CelloMom On CarsIn the US, a 4% differential is called a landslide.
This is a rout.
But HOW did Reform get more seats than SNP?
The final numbers skew even more toward Labour: 412 seats vs 121 for Conservatives.
https://www.cnn.com/2024/07/04/uk/uk-election-results-tracker-map-2024-intl/index.html
Reform get "only" 4. Better than 13, worse than zero.
And Greens now have 4 seats!
But they have 6.8% of the popular vote: under proportional representation they would have 44 seats. Forty-four! Shows you how undemocratic that "first past the post" system is, separated by voting district.
OTOH Reform would have had a lot more seats as well.
Here's the Guardian gloating a bit over high profile Tories who lost their seats.
[Edit to add;] I feel the gloat. Yes I do.
Debbie Goldsmith 🏳️⚧️♾️🇺🇦
‘Keir Starmer take note’: #UK’s #GreenTransition must start now, say experts
"Labour’s victory, alongside strong Green performance, gives next PM mandate to act boldly on net zero, say campaigners."
“Labour’s victory could have been even more emphatic, had it not been for votes cast to the Greens and Lib Dems, who stood on much bolder climate and nature pledges and fair tax reforms,” she said. “Starmer must take note.”
"Most of the Conservative MPs who have been critical of the UK’s net zero plans were wiped out last night.
Keir Starmer’s Labour has a manifesto that puts climate and clean energy front and center, and in Ed Miliband, an energy secretary with many years’ experience in climate diplomacy.
Labour’s most lavish green proposal for households is a £13.2 billion plan for energy efficiency upgrades in house, [including] for solar panels, batteries and home insulation. "
Labour plans two new bodies designed to catalyse large amounts of private-sector investment.
Great British Energy will be a publicly owned company funded by a windfall tax on oil and gas producers. It will support local clean energy investment through funding for local authorities and low-cost loans for communities.
The National Wealth Fund will invest in strategic industries to promote growth and clean energy.
https://www.ft.com/content/9f6c1dc9-7e8c-41a9-ab0a-61d2bf119121
"With the windfall profit tax, oil and gas companies’ tax burden comes in at 75%—a rate that most industries would agree is not really conducive to investment growth.
Not only this, but #Labour has vowed to do away with what it has called “the unjustifiably generous investment allowances” for oil and gas companies.
On top of the higher tax burden, the Labour plan also involves canceling the issuance of new oil and gas #drilling licenses for the #NorthSea.
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/What-Labours-Victory-Means-for-UK-Oil-and-Gas.html
"Essentially, Labour plans for the energy industry are to use oil and gas producers as cash cows to fund the transition away from oil and gas. But over-taxation would either kill or force companies to relocate—meaning the cash cow would disappear."
https://oilprice.com/Energy/Energy-General/What-Labours-Victory-Means-for-UK-Oil-and-Gas.html
#UKpol #UK #EnergyTransition
"Almost half of voters in constituencies lost by the Tories think that #Sunak was wrong to weaken #climate commitments, poll shows
Three in four (74%) #Labour voters said that they expect a Labour Government to deliver nature protection, tackle pollution and reduce plastic production. Two thirds (66%) of Labour voters said they expect a Labour Government to increase investment in climate and nature policies."
Labour lifts Tories’ ‘absurd’ ban on #OnshoreWindfarms
"These footnotes applied only to onshore wind, and no other type of infrastructure, and required such strong proof that there was no opposition locally that they made building turbines impossible..
In Labour’s new draft NPPF, these footnotes have been deleted in their entirety, meaning onshore wind projects are now on an even footing with all other forms of infrastructure."
"Prime minister Keir #Starmer ran for office on a manifesto that promised big changes to the country’s #climate, energy and nature policies.
As well as meeting its own manifesto pledges, Labour will need to contend with a backlog of overdue frameworks, strategies and international pledges that were not completed by the previous government."
The to-do list is long:
https://www.carbonbrief.org/interactive-labour-governments-in-tray-for-climate-change-energy-and-nature/
#UK
"There are vanishingly few votes to be won through an agenda of delaying action on #ClimateChange.
Reform #voters are the exception."
(In the US, that would be MAGA voters)/
https://theconversation.com/sunaks-anti-net-zero-gamble-failed-signs-suggest-bold-climate-action-can-win-elections-234316
#UKElections #USElections
What a difference an election can make.
The new Labour government has said "a proposed #coalmine in #Cumbria was approved unlawfully [by the previous Tory government], as the carbon emissions of coal from the mine should have been taken into account in the planning decision."
Same for oil drilling permits in Surrey and Lincolnshire.
"Keir #Starmer’s Labour government unveils plans for a “rooftop revolution” today that will see millions more homes fitted with #solar panels in order to bring down domestic energy bills and tackle the climate crisis.
The energy secretary, Ed Miliband, also took the hugely controversial decision this weekend to approve three massive solar farms in the east of England that had been blocked by Tory ministers."
Labour plan to bring rail and other public transport back to public ownership. Here are some of their plans:
"Bring rail services back into public ownership.
Establish Great British Railways, the state-run rail firm.
High-speed rail: Labour will not resurrect the Birmingham to Manchester leg of HS2, instead focusing on east to west links.
Alow local authorities and mayors to bring bus services under local control, rather than being privately run."
The Penguin of Evil@CelloMomOnCars Just been bitching at my new MP on the back of that announcement about fixing the UK wiring code to allow plug in solar German style. We have all the bits except that the BS wiring code (that's British Standard although the other often applies too) hasn't been updated to remove the requirement to have an electrician hard wire it in, blocking it's use by tenants.
Would urge everyone else who cares about #uk #solar to go to writetothem and do similarly while the iron is hot.
Stefan Baur 8 * 💉@etchedpixels @CelloMomOnCars … while the soldering iron is hot? 😉
Mike Anderson@CelloMomOnCars do they think that investment should be based on the assumption that windfalls will happen? That's ... not a sound strategy. The windfall is transient and so is the 75%.
I think it's a political move as there is broad support for taxing a windfall profit, even as it is transient. In the energy transition, wild swings in price is likely to occur (heck, they happened even without transition).
And it may just be enough to jumpstart a clean energy sector so that you don't need the fossil fuel industry, windfall or not.
@CelloMomOnCars by "they", I was meaning the editorial writer in the OilPrice article. Even the industry pundits agree with you - quoted in the article: “In the UK there’s this cloud hanging over the industry that no one wants us anymore.” !
Sindarina, Edge Case Detective@CelloMomOnCars Correction, I read it incorrectly, they are indeed 13 new seats, while SNP lost 38 😬
Both are rather terrible results.
Also you wonder how many seats Greens would have in a proportional representation scheme.
@CelloMomOnCars The SNP only stand in Scotland so they have a much smaller potential set of seats and they've mucked a few things up.
Chris H #ChoirsForClimate@CelloMomOnCars wait until the morning to be sure of the SNP figure - that exit poll is based on only a few polling stations in Scotland (probably 10 or so - 133 across the whole UK) and a few local issues can swing it wildly.
That makes sense.