the snap general election thread

hallmark

Joe_Horner wrote: »

No. There's nothing in the UK system that says a government must have a majority, it's simply that because of the petty childish party-lines way our MPs tend to behave not much gets done if they don't.

Yay! You've stated it perfectly :T:T:T:T

That's why we'll have a Conservative Minority Government.

Glad you're so on board with it.

lovinituk

Joe_Horner wrote: »

No. There's nothing in the UK system that says a government must have a majority, it's simply that because of the petty childish party-lines way our MPs tend to behave not much gets done if they don't.

The precedent is clear that, in the event of a hung parliament, the sitting Prime Minister is allowed to try to form a government. The first critical test of that is whether they can get the Queen's Speech agreed by the Commons. If they can't it shows they don't have the confidence of parliament and the government collapses.

If the sitting PM fails to form a government that's accepted by parliament then the leader of the largest opposition party is invited to form one. In this case that would be Corbyn for Labour.

If that happened then the other parties (particularly the Conservatives) can accept that (minority) government or not. If they don't then an election takes place.

So, if May fails to get her Queens Speech passed then Corbyn gets a shot and the Tories have a stark choice of:

• accepting (or, at least, abstaining) and crossing their fingers that it turns into a clusterfcuk quickly, or
  
• forcing a new election which they really don't want right now.

I suspect there'd be a lot of abstentions on the Tory benches.....

Ok, so in the specific situation we are currently in, do people think it feasible that Cons wouldn't get a vote for a minority government but Labour would? Surely no Con MP would vote (or not) to allow that to happen? And Labour + all others don't have enough to win a vote do they?

Mr_Costcutter

No mention I think of John Major's concern over the Tories 'liason' with the DUP. Never been a fan of Major, but today I thought he spoke a lot of sense.

masterwilde

the conservatives are not happy at present and its rumoured that enough of them might vote against anything May does

GreatApe

Increasing corporation tax will lead to more people legally not paying it. eg more going into company director pensions at nil tax.

Increasing corporation tax will lead more uk companies to be based in lower tax countries, it does not take much work to write an invoice for services rendered from the Ireland subsidiary paying 15% tax instead of 26%+ uk tax or even possibly lower tax countries/methods than ireland

Increasing corp tax will mean lower share prices and lower dividend payment which will impact pensions and pensioners. It would also mean lower stamp duties lower capital gains taxes and lower dividend taxes

The money is coming from somewhere so you are screwing those people if you put the rate up.

My view is we should tend towards a 10% corp tax rate but have higher dividend/CGT to offset gains to the current owners.

lovinituk

masterwilde wrote: »

the conservatives are not happy at present and its rumoured that enough of them might vote against anything May does

Even to the extent of allowing Labour to form a minority government?

GreatApe

Joe_Horner wrote: »

When it comes to necessities - I assume you accept that a habitable roof over your head is a necessity in a civilised society - the market can only act fairly if supply is sufficient to meet the basic standards. The market can then operate freely and fairly for "upgrades"

But if supply at a basic quality doesn't meet demand then those with the supply become free to extort. The UK rental market is not only at a point where supply at a basic quality doesn't meet demand, it's kept that way (to some extent) by developers intentionally withholding property to limit supply.

The situation is then compounded by the duty placed on local authorities and housing associations to base their rents on the local "market price" which means that, by artificially inflating the cos of an essential commodity, the "free market" can force those who should be in a position to provide balance to follow suit.

so much nonsense

We have sufficient housing and most uk born brits are not net buyers of housing over their lifetimes

Mr_Costcutter

lovinituk wrote: »

Why should I? As I said I work bloody hard and am directly responsible for tens of thousands of pounds of tax going to the government. Why should it cost me more personally if corporation tax went up?

Even if you were forced to lay people off, surely their well-being would be of concern to you - I know it would worry me sick - perhaps that's why I never went into business

masterwilde

lovinituk wrote: »

Even to the extent of allowing Labour to form a minority government?

thats the question

Joe_Horner

lovinituk wrote: »

Ok, so in the specific situation we are currently in, do people think it feasible that Cons wouldn't get a vote for a minority government but Labour would? Surely no Con MP would vote (or not) to allow that to happen? And Labour + all others don't have to win a vote do they?

Hard to say, mainly on the first bit.

Assuming the deal with the Divil is done, so the Tories get their working majority of 9 (2 plus the empty Sinn Fein seats) and that all other members want to overturn them, it depends on how good they are at getting every single one of those MPs into the commons and through the vote compared to how good the various others are at doing the same.

It doesn't take too many people over-indulging at lunchtime in the subsidised bar to swing that either way. Or a nasty summer flue bug, or any number of other hings that might result in less than 10% voting.

Assuming they don't get the speech passed, the same applies for Labour except that there are a hell of a lot of Tories with exceedingly slim majorities who might just decide that a few years on the opposition benches is preferable to finding a real job.

In fact, Party HQ might even decide that tactically they'd rather have a minority Labour government to potentially screw things up than go back to the people and, just possibly, risk a Foot magnitude wipe-out of their own with the current mood.