fahrenheit451:160

Phew..! All not done and certainly not dusted, not by a long chalk. #GE2017 finally came to a rest earlier today, Friday 9 June 2016. The Party that had started the campaign in second place ended up finishing in..second place,albeit with an additional 31 seats. This has now been spun as a " triumph ".Corbyn has achieved,succeeded,mobilised and energised the Labour Party firmly into..second place.  With the gloriously byzantine and inherently capricious FPTP system still in operation, Parties can gain in aggregate votes and lose seats or lose aggregate votes and gain seats or neither or both at the same time.The British Parliamentary system uses the world's only Quantum  Mathematical Voting system. Clearly the government calling for an early election - the motion for which was supported through the lobbies by the PLP - was wholly unnecessary as they had a majority and their strategic aim of garnering an increased majority in a premature election proved to be the height of hubristic folly. The fracturing of what were still assumed to be fairly static and predictable voter demographics happened back on June 23 2016 in the EU referendum and its tectonic aftershocks are still reverberating,as parties and pundits alike came to fully realise earlier today. On the whole this is invariably good as regards the overall poor health and vibrancy of our common polity. The usual ephemeral details and MSM shamanic interpretations of voting patterns has been trotted out.But at just over 68% this time,the UK turnout was still shy of the 71% recorded in 1997 which itself was the nadir for Post -1945 general elections. An additional boost in turn out for the 18 -24 age demographic was hailed as the highest since 1992.The more significant combined total % vote attained by Con/Lab at around 85% was at its highest since 1970. Blah,blah. Brexit remains on tenterhooks, the Tories 8 seats short of a parliamentary majority will rely on the regionalist DUP with its 10 seats to stave off what might otherwise be a premature vote of no confidence and triggering of a second general election. On a minor note,the regionalist SNP lost one third of its seats including that of their former Party leader Salmond and HoC leader Robertson. SinnFein's abstentionism with 7 seats continues their heroic struggle in an alternate reality where they presumably get to reunify Ireland,somehow. And finally,despite much fervent effort on the part of many good people, Mary Creagh retained her Wakefield seat. Damn.