I'd like to once again say "fuck BBC news" for painting Spencer like an idiot and for sucking off Goodwin

What's great about those numbers is Con+Reform is soooo far behind Lab+Lib+Greens.

The margin the Greens won by is so big that even if was more split with Labour, Reform still wouldn't have one. Which will horrify Labour as people won't fear vote splitting as much.

It's one small bi-election, but I like what it says about the Overton window.

Quite a different result from what the polls were predicting.

The conservatives are pulling in monster raving loony party numbers that's going to be embarrassing.

The issue is that labor is competing with the greens, and this plays into Reform’s favor :-(

Or red ones!

What is reassuring is that the vote was nowhere near as close as the polls were suggesting it would be. Most of the polls were having the result being won by only a couple of hundred votes, but the greens won by thousands and thousands of votes.

That's what all the whining is about. They didn't get anywhere near the votes they were expecting and I'm sure their backers are starting to wonder if there's really enough appetite in the UK for them to have any chance of winning. Because if they're not going to win what's the point in funding them? That and the fact that Goodwin is a sore loser.

Don't ruin this for me :-)

That's the really encouraging part of all this: Green is looking like the tactical choice now :-)

I'd say that it's for a few reasons:

1. In this country's broken electoral system, "tactical" voting is quite common. Until now, Labour has been heavily relying on the idea that they'll be elected by default: the not-Conservative choice. When Reform ate the Tories' lunch, they continued to push that they were "the only party that can beat Reform". This result suggests that this reasoning no longer applies and indicates that Labour's dominance as an alternative to the right-wing forces in the UK is ending.
2. By pushing the traditional parties into 3rd, 4th, and 5th place, this election may mark the end of these guys in favour of the new challenger parties that're both advocating for more direct action to combat the problems we have.
3. Reform took 2nd, consuming the Tory vote almost entirely indicating that they're the force to beat. This makes the revelations of #1 all the more relevant for those of us who think that Reform are dangerous fanatics.
4. The Greens are unabashedly socialists and this result indicates that their position is resonating with voters far more than Labour's "Tory light" platform. When the "labour" party gets spanked by a party that's advocating for wealth taxes, that's a Big Deal™.

Also on top of the other comment, the other major thing is that this happened in Manchester. A labour stronghold, and a seat that was supposed to be represented by Andy Burnham but then Starmer decided he was a threat so wouldn't allow him in the party. This result is the first clear evidence that the left are sick of labour and they're ridiculousness.

If labour had come in second it would have actually been a bad thing because it would mean that the Greens were split in the left-wing vote, but the fact that they were pushed down into third place indicates that they are not splitting the vote they are replacing it. That's huge.

And it's a win-win for liberal voters because either the greens will replace labour or this vote will give labour the kick up the arse that they need. Either way it demonstrates a desire for far more left left-wing policy than is currently being offered.