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Dundee Post FG 1
THE QUALITATIVE ELECTION STUDY OF BRITAIN 2017
Dundee Post Group 1
Transcribed Focus Groups Dataset
Version 0.5
Date of release: 5 December 2017
Principal InvestigatorDr. Edzia Carvalho, University of Dundee
International Co-InvestigatorDr. Kristi Winters, GESIS, Cologne
Co-InvestigatorDr. Thom Oliver, UE Bristol
Funded by: GESIS-Leibniz InstituteUniversity of Dundee
UE BristolThe UK Data Archive
QESB Contacts
[email protected] [email protected] [email protected]
Website: qesb.info
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Dundee Post FG 1
READ ME
Early Release of Transcribed Focus Groups Dataset Version 0.5
On copyright and attribution
Copyright of this transcript belongs to Drs. Edzia Carvalho, Kristi Winters and Thom Oliver. Individuals may re-use this document/publication free of charge in any format for research, private study or internal circulation within an organisation. You must re-use it accurately and not present it in a misleading context. You must acknowledge the authors, the QES Britain project title, and the source document/publication.
Recommended citation: Carvalho, E., K. Winters and T. Oliver. 2017. 'The Qualitative Election Study of Britain 2017 Dataset', version 0.5. Last accessed Date of website visit. Available at: www.qesb.info
On the transcription
All participants’ names have been changed and any direct or indirect identifiers removed to protect their anonymity
The transcripts in this version also do not include extensive instructions given to participants at the beginning of the groups, introductions by participants, and some exchanges between participants and moderators during exercises.
Initial Transcription by: Just Write Secretarial Services, Belfast, Northern Ireland. Contact: [email protected]
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I: Okay, so what we’re really interested in is the aftermath of the election and your experience of the aftermath. So, we’ll start with the day of the voting, and what I would like you to do is perhaps talk to us about the story of your voting day, what happened there, what time did you get up, what time did you go to vote, how was at the polling booth, did you watch the exit polls, what did you do after voting, did you stay up, you know. So, give us a nice little story, a narrative of your voting day.
Also, we’re starting the next focus group at six, so we’ll probably make sure this is wrapped up for 5 minutes to. So if we cut you off, it’s not because we’re not interested, it’s just we want to make sure we get through all the questions. So, we get your perspective on every question.
Yeah, okay, Marian, is it okay if I start with you? The story of your voting day.
If you could tell us how you voted, you don’t have to, it’s a secret ballot, but as political researchers, we’d love to know. So, if you would share, that’s great, if not, we understand.
Marian: Got up as normal and just after seven, because my grandson comes for his breakfast and I take him to school. So we put him into school and we went and voted. The polling station is very quiet, saw one individual outside handing out leaflets, and the rest of the day I did what I normally do. I have to say, I was a trifle tired because I wasn't long back from New York. I had been to New York with a few of my friends, so I was feeling a bit tired. But then I did sort of, off and on during the day, and I did then stay up, once the polling had closed, and watched that and watched everyone’s surprise when the exit polls seems to be more not quite doing what they wanted it to do. And so I did watch that. I did eventually, I think, it must have been past one, I did go to my bed, but I had my phone by my side and it would beep occasionally and so I woke at every beep to see how it was going on, and I mean, from my perspective, it was a nice surprise, because, when you listened to all of the mainstream media, it was not giving what you wanted to hear, that things were possibly going to change. It was a nice surprise to see that that happened, because I was a trifle worried that she was going to get a bigger majority and we’d been in worse state. Yeah, basically, that’s was how my day went.
I: Can I just ask how you voted?
Marian: I actually voted for the SNP. I did consider voting for Labour but I suppose listening to all that was going on I was slightly taking to thinking I’ll be wasting my vote if I vote for Labour. But I think that was one of the things throughout the whole thing, that irritated me somewhat, because being in Scotland, a lot of the debate and what you were listening to, people were honing in on Scottish politics and not really looking at the Westminster situation, you know? So I was glad, because I like Corbyn, I think he’s good and what he’s saying is what people are really very interested in. I suppose, for someone my age, it is taking me back to values that you do think have long gone out the window, so I was very pleased that he had done very well. At the moment, obviously, I am annoyed, as a lot of people are, that to cling on with their fingernails and get into bed with the DUP, but you know, that’s politics and politicians for you. So yes, worrying somewhat. But hopefully it will fall apart I hope there’re going to be another snap election in two or three months, then we'll all have do this again. But that was basically... I'm still a little bit jet lagged but I got back at least for the voting, so that was fun.
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I: Okay, thank you very much. Bart, what about your day?
Bart: Well, my day, well, it started at 8 o’clock and I voted at the [polling station] site out at there at, I don’t know, half past eight, and then after that I stood there with a Labour rosette until about at the back of twelve and then after I had lunch and then afternoon, knocking on people’s doors to ask if they'd actually voted. But the time it was actually bucketing the rain so actually ended doing a telephone, phoning up people, although a lot was out of date, so we ended up phoning from [0.05.01] telephone numbers, but we got a few people. Then at night time, I actually went to the count, and I was pleasantly surprised at the rising Labour vote in Scotland, but in some areas we were overtaken by the very Conservatives, that was the downside of it.
