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UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces intention to hold general election

theguardian.com

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Re: UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces intention to hold general election

#71

Post by anodin3 »

skdotdan wrote: post #51

Some people criticize May whatever she does. If she calls election, because she wants to destroy opposition or because the election will cause more political instability, and if she doesn't, because she is afraid of democracy or something. Honestly, this makes no sense at all.

Of course it does... just read this thread. Everybody just wants to stop and destroy the tories because they are the tories and, you know, fuck right-wingers because they are right-wingers and we have to stop conservatives because fuck the tories because they are right-wingers and tories

Obviously such mindset has only accelerated the downfall of labour under that spineless sissy Corbyn. And even that they are trying to ruin because now labour guys are antisemitic and pro-brexit and whatever the hell.

Tiring, tiring. Politics is getting tiring.

Re: UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces intention to hold general election

#72

Post by Nursie »

tehwalrus wrote: post #49
headmelted wrote: post #16

Actually this is just good business for the Tories, and I've long expected it. The opposition is in disarray under Corbyn, and our prime minister has never won an election. This is as easy a victory as Theresa May will ever be able to bank on, and legitimises her leadership in the eyes of a large section of the public. She can also claim (maybe rightly so) that she has the undisputed majority support of the public fo…

Vote Lib Dem. Seriously. I am a candidate in very north london, we're all organised for this possibility.

Good for you.

I will be voting Lib Dem as I always have. Not that fussed about EU membership either way but if the LDs can capture a decent proportion of the 'remain' vote then that could mean a huge boost.

Best of luck!

Re: UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces intention to hold general election

#73

Post by thenomad »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #47
Silhouette wrote: post #31

She's announced her intention to call a general election. Before it can actually happen, she needs 2/3s of MPs to agree, according to the Fixed Term Parliament Act. Otherwise, it's a five-year term whether the current PM likes it or not. This is an odd one, because if we have the election then it's likely to be a Tory landslide, but the Tories have only a narrow majority in the House of Commons and so need the turkey…

Labour have already announced they will support it.

I believe Jeremy Corbyn has announced Labour will support it. That's not really the same thing at this point.

Re: UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces intention to hold general election

#74

Post by caoilte »

tehwalrus wrote: post #49
headmelted wrote: post #16

Actually this is just good business for the Tories, and I've long expected it. The opposition is in disarray under Corbyn, and our prime minister has never won an election. This is as easy a victory as Theresa May will ever be able to bank on, and legitimises her leadership in the eyes of a large section of the public. She can also claim (maybe rightly so) that she has the undisputed majority support of the public fo…

Vote Lib Dem. Seriously. I am a candidate in very north london, we're all organised for this possibility.

No thanks.

It was your austerity cuts that created the favourable climate for Brexit in the first place.

Re: UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces intention to hold general election

#75

Post by TheOtherHobbes »

Silhouette wrote: post #46
Kurtz79 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder (I'm not from UK), is there really zero chance of someone from Labour to challenge Corbyn (someone more moderate/center leaning) and rally the pro-EU voters ?

The Labour Party establishment have tried to dethrone Corbyn before and failed. He's an odd case. He commands a lot of influence among Labour members and to some extent the unions (who have significant ties to and influence on the Labour Party here). This makes him more-or-less untouchable as party leader. However, he's loathed by most of the party's current MPs, who are politicians and know he's going to be a liabil…

I was a Corbyn supporter, on the basis that we'd had too many Labour leaders who went against the wishes of the members and supported Tory policy.

Then on Brexit, he went against the wishes of the members and supported Tory policy.

Needless to say I'm no longer a supporter. Of course, it's easy to forget that all the other leadership candidates and challengers would have done the same.

I'd love to see the scenario in your final paragraph. I think May knows it's all or nothing, and if anything gets in the way of her timetable, it's game over for her and for Brexit.

I don't honestly expect that to happen, because I'm fairly sure that Corbyn is either delusional or compromised - and also willing to use a three-line whip to make sure the election goes ahead.

Re: UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces intention to hold general election

#76

Post by Silhouette »

evgen wrote: post #43
headmelted wrote: post #22

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Agreed, I think Tim Farron was right on point strategy-wise to come out and immediately, unequivocally say that a vote for the Lib Dems is a vote to stay in. It's just not going to sway nearly enough people to win a majority, and the Tories know that.

True, but if the LibDems can pull enough Blairites away from Corbyn and urban Tories away from May it will give the LibDems a core that they can move forward with. (I don't think they have a hope in hell of actually even getting enough MPs to play kingmakers, but they may be aiming to simply supplant Labour as the opposition party...)

The trouble is, the Lib Dems under Farron have essentially become a single-issue party.

That decision potentially alienates about 1/3 of their previous voter base who voted to Leave, as well as those who did want to Remain but either don't believe in overriding a popular referendum on democratic principles or don't feel strongly enough on the issue to disrupt things further.

Given that we're talking about the Lib Dems here, all of those could be significant groups. It's quite a gamble to bet your whole political strategy on attracting enough voters from other parties because they feel so strongly on Europe, and according to recent polling, it looks like it's a gamble that is going to fail unspectacularly.

Re: UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces intention to hold general election

#77

Post by iaskwhy »

Slamchunk wrote: post #27

Worst possible timing, who do I vote for? I live in a tory safe seat currently.

Vote swapping is possible, there was at least a major platform for the last General Election and it got quite popular. Consider reading about it.

A quick Google search found this but I'm sure there's much more than that: http://voteswap.org/

Re: UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces intention to hold general election

#78

Post by pmontra »

tonyedgecombe wrote: post #47
Silhouette wrote: post #31

She's announced her intention to call a general election. Before it can actually happen, she needs 2/3s of MPs to agree, according to the Fixed Term Parliament Act. Otherwise, it's a five-year term whether the current PM likes it or not. This is an odd one, because if we have the election then it's likely to be a Tory landslide, but the Tories have only a narrow majority in the House of Commons and so need the turkey…

Labour have already announced they will support it.

According to what I read here the Labour is going to lose many seats. Are those Labour MPs so eager to lose their job? Amazing.

Re: UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces intention to hold general election

#79

Post by malza »

beaconstudios wrote: post #66
headmelted wrote: post #16

Actually this is just good business for the Tories, and I've long expected it. The opposition is in disarray under Corbyn, and our prime minister has never won an election. This is as easy a victory as Theresa May will ever be able to bank on, and legitimises her leadership in the eyes of a large section of the public. She can also claim (maybe rightly so) that she has the undisputed majority support of the public fo…

who's "we"? I'd be pretty happy about an election legitimising May's leadership. If labour wants to become more competitive they should stop nominating far-left leaders.

Labour's problem is they are basically two parties, the metropolitan socialists (remain) and working classes (leave). I doubt any leader would be able to fight this upcoming general election - it's a huge mess for them.

Re: UK Prime Minister Theresa May announces intention to hold general election

#80

Post by talktime »

clearly wrote: post #39
talktime wrote: post #21

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The majority of the English like strong, essentially unopposed governance. They like be to be able to choose the g'vner occasionally, but they don't want multiple powerful factions.

Do we?

Not all of us, but the majority of us do.
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