Theresa May announces plan to call general election on 8 June

[He's Dead Jim]

General election announced for UK by Theresa May

http://www.bbc.com/news/live/uk-39628713

[Mando]

good now hopefully people will see sense and vote out that witch, shes a divisive and nasty piece of work.

 

 

[+Frank B. Subscriber²]

As much as I want the Tories to lose, it's unlikely while Jeremy Corbyn is leader of the Labour Party. Unless people suddenly flock to the LibDems.

[MikeChipshop Member]

Smart move. Call it now knowing there's no real opposition in place, and silence the critics who denounced her for not calling an election to gain power, for the next few years. Just legitimizes the governments direction. Sad times living in a one party country.

[PaulATMOS]

I'm thinking if it was the left wing Labour Party that was the 'one party', you would not be complaining Miniman

[MikeChipshop Member]

21 minutes ago, freqnasty said:

I'm thinking if it was the left wing Labour Party that was the 'one party', you would not be complaining Miniman

 

Comes across like that, yep, but nope absolutely untrue. A good democracy is made up of options. Currently very little options exist which makes a snap general a bargining piece for the tories 9or labpur or any one else if it was the other way round. 

 

I also don't support the labour party.

[theyarecomingforyou]

It's a smart move tactically. It's just a shame that there is no effective opposition to the Tories. The right-wing of the Labour Party has sought to undermine Corbyn at every opportunity, with Labour MPs even going as far as to attack him in right-wing publications like The Telegraph and The Daily Mail. It's pretty depressing to see lower classes voting for the Tories solely on the back of Brexit even though the party is antithetical to their interests.

 

The UK needs a major political shake-up. There needs to be a credible left-wing alternative, one which will hold businesses to account for tax evasion and corruption, protect the rights of the working class, stop wasteful spending on nuclear weapons, safeguard the environment and build a positive future for the country. Under the Tories we've seen tax cuts for the rich, benefit cuts for the poor, the NHS actively undermined to pave the way for privatisation, attacks on the judiciary, voter reforms that have knocked nearly a million people off the electoral register and the renewable energy sector crushed while fracking is forced on communities against their will.

 

Corbyn has the right political ideology but isn't an effective leader. Unfortunately I fear if he's ousted the Labour Party will just return to being the Tories (But Not Quite As Bad)™ party. You can't win an election by saying what you won't do, you have to do it by offering a credible alternative.

[Steven P. Administrators]

Without reading the BBC yet, I agree with others that this is a smart tactical move. I will be surprised if they lose, but then I have been surprised at politics for the past couple of years tbh!

[Mando]

1 hour ago, MikeChipshop said:

Smart move. Call it now knowing there's no real opposition in place, and silence the critics who denounced her for not calling an election to gain power, for the next few years. Just legitimizes the governments direction. Sad times living in a one party country.

you aint though mate  its a 2 party party up here  

[Dick Montage]

I abhor that evil cow (and I am predominantly Tory).  Problem is, Tories will win, and say "Well, that's twice you've not shown that you want Brexit to happen".

 

This was a very strong move for the tories, they can't lose right now.  I hate what the party has become

[Paul1979UK]

I'm in two minds on what to think about this, on the one hand I expect the Tories to win and probably win more seats which with the government coming across quite autocratic since the referendum, that would just likely re enforces that believe in the current government, on the other hand, we have a lot of people that are not happy with this government and how they are handling Brexit, it could be a miscalculation but a lot of people could vote anyone but the Tories because of all the lies that have been told about Brexit.

 

In any case, I hope the Tories win and win by a landslide, the Tories are a very arrogant party, them winning more seats could potentially seal their own fate because they will likely get more reckless with Brexit and go for the worse deal we can get, many years past and all the lies come out and things are worse in the UK thanks to Brexit, who really is going to get the blame for all this, only two groups I can think of are the mass media and the Conservative government for pushing this agenda so hard, if the Conservative party are not careful, Brexit could do serious damage to the party if leaving the EU goes pear shape for the UK, but all in all, this is just a power grab by the Tories because they know they have no competition.

[ThisSiteHasLostItsCharm]

anyone getting sick of hearing brexit this, brexit that?

 

all the people who voted out should be ashamed.

[FloatingFatMan]

1 hour ago, Nefarious Trigger said:

This was a very strong move for the tories, they can't lose right now.  I hate what the party has become

Yeah, they said that about the EU referendum too... How'd that work out again?

 

Now is not the time for this nonsense. We have enough to deal with right now with Brexit going on...

[Mando]

1 hour ago, Paul1979 said:

I'm in two minds on what to think about this, on the one hand I expect the Tories to win and probably win more seats which with the government coming across quite autocratic since the referendum, that would just likely re enforces that believe in the current government, on the other hand, we have a lot of people that are not happy with this government and how they are handling Brexit, it could be a miscalculation but a lot of people could vote anyone but the Tories because of all the lies that have been told about Brexit.