I: So, I don’t have to ask you how you voted?
Bart: Well, obviously Labour.
I: Just checking.
Bart: No, Scottish Labour, yeah.
I: And so were with the count the whole time or did you get a chance to check the exit polls and …
Bart: I saw the exit polls on the TV later and was quite surprised. There was lots of SNP folk there the same time as me, 06:08 seats, it wasn’t that far off, because ?? exit polls are usually fairly accurate most of the time.
I: I’m thinking of giving him a knighthood for being so accurate, so regularly. Well, the exit polls use real data. Once you know what people actually did, it’s simple.
Bart: That’s right, unless people are going to tell fibs that they filled it out a different way, it's fairly accurate, yeah.
I: Thank you Bart, Emily.
Emily: I just had a sort of semi-normal day. Historically, my husband and I have always taken two days off for elections. We take the day off to vote so you can get up and have a nice meander down and then we always stay up all night watching the results come in, because we’re nerds, but the last two referenda and the last general election have been so, so suckingly depressing that I’ve been suffering from a sort of existential angst. So, I got up as usual, I went to the gym twice, I went to work. So, marvellous, I came home, we went to vote, my husband bought me a pizza, gave me a gin, we played Elder Signs, which is a board game, I took a Nightall and I went to sleep at ten. I did not look at exit polls. We watched a small amount of political programming but I could feel myself getting a bit kind of slightly distressed, so we just sort of took the night off. And then I went to bed, he stayed up all night and watched it. So when I got up at half past five he was bouncing off the walls to tell me what had happened. I got a detailed run down before I left the house at like ten to seven. So yeah, it was a completely different election that I experienced, because normally we’re so pinned in to it. But I remember when the independence referendum was on, and we'd be going and watch it but the exit polls were really bad, so I’d gone to bed listening to Radio 4 and I kept being woken up by rubbish result after rubbish result after rubbish result and it was just so, you know, you wake up
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and you're like, oh, this is terrible. The one thing I will say, I dreamed that they got 350 seats. I was quite pleased it was wrong, so that was nice.
I: So, I have two follow-up questions for you: how did you vote?
Emily: I vote Labour, genuinely surprised. I was in the booth, I very rarely make the decision properly until I’m there, and we discussed before, I like to vote for a socialist or a woman, if I could do both it would be amazing. The only woman in the ballot in my constituency was a Lib Dem, hah, no. I said I’m never going to vote Tory and that left me with Labour and SNP, and I became a registered supporter of the Labour party so I could vote for Jeremy Corbyn. So I just put my money where my mouth was and vote Labour. I mean, we're a safe SNP anyway but …
I: Did you have a wobble at the end?
Emily: I did, I nearly went with SNP over Labour, because I don’t find Kezia Dugdale to be that persuasive. I think that I don’t agree with a lot of decisions she’s made, certainly in the run up to the independence referendum I found that she was retweeting basically tabloid lies, 09.37 the narrative she wanted to run with, and she campaigned heavily against Jeremy Corbyn twice. So, I would have been much happier if I could vote for Jeremy Corbyn, but we don't have a presidential system. So yeah, there was a wobble there; I nearly just went with the SNP.
I: And how did you feel when your husband bounced around and told you that …
Emily: Honestly, we'd sort of both broadly... it was the best outcome we could have hoped for. I mean, I saw his posts on Facebook throughout the night and the fact that Labour increased the vote share was amazing, the fact that they gained seats was amazing. I was a bit saddened that my prediction that Labour gains in England would be adversely affected by Tory gains in Scotland and it kind of ruins my image of myself as a Scot, as the group of people who don’t vote Tory. So I was kind of, I could have had the potential to be ambivalent but I chose to treat it positively and think he did a cracking job. It was a great campaign, go him, so yeah, no, genuinely pretty pleased.
I: Thank you. Clare, your day.
Clare: Yeah, oh my day is a lot worse, believe you me. Had the grandkids stay for the night, so I got them up to school, and then my colleague, who I work with, as a team, he was out chapping up people so he wasn’t going to meet me to 10 o’clock, so I was up at the polling station waiting for him. So then after the polling station we went around to all the houses, putting the letters through, reminding them it’s polling day, hammering on the doors, right, remember polling day. We got soaked, so, I had to take him home and get changed. So, then we went out again and we pounded the streets and we went back to headquarters and we had a bite to eat, and while I was at headquarters somebody was looking for a lift, you know, to the polling station. So, I had to go from Oaklands Road all the way down to Caroline House, pick up these two people who were needing a lift in the pouring rain 11.47, so did that while he was having something to eat. So, dropped them off there, waited on them, home again. So, I goes back there and pick up ?? and go out again, pounding the streets, and then I had this appointment with somebody who wanted to be picked up at 6 o’clock, because he had crutches, he broke his leg. So, we were pounding the streets again, and then dropped this guy. [Friend’s name] was still working away, so I picked up this lady, took her to the polling station and then we just kept going, going, going, and then 6 o’clock, after we picked up that
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guy, [Friend’s name] went round the polling stations to see the percentages, how well we were doing, how many people are coming out. So, we got the percentages ??, you know, and then we went back to headquarters at 8 o’clock just to see if there was anything else needing done. So, we went back at 8 o’clock and they said no, it’s all finished. So, went home, I had a sleep in the back and I said to my mate, because he just goes out, you know, getting more percentages, right, and the last time I was picking him up for the count, I was sitting and waiting for him, because he was away at the other end picking up. So, I said to him, I’ll pick you up at 9 o’clock and I’ll take you down to the other four polling stations and get your percentages. So, we got the percentages where everybody had voted and then we went up to desk and did the counting.
