General Election, June 8th

[Wycombe Fox]

3 minutes ago, Sharpe's Fox said:

Running through wheat fields with these fcukers

 

 

Now that's naughty

Looks like Sylvester O'Stallone on the right

[Guest MattP]

7 minutes ago, Bobby Hundreds said:

Wonder what Ruth Davidson and Nigel Evans think about cosying up to the DUP?

I'd imagine it makes them uncomfortable but they are going to need to do if they want to pass any legislation.

 

1 minute ago, Sharpe's Fox said:

Running through wheat fields with these fcukers

 

 

Now that's naughty

Good job Labour won't be able to make any capital out of it. It could be awkward if the DUP want it to be.

 

(Although at the minute the DUP say no agreement is there from anyone)

[Buce]

1 hour ago, MattP said:

2019 is possible.

 

Surely we can't have another election whilst the Brexit negotiation is ongoing?

 

See, this is what I don't get.

 

May ostensibly called the election to strengthen her hand on Brexit; she now has a weaker hand than the one she couldn't manage with before. She's a fvcking fraud and this should go back to the country.

[Bobby Hundreds]

The DUP think the Giant's Causeway was created 6,000 years ago.

 

 

[Foxxed]

The SNP's poor showing has given the DUP power in the UK. That must hurt.

[Steven]

Shock horror, Theresa May climbs into bed with another group of terrorist extremists.

 

Given the fact that she has to negotiate with Ireland as part the Brexit deal, I fail to see how forming an alliance with the DUP strengthens her hand in this matter. Rather it weakens it. 

[ozleicester]

You wont last 2 years with a hung parliament like this

[lgfualol]

Move countries while you can people

[Foxxed]

Are we all brushing up on our Northern Ireland politics then?
 

The Loyalists - those who support the UK and are willing to use Paramilitary violence - publicly urged DUP power then.

 

 

I'm assuming this isn't fake. I really can't see this election helping peace in Northern Ireland.

[Guest MattP]

Very mature speech by the DUP leader there, emphasising while they are Northern Irish they fundamentally pro British and they will stand up for the union and what it best for it.

 

Gerramin.

[lifted*fox]

1 minute ago, lgfualol said:

Move countries while you can people

 

I actually had that conversation with my fiancee last night.

 

Time to ****ing get out of this backwards little shit-hole.

 

Full of 'Little Englanders' who think this country is still something special when in reality we're just a shit little island with little relevance to anyone and massive delusions of grandeur of our importance on the world stage.

 

People duped into thinking that by going it alone we'll somehow be this 'great nation like we once was' when actually we'll just fester in isolation whilst our economy eats shit and we all get a right bumming by our government whilst saying "OH **** YES, HARDER, **** ME HARDER'. 

 

Definitely time to move. 

[LiberalFox]

Surely there should be moves for a cross party negotiation on Britain's preferred deal on Brexit? Otherwise there's a question mark over whether May actually has the authority to negotiate on our behalf.

[Izzy]

1 minute ago, daz*dsb said:

 

I actually had that conversation with my fiancee last night.

 

Time to ****ing get out of this backwards little shit-hole.

 

Full of 'Little Englanders' who think this country is still something special when in reality we're just a shit little island with little relevance to anyone and massive delusions of grandeur of our importance on the world stage.

 

People duped into thinking that by going it alone we'll somehow be this 'great nation like we once was' when actually we'll just fester in isolation whilst our economy eats shit and we all get a right bumming by our government whilst saying "OH **** YES, HARDER, **** ME HARDER'. 

 

Definitely time to move. 

Yeah but we've got the Lake District, Cornwall AND Alton Towers. So many reasons to stay put mate...

[DJ Barry Hammond]

1 hour ago, MPH said:

I wonder what everyone thought about the result and what were the reasons for the Swing towards labour?

 

 

Im surprised that there was such a big swing from the SNP to to labour.. Yes losing 12 seats for the conservativeis a massive game changer

 

 

Do you think its a case of people massively getting behind Corbyn now?  or does it show how loathed Theresa May is? A female John Major, maybe?!?  SNP getting tactical in order to get another independence vote?

 

 

I'd be interested in other peoples opinions....

 

When May called this election, I think she felt she could benefit in a number of ways;

 

• She was running on a manifesto that she did not put together and no longer made sense in the countries much changed conditions (I can imagine she was very annoyed by having to reverse the NINO decision in the budget - not paticularly down to the policy itself, but that this undermined what she wanted to do ). Calling an election would allow her to run things on her own agenda - something that clearly matters to her.
• SNP calls for a second Scottish referendum clearly annoyed her. Having an election had the potential of putting the SNP in their place on this (as it seems it has) because although the Remian vote was higher in Scotland, it was foolish to translate that as a strong reason for enough people to switch their opinion on independence.
• The thin majority she had could cause difficulties within the party. I ponder now whether all was as it seemed around the cabinet table and that she had also hoped an influx on new MP's would provide her a chance to make a reshuffle  with more options. 
• Renewing a mandate would give her both a stronger hand internationally in Brexit negotiations (slightly) but possibly more importantly extra time to smooth out the transition period immediately following before the next scheduled election. 

Now with a 20 point lead, favourable opinion ratings and her opposition looking in disarray... why wouldn't you call a snap election (even if you repeatedly said previously you wouldn't)? That decision itself was to coin a phrase 'strong and stable'... but the decisions of her and her campaign team after that contributed to her ultimate downfall.

