OntarioFox

All I can say about Leicester's city seats in the wake of it all is - thank god for Liz Kendall. The decisions in East and South just mean that with the country now getting a labour government, the city decided now was the time to throw out MPs who could have worked with them to make it a better place. That all falls on Liz now. It could be a good thing to not have to bother with the other two when sourcing investment and funding, but there are now cities up and down the country with a far stronger voice to get the attention of the Starmer administration in parliament. Yes, I know Soulsby is still in charge (for now), but his day-to-day interaction with the Westminster party is going to be far more limited than MPs will be. And he's blown the city's finances so badly that any requests for funding to improve things are going to be secondary to merely keeping basic services afloat. They've already jettisoned Special Needs transport for 16-18 year olds to the County, for example - vital services are down to the bare bones of what are legally required. Honestly, I despair for the city. It's felt like a lost cause for a few years now, and last night really confirms that it's disappeared entirely up its own arse. The decay, the homeless epidemic, the antisocial behaviour, the racial tensions, the looming bankruptcy of the council, all of these are things which are now going to either take far longer to fix, if they even get addressed at all, ahead of other cities around the country (and even within our region - both Nottingham and Derby are fully Labour). I guess the only positive outcome would be that the new government works extra hard to win those voters back by trying to help it improve but I think it's more likely they just abandon it as a lost cause and focus on other cities that didn't jump ship because of either insane individual candidates or international issues our country and city has zero sway on. After 14 years of Tory rot, I frankly think the government will have far more important things on its mind than what people in Leicester think about it.

Going to be a huge push for it now, especially from a resurgent Lib Dems and with Reform's big percentage and tiny seat count. Like others have said, Labour's big win is pretty porous behind the headline figure (so many seats won on a knife-edge, and a lot of previous supporters bled to independents, Greens and I guess some batshit-crazy Hindu Tories in Leicester East). Literally as I wrote this, they won Poole by 18 votes! That said, the Tories are almost certainly going from here into a civil war with Reform, which is never going to win over the more centrist voters they need to win elections. Starmer isn't stupid - he knew that they are the ones that give you power, and that it really doesn't matter if you get 30% or 40%, as long as that core 10-15% in the centre chooses you. And they are far, far more bothered about real life (the cost of living, the NHS, housing supply and mortgages etc.) than they are about dog-whistle politics, "woke" distractions and foreign affairs that we ultimately have no sway on. For as long as they continue to navel-gaze and chase the right wing, they will never gain power again - not least with the ongoing demographic shift in the country which is slowly but surely seeing their traditional base, who are sticking their fingers in their ears and voting for them because it's all they know, literally die off. My prediction is - next election, this big majority falls back to either a very small one or a hung parliament. Even in the former case, you'll have parties on both sides calling for the system to change, and depending on polling Labour could see it as the only way to extend their time in government. In the latter case, the junior partner in whatever coalition they form will almost certainly demand a referendum in PR (or AV again), and we'll probably see the population vote in favour this time with voices on the right also backing its introduction. Regardless, last night I think we finally saw the first few nails in the coffin of FPTP. The days of Theresa May squawking about "StROnG aND sTAbLE" government seem a long time ago indeed. We're now in a 5-party system, with a few independents thrown in to further complicate matters.

Fox Hunted Jess Phillips clings on - was that Lil' Dicky in the Workers' Party guy's entourage?

Again, the more the overall result becomes obvious, the more I'm absolutely ashamed at our city handing the Tories their ONLY gain in the entire country tonight. I have no words to be honest.

f**k sake

Sky are basically saying the D-Day moment cost Penny her seat in a constituency heavily linked to the Navy. Justice. If there's one thing Labour have absolutely nailed this campaign, it has been to clearly show military-linked areas that they've changed from Corbyn's era. But that loss was entirely self-inflicted by the moron who, thank f**k, will be turfed out of No. 10 in about an hour's time.

Penny Mordaunt falls on her sword, wow

Doesn't matter unless there's a change in voting system. Pretty sure this is the watershed moment where a serious national conversation and change in public opinion in PR's favour occurs. The overall picture is so messy that you can no longer say with a straight face that FPTP returns the "Strong and Stable" governments the Maybot used to go on about.

Leicestershire South stays Tory

I'm just going to pretend there's a void where Leicester is and look at the rest of the country, because it's a very fun night for political anoraks. The SNP seems to be collapsing for starters. Tory Chairman holds on by 20 votes

So we as a city, at the precise moment we so sorely need a bit of joined-up thinking and co-operation with a sympathetic incoming government, instead choose to self-immolate based on something happening thousands of miles away. We deserve absolutely everything we get. Leicester is going to rot over the next 5 years.

Liverpool fans now have every right to call us "f**king Tories". Absolute national embarrassment, hang your heads in shame.

To be fair the last time I remember this much negativity around a new appointment, it was when we got Claudio in.

Mods, can we replace the championship trophy on the banner with a poorly cut-out shot of the new gaffer's face?

Joe Hart gives off major ADHD vibes

To be perfectly honest, the idea of Cooper coming and keeping us up at F*rest's expense is too good an opportunity to pass up. I'm past the point of feeling embarrassment for our club after how Rodgers tanked us between 21-23, it was so humiliating that nothing will I think ever top it. Only the most delusional amongst us doesn't now acknowledge that survival is the target for the next year or two. I'm already at peace with the possibility of going straight back down, so might as well gamble on the prospect of being able to rub the splinter-dicks' noses in it if we do stay up and they don't.

The task is now clear - hit the 150 club and overtake Michael "he's not a natural finisher" Owen. 15 to go.

Yes, purely for the banter of him having to manage the man who broke his goalscoring record (contract extension permitting).

Be interesting to see what style we adopt. Many of us will say that, in spite of 7-8 years of having a possession-above-all approach shoehorned into our philosophy, we STILL looked most dangerous last season when we threw that to the dogs and went for a counter-attacking approach (both Southampton games, first half against Liverpool, West Brom away, Stoke away to name a few). The manager we choose will ultimately dictate which way we go. I think a lot of us have serious doubts that Enzoball was going to end up being anything more than Rodgersball 2.0 in the top flight.

Preki

He's had a really steady season for them, be interesting to see if he pushes on from here. Great defence-splitting pass for Armstrong's winner.

Ronnie Pickering

Wasn't really that fussed about the Kasabian gig at Viccy Park this summer until now - because Kaiser Chiefs are the support act. It's going to be carnage when they play you-know-what.