UK Election June 8th

[thesoretoothsayer]

A loss would serve May right.
She had 3 yrs left but saw Labour's bad polling and went for an easy victory.
And, not surprisingly, the voters punished her for it.

[David]

It's officially a hung parliament, but the Conservatives look like they will hold on narrowly with Democratic Unionist support. Even if the two parties fall short of a majority, Sinn Fein's abstentionism means that a Labor–LDP–SNP coalition wouldn't have the numbers either, so May will hang on – until her party sacks her, that is.

[Culprit]

^^She has to step down. Then again Malcolm didn't.

[Pies4shaw]

[Pies4shaw]

And, even funnier:

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/jun/09/jeremy-corbyn-prime-minister-labour

[stui magpie]

^

Agreed, it was funny. That guy is either a comedian or mentally ill, but either way it's funny.

[Jezza]

LOL Owen Jones

[stui magpie]

Great quote on Twitter:

US - we just elected an idiot who loves russian dictators
UK - hold my pint.

[Pies4shaw]

[stui magpie]

Speaking of funny, is this may calling an early election?

https://twitter.com/AwardsDarwin/status/873109477116977152

[Mugwump]

Three things happened here.

1. An unlikeable politician called an unnecessary election for party advantage, and then proceeded to avoid any issues in favour of mindless slogans. Her one policy - making people with dementia drain the value of their homes down to the last £100k before they get state support - terrified much of her base.

2. Corbyn, having started with zero expectations, seemed normal, natural and warm against the frigid May, so he bounced - a lot. He also promised to take a good deal of money from 5% of the electorate, add a lot of debt (to an already debt-burdened economy) and give it to the 95%. This often works well, as people do not understand economics half so well as they understand free stuff.

3. The young, stung by a Brexit which arose because they did not vote, decided to vote. Corbyn deserves credit for this.

This is being treated as a great Labour victory, and relative to where the polls started in this campaign, it is.

In absolute terms , however, it is a disaster for Labour. Against a terrible candidate who ran a shambolic campaign, and despite offering a massive bribe to 95% of the electorate, they finished 60 seats behind the Tories, and could not scrape together a majority even if the most centrist party (the Lib Dems) were to join them, which they will not. A half-credible Labour leader without Corbyn's weird beliefs on terrorism and Marxism and his terrible staff choices, would have won this election on that platform. Yet Corbyn is being feted as a great success by the likes of Owen "flaky" Jones. Such are the strange times in which we live.

[David]

^ I'm certainly struggling to understand much of the left-wing response to this. I even saw a headline from the reliably socialist (and usually sensible) Jacobin magazine on Facebook today – "How Corbyn won"! – which made me wonder if I'd woken up in a parallel universe.

As much as forcing May into a hung parliament is a consolation prize, and Corbyn certainly proved a lot of the doubters wrong by doing so much better than expected, he still lost and she still won. One doesn't get the impression that she'll have much trouble with the DUP, certainly nothing like the Gillard-led ALP's uneasy alliance with the Greens from 2010-2013. So, it's an honourable loss, and Corbyn has probably shored up his own leadership for the time being. But his party will still be in opposition for the next four years.

[Mugwump]

She may not have much trouble with the DUP, David, but she may have trouble with her own MPs because of the DUP. The DuP are not an easy group of people to get along with, as they are hard line ideologues - the Protestant equivalent of Sinn Fein. Her majority with DUP support is about three. The Tory party still contains many conservatives who blanch at the DUP's rather extreme positions, and the potential for defections on key points will be very high. It's a bloody mess, which has arisen because Theresa Mayfly simply is not up to the job. She does not have the influencing skills and intellectual subtlety required for a job that is always difficult, but right now nearly impossible, given a ticking Brexit clock. She must go, and be replaced by a more conciliatory figure (and no, I do not mean the Johnson clown).

[Skids]

[RudeBoy]

As usual these days, I reckon Jonathon Pie sums up the situation nicely.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qsGVghRBdKI