Too many British people are
suckers. That's what I see in the last several General Elections. They allowed themselves to believe that even though the Tories are the problem, maybe more Tories is the answer, that shouldn't have passed the laugh test.
Not that it's so simple necessarily, I remember one friend lived in Vauxhall at the time of one of those elections, after the Brexit referendum and its aftermath but before implementation. People there had been such reliable Labour voters that they weren't even looking at their candidate. Which had been Kate Hoey. Now, Vauxhall is the kind of place that's voting Labour because of social politics, they're proud of their gay night scene, they've got a lot of Vegans, they're inner city folks so they don't want hunting with guns and dogs, they're against wars and they like Europe. Hoey is [at that time] a Labour MP but she's anti-gay, she supporting hunting and wants more guns... and of course she's Pro-Brexit. She's a terrible fit, but hey, they're a solid Labour constituency. Nobody I met there had any idea. To them you go to the poll, you pick Labour, you're done. Sending some woman who wants you and your friends dead and opposes everything you stand for? They had no idea.
I urged him and his wife to actually read about their candidates now that Hoey was gone (she resigned), but not sure if they ever did before they moved out here. You don't need to know your representative very well (I do, but won't when he is replaced next time) but you should at least know who they are and what they're about (his would-be replacement is the woman who leads my city government, unremarkable, seems basically competent)
Not that it's so simple necessarily, I remember one friend lived in Vauxhall at the time of one of those elections, after the Brexit referendum and its aftermath but before implementation. People there had been such reliable Labour voters that they weren't even looking at their candidate. Which had been Kate Hoey. Now, Vauxhall is the kind of place that's voting Labour because of social politics, they're proud of their gay night scene, they've got a lot of Vegans, they're inner city folks so they don't want hunting with guns and dogs, they're against wars and they like Europe. Hoey is [at that time] a Labour MP but she's anti-gay, she supporting hunting and wants more guns... and of course she's Pro-Brexit. She's a terrible fit, but hey, they're a solid Labour constituency. Nobody I met there had any idea. To them you go to the poll, you pick Labour, you're done. Sending some woman who wants you and your friends dead and opposes everything you stand for? They had no idea.
I urged him and his wife to actually read about their candidates now that Hoey was gone (she resigned), but not sure if they ever did before they moved out here. You don't need to know your representative very well (I do, but won't when he is replaced next time) but you should at least know who they are and what they're about (his would-be replacement is the woman who leads my city government, unremarkable, seems basically competent)