Please Do Not Read This Blog!

 You were warned.....And I am writing this from memory. I think I've got everything correct, especially the numbers. 

And I now have about 325 constituencies ( districts) memorized. (The rural ones are easy. The urban ones, London, Liverpool, Manchester, are hard, that said, I have gotten the Edinburgh,  Glasgow ones down.)

I have been threatening to write on this, well, mostly for me. 

As many of you well, do not know, the United Kingdom( England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland) are holding an election  on July 4th, for the House of Commons. 

A fortnight away as they would say. ( Two weeks is a fortnight.)

As many of you know, there are two bodies in Britain's Parliament, the House of Commons, which in an elected body, and the House of Lords, which for the most part, you are born to....Yes, Lords has lifetime peerages, and members of the Church of England Bishops included in that body...

But, the real power is in the Commons. 

And for the last 14 years the political party which has held power in the Commons has been the Conservative Party. 

Let me explain political parties briefly in the UK. 

- The Conservative Party ( AKA as the Tories or Tory Party) - Center Right-344 members

- Labour Party- Center left, they hold the second most seats in Parliament. - 205 members

- Scottish National Party- ( AKA SNP) A political party with one issue, Scotland's Independence. Leans left, has some socialists, but has conservative members. The party only runs candidates in Scotland. - 43 members.

- Liberal Democrats- ( AKA Lib Dems) Center left to Center. - 15 members

- Democratic Unionist Party- (AKA DUP) Northern Irish Party. Also one issue, for Northern Ireland to remain part of the UK. Leans hard right. Only runs in N. Ireland.- 7 members

- Sinn Fein- Northern Irish Party, One issue party, wants Northern Ireland to reunite with the Republic of Ireland. The members never show up for meets in Parliament, but they collect their paychecks. Socialists. ( Saw a local headquarters for this party when we were in Northern Ireland. I wanted to stop and go in, but my wife wouldn't let me. Back in the 1970s, they were blowing people up, like the DUP wasn't doing the same.) Only runs in N. Ireland. - 7 members

And there are a bunch of minor parties with less than 5 members of the House of the Commons....Plaid Cymu( Welsh Independence, Left), Social Democratic and Labour Party( Socialists), Alliance( N. Ireland, unionist, center-left),  Alba( Scottish nationalist, Center Right and Center Left members), Greens ( Left), Workers( Hard Socialist, Not my political cup of tea, but I love their 1 member, George Galloway, I'd like to sit down have a pint of ale or 4 with him and pick his brain. And the cat wears a fedora. ), Reform( Right, more later about them.) And 17 Independent members.

In the last few years, the UK has had a harder time economically then we have here in the states. Partly Brexit, partly, former Tory Prime Minister Liz Truss royally screwing the economy....We saw that when we were there this past year. We were shocked at the price of things. Diesel was running about $9-10 a gallon. The price of food was up almost 60%. At some of the pubs a feckin' pint was £8.

It is partly why we did not travel there this year....Plus, I still have not recovered from my back surgery. 

And the people of the UK have had it. Literally had it with the way the Tories have mishandled the economy from COVID until today and July 4th, election day, they are going to pay for it....

The polls have been awful for the Tories. They may lose their numbers below 100. And that happens, it will be one of the biggest wipe-outs in history.  

Then, there is the Reform Party, lead by Nigel Farage.( If I had a radio show still, I'd want him on there as a guest.) Right of center, and they are a threat to the Tories. They may get 4-7 members, in the next election, but their real threat is taking votes away from the Conservatives. 

Last evening the Daily Telegraph, a conservative newspaper in England published a poll they paid for showing a total destruction of the Tory Party. It showed the Tories with less than 50 members. Labour would get 450-500+ members.

Here is the map that goes with the poll/

Red-Labour

Blue- Tory

Peach- Liberal Democrats

Yellow- SNP

Green- Plaid Cymu( Don't get all excited about the area they cover. No one lives there. Trust me, we've been there.)