I agree that the lip service by the conservatives paid to reducing immigration, may not materialise. I long suspected that if EU immigration numbers came down, the floodgates would be opened to non EU. In effect that has already happened, and so one could argue that doesn't bode well no matter what is offered by way of promises or manifesto pledges now.

The trouble is that even with this in mind, if someone is shall we say anti immigration, or wants a limit on numbers, they are very limited in terms of where they can lend their vote to. This all factors into the referendum result and indeed the popularity of the ever present Nigel Farage. It was the idea that there was no other way to express a particular view. Non that I'm saying if someone holds the opposite view it's invalid in some way, just that where it's not possible for parts of the population to be heard, eventually their view will find a way to bubble to the surface anyway.

If the EU had been more open to reason, say a cap on immigration numbers in any given year, we likely wouldn't be in this position to begin with.

Edited by dollardays (17 Nov 2019 2.39pm)

Young people get shafted each election. It's a demographics issue really with parties calculating who to pander to. It's hard to do much about that, other than getting out and voting in greater numbers. But if people don't feel represented, or that at that age they're less politically engaged, the situation is unlikely to change. A lot of voting comes down to self interest and if you're not in a voting block that has influence, you can become something of a bystander.

This is what baffles me about the polling thing I raised. In the last 2 weeks over a million 18-24 year olds have newly registered to vote; this is in the wake of the enormous youth climate protests which saw numbers of youths on the streets like no time in our memory. And voter turnout of that age group has been steadily on the rise for the last two or three elections.

So again, it makes me question why they predict it will be so low at this one? It seems they haven't learnt their lessons from the referendum/trump/2017 regarding weighting.

If punk ever happened I'd be preaching the law, instead of listenin to Lydon lecture BBC4

The tories have had their 10 years and frankly, they have been a disaster.

If they stumble through this election it still looks a collection of out-dated redundant ideas.

As for austerity, they really should have read their Keynes, an economy must always have stimulus.

Perhaps they think a public library is communism.

The Student Loan Company administer the loan book, but some of the older loans were sold off years ago.

Isn't that a Labour council? It's local issue so surely down to them?

One more point