Breaking News: British PM Theresa May to make major announcement (Early Elections)

a reply to: elysiumfire

Thats one thing I will give May.... She seemed to even make Trump her bitch. Corbyn would not last a secound against Trump.

a reply to: Ohanka

Whoops ! Thanks for the corrections .. 47 mil is the number of eligible (British) voters , sorry . 17 mil was the leave vote , 16 mil was the number who'd never heard of the EPP , don't know what 'a one party state' means , and have no clue of the gravity of that problem . They probably still want a hungry-for -militarisation dictatorship ruling throughout Europe as well .. Bless their little hearts !

I don't want to be ruled by any of the current parties in Westminster. I wish people would vote for their most suitable independent candidate who is not a part of a self-serving national party, and has the interests of the people at heart instead of interests of corporate sponsors.

I despair for another five years of Tory rule. They have really done a number on the sick, the disabled, the poor and otherwise vulnerable of society and there are no signs of this unwarranted and outright evil assault abating. However I fully expect May to win, with an outright majority. Because people really are that heartless and stupid.

originally posted by: Pyle
Can someone explain to me how the British government works in this case? Why is there a way to stage a legal coup?

A motion for a new vote ahead of schedule needs to be carried by two thirds of the 650 seats in the House of Commons. This means that the government needs 434 votes to call the election. The Conservatives (May's Party) hold 330 seats, Labour has 229 and have said they will vote for the Election.

That is enough for the election to proceed.

Current Party Seats in Parliment

Let's be brutally honest.


This is nothing to do with Brexit and every to do with trying to get the upper hand on a disjointed Labour Party.

Problem there is they're relying on polling data which has proven to be crap for the last 3 years.



Good luck Jeremy... they're about to get nasty.

May being returned to Downing Street is all but a foregone conclusion as there is no effective opposition, and therefore not as interesting as other aspects.

Firstly there is the whole situation in Northern Ireland, but even more interesting to me personally is waiting to see if, what a young Scottish guy I was recently on a course with, comes to pass. He told me there is massive dissatisfaction with the one trick leader Sturgeon, and with SNP for its utter failure to address the real problems faced by Scots.

He said that the once, first rate, public services and everything else that has been neglected for the sake of Sturgeon's ego, will mean the SNP will take a big hit in any General election and the Conservatives will gain as Labour is a spent force in Scotland.

He also told me that many Scots are extremely angry over the backward steps the country has taken since the inception of a Scottish Parliament that they once had such high hopes for.

Interesting times are ahead, for me anyway.

a reply to: angelchemuel

The issue is I think, that people vote for who they want to win or think are going to win. As we are in a 3 party system I do agree with some of your comments. I would seek out local parties or even those on the fringes, green for eg, and seek out who really stands for your moral perspective and vote for them. Even if they have no statistical chance of winning, at least you would have contributed. And of those people here who say in response to you not voting doesn't allow you to complain, I would reply with they need to also take responsibility for the messes/wars/economic issues that governments have created that they voted for.

originally posted by: Pyle
Can someone explain to me how the British government works in this case? Why is there a way to stage a legal coup?

There isn't?

Indeed the process has been reformed in recent years. Prior to 2010 (right year I think) the government could call an election whenever they wanted as long as it was within a 5 year period from the previous one. The only exception being the 1940 election which wasn't held because of the second world war.

Now elections are held every 5 years, unless there is a vote by parliament to call one sooner. The government can no longer call an election at their whim without parliament's say so.

originally posted by: CulturalResilience
May being returned to Downing Street is all but a foregone conclusion as there is no effective opposition, and therefore not as interesting as other aspects.

Well, there is nothing "foregone" in politics. Only a few months ago people thought that leaving the EU was a pipedream, so far down the line had the groupthink got us.

Politics is politics, but May's point that we need an unbroken process of clear leadership is good one. Plus, the GE will actually flush out what other parties want to do. All we get is people complaining and tutting, but now the Liberal Democrats can actually say what the alternative could be.

In fact, the SNP are one party that may be punished in the GE as they are making a complete mess of real government in Scotland. UKIP may leave the stage a bit which may benefit Labour, and the Liberal Democrats will (I think) pick up some of the ground they lost from the Conservatives. Labour may be down, but they are still a significant force. Therefore, nothing's certain.

a reply to: paraphi

Come on. Labour is being led by a wet sponge. I don’t see how it can win when it has in effect no leadership.

originally posted by: crazyewok
a reply to: paraphi

Come on. Labour is being led by a wet sponge. I don’t see how it can win when it has in effect no leadership.

