Three footnotes to my post-election analysis

1. Following up on my point that parties need not to be hated, here, from before the election is some data on the ongoing de-toxification of the Conservative Party in some parts of the Midlands and the North. "Around 80-90% of why certain seats vote for certain parties is explained by the demographics of the area e.g. – how many graduates are there, how rich is the seat, how many people have gone to university, what is the ethnic composition and what type of jobs do people have". But some seats stand out (or did before the last election): they 'should' be Tory but, for historical/cultural reasons they are/were not: "the leave voting 55yr old plumber living in a detached house is more likely to vote Tory in Bournemouth than Wigan, even on the same salary. If the Tories manage to culturally de-toxify in certain seats there is a huge unlocked vote there". And Johnson managed, with help from Corbyn, to unlock that vote. (There are even people who did not vote Conservative who now wish they had.) I don't have the data to hand but it is not hard to think that one of Blair's great successes (with help from Major's failures in Government) was de-toxifying the Labour Party among people historically disinclined to vote Labour.

2. This is a tweet-storm from (what appears to be) a Labour Party member that is getting some publicity. The writer sets out the policies he would like. Some excerpts: "A ban on all foreign home/property ownership. Criminal sentences for landbankers. Then build an absolute shitload of council houses - but nice ones, terraces, with gardens, not Barrett-built lego sets made out of reconstituted cardboard", "A nice bit of military Keynesianism, uncompromising on security. A strong fleet, a strong RAF - all new military hardware to be built in Britain, by British workers. Make Barrow what it was 50 years ago. Renew Trident, and put a bloody Union Jack on it", "No more patronising nannying. Cut duty on fags and booze and stop lecturing people. Revive the Great British Pub and two fingers to the middle class Public Health Nazis". You get the picture. Speaking as someone who lives in London, he does not at all sound like a Labour supporter: in London terms, he sounds like a funny kind of Tory.

3. It seems that Lisa Nandy is the best hope for the Labour Party. I take it back about Jess Phillips: she is Matthew d'Ancona choice. Do you remember when Jacob Rees-Mogg and Jess Phillips used to pal around on TV together? Well, just as JRM is what an old northern socialist thinks a real Tory is like, JP is what a London softy like myself thinks a real Labourite is like. Sorry for the confusion.