Who the fuck is Brian Rose?

[PunkStep]

Genuinely roared when he unveiled his gauntlet ?

[WyattSheepMask]

The London mayor result is a forgone conclusion. The only result that anyone’s interested in is how wide of a margin is Count Binface beating Laurence Fox by

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Well I am working in a polling station today and 3 hours in things are not looking good for Corbyn

[PunkStep]

Have you noticed the Tories have been campaigning hard round our neck of the woods @johnnyboy? I gestured one campaigner to go away when he knocked on my door last week. The frustrating thing is that they will probably do well because they are going hard on the 'we will lower your council tax bill!', which of course will be a lie that is conveniently forgotten come next April.

[Jazzy G]

I think we're all hoping for Andy Burnham to turn our buses orange and make it less confusing round our way. This seemed to be his main platform. Well there was also his "the Tories are cunts" policy. Always a vote winner in Manchester.

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Just about 5 hours left. 12% of our station is postal vote and we have had about 11%  of the rest. This was supposed to be a day where there was a big turnout. It's not happened here so far. 

[Lion_of_the_Midlands]

Sorry for the double post, but what a thrilling day of poll clerking that has been. Voting picked up in the early evening and we ended up with just over 200 voters through the door all told. With postal votes our turnout will probably have been around 30%  

Highlights of the day were the guy who threw his county council ballot paper at the Presiding Officer as he shouted " I'm not voting for any of those gobshites" and he preceded just to vote in the Police And Crime Commissioner election. What a waste of time he was. Then late on in the day we had a young ish lady in to vote whose first name was Pocahontas. She was definitely a Native Yellowbelly rather a Native American and obviously cultural appropriation was not an issue. 

On the whole I would say that watching old people vote tory was depressing, but at least I was getting paid. The worst part was that the tory candidate turned up as we were closing. He looked about 14 and he was going to win easy and the smug cunt knew it. 

[Jazzy G]

How do we reckon Johnson's Channel Isand dick swinging exercise has affected voting today? Big show of power in front of the Frenchies inspired the proles to voting Tory? I'm kind of anticipating a reasonably low turnout.

[Dead Mike]

7 hours ago, jazzygeofferz said:

How do we reckon Johnson's Channel Isand dick swinging exercise has affected voting today? Big show of power in front of the Frenchies inspired the proles to voting Tory? I'm kind of anticipating a reasonably low turnout.

His poundshop Falklands-esque posturing will serve to reinforce the belief that it's the Tories who are sticking up for Britain. Obviously this doesn't stand up to any scrutiny but it doesn't have to as nobody really cares.

Reports from private Tory polling apparently showed people didn't really care much about the corruption allegations, this just served to comfort any wavering voters.

[PunkStep]

17 minutes ago, johnnyboy said:

Absolute bloodbath on the council in the H-Town.  Of the seats up for grabs Labour held one and lost seven, losing control of the council in the process.

Fucking knew it. Oh well, at least we can look forward to a reduction in our council tax as the Tories promised*

 

 

*will we fuck

[Mr_Danger]

Tories positioning themselves as the anti authority have big present day Triple H in his DX gear energy. 

[Jazzy G]

Corbyn is going to have some explaining to do when these council results come in. 

[Devon Malcolm]

At least we now know what the Labour centrists actually meant by that 20 point thing was that it would be for the Tories.

[RedRooster]

While I'm not a particularly big fan of Starmer, any Labour leader has one hell of a challenge at the moment thanks to the media. Brexit has been a disaster, but if you look at the press you would hardly know it. The pandemic has resulted in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths, but rather than ask questions, the Johnson-friendly newspapers ignore it. They've helped him successfully manufacture the idea of a culture war, and helped him weaponise patriotism. They've justified morally reprehensible views and behaviour (from the general public as much as Johnson) by accusing critics of it "virtue-signalling".

If this were one news outlet that would be a problem, but when Johnson is surrounded, for the most part, by a sea of smiling journalists it's always going to follow that large sections of the public are going to view him in a certain way. And as a result of the near-constant friendliness and excusing of his behaviour, it becomes harder for negative stories to actually land. It's a hugely depressing landscape. 

[BomberPat]

1 minute ago, RedRooster said:

While I'm not a particularly big fan of Starmer, any Labour leader has one hell of a challenge at the moment thanks to the media. Brexit has been a disaster, but if you look at the press you would hardly know it. The pandemic has resulted in tens of thousands of unnecessary deaths, but rather than ask questions, the Johnson-friendly newspapers ignore it. They've helped him successfully manufacture the idea of a culture war, and helped him weaponise patriotism. They've justified morally reprehensible views and behaviour (from the general public as much as Johnson) by accusing critics of it "virtue-signalling".

If this were one news outlet that would be a problem, but when Johnson is surrounded, for the most part, by a sea of smiling journalists it's always going to follow that large sections of the public are going to view him in a certain way. And as a result of the near-constant friendliness and excusing of his behaviour, it becomes harder for negative stories to actually land. It's a hugely depressing landscape. 

This is true, but too many Labour supporters have been using it as an excuse for the last five years. The amount of "Corbyn would have won if it weren't for the media!" takes was just knackering.

The Labour Party surely know that the media is against them. That knowledge should, more than almost anything else, inform their election strategy. If the newspapers are against you, how do you counter that and work outside of that system? How much more funding do you put into party political broadcasts, into social media advertising, in to old-fashioned doorstopping and canvassing, and basically everything you can do to work so that the newspapers aren't people's primary means of forming an opinion of your policies?

Of course, that's easier said than done - and especially when, right now, I couldn't tell you what the Labour Party stand for and why you should vote for them. 

And, as has been discussed on here before, there's a parity of esteem when it comes to newspapers and new media - people will put considerably more stock in what they read in the papers over what they see on social media, so it's never going to be that easy. But it's not something that Labour can just hold their hands up about, they need to offer something meaningful in opposition.