I: And when did you vote?
Clare: Oh, when I went up to the polling station, because obviously that was my polling station, so what I have to do, is you take off anything to do with you are and you go and vote and then you come back out and put your gear on. So, when I was going down officially with the, you know, the percentages, yes, it’s me, I can come in here, because we’ve got like a certificate saying that we can go in, all right, that’s me, yeah, I'm quite happy coming in here with all my official stuff on when I've already voted, and then I went to the desk here and obviously checking out the votes, and I must admit, Bart, I must disagree with you, the SNPs’ faces were not glum and they were not funny, because we had got both, we had both their MPs in Dundee and the vote was Stuart 14.17 and all the votes all over looked low, right. So, we got Stuart ?? in and we got Chris Law in. So, we were all quite pleased. Obviously, we were a little bit sad, but by then you weren’t actually sure how many people had lost their seats, but from our point of view, we put in the leg work, we put in the work, we were pounding... I mean, Monday before the vote, I was out for eight hours, because we don’t have a lot of money, you know. The Tories have all the money, and they will have it from their unions. We don’t have much money so we rely on people going out in the street for the last weeks, and so we’ve been pounding the streets. We’ve been helping colleagues as well. So if you put the work in, you get the results. So when these postal votes, all these leaflets were coming through the doors, we were having to pick them hand. I was in one area, streets, three days on the trot, giving out information, three days. They know me, obviously. When you’re doing the same area all the time and they know you, you know. So we put in the work and we get the results. Obviously, fortunately, there was other areas who put in the work, but the money people are there. The money, the Tories have all the money. So, when you’re fighting an election, all the money, they put, you know, business whatever so. We’re quite pleased, Bart, what we got, 35 seats is still a majority. So we’re still in charge, you know, the Scottish government and the Scottish SNP are still in charge. It’s like Emily’s just said, she was proud of the Labour and how well they'd done with Jeremy Corbyn, but I’m just saying we’re proud of what we’ve achieved.
Bart: The common faces were at the exit poll, because know Chris and Andy Stuart didn't know the result at that stage, but the exit poll came out at 10 o'clock 16:34. It wasn’t after the result.
FR3: All right, right, well, Bart, I suppose it would have been, like everybody who goes and apprehensive, that’s what you were doing. They were a bit like... I agree with you, Stuart wasn’t 16.48, I'll agree with you there, Chris probably was, you know, because this is what, he’s only had the seat two years. So he would be a wee bit worried that, is people still going to be supporting him.
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I: Well, it’s interesting how you’re saying the same thing and you’re probably saying it from completely different perspectives as well. You see the same thing and Bart sees something and you see something else, and that’s completely …
FR: No, but I've just agreed with Bart.
Bart: Different points in time, though. After the result at the exit polls, it’s different stages in time.
FR: Yeah, that’s what I’m saying, we're agreeing, I’m agreeing with him that he did, you know, and you’re agreeing with me that we were quite happy after.
I: And it’s fine if you don’t agree, because that’s okay as well.
FR3: I know, well yeah.
I: That’s fine and just, you just have to tell us what you think. We are really happy if you don’t agree, because that means that, you know, this is not fake. This is not us manipulating you into agreeing with each other.
FR: Oh no, oh no.
FR: I was just extremely disappointed that the SNP lost seats to the Tories. I mean that was just, considering that for many, many, years all you got from them was how Labour in Scotland ?? Labour in general and you think, you know, now we’re doing it to you. If people hadn’t done that, it would have been much harder for a government to be formed by the Tories. That I just find quite amazing, I’m extremely disappointed 18.18.
FR: I read an article that said there was 2200 votes, 2200 votes was the difference between a Labour government and a Tory government; when you take into the account all of the really, really narrow margins that we had, that was all it took.
FR: I find it quite difficult at the moment, because at the end of the day, democracy means you get a chance for saying whatever, so where throughout the campaign all you got was this perpetual all parties, apart from the SNP, going on about Indy ref 2 and how people didn’t want it, and I thought, well, at the end of the day, if you have it, you have it. People go out and vote, I can’t quite get my head around why people are so against having another vote when in – it’s like with the Brexit, you know, like the Lib Dems want to have a vote and they get a deal, and I thought, well, surely that’s what it’s about, that you get a chance to have a say. I don’t want to, I couldn't go out and vote again, and you think, when you look at history and how we were to fight so hard to get, what are you moaning about? You’re getting a chance to have a say. So I find that quite difficult, and if that was what caused a lot of the shift, I think I just don’t understand that at all. I think people are just getting lazy about it then.
