UK General Election 2017

[Idaho]

Ok. The reasons why this loss feels like a victory:

- May declared the election with a 20+ poll lead
- she had a personal approval rating 3 times Corbyn
- she expressly stated that losing even 6 seats would be a failure
- she had a press almost entirely on her side
- she had the BBC political reporting team staffed with tory Party members
- Corbyn was repeatedly declared unelectable. Predictions of a landslide to the tories were routine on all sides
- the blairite right and the political commentators all agreed that you had to be a neoliberal to stand a chance. Social democracy was dead as a concept.
- it was stated that Labour had long since lost the south and Scotland and was now losing the north.
- we were promised that this was the last hopeless stand for the Labour left. The blairites backed off to let Corbyn own the defeat. None of the experienced labour mps would serve so he had to run with a gaggle of oddities and no marks.

That is were we started. And were did we end up?

- the tories lost their majority
- May's credibility is in tatters. 5 years? She might not even give it 5 days!
- 72% of the youth vote turned out. No one in British politics has achieved close to that before.
- Corbyn got the highest share of the vote for a Labour leader in modern times.
- labour picked up seats in Canterbury ffs! Canterbury went red!
- social democracy has been proven to be electorally viable.
- honest politics and not spin and soundbites attracted voters

Did labour win? No - but if you had offered me even half of the above any time in the last 40 years, I'd have bitten your hand off!

I am delighted

Oh and did I mention that we get to see some more tory collapse and civil war?