General Election (8th June, 2017)

[Edwardo Piet]

I support Green Strongest, then Yellow, then Red.... but It's only Red (Labour) that has any chance of beating the Tories so I'm voting Labour.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scienc...74016.html

[The Valkyrie]

I remember a British skit show from years ago when they were supposedly interviewing one of the founders of the Greens. When asked what their defence strategy is, the answer was, "We're going to build a large hedge around Britain..."

[I_am_not_mafia]

I remember a British skit show from years ago when they were supposedly interviewing one of the founders of the Greens.  When asked what their defence strategy is, the answer was, "We're going to build a large hedge around Britain..."

It was Alas Smith and Jones.

---

If you are thinking of voting Conservative because you don't want a repeat of Labour in the 70's, realise that the world is a very different place now. The Soviet Union collapsed over a quarter of a century ago and we left the gold standard a long time before that. Governments no longer have to fear the spread of Communism, which used to be the typical means by which fascist parties convinced authoritarian governments to give them power. We live in an economy that has to exponentially grow for it to be stable. Standard economic doctrine is around 2% a year to avoid a deflation. But economies such as ours grow by lending and the increase in debt. We have no choice but to get further in debt. The question is whether we want to get further into personal debt or whether the government should. Debt increases the money supply and always outstrips the amount of money because it has to be paid back with interest. A vote for the Tories means that you think personal debt should grow because of a cut in services, reduced funding for academia and other investments in the future, higher tuition fees, lower wages, higher house prices and higher cost of living. Labour may be the party of tax and spend, but the Conservatives are the party of backhanders and selling off national assets at reduced prices. Often to foreign state owned companies who use it to reduce prices in their own country. Or to corporations who are legally obliged to maximise shareholder profit. Which means a higher cost of living for you, less chance to form savings and greater pressure to get into debt. Shoppers laden with personal debt have less money to spend which depresses the economy.

[Edwardo Piet]

I voted Labour today.

[Minimalist]

I support Green Strongest, then Yellow, then Red.... but It's only Red (Labour) that has any chance of beating the Tories so I'm voting Labour.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/scienc...74016.html

Logical.  Looks like there are a lot of logical people in Britain.

http://www.bbc.com/news/election-2017-40209282




Apparently reports of the demise of labor were premature. 

So much for calling elections when you think you have it in the bag.

[I_am_not_mafia]

The SNP exit poll is very interesting. SNP did well in the council elections recently. It doesn't make sense that the Tories could take so many seats from the SNP while they are so hated up here, especially if their count is down in the rest of the country. The only way that could happen is if they galvanised the anti-independence vote, but that's rather contrived. More likely SNP have lost seats back to Labour because people wanted rid of the Tories. But be aware that exit polls in Scotland were only held in 10 different constituencies, so it's a much smaller sample than elsewhere.

I find it interesting though that the exit poll is 314 to Tories, but add up the other parties not including Others and it's also 314. A hung parliament would be excellent. It works very well in other governments. Conservatives have gone further right to counter the successfully UKIP threat but now no one will go in a coalition with them. They're really going to have to swing back to the middle in order to make deals. Remember that both Lib Dems and SNP are pro-remain. This probably means a referendum on the final Brexit deal and this could mean that Brexit doesn't happen.

[Iroscato]

Brexit is happening. You might not like it, I certainly don't like it, but you'll do yourself all sorts of favours by just accepting it and putting fantasies about political deux ex machina to bed.

[I_am_not_mafia]

Brexit is happening. You might not like it, I certainly don't like it, but you'll do yourself all sorts of favours by just accepting it and putting fantasies about political deux ex machina to bed.

In a hung parliament who is going to be on the Brexit negotiating team? Consider that both Lib Dems and SNP are anti-Brexit. You can't negotiate a good deal if you don't want it to succeed and know that it will be voted on at the end. Brexit won because to many people were protesting. That protest evaporates in a hung parliament because there is not a single clear thing to protest against. Add to that the the demographics of the Brexit vote and the slim majority mean that by the time it actually happens enough old people will have died off to lose the majority.

You say Brexit is happening. How exactly will this happen in a hung parliament? Remember, Brexit was only an advisory referendum. It was not legally binding. It just seems like that because the Tories had such a hard-on for it. Where is the mandate for it?

[emjay]

Brexit is happening. You might not like it, I certainly don't like it, but you'll do yourself all sorts of favours by just accepting it and putting fantasies about political deux ex machina to bed.

I accept that Brexit is highly probable to happen, whatever happens here tonight... which is looking very very close, with perhaps Scotland coming to the Tories rescue... and came to terms with it long ago, so this is just a temporary feeling of hope and possibility. I know it's a slim to non-existent chance that it doesn't go through, and no chance at all if the Tories gain a majority... which they still might do, but while that hope is there I'll have it... but ultimately I accepted it before, and I'll accept it again if it's what will be. But I won't write it off totally as a possibility because stranger things have happened... like the bloody leave vote in the first place Fingers crossed anyway. I voted Labour.

[GUBU]

Brexit is happening. You might not like it, I certainly don't like it, but you'll do yourself all sorts of favours by just accepting it and putting fantasies about political deux ex machina to bed.

In a hung parliament who is going to be on the Brexit negotiating team? Consider that both Lib Dems and SNP are anti-Brexit. You can't negotiate a good deal if you don't want it to succeed and know that it will be voted on at the end. Brexit won because to many people were protesting. That protest evaporates in a hung parliament because there is not a single clear thing to protest against. Add to that the the demographics of the Brexit vote and the slim majority mean that by the time it actually happens enough old people will have died off to lose the majority.

You say Brexit is happening. How exactly will this happen in a hung parliament? Remember, Brexit was only an advisory referendum. It was not legally binding. It just seems like that because the Tories had such a hard-on for it. Where is the mandate for it?

Brexit is happening because Maybot triggered Article 50. Because the UK can't get a negotiating team together doesn't change this act. All that'll happen in that case is the UK gets kicked out without any deal or prospect of trade negotiatons.

Even if a strong pro remain majority were returned it'd be very iffy to hope Brexit died as there's no mechanism to reverse Art 40.