I’ve been taking my time to assimilate the results – doing a lot of reading and taking notes rather than merely repeating what others have said. Although I was initially disappointed that only one of the candidates I supported was elected I’m more encouraged than I expected. I ended up being even more outspoken than ever before but doubt if I’ll lose any followers because of it. 😊✊

I take no satisfaction from correctly predicting that Labour would win by default following a Tory collapse, many others were saying the same thing, but I didn’t expect that they would win by such a huge majority with fewer votes than they did in 2017 and 2019 under Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Jeremy received over 5,000 more votes in Islington North than Keir Starmer received in Holborn & St Pancras (where Andrew Feinstein reduced Starmer’s majority to half what it was previously) and remains a thorn in the side of the new government. The Labour candidate didn’t even come close to winning in Islington North, thanks to all those who came from every part of the United Kingdom to support Jeremy.

The former Labour leader thus has his own mandate, speaking for the views of millions in the Commons. He can be relied upon to use it.

Andrew Murray – Morning Star

Labour split the vote in Chingford & Wood Green by parachuting in a candidate to replace Faiza Shaheen enabling Iain Duncan Smith to retain his seat with about 8,000 fewer votes than their combined votes (roughly 12,000 each)

The Greens not only won four seats in England; they more than doubled their share of the poll to 7 per cent and finished second in 47 constituencies. Of all the parties at Westminster, their manifesto was arguably the most progressive despite their recent turn to Nato.

I had no great expectations of Greens winning here in Selby but their candidate, Angela Oldershaw, was the only one for whom I could vote with a good conscience. I had the pleasure of meeting her a week before the election and gained a comrade willing and able to assist me in getting to demonstrations in Leeds or York. As many of you know, it’s lack of mobility that’s prevented me from doing so until now 👨‍🦽

The Workers Party failed to gain a seat and George Galloway lost the one so recently in the Rochdale by-election. At the other side of the political spectrum, Nigel Farage has finally succeeded in getting elected after failing as many times a Galloway has succeeded!

Although I wasn’t specifically supporting Chris Bradburn in Durham North I would have been delighted to see him defeat Luke Achehurts – who I detest so much I refuse to spell his name correctly. Likewise I’m satisfied that Jody McIntyre came so close to defeating Jess Phillips and wish him better success next time ✊

I did support my old friend and comrade Chris Williamson, I have no news yet of what happened in Derby South but I expect we’ll be having a chat via zoom sooner rather than later. We tried thrice before and we’re both determined to make it happen, even if Chris had been elected he would have found time 😊

In Blackburn the incumbent Labour MP, Kate Hollern, came second to an independent standing on pro-Palestine platform. Craig Murray, who came third, says:

While there was concern that “vote-splitting” of the pro-Palestinian vote would let Labour back in, in the end… my ability to take “white” socialist or protest votes from Labour allowed Adnan Hussain in.

Craig, who found nothing unfavourable said about Kate Hollern on the doorstep, was surprised to find that support for Labour had fallen to a third of its previous share in the vote rather than half as was predicted!

Labour did win back Red Wall seats they lost in 2019 and grabbed a few seats from SNP, which will be a huge disappointment to my Scottish friends. Independents secured an impressive share of the vote and inflicted a series of major blows to Labour, winning in five constituencies in England.

Left Labour MPs such as Richard Burgon, Zara Sultana, Paula Barker and Diane Abbott retained their seats, but will comprise only a small minority of the Parliamentary Labour Party. I hope they’ll find their backbone and work with other progressive MPs to form a viable opposition to a Zionist government! That said, this is no time for recriminations – the Left need to build on our successes rather than dwell on our losses. It’s all very well for an independent candidate to say “We would have won if Greens had stepped aside”. They didn’t, so get over it and try talking with Greens and the few socialists still remaining in the Labour Party.

I just read an interview with Tony Benn in which he said that he was a socialist in a non-socialist party because he saw that as the only way forward, I’m not sure that’s the case now. I have accused members of the Socialist Campaign group of being cowards who flinch while traitors sneer, but I’m willing to be to be proved wrong! It’s going to take all of us working together to sustain the fight for socialism, and I’m not sure how much support we can expect from our traditional allies, the trade union movement! I’m very disappointed with the support given to the Labour Party by Matt Wrack and Mick Lynch, two union leaders I still hold in high regard!

Labour handed Clacton to Nigel Farage on a plate by ordering their candidate to campaign elsewhere! Is any more evidence needed that Starmer’s so concerned with winning votes from Tory voters that he’ll sacrifice seats instead of contesting them? I’ld like to take him on at chess, he’ld sacrifice his best players for little gain. To be honest Jeremy Corbyn did that too, and that was his mistake, but his strategy was aimed more at advancing the pawns rather than defending the king!

Besides winning five seats, Reform finished second in 98 constituencies, almost all of them now held by Labour. The rise of Reform no doubt contributed to the collapse of the Conservatives allowing Labour to take their place as the main neoliberal party while disavowing their roots in the broader labour movement. If the rise of Reform is the price we have to pay to end the duopoly the so be it! One amusing outcome is that Farage has appointed a Chief Whip to ensure that the other three MPs vote the way he tells the. But you can’t have a Chief Whip unless you have other whips under them. Reform UK is looking like a bunch of flagellants going round in circles whipping each other 😂

It’s all very well for me to mock Farage, it’s not hard to do, but the rise of the far right is something we should take seriously. We might learn something from France where the Left have defeated the Right for now. That’s something I know less about than I might, and perhaps should, so I’ll leave that aside for now.

One embarrassing fact that arises from Labour having such a huge majority is that there isn’t room on the government benches for all members to be seated, but there’ll be plenty of empty seats across the aisle! Not only will some Labour members be unable to participate in a debate, there isn’t even enough office space for them to wait until there’s a division and no provision for them to vote remotely. I can recall one case where a pregnant MP was unable to vote because “honourable gentlemen” impeded her access to the lift and was denied the right to vote from the car park despite it being within the parliamentary estate. I’m happy for any reader to fact check this statement, I refrain from naming the former MP as I’m not 100% sure I’m correct. Only 99% sure 😉

What we need to do going forward is to build a broad left movement from the grassroots up, not from the top down, and I have little faith in trade unions leading the movement. I don’t have the answers – I see myself as a philosopher rather than a politician, it’s not my job to provide answers but to ask questions that others aren’t asking! I could argue that that’s also a journalist’s job too, but there aren’t many of those around now.

Politics, like nature, abhors a vacuum and Starmer’s “Labour” Party has moved in to fill the void left by the collapse of the Conservative Party. Even before the election MPs were abandoning ship, either to port or starboard. The working class have been been abandoned by Labour and have not yet found a united voice to represent us with all our diversity. We don’t necessarily need a new party but a loose coalition of community organisations who support proportional representation can achieve a lot more by supporting each other’s efforts than by opposing each other.