It matters not if Jeremy is supported by his "Party"...

The people that matter are we the people. The voters.

& a lot of us like him.
That's why he won two party elections on the bounce.

By wide margins.

originally posted by: CulturalResilience
May being returned to Downing Street is all but a foregone conclusion as there is no effective opposition, and therefore not as interesting as other aspects.

Firstly there is the whole situation in Northern Ireland, but even more interesting to me personally is waiting to see if, what a young Scottish guy I was recently on a course with, comes to pass. He told me there is massive dissatisfaction with the one trick leader Sturgeon, and with SNP for its utter failure to address the real problems faced by Scots.

He said that the once, first rate, public services and everything else that has been neglected for the sake of Sturgeon's ego, will mean the SNP will take a big hit in any General election and the Conservatives will gain as Labour is a spent force in Scotland.

He also told me that many Scots are extremely angry over the backward steps the country has taken since the inception of a Scottish Parliament that they once had such high hopes for.

Interesting times are ahead, for me anyway.

Most recent polling I have seen has SNP at 47%.

With FPTP and the remainder of vote split 3 or 4 ways across most constituencies that will guarantee a clear SNP win.

They might lose a few seats but will still be by far the biggest party in Scotland.

originally posted by: crazyewok
a reply to: TrueBrit


Here is the dilemma....

I do not want a Dickensian society that is cold hearted to the most vulnerable and has no rights like SOME torys would like.

Indeed. However, I think it is imperative that you understand that while your grass roots Conservative voter might not want that, and while your council members, Members of Parliament and other representatives of the Conservative party might say that they do not want that, there is a difference between the Conservative MP, and the Conservative base. That difference, quite simply, is that one of these groups benefits from the victimisation of the weak, the targeting of the defenceless, the creation of scape goats, and that group is not the Tory voter in the street.

That group is the Conservative Party itself and its members, their affiliates, their companies, businesses and other holdings. They benefit from a weakened workforce and the instigation of a Dickensian dystopian future. No one else does, but to a man, the entire party does, and everyone who sees fit to join that party, will have had a hand in it...

But I don’t want heavy socialism, a country weakend in international power and influence and one willing to open what remains of our borders to the dregs of Africa and the middle east which is was Corbyn offers.

Nor do I want New Labour neocons who live in a land of reckless spending, war and bureaucracy.

Well, unfortunately, you are stuck betwixt a rock and a hard place then. You see, the fact that the Tories and the Red Tories have been playing table tennis with the guts of this nation, means that such significant damage has been done to its underpinnings, that only taking on a post war attitude to the situation, and boosting the public sector, reclaiming the services from the corporations, and banishing self interest from a great many places, will permit positive outcomes at street or parliamentary level. Also, with respect, there will be no change to immigration from the Middle East and Africa, as a result of a change in sovereignty, unless we allow Nazism to take over in this country of course, and that is a fate that no one has permission to put up with. Besides which, such a situation would be anathema to anyone worthy of calling themselves a Briton, and would result in civil war, or more accurately, the systematic butchery of all fascists, at the hands of a righteously aggravated resistance. Its a gnarly rock, and a hard, hard place. But the options appear limited. Either principled, compassionate leadership, or Conservative tyranny.

And leaving the EU is non negotiable so the lib dems are ruled out.

The Lib Dems are a political non-event, for the simple reason that unlike Blairs Labour, or the Conservative Party, they not only stabbed the nation in the back repeatedly, but they did it in a very public, very obvious, and utterly unambiguous fashion, without ever having the respect for the people necessary to even lie well about it afterward.

At heart I am a conservative. But the cuts have gone too FAR. I cannot morally support the cuts to disability and schools. Defence, international aid, high speed rail and the monarchy should be cut before disability and education. Not to mention tax rises and crack down on tax evaders should have been considered first. The Slashing of ESA and PIP is criminal.

