UK election update

Well, the polls close in 3 hour 30 minutes. It still feels as if there’s no election happening here, in one of the most vulnerable and significant seats. Yesterday I saw a small stall run by the Socialist Workers Party urging people to vote Labour, and a lone leftie independent doing the same. I’ve yet to see any activity from the main parties, it must be happening somewhere, but not here in Uxbridge town centre.

The activity of proper lefties is heartening. The SWP are Trotskyites who used to condemn the Soviet Union as a “State Capitalism”. Yet they were out working for comrade Corbyn. The SWP have instructed members to vote Labour in the past but I don’t recall ever seeing them actually campaigning for them. The only people they’ll influence are voting Labour already, and their visible presence, in support of Corbyn, will only bolster the fears of middle of the road types. Labour’s candidate here is not going to reassure the centre either. Ali Milani, Tehran born left winger with a history of anti-Semitic remarks and a student radical to his bootstraps. Again, not a man to woo the white working class.

All in all I think Boris will be MP for Uxbridge and South Ruislip come the morning. I could of course be wrong, but I think he’ll be making the journey to meet The Queen and form a government. Turnouts in some big cities are reported as huge, but it doesn’t matter how much each MP is elected by, much like the US Electoral College, it’s entirely possible to lose the popular vote and win the election. 

Whether my gut is wrong, influenced by wishful thinking, we’ll see in the morning.