5 years hard labour ?

[Bper]

Is anyone surprised at the results of the general election and a labour government for the next 5 years or more. Can the Reform party take over from the Conservatives as the next main party and either become an effective opposition or a future government headed by Nigel Farage.?

[Flatcoat]

No surprises but hardly a mandate or ringing endorsement with even less voting Labour than in 2019. Be careful what you wish for as they say. Across western govts the public have had enough of governing elites and technocrats taking them for granted. I wouldn’t put money on Labour getting a second term in 2029. 

[Eddiefh]

I’m one of the can’t be bothered I’ll admit, polling station was end of street 8 doors up, none of the leaders inspired me to vote, but I was moved with an interview with Ed Davey talking about his disabled son.

[FROSTYBALLS]

The most important issue facing the new Government is what will happen to Larry the cat ??

Will he get on with JoJo, the Starmer's pet cat ?

Or, if he doesn't, will he be retired ?

[Bper]

New polling from Ipsos has found that 44% of Britons have a favourable opinion of Chief Mouser to the Cabinet Office Larry the cat, better then Rishi Sunak it seems.

[Cyker]

8 hours ago, Bper said:

Is anyone surprised at the results of the general election and a labour government for the next 5 years or more. Can the Reform party take over from the Conservatives as the next main party and either become an effective opposition or a future government headed by Nigel Farage.?

Please no... the man is a snake and a weasel. A sneasel, if you will.

He knows how to talk the talk and put on the charisma but we don't need someone who is so bereft of morals, and that's saying something for a politician, anywhere near the reins of power....

He's on my list of morally bankrupt garbage people that I'd like to give a 1-way all-expenses paid spaceflight ticket into the sun, along with Abbot, Cummings, Braverman and Gove to name a few...

 

[Bper]

7 minutes ago, Cyker said:

Please no... the man is a snake and a weasel. A sneasel, if you will.

He knows how to talk the talk and put on the charisma but we don't need someone who is so bereft of morals, and that's saying something for a politician, anywhere near the reins of power....

He's on my list of morally bankrupt garbage people that I'd like to give a 1-way all-expenses paid spaceflight ticket into the sun, along with Abbot, Cummings, Braverman and Gove to name a few...

 

Well as bertie bassett said it takes allsorts😂

[Primus1]

I just hope farage and his party disappear before the next GE..

[Bper]

16 minutes ago, Primus1 said:

I just hope farage and his party disappear before the next GE..

Reform have won another seat so that makes it 5 MPs. 

[Rhymes with Paris]

1 hour ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

The most important issue facing the new Government is what will happen to Larry the cat ??

Will he get on with JoJo, the Starmer's pet cat ?

Or, if he doesn't, will he be retired ?

He seems an ok cat to be fair, but who cleans up after him at no's 9 and 11 ?

[Bper]

20 minutes ago, Rhymes with Paris said:

He seems an ok cat to be fair, but who cleans up after him at no's 9 and 11 ?

I wonder if he sits on the cabinet.😂

[Rhymes with Paris]

2 minutes ago, Bper said:

I wonder if he sits on the cabinet.😂

Is that a typo?

[AndyN01]

I wonder if history does indeed repeat itself and, to use the Churchill quote, those that fail to learn from it are doomed to repeat it?

We shall have to wait and see.

Time will tell. 😉

[Paul john]

2 hours ago, FROSTYBALLS said:

The most important issue facing the new Government is what will happen to Larry the cat ??

Will he get on with JoJo, the Starmer's pet cat ?

Or, if he doesn't, will he be retired ?

I think thats a valid question for PMQ 

[Paul john]

1 hour ago, Bper said:

Reform have won another seat so that makes it 5 MPs. 

Only after 3 recounts.  East Thurrock.

[Bper]

15 minutes ago, Paul john said:

Only after 3 recounts.  East Thurrock.

Only 98 votes between Reform and Labour candidates.

[AndyN01]

3 counts and 98 votes....

Just what sort of standard/quality/accuracy was being delivered by the folks that were counting?

I don't care that it was "just a few votes" in about 40K.  I don't care how fast they were doing it (and in the end it took ages and ages longer - do it right, do it once). The simple fact is that they got it wrong - when counting votes in a General Election. 😱.

A example of the "can't be bothered" attitude that seems to have become the norm? Or.... too much time pressure being applied from those in charge? Or something else?

 

[Paul john]

1 hour ago, AndyN01 said:

3 counts and 98 votes....

Just what sort of standard/quality/accuracy was being delivered by the folks that were counting?

I don't care that it was "just a few votes" in about 40K.  I don't care how fast they were doing it (and in the end it took ages and ages longer - do it right, do it once). The simple fact is that they got it wrong - when counting votes in a General Election. 😱.

A example of the "can't be bothered" attitude that seems to have become the norm? Or.... too much time pressure being applied from those in charge? Or something else?