Indeed they are, but once again crazyewok, if you ever thought the Conservative Party was genuinely there to serve the people and the nation, rather than its own damned self, then it is perhaps time that you reconsidered your opinion on their motivations. The problem is this:

We have some serious issues with poverty at this time, in this country, which need not have come to the fore nearly as violently as they have. We have some issues with our health service, that were unnecessary, could have been nipped in the bud by a sufficiently slavish government, one with no will of its own, only the will of the people to inform its direction and to give it animus. But because the self interest of the Conservative Party infects and infests their every choice, because the ability of their friends and associates to make money from the operation of government is far more important to them, than making that operation effective and efficient at solving systemic problems, they will NEVER produce the government you want, they will NEVER serve the people in the way that would best benefit the nation or the society which holds it together.

They simply have no motivation to do so, because it is not in the interests of their wallets, or the wallets of their friends. You could say the same thing about only half of the current Labour Party, and not the half who stand behind Corbyn either.

You may be right that this is literally a choice between corporatism and socialism, but I would argue that it is high time we picked something other than the corporatist, econo-fascist nonsense this country's people have been subconsciously trying to escape since the feudal period. If a choice must be made, surely it must be for the better morality, the more principled option, than to cast ones lot in with the same corporatist muck that got us where we stand today?

Hence why i did not say it was certain.
a reply to: paraphi

originally posted by: ScepticScot

originally posted by: CulturalResilience
May being returned to Downing Street is all but a foregone conclusion as there is no effective opposition, and therefore not as interesting as other aspects.

Firstly there is the whole situation in Northern Ireland, but even more interesting to me personally is waiting to see if, what a young Scottish guy I was recently on a course with, comes to pass. He told me there is massive dissatisfaction with the one trick leader Sturgeon, and with SNP for its utter failure to address the real problems faced by Scots.

He said that the once, first rate, public services and everything else that has been neglected for the sake of Sturgeon's ego, will mean the SNP will take a big hit in any General election and the Conservatives will gain as Labour is a spent force in Scotland.

He also told me that many Scots are extremely angry over the backward steps the country has taken since the inception of a Scottish Parliament that they once had such high hopes for.

Interesting times are ahead, for me anyway.

Most recent polling I have seen has SNP at 47%.

With FPTP and the remainder of vote split 3 or 4 ways across most constituencies that will guarantee a clear SNP win.

They might lose a few seats but will still be by far the biggest party in Scotland.

Polling has been shown to be an unreliable gauge on which to base assumptions. More so than ever in recent times.

a reply to: CulturalResilience

Actually most proper polls have been reasonably accurate. It's media reporting or polls that has been poor.

Regardless as the next largest party in Scotland is 20 points behind I doubt the polls are that inaccurate.

She knows that she is in a win win situation. Labours in strife so she can gain more seats through default. But the biggest win in my opinion (I actually think Brexit is the worse thing for us ) if Labour does win she and all you Brexiteers can shout from the rooftops that it's all Labours fault we failed on Brexit. Cos no matter who's in power we are definitely not coming out smelling of roses.

originally posted by: crayzeed
She knows that she is in a win win situation. Labours in strife so she can gain more seats through default. But the biggest win in my opinion (I actually think Brexit is the worse thing for us ) if Labour does win she and all you Brexiteers can shout from the rooftops that it's all Labours fault we failed on Brexit. Cos no matter who's in power we are definitely not coming out smelling of roses.

I suspect that the only way the Tory's won't win by a greatly increased majority is if the Pro EU Tory MPs get highly vocal.

I doubt however this will happen as they are mostly keeping their heads down at the moment.

This announcement has come about for a number of reasons.

1) The polls suggest Labour is around 18 points behind the Tories, so she can annihilate the Labour Party. She will of course annihilate the NHS and the education system, but it's a price worth paying isn't it?

2) She has a number of rebels within her own party who keep threatening her stance on Brexit.

3) It will also give a good indication on how a referendum will play out in Scotland and potentially Northern Ireland.

Although I support Brexit, I cannot and will not ever vote Tory.

One thing to mention though is that although Labour are trailing in the polls, they have a lot of safe seats, including my constituency.

None of the parties are worth voting for, I'm not even going to bother giving my consent to a bunch of paedos, thieves, war mongers, snivelling sycophants, bumboys for lobbyists and greedy liars. Propping up this revolving door of bull**** has got us where we are.

If ticking a box every few years is the only voice any of us have; our democracy is a crap illusion and not worth sustaining. I'd much rather see it all spectacularly burn to the ground.