FR: I think Tories have a bit of a cheek complaining when they just called a snap election three years early and spent a hundred-and-eighty-five million quid for no reason and then say, "oh folk are sick of voting."
FR: But Emily, what you’re saying about Labour, if they’d only got so much, if you remember, Kezia Dugdale kept telling people to vote Tory to keep the SNP out. So, there’s this thing, right, that she’s
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lost seats, the Labour government could be in, they could have been in government if the Scottish people hadn’t …
FR: I fundamentally agree. There were many parties that fielded paper candidates because they made this tactical decision that Indy ref was a more important thing to campaign on in Scotland than, you know, running the country.
FR: What was that?
FR: I have opinions about that, and none of them are swear words, honest.
FR: I missed that.
FR: They seemed to campaign on the idea that it was more important for them to block an Indy ref than to actually decide who they wanted the run the UK as a whole, and as you said, it was really funny watching both Labour and the Tories bang on about Indy ref and Nicola Surgeon go, I mean, I’m saying naught, I don’t even need to.
FR: Well, I think in many ways it’s just ingenuous of them, because at the end of the day, the Scottish Nationalist Party, that’s always been 20.52 so there's nothing surprising there.
FR: It was quite a shock, really.
FR: That’s what I kind find, yeah.
FR: Why would you be surprised that people want to pursue it, you know what I mean? I don’t understand that. Whether you want it or you don’t want it, it’s no surprise that that’s what they might want to pursue, and at the end of the day, if you don’t want it and you get a vote, you can go and say I don’t want it, so why is there such a...
FR: But what turned the vote, what turned the vote into, it wasn’t a party thing and it wasn’t... It actually ended up yes and no, Unionist parties against the national party. So, you had Labour, Tory and Lib Dems on the Unionist side fighting the SNP and the Greens. So, obviously, really, that’s what it came down to. So, when you’re fighting a force like that, you're quite pleased that you did manage to come out on top.
FR: I mean, I think that’s what so irritating, and it was irritating about it. Unfortunately people are not paying attention to the fact it is a Westminster election, stop bleeding on about the Scottish government, you’ll get your chance, if you don’t like them, what they’re doing here or what they're doing there, you'll get your chance when the time comes. We’re talking about the government of the United Kingdom here, it’s Westminster, why are you so hung up on what’s going on here? And I find that quite and I feel at times politicians, and sometimes it’s yes, they didn’t make the most of that to keep reminding people, you’re not talking about Scotland here. You’re talking about the UK and you really have to be careful, you know. And it’s like sometimes, it is difficult. Like yourself, I think I've wavered a bit, because for many years I was a Labour voter, but again, I think, it’s quite difficult when you’re further away from it and Scotland being slightly different, and often when they put candidates up, if you don’t like that particular candidate it’s very difficult to overlook them, to say I’ll go for the policies, because you think, if they actually get in I would have to deal with that
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individual, if I needed to, and I don’t like him. So I find that, for me, that was quite difficult, because I might have gone that way but I just didn’t like the candidate, so I thought, hmmm.
I: This is fascinating, but before we move on, Bart, do you have anything to add, because I know that the women have been kind of going yes and back and forth and so I want to give you a chance.
Bart: I suppose if Labour and Conservative had been closer at a UK level when that election started, as it were, it may be a different voting part in Scotland, that might have affected it. But the fact that there was such a big gap between Labour and Conservative, and Scotland have 23:43 to sort of give the SNP a kicking, as it were.
FR: Which you obviously didn’t do.
I: Let’s not start that. This is going to turn into a playground fight, let’s not get there. Right, so the next thing is where we want you to asses or give us your impression of how the four parties did, so the three major parties, if you can call them that, and the SNP, because we’re in Scotland. So, we go through each of the parties in turn, and it doesn’t have to be like, you know, a very learned assessment. We're in the capacity of political science researchers, that’s us, and we want your impressions, we want your opinions about how you think the particular parties did. So if you can start with the Conservatives, and Bart, this time I’ll start with you, if that’s okay.
Give us your assessment of where they stand post-election. So a little of punditry from your perspective, like where do you see them now, after this election?
Bart: We see them as being at a very weak position. The actual manifesto was fairly anti free market, because state interventions literally came across in the... The social care aspect kind of diverted that aspect, I think. So I think they’re in a difficult position. I think they might stick with the more state intervention stuff as well and they might produce a softer Brexit. I think possibly May wanted a softer Brexit by a different method. She may get a softer Brexit now with the DUP wanting a softer Brexit as well in terms of the customs. They may end up with a softer Brexit as well.
I: Thank you. Emily?
