Why the Tories lost and will continue to lose

[SteveH]

I hope he's right!
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/article/2024/aug/07/tories-older-voters-conservatives

[jeremyp]

I think it's nonsense. The Tories lost because it was apparent that the current crop in charge were incompetent venal liars and people felt they have become worse off in recent years.

Give it ten years or so, people will probably be saying much the same about the Labour government.

Whether the Tories are still there to take advantage is an interesting question. Personally, I think there will be a new generation of Tory politicians by then and regression to the mean tells me they will be better.

[Nearly Sane]

Given they had just been in power for 14 years, it just read as not enough to justify it. It also seems to downplay the Reform effect, and to treat simplistically people's reasons for voting.

[Harrowby Hall]

I think that JeremyP is right about the effects of the passage of time.

Isn't there another problem facing our inadequate voting system - that of tribalism?

Essentially the reason that the First Past The Post system has survived so long is that it allowed tribalism rather than political philosophy to be the determinating factor in defining the nature of Parliament (well, HoC anyway). The two major parties (following the collapse of the Liberal Party in the early part of the 20thC) were effective defined by socio-economic status rather than political ideals.

To a considerable extent the essential differences between working class and middle class have become greatly reduced and no longer define political behaviour. Tribal loyalty is no longer a significant factor (except in the election by Conservative Party members of Liz Truss as party leader). We have a situation where an outsider, Nigel Farage, is using what is left of the right-wing tribalism in order to provide himself with the experience of being an MP (I'm surprised he has not yet applied for the Chiltern Hundreds).

A reformed voting system will force political parties to re-evaluate their political philosophies and - hopefully - encourage them to start working together to achieve commonly held goals.