Looking at the lists on wiki, they seem to be going on at about the same rate (an estimate, I've not bothered counting and dividing). There seem to be fewer seat changes though.sTeamTraen wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 3:01 pmIs it just me, or were there more by-elections back then? You hardly hear about them these days, but I remember even in the 1980s when Thatcher had a decent majority, people would get rather exercised by them.El Pollo Diablo wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 1:41 pmEven 1997 wasn't particularly strong - the Tories had lost their overall majority by the time of the election, and only had 324 seats.
2010 to now
1979 - 2010
Yes, Scotland being independent would make the problem permanent, but that's not a problem for the next election, there will be no Referendum with a Tory Majority of 80. And I would assume that allowing a 2nd referendum in return for support from the SNP, which would be a step in that direction, so very risky for Labour.AMS wrote: ↑Tue Sep 22, 2020 3:14 pmOn Labour & Scotland, the potential for Scottish Independence is the bigger problem than winning back their seats. A hung parliament with Labour as largest party would probably end up as a Lab/SNP coalition or confidence and supply deal, either of which put the SNP seats in the helpful* column for Labour (unless anyone thinks the Nats could cut a deal with the Tories?). But independence wipes these seats out and further entrenches the Tory majority in England.
I reckon the solution is more proportional representation (I like the Irish way), the Tories have it too easy in England because of FPTP and Labour would be less dependent on Scottish MPs. But I'm not sure how popular it would be as a policy. Amusingly (to me anyway), it normally seems to gain a bit of traction right after an election, but that doesn't seem to last.