On the ‘US Election’ thread, Big Al wrote…

”However our own record in voting for loonies is not exactly blameless. There was Thatcher who finished off 28% of manufacturing in one year. Then there was Cameron who walked out because the Brexit vote upset him. And I'm not over the moon with Keir Starmer.
I think the trouble resides in the fact that we have a media who misinform us. Trump's victory and Starmers have in common the fact that the overwhelming nature of thevictories seemed to creep up on them by surprise.
This to me, argues that they don't really know whats going at ground level.”

Well, I agree with your first sentence (although I disagree with your use of ‘our’ - I’ve never voted Conservative in my life) and, whilst I’m not over the moon with Starmer either, I do believe he’s a better bet than the Tory alternative(s).

You’re dead right about Thatcher, and you’re partially right about Cameron, except that he didn’t walk out because the Brexit vote ‘upset him’, he walked because he realised that the Referendum question had been badly worded, and also what an utter disaster his mistaken decision to break with tradition and allow the Referendum to depend on a ‘simple majority’had dumped the UK into whereas, if he’d worded the Referendum more carefully and stuck with the traditional requirement for a ‘Super-majority’ of 60-40, the ‘Remain’ vote would have won easily. He knew he’d fucked-up badly, and that leaving the EU was going to turn out exactly the way it has - a total balls-up, with the likes of you and me paying the bill for the rest of our lives, while the toffs made, and continue to make, an enormous killing.

You’re also right about misinformation, but our media had Labour leading by 20 percentage points for months, so I can’t agree that Starmer’s and Labour’s victory ‘crept up on them’ - they were fully aware that victory was coming.