Q&A general election special | The News Agents
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 10 พ.ย. 2024
- In this week's general election Q&A special Emily, Jon and Lewis answer your questions on safe seats, compulsory voting, and the constituency they'd choose to stand in if they were running for parliament. All that and more.
#uk #generalelection2024 #ukpolitics #News #Politics #NewsAgents #EmilyMaitlis #JonSopel #LewisGoodall
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Emily Maitlis, Jon Sopel and Lewis Goodall - three of the UK’s top journalists - host a brand-new daily news podcast: The News Agents.
They’re not just here to tell you what's happening, but why. Expect astute analysis and explanation of the day's news - and a healthy dose of scepticism and the ability to laugh at it all when needed!
Episodes are available every weekday afternoon.
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I can confirm, I'm here for Lewis' obscure political facts.
I know that sounds sarcastic in text, but it's really not. It's like No Such Thing as a Fish for elections. :-)
@@Elephantelopelicanary a political version of QI sounds like fun.
I was interested to hear more about the Irish Nationalist MP in Liverpool - if there was a long article on the subject I’d probably read it over the course of a weekend
@@Big-HenkFirst female MP was Sinn Fein. Constance Markiewicz. She was in prison at the time.
I guessed it would be a Liverpool constituency, I randomly chose Bootle.
I loved Lewis fact give us more random facts
Unmissable podcast for many reasons. Intelligent, detailed and informed. Also, Emily...
Lewis you’re a legend - ignore them
As an Australian- I used to always ‘donkey’ vote for the exact reason you mentioned- I was annoyed that I was forced to vote. Then I saw the numbers of Americans who didn’t vote and Trump was elected. That showed me how important it is to vote. I now will always vote without the donkey!!!
Fellow Aussie- the biggest benefit from compulsory voting is that the nutters on the left or right do not have as much sway. Parties must stick fairly close to the centre to be elected as a government.
Speaking from Dundee, my sense is that the SNP vote will largely hold up, but that Conservatives will be more likely than ever before to vote tactically for the Unionist party most likely to defeat the SNP, and in most places this will benefit Labour. Having said that, I think Emily's prediction is more likely to be right than Jon and Lewis'.
Just to clear up a few skewed ideas about Australian electoral practice. At the last Federal election in 2022, the turnout was 89.8% (you never get 100% turnout as the financial penalty for not voting is peanuts). The informal vote was 5.2%, which means there was an accurate record of 84.6% of the entire adult population in Australia in 2022. Preferential voting means that you have to record a preference for all candidates on the ballot paper. There is no electronic voting or phone voting. We do have pre-poll voting and postal voting. Some remote areas have mobile polling booths.
I listened to this podcast on Global News and I thoroughly enjoyed the post!
Each of you brings a different perspective, which I enjoy listening to.
Your banter is so very entertaining & spontaneous.
Thank you so much!!! 😍
Personally while I find Lewis' political trivia an absolute highlight, I think he could really turn up the geekiness to 12 with a bit more effort. Keep going LG.
I would like to show my support for for Lewis and his nerdy political facts
I changed my mind to supporting compulsory voting. Plus, Fair (PR) Voting system.
Fun fact …largest voter attendance voting location for Australian elections is London - Commonwealth House ..Londoner in Oz ..cheers
I am surprised that mandatory voting Aus Style is dismissed so easily. I am a fan of Mandatory voting. But every ballot paper shout include a NOTA (None of the above) Option. Thus disconnect can be measured. Voting should be made easier not harder. Secure online voting please.
I agree, it’s far too easy at the moment for politicians to discount spoiled ballots as complete by idiots who can’t check a box.
No. It is not “online voting” in Australia. But it is always on the weekend. To make sure everyone can go.
Love your broadcasts. Australian voter here. We don’t do hot dogs on election day (we are not USA). We do snags or sausages on the bbq. We now even call them democracy sausage on the day. Also, we can vote postal voting at least 2 wks prior to the day, we can attend a both in person over a two week period Mon to Sat (recent years), so not so busy busy thousands on one day, a Saturday.
