Thread by @UB5simon

#TacticalVoting is a good plan, and it was promoted heavily it before the 2017 GE. Here are two seats that the #Conservatives still won. In #RichmondPark, where #Labour are never going to win, they took 5773 votes. Zac Goldsmith won with a majority of 45.

In Hastings and Rye, The LibDems, who were never going to win, took 1885 votes. Amber Rudd won by 346 votes. Had the #LibDems and #Labour stood aside appropriately in these two seats, and told its supporters who to support, there would have probably been more favourable results.

My concern is that, like in 2017, the #TacticalVoting message won't reach everybody. It is a shame that at least one of these parties won't entertain any concept of not standing in some constituencies.

Another concern of mine is that some tactical voting sites are reportedly using #GE2017 as a benchmark. This election very much favoured #Labour and the #Conservatives but there is little likelihood of this happening again as things appear now.

Here is #SouthEastCambridgeshire in 2017, #Labour coming in a clear second.

But go back to 2010 and the #LibDems were the clear opposition.

Then take a look at the elections for the local council, East Cambridgeshire District, from May this year and the #LibDems picked up loads of councillors and were not far off taking control of the council. Conversely, #Labour has no councillors at all.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2019_East…

It suggests to me that the #LibDems are very likely to return to the main challengers to the #Conservatives in this seat, but you might not see that unless you look more carefully than simply the last GE.

My thought, overall, is keep going with the #TacticalVoting message. However, it's not ideal and there is a clear split of the remain/left side of the political argument. It is not a perfect solution and a better solution is there for the taking if the will was there.