Emily: I think that if they want to win another election they need to get rid of Theresa May, God love her, the weird drove-up woman that she is, the worst thing she’s ever done is run through a wheat field. Aye, right. I was deeply confused that 1922 came out. He didn't tell her to sling her hook when she went in front of them but, you know. It’s sounds like she’s going to try and cling on as much as she really possible, but I can’t imagine it happening. I heard a rumour that Sinn Fein have taken to Westminster and sit in their offices and go "aha?" But I think it’s really hard to make a proper assessment, because when you look at the way the country’s spread, you didn’t get like a whole swing in this direction or a whole swing in that direction. You had places like Kensington going Labour for the first time in god knows how long, but then places that had been Labour since 1979 going to the Tories. So, I think that it’s just weakened her dreadfully. I don’t think she can possibly hope to go into Brexit with any kind of serious ability to negotiate and I think she’s just kind of holding on until somebody pushes her.
I: Thank you. Clare.
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Clare: Yeah, the last time we were here, we got these pictures and you had Jeremy Corbyn, weak guy, did I not say to you if he grew some balls, right, he’d get on. He did not grow some balls, did he? So honest, it was like, yeah... Theresa May, if she goes into this thingy with the DUP it’ll be just Mayhem in Ireland, it’ll be just starting up again, right, okay. This is just my opinion. It’s just not going to work. Jeremy Corbyn, if he doesn't get oust, right, by …
I: We will come on to Labour.
Clare: Oh sorry, I thought you wanted the whole parties.
I: No, just Conservatives for now.
Clare: Oh sorry, I beg your pardon. Right, well she’s going to have a downfall, right, with these DUP, right, it’ll just be blown up in her face. I just hope it doesn’t blow up in Ireland at the same time. So that’s my opinion, right, it'll start the troubles all over again.
I: Marian?
Marian: Yeah, they’re obviously in a very weakened position. I suppose, to me, it illustrates what’s bad about politics. So May, I think she won’t last. The Tories are quite ruthless at getting rid of people that just don’t do it for them, and she really miscalled it all and it was a disastrous campaign. I mean, 28.25 and everything about what they did. But, to me, it just illustrates why don’t I like politicians at times, because it’s politics party of the people that are meant to be representing, because to be honest, you know, they don’t look back even at their own. I mean, the Tories complained when there was a possibility that Labour and the SNP would get together, because they said, "well, you’re getting, you know, into alliance with a party where, you know, that their leader doesn’t oversee at Westminster." But they’re now doing the same thing, because Arlene Foster doesn't have a seat at Westminster. I think there is an issue for Ireland itself, and above all, what I find most frustrating is that these ten MPs are going to have more sway than all of the others on the opposition bench together because they’re going to have bend over backwards to keep them on-board, and to me, that’s what’s I find distasteful, because that’s about clinging onto power and nothing else. They’re not looking at the benefit for the country. As you said, they’re going to Brexit negotiations and who's not going to take her seriously. I mean, you only have to look at the campaign, she kept changing her mind all the time, etc., and now, having gone in saying, "I want the bigger majority so I can go in and show them how strong we are", well, she’s not going to be able to do that. I don’t know how long it will last but I don’t imagine it will last that long, and if she doesn’t go, somebody will push her.
I: Thank you, so, moving on to Labour. What is your assessment of where Labour is now after the election, after the results, Bart?
Bart: Well I think the Labour is hoping for another election soon to keep their campaign, because that’s definitely Jeremy Corbyn’s strong aspect, is the campaign. I think probably when he goes back to being in parliament there might be some more sticky moments there, but I think Labour is on a high just now. But I think, you know, we might to look at certain policies again right after, because you know, because by asking the rich and the corporations to pay for all proposals was a bit 30.43 because there was no actual work done to see if that was possible. So, we have to widen that tax
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base to affect people less at £80,000, for example, although that might be difficult for us to do that. But right now we’re waiting for the next election to come up quick, as soon as possible.
I: Thank you. Emily?
Emily: I think Labour’s almost more divided after the election than it was before. I was quite distressed to see a number of Labour MPs writing, okay, it’s prior to the election, saying that it would be a disaster if Corbyn won, and I was like, I mean, do you remember what party you’re in, maybe have a wee think about that. But what we ended up with after the election is those MPs who are so anti-Corbyn they immediately came out and said, "imagine how much better we would be if we had a competent leader?" We’ve got Scottish Labour and the rest of the UK Labour operating off of completely different playbooks. I think if they're going to be able to really harness the movement they’ve got in their direction, they really need to pull their finger out and get some unity going on. And I think Scottish Labour needs to stop hammering on about an independent and start looking at the UK as a whole instead of pretending like they don’t care about it. I think that the parliamentary Labour party need to shut their flipping faces and get behind their leader and all look at the fact that, not only did he manage to engage the youth, that he actually managed to engage the youth and get them out to vote. The majority of the places where Labour saw the biggest swing were places where you had a high population turn out of the young people voting. Yeah, I think there was all these different instances where you saw Jeremy Corbyn really engaging with the public and there was that whole, everybody singing, ole Jeremy Corbyn, to the tune of Seven Nation Army, did you see that? And he was getting treated like a rock star, and they voted. It wasn’t just this is their interest and now go back to our bedroom. He managed to get into... So if he managed to just actually pull everything together then they have a real chance of getting back into power, but they need to stop backbiting; it isn’t a good look.
