Having now - *'both' on Election Day, December 12th, UK time (13th, NZ time), and Friday eve the 20th (NZ time) and way into the wee hours Sunday the 22nd (NZ time) - 'listened in' to the top-notch (online) election coverage c/o - on the big day, SKY News LIVE; and later on, ITV News LIVE...
let me entreat your indulgence vis-a-vis some if yet imperfectly formulated thoughts and ideas thereabouts (again, seeking your due indulgence, listed in bullet-point fashion)...
#This was no run-of-the-mill (electoral/political) result...rather, its ramifications will be felt throughout the British political establishment for some considerable time to come...and then some!
#This was no close-run thing, no by-the-skin-of-one's-teeth, scraping through to victory by the barest of margins...
#There were two - actually, arguably **three (***and the last by no means the least!) political party 'winners'...i.e. the Conservative Party and the Scottish National Party, with their respective leaders, Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon.
#There were two ****out-and-out losers, and were they what! Naturally I refer to the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats ('LibDems', as we're so often - and *****'cliche-riddenly' - told). Alongside their two leaders, i.e. Jo Swinson and Jeremy Corbyn, if not necessarily in that particular order!
#The electoral map (as indicated in point #1 above) has been radically rewritten, pretty well beyond recognition...and perhaps semi-permanently, for all we know...
No longer is the north (of England, much less the United Kingdom) 'natural Labour territory', including its smaller cities/towns and traditional 'fishing villages'; the large(r) cities, from London through to Manchester, Birmingham et al, are (as per the Liberal Democrats). And let's not forget - as was well enunciated throughout the ITV LIVE News coverage - that not all that long ago the *********'country' of Scotland was not only a Labour Party stronghold - heartland territory (like the aforementioned northern districts) so to speak...but oftentimes the very key to its electoral success!
*Yes, to be pedantically precise, 'thrice' would doubtless be more accurate (though sounds worse).
**Actually four, if one (understandably) also includes here the offshoot 'Brexit means Brexit' party!
***By which I refer (but of course!) to the United Kingdom Independence Party, more commonly known by the acronym 'UKIP'...whilst admitting that for the purists therein - including leader Nigel Farage - the ultimate form of the brexit agreed upon will be of great significance, if not all-important.
****Terms such as a smashing/stonking win/victory were readily employed on the night, and such related terminology as 'trounced', 'routed' spring readily to this punter's mind...-quite frankly, it is hardly exaggerating things to suggest the possibilities are almost endless, the success (of Johnson's Conservatives - and, for that matter, of Sturgeon's SNP) on the one hand, and the utter 'discomfiture' of the Labourites and LibDems on the other was so blimin' comprehensive...
*****Spoken by journos as if - like that now (at least media-wide) 'ubiquitous' abbreviated ******'word' 'ap(p)' - we all somehow instinctively know precisely what is meant...even if some would doubtless have no idea whatsoever...
******Though personally I'd not dignify such a 'word-ism' with such a *******syntactical compliment!
*******Hey, how about this for a newbie word: syntagmata. Sounds awfully like stigmata to me. ********As ever, c/o my Chambers Concise Dictionary.
*********As commonly referred to (even if I wouldn't call Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland such mini-nations within a nation - though the illustrious history of each admittedly lends itself to such!)
To Be Continued (in awhile, probably following seasonal refreshing and recuperation!): Part Two: The Guts of the Matter: Labourite 'Purists' and Ideologues Now a Scourge and Plague Upon their Own House...Fast Becoming Anathema to Labour's rank-and-file supporters...Whilst Boris Johnson Seizes the Moment to Potentially Become one of Great Britain's all-time most significant leaders...
let me entreat your indulgence vis-a-vis some if yet imperfectly formulated thoughts and ideas thereabouts (again, seeking your due indulgence, listed in bullet-point fashion)...
#This was no run-of-the-mill (electoral/political) result...rather, its ramifications will be felt throughout the British political establishment for some considerable time to come...and then some!
#This was no close-run thing, no by-the-skin-of-one's-teeth, scraping through to victory by the barest of margins...
#There were two - actually, arguably **three (***and the last by no means the least!) political party 'winners'...i.e. the Conservative Party and the Scottish National Party, with their respective leaders, Boris Johnson and Nicola Sturgeon.
#There were two ****out-and-out losers, and were they what! Naturally I refer to the Labour Party and the Liberal Democrats ('LibDems', as we're so often - and *****'cliche-riddenly' - told). Alongside their two leaders, i.e. Jo Swinson and Jeremy Corbyn, if not necessarily in that particular order!
#The electoral map (as indicated in point #1 above) has been radically rewritten, pretty well beyond recognition...and perhaps semi-permanently, for all we know...
No longer is the north (of England, much less the United Kingdom) 'natural Labour territory', including its smaller cities/towns and traditional 'fishing villages'; the large(r) cities, from London through to Manchester, Birmingham et al, are (as per the Liberal Democrats). And let's not forget - as was well enunciated throughout the ITV LIVE News coverage - that not all that long ago the *********'country' of Scotland was not only a Labour Party stronghold - heartland territory (like the aforementioned northern districts) so to speak...but oftentimes the very key to its electoral success!
*Yes, to be pedantically precise, 'thrice' would doubtless be more accurate (though sounds worse).
**Actually four, if one (understandably) also includes here the offshoot 'Brexit means Brexit' party!
***By which I refer (but of course!) to the United Kingdom Independence Party, more commonly known by the acronym 'UKIP'...whilst admitting that for the purists therein - including leader Nigel Farage - the ultimate form of the brexit agreed upon will be of great significance, if not all-important.
****Terms such as a smashing/stonking win/victory were readily employed on the night, and such related terminology as 'trounced', 'routed' spring readily to this punter's mind...-quite frankly, it is hardly exaggerating things to suggest the possibilities are almost endless, the success (of Johnson's Conservatives - and, for that matter, of Sturgeon's SNP) on the one hand, and the utter 'discomfiture' of the Labourites and LibDems on the other was so blimin' comprehensive...
*****Spoken by journos as if - like that now (at least media-wide) 'ubiquitous' abbreviated ******'word' 'ap(p)' - we all somehow instinctively know precisely what is meant...even if some would doubtless have no idea whatsoever...
******Though personally I'd not dignify such a 'word-ism' with such a *******syntactical compliment!
*******Hey, how about this for a newbie word: syntagmata. Sounds awfully like stigmata to me. ********As ever, c/o my Chambers Concise Dictionary.
*********As commonly referred to (even if I wouldn't call Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland such mini-nations within a nation - though the illustrious history of each admittedly lends itself to such!)
To Be Continued (in awhile, probably following seasonal refreshing and recuperation!): Part Two: The Guts of the Matter: Labourite 'Purists' and Ideologues Now a Scourge and Plague Upon their Own House...Fast Becoming Anathema to Labour's rank-and-file supporters...Whilst Boris Johnson Seizes the Moment to Potentially Become one of Great Britain's all-time most significant leaders...
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