I think the Queen did that deliberately, Kern - May has not endeared herself to Brenda recently apparently.

The Government is "waging war against the excessive health and safety culture that has become an albatross around the neck of British businesses", said the PM.

Ha ha fucking hell, still trying to gloat, even now! That's some fucking chutzpah!

But I think your assertion is questionable to begin with. If it was a choice between Tories and Tory-lite then I think that they would still have a majority. I don't think that younger voters would have even bothered.

:DD

Trouble is, of course, people (well, most people ) get wiser with age, and tend towards small c Conservativism as they get older. It stands to reason; people see more of life and gather knowledge and experience (plus, they have more to lose, and they'll remember first hand the disastrous outcomes of previous Labour governments directly). So the simplistic idealism of youth is gradually supplanted by a wiser pragmatism. So basically, I don't see the Tories' sensible, intelligent and pragmatic voter base dying off any time soon. Good grief...

:DD

Trouble is, of course, people (well, most people ) get wiser with age, and tend towards small c Conservativism as they get older. It stands to reason; people see more of life and gather knowledge and experience (plus, they have more to lose, and they'll remember first hand the disastrous outcomes of previous Labour governments directly). So the simplistic idealism of youth is gradually supplanted by a wiser pragmatism. So basically, I don't see the Tories' sensible, intelligent and pragmatic voter base dying off any time soon. Good grief...

. I mean, it's all a very far cry from the halcyon days, still less than a decade ago, with three landslides chalked up on the bounce, right? .

Both parties got a higher share of the vote than Labour did in 2005. Thanks for the disproportionate outocmes, First-Past-the-Post.

"Caring for inmates with dementia can be distressing for officers, as well as fellow prisoners. One officer, who asked to remain anonymous, had such a prisoner on his wing. Overnight, every night, the prisoner would forget that he was guilty of any crime and wake, expecting to be in his own bed, at home. Every morning, the officer had to allocate extra time to gently break the news to him yet again that he was in prison, why and for how long. It was, the officer said, deeply upsetting – not just for the prisoner, but for him, too. 'Of course this prisoner should be punished for his crime,' the officer said. 'But his condition meant his punishment was many times worse than a prisoner without dementia. I ended up feeling that he was going through something closer to torture than to civilised punishment. It didn’t seem humane and it didn’t seem fair.'"

Interesting to see shares soaring and the pound steady upon the start of Brexit negotiations also.

That could be a fluctuating dollar that causes that, though. MOAR GRAFZ are needed.

I'm not sure why the markets would react to the start of Brexit negotiations anyway, it was something that has been scheduled to happen for months.

The sterling ERI has fallen close to 20% from its November 2015 peak. Since then, UK-focused equity prices have fallen by over 2%. In contrast, broader equity price indices such as the FTSE 100 and S&P 500, which more heavily reflect global economic considerations, are almost 20% and 40% higher respectively (in sterling terms). UK 10-year real government bond yields have fallen 115 basis points; by contrast 10-year real government bond yields in the US are down by around 25 basis points only

Markets have already anticipated some of the adjustment. Depending on whether and when any transition arrangement can be agreed, firms on either side of the channel may soon need to activate contingency plans. Before long, we will all begin to find out the extent to which Brexit is a gentle stroll along a smooth path to a land of cake and consumption

It looks bad, but that's about half a penny. Is that bad? It doesn't strike me as bad.

Trouble is, of course, people (well, most people ) get wiser with age, and tend towards small c Conservativism as they get older. It stands to reason; people see more of life and gather knowledge and experience (plus, they have more to lose, and they'll remember first hand the disastrous outcomes of previous Labour governments directly). So the simplistic idealism of youth is gradually supplanted by a wiser pragmatism. So basically, I don't see the Tories' sensible, intelligent and pragmatic voter base dying off any time soon. Good grief...

See, I don't think this is true at all. I don't think people trend conservative as they get older, I think conservative voters are ageing. The big tory voter block is now those people who remember the (disastrous) labour government of the 1970s. You're not seeing gen X start going from Labour to Conservative, it's just not happening. The Conservative party has some real thinking to do about how it takes itself forward. IMO it needs to kick the rancid old hardliners to the curb and form a new, sensibly right of centre pro-business party. Pretending that 2017 is the same as 1980 is killing the party and the country.

Conservative voters dying out at rate of 2% per year, Lord Heseltine warns

‘One thing which is just worth having in mind: 2 per cent of the older part of the electorate die every year - they are 70 per cent Conservative’

You're not seeing gen X start going from Labour to Conservative, it's just not happening. The Conservative party has some real thinking to do about how it takes itself forward. IMO it needs to kick the rancid old hardliners to the curb and form a new, sensibly right of centre pro-business party. Pretending that 2017 is the same as 1980 is killing the party and the country.

The Conservative party has some real thinking to do about how it takes itself forward. IMO it needs to kick the rancid old hardliners to the curb and form a new, sensibly right of centre pro-business party. Pretending that 2017 is the same as 1980 is killing the party and the country.

However, the generations that are ageing now are of the ilk that are increasingly unlikely to ever really get much of a foot on the property ladder, or get a decently paid job, or have much in terms of prospects.

In Shoreditch's Box Village there's a ball pit for grown ups. Millennials deserve that future.

And that Flight Club place can get to fuck and all.

Betfair are currently giving 13/8 on their being another General Election in 2017.

I think Cavey's right on a historical basis, I reckon that previously as people have aged they do tend to become more conservative - I attribute this to them finally getting "sorted" in terms of property, career, kids etc. and not really wanting to give away too much of their hard earned income.

However, the generations that are ageing now are of the ilk that are increasingly unlikely to ever really get much of a foot on the property ladder, or get a decently paid job, or have much in terms of prospects. So they're probably going to stay closer to Labour's ideals.

Small-c conservative, you're probably right. But I think the idea that people switch from being labour voters to conservative voters somewhere in their thirties is insane.

Betfair are currently giving 13/8 on their being another General Election in 2017.