I: Thank you. Clare?
Clare: Right, one of the reasons why Jeremy Corbyn got so much thingy, because he pinched the manifesto of the SNP party, right. That’s one of the points.
I: Bart, she’s not talking to you.
Clare: No, he did though, because it’s silly. Anyway, so that’s that. Jeremy Corbyn, I think he’s good for the Labour Party, right, he’s good for the English Labour Party, right, because obviously we’re separate. But, as I say, I was quite pleased that he did get what I said he should have got. So I would rather see Labour in obviously the English parliament than the Tories. So, I’m quite pleased for the Labour Party, right. Obviously, from my point of view, it doesn’t technically affect kind of my situation, but I’m really pleased with him, because I think he’s a genuine, genuine guy who wants to do the best for the people, you know, whereas Theresa May and the Tories are not yet. They’re out just for their-selves, the business, the corporates, right. Flipping heck, they’re going to sell off the English, they’re actually planning to sell off the National Health Service. I think if there’s another election then probably Labour will get all their forces out and go for that, because that’s the only way they’re going to save the National Health Service in England, and other things. So I’m pleased for the Labour Party in England, but yeah, I don’t think it'll have a massive influx in even Scotland, unless the Labour Party take off from the Tory, right. The Tories are at their peak at the moment in Scotland, that’s really basically as far as they’re going to get, simply because, money-wise, you know
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like the yes, Tory are yes people and you know, so yeah. If we get 35:30 we're fine. But no, he is a good guy, yeah, and Diane Abbott as well. It’s a pity about her taking ill. I just remember one of the focus groups I did where they said who do you think is good in the Labour party, and I said Diane Abbott and then the next minute she’s his right-hand woman, but unfortunately, I think the pressure was kind of too much for her and she wasn’t well. But she’ll bounce back and she’ll get the Labour Party back on track, because she’s a good woman as well.
I: Thank you. Marian?
Marian: Well, I think Labour did really well and I think Corbyn did do exceedingly well. When all the carry on was going on within the Labour party, to be honest, if I had been a Labour party member I would have been down here saying, these people should be deselected, because that’s not the way you carry on. They should back their own leader, and like you, I was a bit disappointed when there were comments like "well, we could have won if we hadn't had him." I don’t think I’d be wanting you at my back, thank you very much. I mean, he did a grand job, and I think, to be fair, yes, I think Scottish Labour need to be careful here, because I think if they do follow on, because Scotland was always a very Labour stronghold, it was just they got too like Tories and we all got a bit disenfranchised with them. So I think they did do fairly well. When you saw the campaign trail, you saw Corbyn out there, there was, you know, hundreds of people, thousands of people, and you saw Theresa May and there was a wee select audience. He knew how to connect, and I know they say he’s a good campaigner, I personally don’t think he does that bad when he's in the Houses of Parliament. But he is a good campaigner, but good campaigners are good campaigners because they do believe it, that they have a passion for it, they’re not making it up, they’re not doing it to get to power, they actually do believe it, and I think that’s what a good campaigner is like. So, I think he’s genuine and people see that he’s genuine and if he could just back in with his own people, I think it would be even better for him. But no, to give him his dues, he pulled that out of the bag. Theresa May didn't help, she was going about changing her mind. But no, he did a grand job, I think, and I think. I think the young people, he certainly has engaged them, and given the fact that he’s not a young person, they’re obviously relating to what he’s saying. And to be fair, young people are getting a bit fed-up with the way the world is at the moment and they’re not feeling like they’re getting heard and they’re not getting into the world like the rest of us, you know, they’re ending up with debt, can't get on the housing ladder and all these sorts of things. So, I think they’re looking for something different too, and I think he’s tapped into that, because we're going back a bit more to thinking about the people you represent, as opposed to going back to who [0.38.37] and I think they are much stronger. They just need to keep it like that and keep going.
I: Thank you. So we have two more parties, 10 minutes to go, because I to want fit in another couple of questions in the last five minutes. So two more parties, Lib Dems, and SNP. We’ll start with the Lib Dems. Bart, what is your assessment of where the Lib Dems are now and how they’ve done?
Bart: Well, the Lib Dems are in an extremely weak position now. I think they obviously want to try to tap into their main voters as much as possible by promising a second referendum after the Brexit talks, but I think that 38.25. And I don't think Tim Farron came across all that well either. So, I think at the minute they're being squeezed by the two big parties, although they may bounce back if the Conservatives do badly, I suppose. I can't think of anything else to say about them.
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I: Emily?
