Two more Parliamentary by-election polls
Following Opinium’s Mid Bedfordshire poll, JL Partners have two Parliamentary by-election opinion polls out this week, one in London and one in Yorkshire:
Write-ups in the Evening Standard and the Yorkshire Post.
Get the essential polling book
I believe that with radical policies, which give people real hope for the future, after all the Shenanigans of the past few years, will provide the best results in electoral success.
For practically all the past century, our country has been a two party state, elected via the FPTP system.
Currently, there is little difference between the Labour Party under Kier Starmer and the Tories; they are both essentially Brexit, anti-PR parties, providing little change from the current position, which is in sore need of reform.
For this coming General Election, I have long advocated, that the lessons of that disastrous election of 2019, should be learned. That is that a combined poll of 56% for the opposition, should have won against a poll of 43%, yet Boris Johnson gained a majority of 80 seats, which gave him Carte Blanche, to do whatever he wished, without an effective opposition, which to my mind, was profoundly undemocratic, effectively leaving more than 50% of the electorate unrepresented in Parliament.
As a country, we are in dire straits, and it is not a time for tribal politics, but a time for the opposition parties to work together in the national interest.
I believe that during last Autumn’s Labour conference there was a motion, from the floor, for PR, which was carried, but buried by Kier Starmer, who is also reluctant to re-open the question of Brexit, which infers that he is also reluctant for the progress we so badly need.
My ideal would be for an alliance of opposition parties to fight the next election, but unless the Labour Party grasps the nettle and changes its leader, that is unlikely to happen.
My personal vision is that such an alliance to be formed, which would enable a future government to enact a PR election procedure, and apply to the EU to rejoin the Single Market and Customs Union, which could set the stage for a re-entry into the EU, as a full member.
As far as our domestic policies are concerned, I wonder whether the four home nations, would agree to a change of formation, to the UK becoming a Federal state, which would give each more autonomy in respect of their own affairs, and may satisfy the hankering of some Scots for complete independence.
As far as Northern Ireland is concerned, the question, whether it will remain within such a Federated Britain, or merge with the Republic, will be up to those people to decide.
I am now aged 80 years, and it is problematic whether I will see any of these ideas come to fruition, but I have children and grandchildren, and would like to leave a legacy of regression being turned into progression, giving hope and prosperity for their futures.