 

A recount doesn't necessarily mean that they “got it wrong” or the count was poorly managed and inaccurate. Same Numbers in count are always a possibility lol.  
Any candidate can request a recount and since that ward was a Lab/Reform Duel for First placing I suspect they both called for a recount. 

[Bper]

1 hour ago, AndyN01 said:

3 counts and 98 votes....

Just what sort of standard/quality/accuracy was being delivered by the folks that were counting?

I don't care that it was "just a few votes" in about 40K.  I don't care how fast they were doing it (and in the end it took ages and ages longer - do it right, do it once). The simple fact is that they got it wrong - when counting votes in a General Election. 😱.

A example of the "can't be bothered" attitude that seems to have become the norm? Or.... too much time pressure being applied from those in charge? Or something else?

 

Hi Andy,I understand the frustration about the vote recount in East Thurrock. Accurate vote counting is crucial, and even small errors can be concerning. It's possible a few things might have contributed to the mistakes human error for one, counting manually can be difficult and mistakes do happen, especially under pressure which in this case would be time pressure as everyone was waiting for the result 

While the recount took longer and revealed errors, it’s good that the system caught and corrected them.Who knows, perhaps in the future a different system will be introduced which will be more accurate.

[AndyN01]

Regardless of the outcome I'm pleased that someone thought that something was amiss (or was just being "awkward" or whatever phrase you feel appropriate?) and asked to have it looked at again which, indeed, did show that something was amiss. I think that's fair and appropriate.

As far as "getting it wrong" goes I'd be interested to see, precisely, what the first, second and third counts were. I've been unable to find out. Has anyone got a link to the numbers? I'd be concerned about the quality/standard if the counts were different by anything above single figures. Yes there shall be human error but considering the circumstances IMHO it should be microscopically small.

I totally accept that there was time pressure to get the result in but the actual result was many hours behind the majority which is back to a "do it right, do it once" philosophy and in this case made a significant difference to the Party involved if not the overall result.

[FROSTYBALLS]

Staff employed as either poll clerks or counting assistants are employed by the appropriate Local Authority on a temporary or casual basis.

Depending on how many or few are carried forwards from previous elections, it is feasible that counting teams may largely be staff who are new to the role, and could be more prone to error, etc.

Quote from the Deputy Leader of Basildon Council:

"It's very obvious that numerous mistakes have been made.

"From a ballot paper for the Thurrock election being found to numerous bundles having the wrong party within them that affected not just Labour, but other parties.

"It showed that enough mistakes had been made that we could not trust the integrity of the count."

[Bper]

17 minutes ago, AndyN01 said:

Regardless of the outcome I'm pleased that someone thought that something was amiss (or was just being "awkward" or whatever phrase you feel appropriate?) and asked to have it looked at again which, indeed, did show that something was amiss. I think that's fair and appropriate.

As far as "getting it wrong" goes I'd be interested to see, precisely, what the first, second and third counts were. I've been unable to find out. Has anyone got a link to the numbers? I'd be concerned about the quality/standard if the counts were different by anything above single figures. Yes there shall be human error but considering the circumstances IMHO it should be microscopically small.

I totally accept that there was time pressure to get the result in but the actual result was many hours behind the majority which is back to a "do it right, do it once" philosophy and in this case made a significant difference to the Party involved if not the overall result.

Andy, this is a article relating to the East Thurrock recount.

After the initial count had finished at around 4am, Labour called for a bundle re-count and claimed 'mistake had been made'.

Adele Brown, Labour councillor and Deputy Leader of Basildon Council, said: "It's very obvious that numerous mistakes have been made.

From a ballot paper for the Thurrock election being found to numerous bundles having the wrong party within them that affected not just Labour, but other parties.

"It showed that enough mistakes had been made that we could not trust the integrity of the count. The attorney has made the correct decision and one we have been pushing for."

This seems to indicate that it was human error that caused this. As far as a breakdown of count numbers for each recount. I suspect these may not be available as this would highlight the errors and potentially lead to fingers being pointed as to how it happened and the senior staff would look to protect the counting staff against unwanted media attention.

[AndyN01]

Thanks very much. 👍.

And perhaps I smell a whiff of (hopefully) incompetence but potentially something much more sinister than that - in which case whoever was "hands on" needs to be removed, pronto.

Not a good look.

[Cyker]

I always find it amusingly backwards that it's still hand-counted - Given it's just a tick in a box, they could easily obtain mark-sense machines that they just load all the papers into and it automatically counts all of them, spitting out ones that have 'non-standard marks' on them for manual counting/analysis.

Even schools used to have access to such things before they all moved to electronic registers, and courier companies, supermarket  and warehouse logistics and even royal mail have access to impressively sophisticated systems that basically do that sort of thing on a regular basis.

[Rhymes with Paris]

Aye, even the gangsters running the casinos in las Vegas had money counting machines back in the 1970s, well according to Robert De niro and Joe Pesci they did anyway.