloody comedy act..
 Johnson... bought the party down.. In my opinion..

Conversely, adding the Conservative votes to those for Reform would give Reform a majority (assuming that most Conservatives are unimpressed with the party's performance over many years and just stayed away) .

If only people would take this opportunity to elect a new political party in preference to the 'two main parties', both of which are pretty hopeless.

[klondike]

Excellent way to look at it JBR. Sadly a pretty unique one too.

[Raven]

I don't understand the reluctance to give a newer party a chance at government. 

[klondike]

Many seem to be hard of thinking and there is no cure for that.

[GrannyMac]

PR anyone? 

[klondike]

[dextrous63]

Einstein is wrong though.  Things aren't deterministic.

[klondike]

I have no idea what you mean by that. I have a sneaky feeling that you don't either. Or are mistaken.

[dextrous63]

You are incorrect.  Nothing ever happens exactly the same twice due to the nature of chaos.  Infinite variables contribute.

Sure, the vast majority of outcomes tend to be within an imaginable/predictable expectation, but each would be different in its own right.

[klondike]

The nature of the balls up produced by voting for one of the big two certainly varies in detail. Sometimes by a large degree. There is one thing that remains consistent or has for a very long time though and that is that it will be a balls up.

[JBR]

Excellent way to look at it JBR. Sadly a pretty unique one too.

So I believe.
The problem is that some people are only capable of doing what they have always done, and that certainly applies to political parties.
The two party system, of course, supports that.  Better to take turns than to invite in a third competitor.
I just hope that the British people will one day wake up to that.