Conservatives win Hartlepool to claim seat from Labour for first time ever

The Conservatives have won the Hartlepool by-election - taking a seat that has been under Labour's control since it was created in the 1970s.

Jill Mortimer's victory marks a rare gain for a governing party, but serves as a major blow to Labour leader Sir Keir Starmer.


UK election results live: Early blow for Sir Keir Starmer as 'Super Thursday' votes counted

A Labour source said: "We've said all along the North East and the Midlands would be difficult. We also said the places declaring Thursday would be particularly difficult.

"But, the message from voters is clear and we have heard it. Labour has not yet changed nearly enough for voters to place their trust in us.
https://news.sky.com/story/election...seat-from-labour-for-first-time-ever-12298989

I am a lefty/commie/progressive/god hating atheist as some americans would call me, this is a shattering defeat for the left in my country. Sadly I do not think that this is all the bad news I will face today, it is going to be a bad day for the left in the UK apart from possibly Scotland.

Here is what this lefty/commie/progressive/god hating atheist is not going to do.

I believe in democracy so I am not going to claim the election has been stolen unless it is proven in a court of law.

I am not going to attack my countries institutions, I am very lucky to live in a representative democracy, I will not undermine that.

I am not going to demonise my fellow brits who voted against the left, because I realise that at the next election I want them to vote for the left and calling them every name under the sun is not going to help my cause at all.

Now I think of myself as an old fashioned working class socialist, I think the left in this country has lost touch with the working class electorate, they do not represent working class values anymore. So I will work to get the right leader of the Labour Party with the right policies to connect with the working class people in this country.

 

The UK is changing politically. The Tories are taking the North, particularly the rural North, while Labour is strengthening in urban cities.

Likely due to Labour's social policy. I doubt Northerners trust the Tories on economics/industrial relations.

 

I have a way to solve that problem. Ban all migrants from living in the big city areas and only allow them to live in the North.

The people up there are more likely to support Labour anyway, so then let them dish it out with the Labour Party about what migration policies should be.


By the way, the same pattern has played out in the USA, in former manufacturing areas in the north.

 

This is a pity.
I don’t care about the Labour angle, I am assuming that voters quite deliberately voted for the Conservatives.
Every Conservative voter voted in favour of lies, corruption, profiteering by deliberately causing the needless deaths of thousands whilst diverting money to Conservative friends and relatives. Those voters who chose the Conservatives voted for the break up of the UK, and deeper racism than already exists.
Every Conservative voter in Hartlepool is simply an evil piece of vermin as are all the other Conservative voters and every Conservative politician at every level in the country.
To assume voters chose Conservatives as a reaction against Labour is patronising, there were plenty of other choices. No, those who vote Conservative have chosen to align with evil.

 

For the same reasons. In 2010 Obama pushed his minority coalition, abandoned the issues of the Midwest white working class, and they slept in the bed they made in 2016.

 

They are probably concerned with self-survival in ways that are harder to imagine for other people in other parts of the country where they live.

Maybe "survival" isn't actually literally the best description, but protecting a certain minimum standard of living. The difference between being proud working class and living on benefits.

When people are put in that situation, they're going to start tossing others out of the lifeboat.

It's only an affluent society that can afford to be generous and liberal, and the thing is, not all of Britain is that affluent society.

 

I think it is a generational thing, Labour appears to be doing best with the young, but we shall know more when the council election results appear.

 

That's because the young (for the most part) have nothing, no assets, and have never known any different way of life.

They're not concerned about not have a decent job, because they have never had one and many have no hope of ever having one.

 

Not so sure, idealism still plays a big part with the ones I have spoken to, we may be old and cynical but they still dream of a better world and they feel cheated by Brexit which has taken away more from them than any others.

 

If they’re concerned with survival those who voted Conservative chose to make themselves poorer.
Or maybe they voted Conservative hoping that it is some other unfortunate who will be driven to a food bank, but not them.

 

That's where I don't think you understand the situation.
Labour may do a better job of creating a safety net, but what policies do they have that actually create more wealth and benefit the economies in the northern areas?

That may be true but I think these people have their sights set a little higher than a food bank.

Let's face the reality, free stuff will never really come close to constituting the better quality life that these people have in mind.

 

Very little Labour has dropped the ball in the northern constituencies, they became to London centric and dare I say it to PC concentrating on minority issue and groups.

Add that to the pork bellying that we have seen from the Conservatives and you cannot blame them for who they voted for.

 

Because I believe the Conservatives are evil verminous people it doesn't follow I support Labour.

 

So do I, but I do not count floating voters as proper conservatives, just people who have made a bad choice and can be reasoned out of it. Hell I voted Conservative once, biggest mistake of my long life, does that make me evil and villainous or was I just young and stupid?

 

Well I suppose it helps that most votes are for a limited amount of time.
Unlike the Brexit vote.
Interesting you use the term ‘proper Conservatives’ like they have any kind of ideology or ideological vision.
At least the other groups have some kind of ideological basis whether you agree with them or not.

 

No proper conservatives believe they are the ruling class, the rest of us are plebs to be exploited. As far as ideology goes that is it for them. That simple idea that they are born to rule is actually quite evil when you think about it.

 

Strike action annoys them.
Exploit the Conservatives vulnerabilities as much as possible.

 

Labour walked away from labor, that's why they lost. Bored with trying to create class conflict, now they want to stoke racial division, instead.

 

It will take Labour a full generation to recover from Tony Blair. It has increasingly become the party of the young university crowd while becoming increasingly alienated from the people who actually labour. The best it can hope for is to be able to cobble together a minority left-coalition government if any of the other parties gain enough support and decide to align with them.

 

Brexit is a game changer. The Labour party need to get back to the working class and to rebuild in Scotland to scotch the SNP.

 

People who voted Conservative, every one of them, got off on associating with a pay cut for nurses during the pandemic.
The comments from nurses that they would rather have a proper income than claps on a doorstep, or self funded enamel badges, or a visit to a food bank, the angst thrilled Conservative voters and they voted for more of the same.
I have never met a Conservative voter, or at least somebody who has voted Conservative more than once, and not thought they are evil verminous scum.

 

Which says a great deal about you and none of it complimentary. How would you feel if I said the same about Labour voters?

 

The fact is that the Tories have done really well with the roll out of the vaccine, and that is what the majority of brits are concerned about today. They do not care if Johnson got his flat payed for by satan as long as they get the vaccine to aunty jan and grandma. Do not hate them for looking after their friends and loved, it really is a working class thing to look after your own.

 

It was interesting that there was some moaning about Boris giving special tax breaks to Dyson in return for producing more oxygen cylinders but then when people started dying in India in huge numbers due to lack of such cylinders the issue disappeared.

 

If you’re assuming I am a Labour voter it says a lot about you.
Say whatever you like about Labour voters, doesn’t stop all repeat Conservative voters from being evil verminous scum.
Any comment about the Conservative pay cut for nurses?