Preferential of course as you mention. Informal votes (Mickey mouse etc) is quite low 5 to 7% usually. As a whole though far far too many are quite electorally illiterate and don’t know/care/understand the voting system and sadly politically informed. So compulsory voting has some disadvantages, a bit also like non compulsory. Enjoyed your Q&A here and learning more able your democracy and voting system. PS having a House of Lords like UK beggars belief. Would your democracy ever make moves to get rid of it. 20:33
There has been extensive House of Lords reform since 1911, in several significant bursts over the years, but still no party capable of forming a government has actually wanted to get rid of it. Everyone knows that it's hugely undemocratic but it's useful to whoever's in government at the time and they don't want to cut their own throat. It's a bit like getting rid of the first-past-the-post electoral system for the Commons: parties will talk about it but ultimately do nothing substantial. The Lib Dems did get the Tories to commit to a referendum on the voting system as part of their 2010 Coalition agreement, but the Tories deliberately picked a weak PR method that very few people were happy with and held that up as the only viable alternative, resulting in the referendum rejecting any change. The Lib Dems were stitched up and consequently the bigger parties have an excuse to reject further voting reforms for at least another decade or two. I think a similar trick would be pulled even if there was enough momentum in the country to scrap the HoL and replace it with a democratic Upper Chamber.
As somebody from Scotland think Emily probably correct. Starmer very much reminding people why they stopped voting Labour. More Starmer on TV please, "making Brexit work" and "blocking indyref2" regardless of how many vote for it.
Independence is way more popular than the SNP but that doesn't mean people will vote Labour.
Labour has shot itself in the foot repeatedly in Scotland. Around half of voters favour independence, but Labour won't even them have a vote on it. Antidemocratic, and driving away people who might otherwise be natural Labour supporters. This applies even more in Scotland than elsewhere, a comment for Labour, "No hope, no vote".
Great stat from Lewis about TP O'Connor, the Irish Nationalist MP for Liverpool Scotland.
Preferential voting in Australia allows you to vote for a minor party and then if that party only gets s few votes it is passed on to your 2nd preference and is not wasted.
Tactical voting is built in to the system. Consequently we have several independents and green MPs.
Kevin Rudd's (ex PM) old seat is now Green. An independent removed Tony Abbott (exPM). 21:42
Glad to hear about Irish Nationalist fact- more please
Love Lewis' political trivia
Greatest open ever!
GREAT SHOW. Very entertaining and meaty.
"a waste of a calarie"... Great statement from Maitlis. I am using that!
Compulsory voting generally means politicians have to persuade voters to vote for them (play on the middle ground), rather than just firing up ‘the base’ with extreme policies and trying to engender apathy in others.
I don't think any politician should be able to force anyone to vote!
There would still be a lot of folk going for what they view as the least worse option or against a party they loathe!
'None of the above' would probably 'win' a lot of seats if that was an option especially if voting was compulsory.
I liked Lewis' stuff on parties! John made a muck of it.
I love these Q&A sessions!!!
Hilarious opening 😂. Basically how my brain works whenever im supposed to be focusing and doing something important 😂😂😂😂😂😂
7am to 10 at night... I work in London on Thursdays. My train in the morning is at 7:20am and I get home at about 8:30pm. Often by that time the queue is already more than 90 minutes long so they will turn people away, and ID rules mean people get through slower. I use a postal vote, but lots of people don't realise that you can ask for a postal vote without a reason.
Again just brilliant insight thanks guys
Yes Lewis was spot on re compulsary forcing the government to make it as easy as possible to vote.
I’m with Lewis
I know it’s probably deeply sad on my behalf too but I really enjoy Lewis’ historical political facts. I think he needs to start a new podcast. It’s hard to understand especially for younger people but some older ones too how & why we got here politically without understanding post-war politics up to the millennium, so I think it would be really useful.
Mandatory voting, with a 'None of the above' option would concentrate the minds of the candidates, esp if they were then banned from standing for 10 years.
IPP was a major party it held between 40 and 80 seats in elections from the 1880's to independence
So how much damage has Sunak caused with his faux pas yesterday? I feel most tory voters are older (ie. the ones who remember stories of the war) and those voters were disgusted by Sunak yesterday.
I think it will be huge in their “core” vote. And I think they’ll go to Reform. Polls early next week will give us a clue. It really was disgraceful whatever your political tribe.
I swear it is his way of flipping the bird to all those in his party who doubt him. Destroy the party, then fly off to Cali.
