Snap General Election called

[Which Tyler]

I think I'll go to bed after the exit polls come out, put BBC on record, then get up at 5 to watch it at high speed.

Ewww, Kuenssberg

[Sandydragon]

Yeah, I think Reform's latest PR failures of saying the quiet bit out loud, combined with general regression to the mean and the Tories' "supermajority" bullshit, has killed the dream of the Lib Dems overtaking them. It was always a long shot, albeit a hilarious one.

Puja

Reform might have droped a couple of points as a result of some of its less PR friendly candidates being honest. Im still amazed that some of the candidates were surprised that they shared a party with a bunch of racists. I suppose the Farage effect has affected them too.

It will be a huge ask for the Lib Dems to make second place. Im guessing 100-120 Conservative MPs will be left. The big issue will be which MPs and if there's a large clutch of righ wing tories then they are likely to reexamine the ideological nonsense of the late 1990s and early 2000s, which will reduce the effectiveness of them in opposition. There has to be an opposition party and its better for everyone if its not totally batshit crazy.

I suspect that there is probably a bit of truth to the Reform screeching that their candidates were being offered jobs and inducements to abandon ship - I'd be surprised if two Reform candidates independently realised across two days that the racism was coming from inside of the house and decided the only thing to do was to publically support the notably completely unracist Conservative party.

Puja

So UKIP didn't tempt away Tory MPs back in the day? All fair in love and war.

That said the public facade has dropped a bit. When it's just Farage, the darker side of Reform is pretty well hidden. Mostly. With hundreds of candidates, many of whom will be the village idiot, there will inevitably be a bunch of total fruitcakes on display and the media will pick up on idiotic comments.

[Which Tyler]

Especially when the company hired to vet the candidates explicitly state "we are not a vetting company, we will not vet your candidates, we provide a platform for you to vet your candidates"

[Son of Mathonwy]

I think I'll go to bed after the exit polls come out, put BBC on record, then get up at 5 to watch it at high speed.

Ewww, Kuenssberg

Yeah I will be using fast-forward a lot.

[Which Tyler]

I'm thinking either GB"News" for pure comedy value, or C4 with Maitliss, Stewart, Guru-Murthy and Newman.
Downside of Dories, but she'll be mostly comedy value as well.

[Which Tyler]

Just a warning Re: Drinking games.

The tories are expected to lose a couple of hundred seats, possibly even as high as 288.
If someone is expecting to take a shot for every tory loss; you'd be expecting to drink a dozen (and up to 17) bottles of spirits.
Even a game involving a finger of beer could be drinking 2-dozen pints... in 7 hours.

Is someone suggests making a drinking game of things tonight, they may be trying to kill you.

[Zhivago]

Just a warning Re: Drinking games.

The tories are expected to lose a couple of hundred seats, possibly even as high as 288.
If someone is expecting to take a shot for every tory loss; you'd be expecting to drink a dozen (and up to 17) bottles of spirits.
Even a game involving a finger of beer could be drinking 2-dozen pints... in 7 hours.

Is someone suggests making a drinking game of things tonight, they may be trying to kill you.

Would not be the first person the Tories killed

[Sandydragon]

Just a warning Re: Drinking games.

The tories are expected to lose a couple of hundred seats, possibly even as high as 288.
If someone is expecting to take a shot for every tory loss; you'd be expecting to drink a dozen (and up to 17) bottles of spirits.
Even a game involving a finger of beer could be drinking 2-dozen pints... in 7 hours.

Is someone suggests making a drinking game of things tonight, they may be trying to kill you.

Almost as lethal as the star wars drinking game. ‘Anyone in fancy dress’ is a right b*stard

[Sandydragon]

Unfortunately only one of those polls has the Tories down to 3rd place. But there'll be a hell of a lot of Portillo moments.

Yeah, I think Reform's latest PR failures of saying the quiet bit out loud, combined with general regression to the mean and the Tories' "supermajority" bullshit, has killed the dream of the Lib Dems overtaking them. It was always a long shot, albeit a hilarious one.

Puja

Reform might have droped a couple of points as a result of some of its less PR friendly candidates being honest. Im still amazed that some of the candidates were surprised that they shared a party with a bunch of racists. I suppose the Farage effect has affected them too.

It will be a huge ask for the Lib Dems to make second place. Im guessing 100-120 Conservative MPs will be left. The big issue will be which MPs and if there's a large clutch of righ wing tories then they are likely to reexamine the ideological nonsense of the late 1990s and early 2000s, which will reduce the effectiveness of them in opposition. There has to be an opposition party and its better for everyone if its not totally batshit crazy.

My estimate could be quite close of the exit poll is right.

[Banquo]

reform predicted for 13....libdems plus 53.

%votes will be fascinating

[Puja]

Hobson's choice for election coverage. Kuenssberg is intolerable, so changed over to Channel 4 and Dorries was talking, so switched to ITV and they were stultifyingly boring, plus the threat of George Osbourne being allowed to talk.

