Friday, June 19, 2026

SNP settle for one by-election win out of two - but Keir Starmer will only be settling for a taxi

5 comments:

  1. I broadly agree with your comments, James. In terms of Arbroath / B Ferry, I live in that constituency & (incorrectly, as it turned out) there was a scare that perhaps Reform UK might win the by election. My cousin consciously threw away his vote & voted Labour since he said that as Reform were going to win anyway, she might as well vote his first choice. I said he was wrong: SNP could, & normally should, still win. Definitely a good number of voters turned out tactically here for SNP to keep Reform out. As things transpired, they were never in with a real shout of winning and ended up (somehow) behind the Tories in 3rd place. Lastly as an aside, the LibDem candidate is very active in promoting local issues & had a decent personal vote, albeit still finishing last despite a slightly increased party vote share.

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    1. My cousin consciously threw away his vote & voted Labour since he said that as Reform were going to win anyway, she might as well vote his first choice.

      I wouldn't say voting for your first choice is throwing away your vote. It's pretty much the opposite of that, even if it's a joke party like Labour

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    2. Fair comment (me again, the original poster). By the way, apologies to him for referring to him as "she" at one point above. More info: he's from Liverpool originally, and has always voted Labour in every election, local, European, Westminster, Holyrood whatever, since he turned 18. Lifelong one-party voters are still a thing :-)

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  2. Burnham is a snake in sheep’s clothing.
    He makes vague noises about manufacturing industry and the North / South divide, but we’ve heard that before. Remember Boris Johnson’s “Levelling up”?

    Hate to mix my animal metaphors, but on Palestine he’s a weasel. A member of Labour Friends Of Israel. Actively opposed to BDS (calls it vindictive). He refuses to acknowledge the genocide in Gaza because (paraphrase) “I’m just a humble Major of Greater Manchester and I can’t possibly be expected to have an opinion on international matters.”.
    Yeah, because the mass murder of woman and children is such a nuanced topic, I can’t quite decide which side I”m on.

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  3. An excellent assessment of Aberdeen South. I reside in the neighbouring ing constituency and know that the Aberdeen South seat has a heavy unionist electorate. Sometimes - particularly in by elections - the reality of electoral arithmetic has to be a major consideration.

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