@@BeWater2019that is very possible. There are several Tory MPs and by chance the prominent ones are of recent African/Indian descent who don't seem very clear on what are often called British values.
In Australia 'compulsory voting' leads to a phenomenon they call the 'donkey vote' where the voter simply writes the AV ranking numbers in sequence down the ballot paper. The equivalent here would be to place an X against the first candidate on the paper - i can see this having potential to impact the outcome in individual seats under specific circumstances but much likely to impact the formation of government.
I knew the Liverpool Scotland answer but Lewis was slightly wrong, it wasn't held by the Irish Nationalist Party until partition, it was held until 1929 when the MP died.
I guessed Liverpool because of the historically strong Irish presence, but I couldn't for the life of me recall even a single constituency name!
When voting is optional, those with lower education and lower income are less likely to vote - making government less representative of and attentive to those groups, and more influenced by elite power. You poms may scoff, but the Australian compulsory voting tradition, going back to 1925, has meant a more egalitarian voting culture. Voting is something everyone here does, not always eagerly, like having to attend a school concert, speak at a funeral, or turn up to a dental appointment, but we have at least encouraged the greater number to engage and speak on issues that matter to them and the insignificant threat of "punishment" (a $20 fine, or simply sending in an excuse which will not be challenged!) is hardly onerous. Australia has a relatively high level of "spoiled ballots," (around 5%) but with a turnout at 92% (in 2022) down from the usual 95%, only around 8% of adults failed to have their voices heard. In contrast, the UK has a far lower level of invalid votes, but at a miserable 67% turnout (in 2019) the voices of 33% of potential voters are never heard. You can "do the math" on how many voiceless UK citizens that adds up to, who they are, where they are, or what that means for British "democracy," that so many are excluded. (Would Brexit have happened if another 20% of adults had voted?) And don't get me started on the iniquity of "first past the post" voting! Australia's preferential voting system is far more equitable and sensible. Whatever might be said about the gmnts we get, at least we know the greatest majority of people took part in the process of electing them. The UK is one thing, the USA is perhaps the starkest example of how the nonsense of voting as an "optional extra," not a mandatory duty, combined with the right-wing trend to prevent more citizens from voting, disenfranchises those who should be heard, but who are dissuaded, one way or the other, from taking part. Barely 60% of approx 258 million eligible Americans register to vote. From that pool of approx 159 million only about 60% (98 million) ever bother to vote. You can speculate what it means that close to 160 million American citizens never have their voices heard. The horrors of the current American political landscape are almost certainly, in the main, the result of the existence of that "silent nation" of the deliberately disenfranchised.
When talk of PR comes up it might be more insightful to discuss the systems operating in Scotland and Wales. Constituency seats remain but the second vote allows a balancing amongst the parties.
Labour don't need to advocate anything but could set up a constitutional convention charged with reviewing voting systems, a second chamber, and (crucially) party funding. A top-up funding model based on party membership could be worth considering, as it could require registration of political parties and make their membership lists subject to audit and inspection.
Should also halt the spread of the highly dubious limited company model as pioneered by NF.
In 2017, many seats came into play. This is related to media performance. They left Corbyn alone in 2017, but not in 2019. You need to evaluate yourselves more.
When presented with policies, people thought they were great ideas. Until they were told they were Corbyn policies. Reducing train fares became less popular when people were told that Corbyn intended to do it. Craziness.
Interesting discussion re PR. I seems to me the first past the post will only maintain the status quo of elites in power (tiny bkairites and Eton tories). We need to push hard for PR in this country if the people are ever to have a true representative parliament.
I think that we will eventually rejoin the EU, and to a great extent accept the conditions put down as a requisite. The EU is not run on emotion, it is run on pragmatism. The damage and decline of UKs standing in the world due to brexit will only get worse. As FoM, goods and services restrictions tighten, and the economy continues to decline, it will hit home hard. You can already see the tide is turning with the general public, that will continue to gain momentum. I think we will look back on it as a hard lesson learned.
I agree with Meitlis. Starmer will come across as a London/SouthEast Englander. But I still predict that Labour will do well in Scotland.
On the subject of safe seats, whisper it, but Sunak’s seat may be at risk if the military personnel of Catterick choose to punish him for his Normandy insult.
