Elections May 6th

The methodology for the Liverpool Mayor elections seems very odd.

If I understand it rightly, you choose a first and second choice (Labour, Tory, Lib Dem and Green), but the second choices only come into effect if nobody has a majority, and they're only counted from ballots where the two parties with the fewest votes were marked as first choice. That will in all likelihood be Lib Dem and Green, which makes me think there's no value in voting for either of them as your second choice. I will probably vote Green first and Labour second, as it feels like there's more value in that for both selections.

My priority is keeping the Tories out, although with it being Liverpool that's unlikely to be a problem.

In Wales? Think they’ll lose maybe two or three seats and possibly need to go into coalition with Plaid. Whether that’s “bad” or not I don’t know.

Oh yes, English Labour are meaningless now with that wetwipe in charge.

Welsh Labour have done a good job throughout the pandemic, steady hand on the tiller etc, but I feel they lack a radical drive. Safe and steady but now the time has come for something more in Wales.

Voted for Labour earlier with Reform UK as my second choice.

Labour lost a lot of voters to the Brexit Party. Wouldn't say it's that surprising.

Although I don't really see the point of the Reform Party. What do they want now, just for things to be even more Brexity?

Yes Nathan! Even though I’m Labour I’m also pro-Brexit personally, so that was the next best choice for me given the other two were Lib Dem and the Tories. Was my first ever time at the polls today so I wasn’t aware that I’d have to pick two 😂.

I just like the idea of us being independent from the rest of Europe (which is my personal preference) so we can do our business our own way, which is why I’m glad the majority voted leave in 2016. 30% of leave voters were actually Labour voters too, which is quite a significant number as well and had I been old enough back then, I would’ve been a part of that number.

I strongly disagree that the 1st, 2nd, and 3rd lockdown restrictions should’ve been ended because during those times Covid was an extremely serious crisis, due to the NHS being very close to full capacity and a lot of the elderly dying due to the government’s unforgivable dithering and delaying. So in that respect, Reform UK were foolish to be opposing lockdowns in the height of the pandemic because if we had followed their ideologies then we’d be way too far behind where we are now. However, with the infection rates being extremely low all across the country and the vaccination programme going really well, I now agree with Reform UK that restrictions should end for good from June 21st, because this pandemic has been extremely damaging to everybody’s mental health and we all need our freedoms back. The vaccines have reduced mortality rates by some stretch, so if we can just hang in there for a few more weeks where the infection rates will be even lower than present, then we should never have to even consider restrictions ever again. I’ve personally had a few low moments as I’ve deeply missed doing what I enjoy most, which is watching Chester FC, going out with my mates, and travelling, and I just want normal life back now. So yes I do fully disagree with Reform UK about them opposing the first 3 lockdowns, but now I am on their side because we all want our freedoms back, and although zero Covid won’t happen, we cannot live with restrictions forever.

Rio you’ve fallen into the classic Mancot trap, the boys will be along in a minute and they’ll be on you like a pack of dogs. You need to stay away from the dark side. 😀

I think at this point there’s a higher probability of pigs being able to fly than Covid cases ramping up to a figure similar to last Winter. The entire population will be fully vaccinated soon enough which would prevent those numbers straight away, and if reports are true about a new ‘’booster’’ jab becoming available then that will help even more. If it means we all have to have a jab once a year from now on, like the flu jab, then so be it as that will ensure we all stay protected on a continual basis. I don’t think it’s a random date either, and although I despise the Tory government for mostly everything they’ve done during the pandemic I believe it’s a sensible date in all honesty. Thankfully the figures are looking very promising, so all going well the roadmap looks set to be completely on track.

You’re not wrong on your first point, although over the past few months I’ve heard of tonnes of new strains propping up, but thankfully nothing has since came out of them, while the vaccines have been effective for pretty much all of them anyway, so hopefully if any future variants hit us the vaccine will continue to work against them. The main reason why we have one of the worst death tolls despite being surrounded by water is simply this government’s constant incompetence by keeping the borders open pretty much throughout, which has made us become a gateway to new variants and mass cases arriving.

To be honest I don’t have any specific examples regarding your second point as I wasn’t really into politics much before Brexit, so my memory isn’t that great on thinking of in-depth examples about how we operated before that, but my main point is just that I’m glad we now have more freedom as a country in the sense that we are not governed under the EU, so we’re able to be more flexible in what we do via our own trade policies etc. Of course we had our own individual duties while we were in the EU amongst every other country, but I just like the idea of us being much more independent in what we do, such as spending money we would’ve otherwise spunked on EU membership fees into investing on issues that matter most to UK people (like wallpaper and the landlord of Matt Hancock’s local pub, because that really matters to the public), and trade, etc.

What is needed is a Internationalist, Socialist, re-distributive party, that is going to stand up, not bow down to Right Wing/English Nationalism.

They've just voted for who they think is best - absolutely nothing to do with not standing up for themselves, being subservient or not deserving better. Those are bizarre and, dare I say, out of touch interpretations of what has happened to say the least!

He’s right though, if they think the Tories can do anything in their best interests then they are sadly mistaken.

Hartlepool has been a staunch Labour seat until this year, so any talk of Corbyn (2017 hold, 2019 hold) makes no sense. It’a all on neoliberal centrism this. The fact that Starmer is a wet wipe who offers absolutely nothing but a Tory clean sweep. “Electable” 😂😂😂

Can see what’s coming - the New Labour II hierarchy (one of whom is one of us) will claim they haven’t gone right enough and will double-down on their disastrous new direction.