 

In any case, I hope the Tories win and win by a landslide, the Tories are a very arrogant party, them winning more seats could potentially seal their own fate because they will likely get more reckless with Brexit and go for the worse deal we can get, many years past and all the lies come out and things are worse in the UK thanks to Brexit, who really is going to get the blame for all this, only two groups I can think of are the mass media and the Conservative government for pushing this agenda so hard, if the Conservative party are not careful, Brexit could do serious damage to the party if leaving the EU goes pear shape for the UK, but all in all, this is just a power grab by the Tories because they know they have no competition.

im hoping north of the border they lose all 29 Scottish council seats they currently occupy. 

This time around, shes as vilified as much as maggie was up here. I think they are going to get a very rude awakening in Scotland. Mays that ignorant she would still think it had nothing to do with SNP or the will of the Scottish nation.

 

A repeat of 2015s General election would be too funny.

 

 

Picture tells a thousand words.

Edited April 18, 2017 by Mando

[Dick Montage]

47 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Yeah, they said that about the EU referendum too... How'd that work out again?

Entirely different arguments presented under entirely different circumstances.  Who challenged the Tories right now?  Farron?  Corbyn?  Whoever's stuck in the UKIP revolving door?  I wish someone did present a challenged, believe me!

49 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Now is not the time for this nonsense. We have enough to deal with right now with Brexit going on...

This is not "for us" - this move is for one group of people only - the Conservative party.  They are the only ones who will benefit from this in any way.

[Paul1979UK]

Another thing we should remember is that a lot of people are fed up with Brexit this, Brexit that and all the lies we've been told about it, a lot of people that didn't vote in the EU referendum last summer might turn out with this election and it's unlikely they would vote for the Tories because at the time, most either couldn't be bothered to vote or thought we was never going to pull out of the EU, now that the risk is there of us pulling out of the EU and the UK union falling apart, many people that didn't vote might turn out and vote now simple to send a strong message to the government that we don't like the way they are handling all this, I've already heard many people who would vote anyone but the Conservatives because of all this, I didn't vote with the EU referendum last summer, my mistake, this time I will vote just to send a message to the government that we are not happy with the situation, I have to wonder how many other people who didn't vote or have change their mind on Brexit are thinking like this and want to send a strong message to the government to get their act together and stop allowing the hardliners control Brexit.

[FloatingFatMan]

I'm a Tory voter, I will never vote Labour BUT, this year, I will not vote at all.  I'm disgusted with the whole bloody lot of them, but most especially with how the Tories are handling Brexit.

 

[Mando]

14 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

I'm a Tory voter, I will never vote Labour BUT, this year, I will not vote at all.  I'm disgusted with the whole bloody lot of them, but most especially with how the Tories are handling Brexit.

 

Not voting could do a lot more harm than intended mate, if you feel this way you should "blank vote" more should instead of just not voting.

 

I personally will be voting SNP again, im done with the other parties and done with this so called union of our landmass. And im a lifelong Labour voter/Trade unionist....not anymore.

 

http://votingcounts.org.uk/blank-voting

 

[FloatingFatMan]

1 minute ago, Mando said:

Not voting could do a lot more harm than intended mate, if you feel this way you should "blank vote" 

 

http://votingcounts.org.uk/blank-voting

 

Good point, I'll do that then.

[MikeChipshop Member]

12 hours ago, Mando said:

Not voting could do a lot more harm than intended mate, if you feel this way you should "blank vote" more should instead of just not voting.

 

I personally will be voting SNP again, im done with the other parties and done with this so called union of our landmass. And im a lifelong Labour voter/Trade unionist....not anymore.

 

http://votingcounts.org.uk/blank-voting

 

 

12 hours ago, FloatingFatMan said:

Good point, I'll do that then.

 

That's what I'm doing this time around. There's not a single party i want in power, and i understand there will be one, but i want no part in it.

[MightyJordan]

There is another potential reason why May's decided to U-turn and call a snap election: the election expenses scandal. The deadline for police action is May 8th - a month before the election - the CPS are considering charges against over 30 people, with nearly 20 current Tory MPs involved. If they all get convicted of electoral fraud - which they must be fearing, due to deciding to call the snap election - they'd lose their majority in parliament, so she's probably trying to sweep the scandal under the rug, take advantage of the current opinion polls and fool the public into securing power for another five years. If a Tory MP gets charged now, it's in the runup to the election, so the party can just nominate someone else and probably retain the seat, since most people tend to vote for parties rather than individuals.

