the snap general election thread

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Out,_Vile_Jelly wrote: »

Has Britain ever been so polarised? There is hardly any centre ground (where elections are supposed to be won and lost) anymore. How can a PM unite such extremes?

I noted before the Brexit referendum that it was a bad idea and would create societal divisions and fault lines that would have repercussions beyond anyone's understanding at the time.

There is no prospect of the country uniting any time in the foreseeable future.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

Apparently the Tory who wrote the manifesto (or just scribbled a stream of consciousness poem and assumed the public would buy it) lost his seat, so some justice there.

Wednesday2000

What a mess!:rotfl:

I don't know if I'm happy or sad about it, I really hated all the options in this election.:D

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

mayonnaise wrote: »

The country didn't lose big time.
1) We'll probably be heading for a soft Norway-style brexit now. That's a plus.
2) Due to 1), and the performance of the SNP, the chances of a Union-threatening Indyref2 have significantly subsided. That's another plus.

If we stay in the single market Scottish indy is completely off the table. Even Sturgeon has clearly stated this.

chucknorris

mayonnaise wrote: »

The country didn't lose big time.
1) We'll probably be heading for a soft Norway-style brexit now. That's a plus.
2) Due to 1), and the performance of the SNP, the chances of a Union-threatening Indyref2 have significantly subsided. That's another plus.

Win-win all around.:beer:

I think the Tory party needs to learn from this election that:

- May shouldn't be allowed such a free reign to make decisions without more consultation, or even better replaced altogether later on (my preference would be Ruth Davidson).

- The Brexit vote was 52/48% so don't try and force a hard Brexit, without good reason (i.e. not simply on a whim).

- Perhaps they should move to the centre a bit more, to pick up more marginal votes.

Arklight

Moby wrote: »

May tried to tell us what the election would be about! She tried to say ....this election is about strengthening my hand over brexit. Actually Theresa... No! You dont get to decide the issues of this election. I work in public services and your party treats me like !!!!. I'm not happy with your social care policy, your treatment of the NHS. I don't like the way you have smeared Corbyn; I don't like the way you suck up to big business and give tax breaks to the rich...... but tell me that because of austerity I have to suck it up for yet another year! You patronising tone to the workers.....'come with me' speech.....she is toast. Loads of material in this campaign will be used against her, time and time again.

May chose to clothe herself as a tough negotiator who would get the best deal. She alienated the people she was going to be negotiating with. She is now an empty puff ball of a politician who apparently is going to soldier on. Barnier will have her for breakfast! He will say to her..... Theresa your country is totally divided and your mandate is weak so what do you bring to the table! She laughed at Corbyn describing him as someone who would be 'naked' in the negotiations. Well Theresa May that nasty allusion is going to come back to haunt you!

This isn't just a personal meltdown for Theresa May, it can't be understated how big a hole this has blown below the Tory Party waterline.

They lost seats they should have held, seats that should have been held comfortably moved strongly leftwards, they've galvanised an entire generation of young people to vote against them and annoyed a pensioner support base that will only shrink from now on.

They have spent every shell in their arsenal trying to slander Corbyn in the Tory owned press and it hasn't worked. A world where the Daily Mail and The Sun tell people how to vote and they don't vote that way is completely unknown in contemporary politics. Their own power base will be panicking this morning.

They now somehow have to deliver some sort of Brexit which won't haemorrhage 20% of their votes back to UKIP with a minority government that won't be able to get anything remotely close to a hard Brexit through.

They won't be able to get further austerity through, can't raise taxes, and have no ideas for growing the economy.

If they had someone waiting in the wings who could unite people, tour the country and bring people with them then things might look more promising. But Jeremy Corbyn isn't about to defect from Labour which leads them with Boris Johnson. Someone even more unappealing to most of us than Theresa May.

In attempting to kill off Labour they have blown their own feet off and show no sign that they are going to stop there.

I am enjoying this immensely.

Rinoa

Abolishing tuition fees was Labour's masterstroke.

If you look at the results, northern towns like Mansfield voted Conservative the first time for generations. But how many go to university in Mansfield?, not many. But in the Tory heartlands where a university education is the norm there was a swing to Labour.

In Scotland where there are no tuition fees, so the bribe didn't work, the Conservative vote increased markedly.

Out,_Vile_Jelly

There will no doubt be much anguished analysis of how the Conservatives managed to lose. Good summary in the Spectator:

First, the public were fed up with austerity. With the Tories taking the deficit off the table as an issue, they had no plan to balance the books in the next five years, and they had no response to Jeremy Corbyn’s promise to spend more on pretty much everything. Second, there was a Brexit backlash. Those who had voted Remain turned up in great numbers at this election and voted against the Tory candidate. Third, Theresa May turned out not to be who the voters thought she was.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

chucknorris wrote: »

- The Brexit vote was 52/48% so don't try and force a hard Brexit

This.

We can all accept that Brexit will happen.

But there was never a popular mandate for Theresa May's extreme, uncompromising, hard Brexit.

As last night has definitively proven.

Arklight

Rinoa wrote: »

Abolishing tuition fees was Labour's masterstroke.

If you look at the results, northern towns like Mansfield voted Conservative the first time for generations. But how many go to university in Mansfield?, not many. But in the Tory heartlands where a university education is the norm there was a swing to Labour.

In Scotland where there are no tuition fees, so the bribe didn't work, the Conservative vote increased markedly.

I don't want to sound antagonistic, but your post is just another example as to how the Right doesn't understand what is happening right in front of your faces.

People aren't switching to Labour because they think they've sniffed a handout. They are switching because they are sick of morally bankrupt free market politics of despair.

433,000 18-24 year old didn't register to vote at the last minute because they wanted a handout. They registered because they felt Labour were offering something the Tories seem to have forgotten even exists, hope.

This has been more than obvious on the streets and the door steps and if the Right doesn't want to sink without trace then it had better start getting a handle on it.

As far as Scotland goes, the Labour / SNP vote is split. That might not be the case forever.