Single Seat Constituencies CANNOT be proportional!
No, but you could do a hybrid system like we have here in Germany. PR but the seats are filled up with first-past-the-post winners first. What's left is filled up from party lists. There are a few more details but that's the general principle.
Lewis , we want more lewis!
Just a note on the US...while the Republicans here have been trying to make it harder to vote, studies have shown that by and large those efforts have failed. More Americans can vote more easily now than ever before.
I love the opening stuff. Keep up the constituency stats Lewis and don’t be so grumpy Jon 😉
Wasn't all that long ago when Liverpool still had an Ulster Unionist MP - not in the sense of being a UUP candidate, but an Ulster Unionist as a philosophy.
Sorry Emily. I'm in Scotland, and a former SNP member/activist. Swinney is definitely not seen as a steadying force. Lots of people associate him with failures in education and he is still Sturgeon's puppet. The ex SNP vote, that left due to gender self ID nonsense and/or lack of progress on Indy, simply isn’t coming back. Some might return to Labour, or vote Alba or ISP if available, or like in 2017, it will just stay at home. Personally I predict Labour will take 20-25 seats on a lower than average turnout.
If I remember the link on the parliament channel correctly,
Over the period of second ww, Motherwell was communist, SNP, labour and liberal.
As a brit who moved aboard, the British political phobia of the Euro and Schengen just seems bizarre to me now. But on the latter of those, I think it's rather unlikely - why? Because Ireland isn't a member, and they're our only land border.
Compulsory voting tends to lower the vote for fringe parties and favour the centre because the loonie base is already going to turn up. By getting the people who could take it or leave it to vote you can counter that a bit.
Why would people in Scotland vote for an increasingly moving to the right Labour party. 🤔
Because they want an MP with a better chance of making a political change? Opposition parties can’t really do much other than grandstand.
i'm not sure what i listen to but i made it the whole way through
As a former stylist, I'm here for Emily's earrings, but it's handy that I get to know what's going on in my home country. UK friends ask me what's happening. Vair hilair. Thanks to all three of you. "Waste of a calorie"....hahahaha.
There is a particularly high rate of 'donkey votes' in Australian elections, but it's clear that the biggest impact would be felt with proportional representation rather than the absurdly archaic first past the post.
Aust here too. Our donkey vote is getting low mow. 2022 it was around 9% from memory
Predicting 25 - 40 scottish constituencies for a party is a ridiculously wide margin. It's a range of 43% - 70% of the seats.
11:30 sounds like the gentleman who does the polls for the news agents
Love that intro x
It's just so refreshing to hear middle class voices, more of this please media.
Based
Emily, there are Welsh listeners who don't speak much, or any, Welsh.
There are also Welsh listeners who do :) It is appreciated that the effort is made to also use the native name for the constituency!
@@31Blaize I didn't say there aren't any who do, I said there are some who don't. Emily seemed to be implying that it's Ynys Môn to all Welsh listeners. Of course it's wonderful that we have both languages, (I speak some Welsh myself, but am not fluent), but non Welsh speakers are just as valid. It was only the usual banter between them anyway.
SNP are talking about Brexit+++ Scotland voted 62% to remain and current polls show 70%+ want to rejoin. SNP policy is for an independent Scotland in the EU
BTW the EU will welcome iScotland with open arms
Super I guessed it might be Liverpool..... Interesting
Safe seat - Orkney and Shetland - Liberal since 1950 (1807/1873 apart from one or 2 blips) and not going to change this time either.
Fabulous trio who show a searing disregard for Plaid Cymru...excellent.
Did you know there is a punctuation mark for a rhetorical question? It is a back to front question mark :)
In Australia the percentage of informal/spoilt votes is normally between 3 and 9%. In 2022 it was 5.1%. In the UK in 2015 was 8% according to one source, but data looks harder to find (on a very quick search at least). I suspect any difference isn't significant. Australia does not vote on line. We use pencils. In a booth.
