I am not British nor familiar with British politics. Is there any article that tries to explain the reasons behind what happened? Labours were something like 20% behind when the vote was called, but went close to winning yesterday.
UK election: Conservatives lose majority
111–120 of 200 posts
Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
The thing about brexit was that the UK was already enjoying a lot of privileges and leeway in regards to their participation in the EU - they didn't participate on the agricultural subsidising fund, they didn't have to covert to Euro, etc, setting them apart and ahead of the other EU countries. I'm quite positive that the remaining powers of the EU, starting with Germany and France are actually delighted at leveling…
The UK is in the CAP
Maybe the OP was referring to the rebate that the UK had negotiated under Thatcher. This is a special reduction in its contributions to the EU (it was a £4.9 billion reduction in 2015). It was a sweet deal argued principally with regard to the UK receiving less CAP subsidies than France (for example).
Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority
#113To me it demonstrates the mastery of the ruling class at strategy. Just the ticket when you plan to want to rule something as complicated as a country! Seriously, I'm completely apolitical, but this one is probably one of the worst strategic blunder, ever. Oh, perhaps that and Cameron's brexit gamble. And it feels exactly like that; they are just gambling with the future of the country, repeatedly, with just petty ob…
Something like this?
http://static.polityka.pl/_resource/res/path/ce/97/ce973cf4-...
Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority
#114Man, it's been a bad time for Conservative mandates, hasn't it? Wasn't the Brexit vote set up by a Conservative prime minister to prove that Britain wanted to remain in the EU?
no. michael gove and boris johnson tried to use euroskepticism within the conservative party to strip cameron of the leadership. the referendum was a play by cameron to shut down the euroskeptics and sideline johnson/gove none of gove, johnson or cameron thought the leave side had any chance of actually winning which is why all three of them bailed in the wake of the vote
Gove and Johnson didn't stand side. They ran for the leadership, were defeated in various ways, then in the case of Gove was not chosen by May to be part of the Cabinet.
Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority
#115I am not British nor familiar with British politics. Is there any article that tries to explain the reasons behind what happened? Labours were something like 20% behind when the vote was called, but went close to winning yesterday.
May ran a bad campaign. Corbyn ran a better campaign, apparently.
Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Crimea kind of did that. They were conquered by Russia ~200 years ago, won independence with the Ukraine and then wanted to rejoin with Russia.
It happened thanks to massive deportations of Soviet Union which changed whole social structure of Crimea. People who got conquered and who rejoined have not a single connection.
Well they tried that trick in Ireland too, I'm not sure if the scale was different or if the later wars undid the progress.
Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority
#117What does this mean for Brexit? If Theresa May is kicked out, can/will it be declawed? Can it be reversed? Also, can someone explain to me the steps by which parties in Britain create coalitions (or whatever) and then put a new PM in place? I'm an American, so any reference to American politics is super helpful.
Unlikely to be reversed but it's a big slowdown and uncertainty for the whole Brexit process which was due to start already next week I believe. But on the bright side (for us in the rest of EU) it's also more likely to result in a "softer" brexit, if the election result is seen as a vote against May's Conservative plan. That said, whoever replaces May - once she has been eaten by the Tory backbenchers - is likely to…
Just out: "May has no intentions of resigning" (!)
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/09/theresa-may...
Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority
#118What does this mean for Brexit? If Theresa May is kicked out, can/will it be declawed? Can it be reversed? Also, can someone explain to me the steps by which parties in Britain create coalitions (or whatever) and then put a new PM in place? I'm an American, so any reference to American politics is super helpful.
The main thing with Brexit is that the British people had a referendum about it which decided the matter. The elected politicans need to follow that direction. So it's unlikely that it can be reverted without damaging the system of UK democracy.
The lib Dems wanted a second referendum about what it would mean, I think, e.g. soft Vs hard.
So it can't really be reversed but the angle can be changed as that has always been unclear.
Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
Honestly, I reckon May's decision was understandable. Great polling with a complex negotiation coming up - makes sense to establish a national convention consensus government and press on (regardless of that decision being a bad one or not). But she completely fluffed the campaign, to a ludicrous extent. She had a weak opposition and popular support, and seemed to make every possible attempt to run as poor as a campa…
I agree on the campaign, someone decided to have 'strong' and 'national' into the campaign slogan, despite the fact it actually didn't work terribly well for the UKIP last time around (nor this time!), and didn't work for the Front National either a few weeks back. To me, in both cases, it seems the ruling caste has misread the fact most people want to see some real change with some sort of isolationist/nationalist t…
Even Lib Dem failed to attract people, and I have to say that surprised me a bit, as the 'center' seems to have worked for Macron in france -- perhaps they lacked a figurehead?
As a staunch centrist liberal, I'd have to agree I'm surprised :)
The lack of a central figure is definitely part of it. Tim Farron is a nice guy, but not much of a political heavyweight unfortunately. I still think they're suffering from the hangover of the 2010 coalition, and as ever voters are turned off by the feeling that a Lib Dem vote is 'wasted' which—thanks to FPTP—it often is.
Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority
#120I'm curious what the under-30s turnout is. I'm hoping this will inspire younger people & encourage them to engage more in politics.
in my constituency in a university city and thus with many under thirties the total turnout was down seven percent. However Labour who the young tend to vote for got more votes.