by freddo 167 Replies latest social current
*dumb American scratches head*
You're not so dumb Grreat Teacher - your post is pretty much on the money. I would just add that Theresa May thought she could get a large majority - and when she called an election at Easter I too thought that she probably would.
*dumb Englishman gets it wrong*
For our American friends, the DUP are the UK party closest to the American right: anti gay, anti abortion, climate change denying with close paramilitary connections. They're corrupt and hugely hypocritical.
I hope the Brexiteers feel proud as they survey this fucked up mess.
For our American friends, the DUP are the UK party closest to the American right: anti gay, anti abortion, climate change denying with close paramilitary connections. They're corrupt and hugely hypocritical.
Politics in Northern Ireland is generally sectarian-based and is therefore completely different to the rest of the UK.
The DUP - Democratic Unionist Party - is Right-wing Protestant and was founded by Ian Paisley.
The irony of NI being neglected by the Westminster Government and now being needed is delicious.
and what of the principal of English Votes for English Legislation now? Will DUP and Scottish Conservatives abstain?
Ian Paisley was an abnoxious character but quite lovely in private as I discovered. I have the joy of being related to some of the ermine clad DUP.
Don't forget the recent movie.....
I hope the Brexiteers feel proud as they survey this fucked up mess - Brexiteers aren't to blame for this, neither are Remainers.
The blame for this mess lies exclusively with Theresa May.
I hope the Brexiteers feel proud as they survey this fucked up mess
I voted to leave the EU. I am still convinced it was the correct decision. Why on earth do you imagine I should feel any responsibility for the mess that Theresa May has created since then?
There were many Labour supporters who also voted for Brexit.
Ironic that Ruth Davidson was responsible for saving Theresa May with a very successful campaign in Scotland, Ruth is about to get married to her gay partner and Theresa May has made a deal with an anti-gay political party founded by a Protestant bigot.
It's fascinating how the number of seats won can vary so much in an election. It's all down to where the seats are ... you can narrowly mss out on some then win other by huge margins. If the people were arranged differently then things would have a different outcome - in the US they take advantage of this to manipulate the outcome through Gerrymandering (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gerrymandering).
If you look at the share of the vote, May actually did fairly well - around 43% (?) which is only just shy of the result that gave Thatcher huge landslide majorities and an increase over Cameron's results.
As long as Labour / Corbyn isn't in to bring the country to it's knees, it's a result.
@SBF
The SNP went down from 54 seats to 35. They lost more than a third of their seats.
Scotland before the 2017 election ...
and Scotland after ...
I'm just figuring that she was trying to pre-empt any complaints about Brexit in advance by making sure she had a mandate.
But, other than that, I don't really understand why she called an election - I agree with you that May was trying to seek a public mandate for her version of Brexit.
But I believe there's more to her decision to call the election.
At the time, the Tories were enjoying a huge lead in the polls over Labour (20 points) and I think May saw this as an opportunity to crush Corbyn and Labour underfoot. This would then give her a mandate to do whatever she bloody well liked for 5 years.
It's completely blown up in her face (*snigger*) and I think she definitely won't last 5 years as PM.
She deserves to go but I think other Tory MPs are stuck between disposing of her and allowing her to continue.
I'd imagine that May wants to carry on for 5 more years as PM but most of her colleagues want her gone within 6 months.
PS - you're not a dumb American. You're quite a perceptive one.
