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UK election: Conservatives lose majority

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Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority

#181
post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Why is Corbyn a weak candidate? I don`t get it why left = communism. Corbyn is a lot like Sanders he can get the youth to vote for some degrees and has good ideas for the majority of a country. Austerity is not a good solution for the future within the new dawn of technology around the corner (ML/AI driven software)

Jeremy is well to the left of the majority of labour party members he's a old school socialist not a communist though. David Miliband (the king over the water) or Ed Miliband running on the same platform would have probably got a LAB majority given the disastrous tory campaign.

Not necessarily, a major component of Labour's pitch to the middle ground was explicitly that a vote for Labour would help keep the Tories in check whilst safe in the knowledge that there was no chance whatsoever it would put labour in government, because of Jeremy Corbyn.

Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

To add to this, having a system which has to learn to work with other parties, negotiate and compromise is a good thing. MMPs supposed downsides are not necessarily so.

But it does mean that fringe extremist parties can get pet policies passed by holding their partners feet to the fire that the majority of the population wouldn't vote for Its why NI doesn't have abortion or the same rights for Gay people its down to the Ultras in the DUP as Churchill Said "nothing so loyal as an Ulster "policeman"

> But it does mean that fringe extremist parties can get pet policies passed by holding their partners feet to the fire that the majority of the population wouldn't vote for

Evidence for this: CSU in Germany (the quite-a-bit-more-right-wing sister party of Merkel's CDU).

Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority

#183
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A few months ago people were talking about a 100-seat majority for the Tories. Now they have no majority at all: they'll need to get every member of their party plus a few from the DUP to agree to any controversial thing they want to pass (e.g. the Brexit treaty) which might force the government (administration) to make concessions to extreme wings of the party (e.g. a hard-Brexit faction).

actually for some votes that only effect England the DUP cant vote so they cant pass "English" bills without doing a deal with labor / liberals.

When I look at http://www.bbc.com/news/election/2017/results/england (the election results for England specifically), it shows a comfortable majority for the Tories (297 of 533 seats = 55.7%). Am I misunderstanding something?

Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority

#184

Someone closer to the UK than me mind explaining why SNP lost so many seats, including several that seemed pretty safe? I thought that Scottish nationalism was on the rise after Brexit, with many people there wanting to remain within the EU. Why the sudden shift to the Tories there?

The last time they went from less than 10 seats to all but 3 seats such a massive swing (35%) was never going to hold.

Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority

#185

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.

May was never elected and had never really been scrutinised by the public until the election was called.

Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority

#186
post #8

What 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.

There's only two parties - Lib Dems & Greens - which promised a chance to revert Brexit, so I wouldn't expect it to be reversed. A softer Brexit is certainly on the cards though. This guide [0] from the BBC might help to understand how coalitions are formed. It's currently looking very tricky as the splits are crazy [1]. [0] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/election-2017-40209087 [1] https://www.theguardian.com/politics/ng-…

> A softer Brexit is certainly on the cards though.

The hardness of Brexit does not depend solely on the British government. The EU administration has a huge interest to make Brexit as hard as possible to avoid other member states from feeling the urge to leave.

Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority

#187

The BBC feed says: "There's still no result in Kensington, west London, after two recounts. The Conservatives say they'll keep calling for recounts until they are denied any more, rather than concede, the BBC understands. As such, there's going to be a third recount, which is either going to take place this afternoon or tomorrow..." What's that about? On the face of it it seems so childishly spiteful that I feel I mu…

It actually occurred in the 1910s that there was 1 (One!) vote in an area. If its as close as that, there is significant benefit to recounting, as any result that tips the balance could tip the balance of some later votes given the tories lack of a majority

You mean one vote difference? Because I find it hard to believe that voter turnout is that low. :)

Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority

#188
post #181

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Jeremy is well to the left of the majority of labour party members he's a old school socialist not a communist though. David Miliband (the king over the water) or Ed Miliband running on the same platform would have probably got a LAB majority given the disastrous tory campaign.

Not necessarily, a major component of Labour's pitch to the middle ground was explicitly that a vote for Labour would help keep the Tories in check whilst safe in the knowledge that there was no chance whatsoever it would put labour in government, because of Jeremy Corbyn.

MM that's really cynical could be some richer tory pensioners (wo may have voted UKIP last time) did that because of the steal your children's inheritance, means testing of winter fuel payments and losing the triple lock.

Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority

#189
post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I'm nervous about this being spun as a victory for the left, which I'm already hearing. It's more of a collapse of the Tories. But it is a victory for the left. Before this election everyone thought Corbyn was a fucking joke - even his own party. He ran a strong campaign and Labour got 40% of the vote.

I don't think Corbyn ran a strong campaign, that's the point. The Conservatives handed the election to him on a silver platter, and the Labour Party still lost .

> Labour's vote share is 9.6% up on 2015 - the largest increase from one election to another, for any party, since 1935-1945 (9.8%)

That's pretty impressive, especially considering the vigorous campaigns from DM, and the Sun, against Corbyn.

Re: UK election: Conservatives lose majority

#190
I would really have loved to have been a fly on the wall when this decision was discussed. Maybe someone from the U.K. can explain why, if you have a majority and outright control of Parliament, that you might necessarily need to extend that majority?
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