Thursday, 15 June 2017

Well done, you men - you 6% bias in favour of the Tories saved us! The other most significant statistic, I think, is this one:


Haves/have nots? Probably. Stakeholder/non-stakeholders, certainly. It suggests - as Thatcherite Tories saw so clearly - that the most effective bulwark against socialism is widespread property ownership. Which in turn suggests that this government better encourage the construction of as many houses/flats as possible in the shortest time possible and then make sure they're sold at at an affordable price, rather than rent them out at knock-down, subsidised rates - renters vote Labour, owners vote Conservative. Make sure that first-time buyers have homes they can afford to buy so that, by the time the next election is held, they'll vote to protect their asset rather than to punish their evil, capitalist landlord who has committed the sin of providing something people need at the market rate, the vicious bastard! 

As for the gender issue, I have no idea what's to be done. The sisterhood evidently prefer the idea of henpecking a peely-wally, feminised old man rather than being bossed around by a somewhat masculine old(ish) woman. I blame that Mrs. Thatcher. Then there's the compassion issue - politicians' hearts have to bleed every time they speak (as they must, all the time) about the poor, the downtrodden, the vulnerable, the exploited, the kiddies, the "young people" etc. Women require frequent displays of empathy from their leaders, preferably accompanied by tears and lashings of delicious, creamy virtue-signalling. This is - let's face it - not exactly the Tories' strongest suit. As for us men, well, we tend to prefer strength, sure-footedness, steadfastness: I suspect a far greater percentage of male voters would have backed Mrs. May had she not revealed herself, during the election campaign, to be severely deficient in all these departments. 

As for employment status, there's one major surprise:
Those in full-time employment preferred Labour by a margin of 6%? Is that the "just about managing" effect? Wages not keeping pace with inflation? Do they seriously imagine they'll be better off under Labour in its present incarnation, whose main appeal is to those who don't pay any tax? I could always see the appeal of Old Labour - unions, job protection, inflation-busting wage deals etc. But this lot? Is it perfectly understandable resentment against those at the top of the economic pile, who seem to make out like bandits no matter how badly they cock things up? Presumably this explains Mrs. May's cackhanded pitch to the "just about managing" with socialistic nonsense about energy price freezes and workers on boards and suchlike. Well, they evidently didn't buy it.

The figures for voting according to education are less surprising:
This makes sense if the figures for "degree or above" include those currently studying/protesting at a college or university. One would, in any case, expect there to be a slight Labour bias among graduates, as our universities have long been socialist propaganda mills, and there's no proposal so stupid or dangerous that an intellectual won't eagerly support it. But a 17% gap would suggest the thinking classes have so utterly lost their minds that they think its time for us to be ruled by really thick people.

I've no idea what Tory Party Central Office will make of these figures, if anything. What they really mustn't do is to draw all the wrong conclusions. One sensible thing Mrs. May has done so far is to announce an end to austerity, which has proved deeply unpopular, despite never actually happening. The Tories have been telling the British public for seven years that they've been suffering because of the 2008 crash while simultaneously continuing to spend borrowed money, printing pretend-money and telling everyone they've never had it so bad. As the Tories haven't had the guts to tell the truth and impose much-needed actual austerity - which might have seen the books balanced and a chunk the national debt paid off by now - they might as well tell voters that austerity has been abandoned, and then go on doing roughly what they were doing before. After all, as the 2008 crash demonstrated, in order for a Ponzi scheme to work, you have to convince the suckers that everything is going swimmingly. Can there be any doubt that Mrs. May isn't the politician to achieve that? 

The statistics on this page can all be found in "How Britain voted at the 2017 general election" on the YouGob website

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