Puja

[Sandydragon]

I’m liking the idea of watching on fast forward playback without sound. There’s hours of waffle to come

[Which Tyler]

reform predicted for 13....libdems plus 53.

%votes will be fascinating

Silver lining is that Conservatives with 130 should be strong enough to tell Farage to F off

[Which Tyler]

Exit poll can be searched by constituency here:
https://news.sky.com/story/exit-poll-wh ... y-13163180

[Danno]

Hobson's choice for election coverage. Kuenssberg is intolerable, so changed over to Channel 4 and Dorries was talking, so switched to ITV and they were stultifyingly boring, plus the threat of George Osbourne being allowed to talk.

Puja

Kuennsberg has grown some teeth for some reason. I think the Beeb is easily the best of a bad bunch. I spose there's LBC or PolJoe but neither are much to my taste

[morepork]

410 MPs. Chance to enact some real change?

[Which Tyler]

50 up, 600 to go

Lab = 45
Con = 2
LD = 2
Ref = 1

Reform have failed in 3 (that I've noticed) that the exit poll gave them 90%+ chancd of winning. Each and every one of those is a cause for celebration.

Galloway looses. Corbyn wins (TBC)

[Which Tyler]

100-up

Lab = 81
Con = 10
LD = 8
Ref = 1


Grant Shapps and Alex Chalk are out

[Mikey Brown]

Looking better than I expected at this point. Still some horrific people holding seats but whatever.

[Sandydragon]

reform predicted for 13....libdems plus 53.

%votes will be fascinating

Silver lining is that Conservatives with 130 should be strong enough to tell Farage to F off

Possibly
Not. Several Tory MPs talking about how they weren’t conservative enough. I’m expecting a shift to the right and you won’t get a rizzla between them and reform until they realise that won’t work.

[Puja]

reform predicted for 13....libdems plus 53.

%votes will be fascinating

Silver lining is that Conservatives with 130 should be strong enough to tell Farage to F off

Possibly
Not. Several Tory MPs talking about how they weren’t conservative enough. I’m expecting a shift to the right and you won’t get a rizzla between them and reform until they realise that won’t work.

Badenoch will win the leadership election and she hates Farage. Unfortunately she's almost as reprehensible in and of herself, so frying pan -> fire.

Puja

[Puja]

Woke up to better news than I went to sleep on. Exit poll said Reform got 13 and the Greens 2, but I've come back to find them both on 4, which is an excellent result. Also Lib Dems outperforming their predicted 61 to 70+.

Unfortunately my area managed to beat the pre-election polls and somehow return a useless sod of a Tory MP. Bloody typical - last election I was under Michelle Donelan and I should be celebrating her ouster, but boundary changes mean I getAndrew Murrison back.

Puja

[Donny osmond]

Get in!!!

Good to see the Tories get jumped, although not by as much as I would've liked, great to see LDs have such a good night, but top of the bill for me personally is seeing the SNP get humbled. Seeing useless, arrogant snouts-in-the-trough nationalist wankers getting booted will always put me in a good mood.

The overall result brings plenty of pressure for Labour, but that's for the next 5 years to sort out. For now I'm just enjoying the view.

[Banquo]

Get in!!!

Good to see the Tories get jumped, although not by as much as I would've liked, great to see LDs have such a good night, but top of the bill for me personally is seeing the SNP get humbled. Seeing useless, arrogant snouts-in-the-trough nationalist wankers getting booted will always put me in a good mood.

The overall result brings plenty of pressure for Labour, but that's for the next 5 years to sort out. For now I'm just enjoying the view.

Lib Dem’s have cleaned up very blue seats round me. Having met them though, complete muppets. But less muppety than the tories. Fckin ell. Looking at the detail, Tory vote went to Reform, enabling narrow Lib Dem wins, suspect replicated across the south east, predictable I suppose.

Turnout a bit of a worry, and Lib Dem’s have so far gained 63 seats with a .6 % vote share increase, and Labour 210 on a 1.6% uptick. Weird stuff. Reform getting 16% is no joke either.

[Zhivago]

Get in!!!

Good to see the Tories get jumped, although not by as much as I would've liked, great to see LDs have such a good night, but top of the bill for me personally is seeing the SNP get humbled. Seeing useless, arrogant snouts-in-the-trough nationalist wankers getting booted will always put me in a good mood.

The overall result brings plenty of pressure for Labour, but that's for the next 5 years to sort out. For now I'm just enjoying the view.

Lib Dem’s have cleaned up very blue seats round me. Having met them though, complete muppets. But less muppety than the tories. Fckin ell. Looking at the detail, Tory vote went to Reform, enabling narrow Lib Dem wins, suspect replicated across the south east, predictable I suppose.

Turnout a bit of a worry, and Lib Dem’s have so far gained 63 seats with a .6 % vote share increase, and Labour 210 on a 1.6% uptick. Weird stuff. Reform getting 16% is no joke either.

There's a lot of spin about Starmer doing great, but actually this is a poor performance. He is just lucky that the Tories imploded. If they don't bring in PR, the Tories will be back in power soon enough, probably after a merger with the far-right Reform party.