The 'safest' seats for the Tories have always been in predominantly agricultural areas - like parts of Gloucestershire, Herefordshire, Worcestershire etc. - because land-owners always vote Tory.
yes, but there are rumours and wispers that this will be changing on a massive scale. since 2020, those minority of farmers that opposed brexit have been working on changing that. as brexit has got worst, more and more farmers have been becoming increasingly disgruntled, . Never before have there been farmers advocating ofr a labour vote. they now see a vote for the torys is irrevelant as they wont be in government, so its a pragmatic thing have an mp that is empowered by been part of the ruling party. the thing is with farmers they are a very closed group,so very much an eco chamber, and they still are, its just that now the echo chamber has the words vote labour ringing around it
Vote Reform
At this point as long as nobody votes Tory, I'm happy.
Why?
EU would offer concessions to Labour to rejoin. Euro & Shengen would get delayed to 2035 but the price would be a higher contribution and less subsidies in return. Fingerprinting non EU visitors in Europe will be a huge wake up call for Brits visiting there, unless the EU tourist industry reverse that Commission intention.
I only carried on listening because of how out there Lewis's fact was.
Once Labour pass the voting age to 16, that’s when they start talking about our relationship with the EU
The UK will probably end up rejoining the single market eventually not the full on union.
Its a democracy sausage... not a hot dog.. thats a yank thing.. sausage on sliced bread with sauce... and no internet voting and I have never heard of phone voting. must be for really remote communities..
Just to be clear, alternative Vote is NOT a form of proportional representation.
The Liberal Democrats were very influential in Cornwall pre 2010, they set up the unitary authority and were promising more devolved powers and more cultural funding, but they never delivered any of it. Unfortunately the populace never saw Labour as the alternative and fell instead for the false promises of the tories instead.
the Alternative Vote is not PR btw
It's probably better. Less likely to have deadlock and at least means majority will get similar political leaning
@@supersaq12Sorry but utterly disagree, it's not anything like as representative as ful PR
In Oz it’s called preferential voting. A better description.
I guessed Liverpool.
SNP will suprise you.
Hot dogs lewis? Tsk tsk. Its a 'democracy sausage'.
Reform party
Labour won Western Isles in 1987
Question: Has Sunak lost a lot of voters from those who lived through the times of Falklands, Korean, Vietnam and WWII conflicts ????? ... that's a huge votng block !
Biggest Sunak blunder of the campaign so far on Friday and the Newsagent’s decide to broadcast a pre recorded Q&A. Couldn’t believe they weren’t around to comment.
Did John say January election at the start its in July folks
The idea of voter suppression based on an ID requirement is a bit of a non-issue. I don't understand why voting without proving who you are first would ever be acceptable. ID is absolutely not difficult to get hold of.
More Lewis less Sopel
Please remind the general public that virtually every single MP (therefore the Labour and Tory party) refused to attend the commons debates on excessive British deaths initiated by the Andrew Bridgen speeches; the British vote is now so very important that their actual mortality depends on it!
Bridgen is a an anti-science conspiracy theorist. Please don't fall for his nonsense.
Martinique isn't a British Overseas Territory.
It was being used as an example of a French department that returns a representative to the National Assembly in Paris.
The B word has never been mentioned...funny that. But then I don't think any reporter or new anchor has asked the two main party leaders.
And it is what explains literally everything about this election.
What's with the Lewis hate at the top of the show?
You should always need ID to vote stop corruption
If there were significant corruption, I would agree with you.
So you know the history of why voting happens on a Thursday comes from don’t you, I thought that you were intelligent people after all? Thursdays are the furthest day away from pay day and thus considered the most productive day devoid of alcohol. Having been someone who has enjoyed a Friday night in the pub after work and drinking my wages until I had to go home before the trains stopped running, I can only imagine what it must have been like in the centuries before this one and no I am not referring to the 20th century after all as it still feels like it was a year or two ago…
Just let the new lad talk its not tv, theres no time slot to hit on line, you can run 2 mins over and as long as its intresting we dont care...
Thou i so wished that john would shut up for the whole show once he said that, as i often find he moves the show along far to quick and never lets any one finish what they where saying!
Britain is not the mainland of Ireland!
I can confirm everyone i know who votes SNP is going to vote SNP, most of us are English
Sopel v tetchy about being corrected
Tenerife doesn't sound very British.
Never forget it's ok to hate the middle class 🤣🇪🇺🤣🇪🇺🤣🇪🇺🤣🇪🇺🤣