Emily: Tim Farron is basically a Labrador in human form. I kind of feel ashamed for them, because I quite liked their manifesto, a lot of their stuff made a lot of sense, but they might want and try and tap into the Remain vote but we've never forgiven them for the Tory party and that’s why Nick Clegg lost his seat, and I had a wee cheer when he did, because screw you. I have never forgiven the Lib Dems for propping up the Tory party. I was beyond enraged, because I’d lost the desire to vote for Labour when I realised quite how 40:26 they were. So the Lib Dems, I was like, "oh, maybe I can vote for them", and then he abandoned everything for a sniff of power. So I’m not unhappy that they didn’t do that well, because I hold grudges, apparently.
I: Thank you. Clare, your assessment of Lib Dems?
Clare: I think he was inexperienced. He’s a genuine guy and when he was getting interviewed he was just, in my opinion, he was just a lovely person, well, 40.54, but you know National Health Service, how they looked after and he wants that for his family, he wants them to be safe, you know, if they took ill and stuff like that. I thought he was a genuine guy who’d come up, you know, he was, and he’s from 41.11, you know. But he was just outflanked, he was just out, you know, he’s not got the polish as the others got, because he comes over as just being a guy. But I quite liked him because he was genuinely passionate about what he was trying to put over.
I: Thank you. Marian, your assessment.
Marian: Well I think, I mean, ?? I think they’ve got a long way to go and I think it will take them a long, long time of ?? forgiven. He’s trying, he’s an entirely different sort of person than Nick Clegg. You don’t get the feeling he'd grasp it no matter what it was. But I think they’ve got a long way to go to convince people that they really have ideas of their own. I mean, there were things that they did do, and often when you heard them talking, it wasn’t like you would take 42.12 you go against what they were saying but I just feel there’s, after they ?? with the Tories they just became a spent force, and I think they’ve got an awful long way to go before there will be any resurgence for them.
I: Thank you, finally, SNP. So Bart, your assessment of how the SNP have done, where they are now?
Bart: Oh well, I think the SNP 42:43 They knew they were going to be getting squeezed, by the Conservatives especially, and I think it's certainly weakened their case for moving towards an independence vote, at least, and they also have to make a decent economic case to try and support ?? because at the moment they're struggling to do that, although the economic case could change in the future. But I don’t think in the near future it's going to be beneficial towards them. So I think at the moment they’re kind of struggling, although they did win a seat in Scotland.
I: That’s an interesting perspective there, thank you. Emily?
Emily: I think I kind of agree with what you said, they'd nothing to gain and everything to lose. I think it was always going to be tricky for them. I think Nicola Sturgeon did ?? good campaign, and I’m not sure how much you can say that their case for independence for has been affected, because I’m sure I saw Andrew Neill tweet that the actual swing away from the SNP was actually really small, it was actually like 2.5% when you take everything else into account. So, what actually happens is this
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huge amount of unionist tactical voting has a larger impact than you may otherwise expect. I think they’re going to have more difficulty selling the idea of independence, but from a numerical perspective, I think it’s exactly the same as it was before. I think they did as well as they could have expected.
I: Thank you. Clare?
Clare: Yeah, I think there was a lot of tactical voting, especially up north, you know, in Aberdeen and all those places Lib Dems and Tories, anyway. So, those seats, they targeted our main men, right, so we kind of knew that, so that’s probably why we tried our best but we knew that the Unionist party were targeting us. And I think, yeah, we did a marvellous job. Now, regarding Westminster, it doesn’t matter if you’ve got 20 seats, 30 seats, 50 seats, 59 seats, it doesn’t make any difference. It doesn’t make any difference, because we’ve got more clout. The only clout we’ve got is standing up and saying, trying to stop them doing what they’re doing, right, and you can still do that with 35 seats or you can do it 50 seats, right. Yeah, Westminster seats, it’s here, it’s the Scottish parliament we need the power, right. So, I think they done extremely well, and as far as the referendum goes, I’m just waiting for Nicola to come out and declare that it’s still on, yeah, because what you’re seeing here is, what people don’t realise is, it’s not the SNP, basically the political party, people think it’s SNP that’s running it, right, it’s not. They’re just the lever that goes towards political side. You’ve got grassroots side, you’ve got all the yes people, you’ve got all the other, and that is a massive force, right, and that force is behind the scenes. So as soon as you put the plug in, it’ll be ....
I: That’s a really nice metaphor, yeah. We’re not done, if you can wait for 10 minutes, then we will be done with this one, thank you.
FR: And to be fair, to expect somebody to be able to hang on to that amount of seats, I think it’s being over optimistic, so why be more surprised maybe. The number they lost was a bit surprising but you didn’t expect that they'd keep them all. I think Nicola Sturgeon always does a good job, but as I said, I felt that they maybe should have tried to plug in again more to the... talking about Westminster, they kept getting involved back to Scotland where this was not what this was about, and to be fair, like you said, I think the numbers down at Westminster may very little difference, unless they can learn to, I suppose try to feed into some of what happens in Scotland. But you can talk to one another. You don’t have to have as quite set boundaries as it seems to be, and I mean Scotland is different, the parliament is set up in a different way, the local elections are different, the way it works, and it works for us, it’s maybe not perfect, but it does, because that’s maybe not the way it works down south, and I think there’s that element of it. But to be fair, if you look at it, any party in Westminster, has there been a difference between the seats the SNP got and the next like they’d all be clapping their hands and be quite happy. So, in that sense, I think it was unfair to keep bashing them, as if, oh, they’ve lost it. It wasn’t. They haven’t really, and for anybody to expect [0.48.11] I think that's just asking a bit much. Because it was a Westminster election and because you’ve got Brexit and you’ve got people divided here about whether we should be in or should be out, and then also the Unionist against independence. So, it was almost going to be difficult for him, but I think they did a good show, and to be fair, when they had people up speaking, I think they did a great show and so.
