Off Topic GENERAL ELECTION CALLED - 8th JUNE 2017

Teresa May has called a snap General Election for June 8th

Are we heading for a Tory landslide ?

 

I think that she is entirely right to go to the country now and seek a fresh mandate before the Brexit negotiations get underway. Corbyn will be sh1tting himself!

 

Snap announcement, I wonder how long this has been planned.

 

"According to the Fixed Term Parliament Act, Theresa May will need a vote of two-thirds of MP’s to allow her to call an early election"

They certainly kept that vote pretty quiet. How remarkable.
Odious, back-tracking two faced cow

http://www.thelondoneconomic.com/ne...tion-despite-fixed-term-parliament-act/18/04/

 

Good Grief!

People have moaned about the fact that she hasn't been "elected" as PM and therefore has no mandate and now they moan when she is seeking a proper mandate!

There is no pleasing some people!

 

Just that it would show her in the best possible (?) light if she played by the rule book occasionally, that's all. Ain't no changing it now, that's for sure.

 

As far as I am aware she is playing it absolutely by the rule book! The Fixed Term Parliaments Act has a clause which specifically gives the PM the right to hold a vote in Parliament to decide if there should be a GE! Its not her fault that the opposition parties are in meltdown.

 

If she was seriously worried about a mandate for her to negotiate Brexit, she should have called the GE before triggering Article 50. This is a power grab.

 

The British people gave her a clear mandate to negotiate Brexit back in June 2016 as far as I'm aware or perhaps I dreamt it!

 

I think she's banking on getting an increased majority (which I think and hope she will), in order for her to negotiate an EU exit deal much easier without the Labour party and that awful little weasle Farron trying to stick a spanner in the works.

It will also be interesting to see how the SNP vote holds up in Scotland with the majority of Scots alledgedly not wanting to go to the polls in a second independance referendum.

 

She had the mandate to trigger article 50. That was given to her by the people. In fact she had more of a mandate to trigger article 50 than almost any other PM has had to do anything. I know remoaner's don't like it but the result of the referendum was that the UK (in it's entirety) voted to leave the EU. Negotiations haven't started yet as far as I'm aware and certainly won't until after the French elections. Not that the negotiations will take long, as the EU doesn't seem to want to talk about anything until after they've worked out how much they want to fleece us for, before discussing anything else. Even if the conservatives win the election she still won't have a mandate as the mandate will belong to which ever party makes it into government, not who is PM.

Not doubt between now and the election we'll hear a lot about HARD Brexit as an alternative to everything staying pretty much the same. Apparently any type of Brexit other than us bending over backwards & getting shafted by the EU is HARD Brexit. We certainly can't carry on as we are. So I guess in terms of Brexit (there are numerous other issues that need tackling, but will be ignored) the only question you need to decide is who you would most like to negotiate with the EU, May, Corbyn, or Nuttall. I exclude Farron as he doesn't want to accept reality or negotiate, he'd be quite happy for the EU to negotiate on our behalf.

Personally I can't stand May because of the way she conducted herself when Home Secretary, but she is a formidable stratagist as she has yet again shown with todays announcement. Fortunately I won't be voting for the PM, I'll be voting for someone to become my local MP.

 

This will be the most fascinating GE in my lifetime!

It will be very interesting to see how many Remoaner MP's who represent a Brexit Constituency lose their seats and indeed Brexit MP's who's constituencies voted to remain! UKIP are now a busted flush and I can see a big swing back to the Tories from UKIP. The Labour party has deemed itself to be irrelevant to all but the cosmopolitan classes and the Lib Dems will be the natural home for the Remoaner protest vote.

 

Although May and almost all journalists, pundits and most ex & current MP's will want everyone to believe this election is just about Brexit, I suspect the Conservative's will try and get a lot of other policies in their manifesto, but prefer the conversation to stay on Brexit. I would guess that for example there will be a policy on another Scottish referendum along the lines of not in the next parliament, thereby stealing the poison dwarfs thunder about May ignoring the will of the people and potentially gaining the conservatives votes in Scotland.

I suspect May is also trying to prevent small groups of MP's in her own party, holding her to ransom and taking control of the party before the left leaning conservatives have a chance to organise. UKIP could well help her out with this by only having candidates in constituencies with non Brexit supporting MP's.

 

Excellent news!

Clever from May - she's an outright Remainer, but has finally worked herself into a position where her Brexit credentials won't see her criticised by backbenchers. She should win a huge majority, which will allow her to implement the soft Brexit she prefers.

I can't stand her, her politics or her history, but I can't fault her poltical nous. She's played a blinder and is now in a position where she can't lose (even if by some miracle the Tories lose this election, she won't be blamed).

And from a Remainer's point of view, the worst thing that can happen is we continue on the same trajectory. So I see absolutely no downside here. Apart from maybe Corbyn being elected, but I don't see that as a realistic possibility.

 

Haha nice hypothesis but try telling that to the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Bill Cash! They will hold her feet to the fire if she renegs on any of the promises she has made on Brexit.

 

They won't be able to if she has a 140 majority as predicted. Backbenchers need a majority of less than about 30 to have control, as they do now. She's already made it quite clear that's why she's calling an election - it strengthens the whip.

 

She was a reluctant Remainer IMO and she will be going all out for a hard Brexit mark my words #bringiton

 

The majority won't be anything like 140 for starters!

 

Just to give us all something to laugh about in early June then, what predictions do people have for the result?

Cons: 330 > 380
Lab: 229 > 160
Lib: 9 > 35
SNP: 54 > 50
UKIP 0 > 0
Other: 28 > 25

Sizeable Tory increase, Labour knocked back and Lib Dems only slightly more relevant.

 

Don't shoot the messenger