 

I know some people in here are bemoaning the lack of a credible left-wing alternative, but frankly, it's not going to happen anytime soon with the First Past the Post system we currently have. The only realistic way to kick out the Tories at the moment is to resort to tactical voting. If your constituency currently has a Tory MP, vote for whoever came 2nd in 2015; if it doesn't, vote for the incumbent. Obviously, there are exceptions, like for example if UKIP came 2nd to the Tories, or if your non-Tory MP is one of the more undesirable ones, like Diane Abbott, in which case, go for the next one down. I'm a Green Party member, but in my constituency, it's always a clear two-horse race between Labour and the Tories, so my vote's going to the Labour candidate this time around.

 

Ideally, we need a progressive alliance of sorts to help increase the chances, like the SDP and Liberals did in the 80s: avoid standing against each other in each constituency. The Greens have been proposing it for the past year or so, with Labour the only one who's been consistently against the idea; even with the massive gap in the opinion polls, they're are still stubbornly refusing to cooperate with other parties. Even Nicola Sturgeon's come out now offering to form an alliance with Labour and the Lib Dems, albeit a post-election one.

[anthdci]

15 hours ago, FloatingFatMan said:

I'm a Tory voter, I will never vote Labour BUT, this year, I will not vote at all.  I'm disgusted with the whole bloody lot of them, but most especially with how the Tories are handling Brexit.

 

As someone from the opposite end of the political spectrum I just don't under stand this stance at all. I live in the north east and would never consider voting for the Tories. They seem to think that north starts at Birmingham and ends at Leeds, the northern powerhouse thing grinds on me everytime I hear it. The north east has been completely stripped to the bone for funding, so many jobs that rely on central government funding gone. There were lots of projects for getting people back into work that was EU funded but the Brexit campaign caused by Tory infighting is putting an end to that and people even voted for it!

 

All i see of the Torys is cuts for services ordinary people use to fund tax breaks for higher earners.

[FloatingFatMan]

30 minutes ago, anthdci said:

As someone from the opposite end of the political spectrum I just don't under stand this stance at all. I live in the north east and would never consider voting for the Tories. They seem to think that north starts at Birmingham and ends at Leeds, the northern powerhouse thing grinds on me everytime I hear it. The north east has been completely stripped to the bone for funding, so many jobs that rely on central government funding gone. There were lots of projects for getting people back into work that was EU funded but the Brexit campaign caused by Tory infighting is putting an end to that and people even voted for it!

 

All i see of the Torys is cuts for services ordinary people use to fund tax breaks for higher earners.

 

You say you don't understand that I'd never vote Labour, then immediately state you'd never vote Tory.  Clearly then, you DO understand.  What is also clear is that you've completely forgotten that Labour pretty much bankrupted the UK in their last turn. Do you really want them to do it again, before we've fully recovered from the massive debt they put us into?

 

In the rest of my post I go on to say I won't be voting Tory this time, either.  I'm thoroughly sick of the lot of them with the whole way Brexit has been handled.

 

[FloatingFatMan]

53 minutes ago, MightyJordan said:

Even Nicola Sturgeon's come out now offering to form an alliance with Labour and the Lib Dems, albeit a post-election one.

Anyone forming an alliance with that witch needs their heads examining. The ONLY thing she's interested in, to the total exclusion of everything else, including the well being of her fellow Scots, is to leave the UK.  She's so totally focused on it, that the SNP aren't even getting on with the business of running Scotland like they're supposed to be doing. Hell, she can't even manage to get it through her thick skull that leaving the UK also means leaving the EU, no matter what the rest of the country does.

 

[anthdci]

38 minutes ago, FloatingFatMan said:

 

You say you don't understand that I'd never vote Labour, then immediately state you'd never vote Tory.  Clearly then, you DO understand.  What is also clear is that you've completely forgotten that Labour pretty much bankrupted the UK in their last turn. Do you really want them to do it again, before we've fully recovered from the massive debt they put us into?

 

In the rest of my post I go on to say I won't be voting Tory this time, either.  I'm thoroughly sick of the lot of them with the whole way Brexit has been handled.

 

Nope sorry I still don't follow. From what I have seen of the Tories and Labour governments in the last 20 years Labour have done a much much better job. The way the Tories have handled the north east is absolutely deplorable, it is no wonder it is a Labour stronghold. I don't think Labour did bankrupt the country, at least not compared the way the Tories have handled it in the last few years, giving us even higher debt even though they constantly say they are doing a good job, they clearly aren't and they are ruining peoples lives in the process. I am not saying Labour are perfect, far from it. I am contemplating voting for the Lib Dems once I read the manifestos, but what I am saying is the the Tories are a self serving, elitist, vile party.

 

I am glad your not voting from them.