 

I found it bizarre how much of the early campaign was about herself and only her. We hardly saw any of her cabinet on the trail, all focus was on her, with the party even rebranding itself as "Theresa May's Team". Her speeches backed this up, speaking about my purpose and what I would do - they were very authoritarian.

 

That of course, could have been by design because May herself was seen as a strong asset to the party brand at this point, BUT we don't live in a Presidential system, so if you are going to gain seats in an election, you need to get your new faces to replace existing local faces and so this tactic doesn't play strongly to that.

 

Another clear mistake was initially focusing the reason for an election so much on Brexit when the public had voted on that issue only 12 months before. What was the most common phrase among people on both sides about Brexit at this time? Yep, "just get on with it" they had there say on this, they didn't need to be asked again.

 

This meant to predicate the calling of an election on this main reason felt false and probably set in place the feeling among many of those key floating voters that May was being synicial, opportunistic and had something about her that maybe they didn't like?

 

That on its own wouldn't have been a problem, but for some reason she seemed to play further to those fears by refusing to do the national TV debates, parroting an annoying phrase to every question she was asked and offering us no personality into the bargain, possibly to the extent that it made people feel less threatened by the prospect of Corbyn.

 

Then came the "Coup d'état"... the disastrous manifesto! 

 

I question what road testing, field work, or whatever they did with their policies and whether anyone within the top team properly played devils advocate and looked for the potential attack lines an opposition might use. The two obvious policies that stood out as a horrible offer to potential voters for me were the social care plans (dubbed the dementia tax) and the dropping of free school meals for primary schools kids. 

 

Both of these were major policies that would play to a large portion of the electorate but the underlying shorthand message from them seemed to be "vote for us, we'll take away your kids meals and your parents house!" 

 

May could have felt she was producing a manifesto that was being honest to the people, but are things really as bad as they seem from the this manifesto? Did it really provide us with any inspiring policy / reason of why we should vote Conservative - especially when it was set against that Labour candy floss, bubbles manifesto that was promising everything? 

 

What was the positive headline grabbing policy in that manifesto they hoped would run for days?

 

Manifesto's are meant to be largely blue sky thinking, you carefully code the shitty things you might need to do during a term, or don't mention them at all.

 

May was at best nieve with the policy choices put into that manifesto - but I say it was more a case of her being neurotically head strong and that she built herself an echo chamber where no-one challenged her on the things that were going in (fox hunting, removal of the ivory ban - when you have a picture of you looking like Cruella de Vil!)

 

May on her way to 'find' another fur coat, after eating a child's free school meal

 

This is not to say Corbyn and the Labour Party didn't play some blinders in opposition, especially in terms of getting out a strong youth vote, but come on... if you're calling a snap election that suggests you hold all the aces so you certainly shouldn't be losing seats, so for me, the result was much more influenced by the poor choices of May and her top team. They kept giving areas and reasons encombrant Labour MPs could use to defend their own positions

 

Sorry for the long post... but you did ask!

 

[lifted*fox]

1 minute ago, Izzy Muzzett said:

Yeah but we've got the Lake District, Cornwall AND Alton Towers. So many reasons to stay put mate...

 

I went to Alton Towers on a particularly bad comedown several years ago. I managed to enjoy a couple of rounds on Nemesis whilst still a little buzzy but then came very close to puking / dying on Hex later in the day.

 

I've not visited since. Cool story, etc. 

[lifted*fox]

[Guest MattP]

8 minutes ago, daz*dsb said:

 

Full of 'Little Englanders' who think this country is still something special when in reality we're just a shit little island with little relevance to anyone and massive delusions of grandeur of our importance on the world stage.

Leave then. You won't be missed.

[Finnegan]

Bwqhahahahhahaha.

 

Anyone for a game of "Sharia Law or DUP?"

 

http://abithungry.com/fun/dup/

[lifted*fox]

Just now, MattP said:

Leave then. You won't be missed.

 

 

[Guest MattP]

Tories should just run as a minority here, no deals and present a Queens speech to the house.

 

If they reject it, then go to the DUP.

[Benji]

Now just wish someone had got a majority.  So disinterested with all of this now - can't we just have a country going in a direction for a prolonged period of time FFS.

[leicsmac]

14 minutes ago, MattP said:

Very mature speech by the DUP leader there, emphasising while they are Northern Irish they fundamentally pro British and they will stand up for the union and what it best for it.

 

Gerramin.

2

It's almost like the rampant sexism and homophobia aren't an issue, isn't it?

 

(Though TBF they don't have much of a platform to pursue their more...interesting views.)

 

 

[ramboacdc]

Can someone explain something to me? How has may gone to the queen and said " I can form a government with a majority" but hasn't entered a coalition and haven't even started negotiating yet. What happens if the dup do go "well give us this or no support" And any form of deal collapses? Just seems like a power grab to me. Even Cameron took 5 days and got a proper agreement in place before going to the queen.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk

[Guest MattP]

Just now, ramboacdc said:

Can someone explain something to me? How has may gone to the queen and said " I can form a government with a majority" but hasn't entered a coalition and haven't even started negotiating yet. What happens if the dup do go "well give us this or no support" And any form of deal collapses? Just seems like a power grab to me. Even Cameron took 5 days and got a proper agreement in place before going to the queen.

Sent from my SM-G930F using Tapatalk
 

Because no one else has the numbers to form one. 

 

Bring on 2022.

[lifted*fox]

May and the Queen are probably just going to scissor each other whilst talking it over. 

 

Imagine that!