FR: Can I just say, Marian, what you’re saying about from the parliament and that, it’s the mainstream media, it’s the BBC and the STV have got control over that. So they’re asking the
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question, they’re doing that, so it’s really for to get over, you know, if they’ve got this thing to get over, you know, that was one of the mistakes, yeah.
FR: I was just listening to something on the radio when I was coming over, because there was some debate about that, about the media in general, because obviously the general media had it in for Corbyn, they were just going for him and they weren’t liking it if anybody had come out, even some of these more outlandish polls. They were calling it correctly, that wasn’t going to be happening, and they're now wondering how did the mainstream media will go on about how they will tackle them, because they just, they seem to live in a bubble, as was said, all of their own, and they think, the world is as they see it, but people out there don’t see it that way, so we’ll just have to wait and see what happens.
I: Well, thank you. I mean, so we have two more questions for you. I hope they won’t take very long.
Yeah, so sum up, yeah, two sentences.
So, the first question, and actually some of you already touched upon it, which is about the Brexit negotiations which are supposed to start on Monday, and what we want to talk to you about is your impression about how the results and what has happened since the results, what effect you think that’s going to have on Brexit negotiations, and so Emily, is it okay if I start with you?
Emily: I’m not sure it would have had an effect if she hadn’t spent all her time banging on about this has given us a stronger hand in the Brexit negotiations. She kept saying, you are all weakening my position in Europe. Well, the whole Europe watched you lose, love, so I can’t imagine it’s going to go that well. I think that she wants to go in all strong-armed and I think what we’re going to have is a combination of the fact that Europe doesn’t really like it when you do that. So, they'll be slightly annoyed at her for that, and also, she has, by her own admission, weakened herself. So I think it’s going to be really, really difficult for her. I mean, it’s going to be insanely complicated as it is.
I: Clare?
Clare: Well, I don’t think she’s going to get any place with Brexit right, and especially with the DUP because 51.06, they're full of orange men, so no, she won’t get any place, no. We’ve got to out before that happens, and that was our manifesto, right? Wait until Brexit is in front of us, right, and give it to the Scottish people and then we decide, yeah, do we want to be part of that or do we want to be out. But that was never, the Unionist party kept overtaking that, we’re doing Indy Ref, but our policy is wait until Brexit is on the table and see what we’re voting for, so that’s what we’ve got to do, wait and see what she’s given, but she'll not get anything.
I: Marian?
Marian: Yeah, I think she’s definitely weakened her position around it all, and what I found odd was that although she went to the country saying I want you to give me the mandate to do this, part of that was because she felt Westminster, like the rest of the Parliamentarians, were not helping her there, and that wasn't very good. And I think what she needs to learn is now that maybe it’s no bad thing to listen to other people and not just to go it alone the way she thinks. Yes, I think you really need to look at there are lots of people who have an opinion. Now, there’s lots of people to be
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affected by it, and at the moment I just think everyone must be laughing, 52.41 I think they need to be having a rethink about who’s going to do that and how that’s going to work, and I don’t know, has there been any word about whether it might delay the start, but you think, no, you really need to get your act together, I’m afraid.
I: Thank you. Bart?
Bart: Well, the UK is in a weak position no matter who’s at the voting table, and the fact that you behave like spoilt brats at the back asking for loans and exemptions from numerous things, the EU probably 53.27 it’s going to be a hard time. We may be able to negotiate a half decent trade deal but we’ll be getting hammered, I would imagine.
I: Yes or no, and do you guys think this government is stable enough to last, let’s say, in the next 12 months?
FR: No.
I: Bart, do you think …
Bart: Well, unfortunately they could because there’s nobody to replace Theresa May.
I: Emily?
Emily: Nope, October, that’s my bet.
I: Okay, Clare?
Clare: Nope.
I: All right, so let me ask you, if it was October, turn on the radio, called another election, what would your emotional reaction to that news be? Marian?
Marian: ??
I: Bart, what would your reaction be to the announcement of another general election?
Bart: Well, I’d be fairly enthusiastic about Labour’s chances now.
I: Okay, Emily?
Emily: Cautious hope.
I: Okay, Clare, how would you feel about it?
Clare: I think it’s expected, right, and yeah, yeah.
I: You’re just thinking, oh I have to campaign again.
Clare: Oh no, no, I want, yeah, I’m getting ready for the Indy Ref..
I: Right, thank you so much, it was really wonderful.
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