The Political Thread

[Jim_Campbell]

Is that biggest gamble?

No. The Tories will walk it.

[Steve Green]

Oh shit, General Election on day before my birthday!

Is that biggest gamble?

I'm not sure your birthday was a consideration.

[Tjm86]

It also now has the potential to be a real bummer of a birthday present, depending on your political persuasion.

[Goaty]

Anything could happens in next 6 weeks...

[Jim_Campbell]

Anything could happens in next 6 weeks...

The Labour right wing magically undo the effects of more than a year of in-fighting and self-sabotage; the mainstream press stop reporting ridiculous Corbyn smear stories and start covering his policies; Corbyn himself magically becomes an effective, charismatic leader with an effective media strategy?

In the absence of all those things, the Tories will walk it.

[Steve Green]

The Queen carks it the day before the GE?

[Modern Panther]

https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

[Modern Panther]

The Queen carks it the day before the GE?

Outpouring of maudlin public grief and patriotism, likely to result in even more Tories.  I also wouldn't put it past the Sun to photoshop Jeremy Corbyn standing over the corpse with a bloody knife.

[Tjm86]

The Labour right wing magically undo the effects of more than a year of in-fighting and self-sabotage; the mainstream press stop reporting ridiculous Corbyn smear stories and start covering his policies; Corbyn himself magically becomes an effective, charismatic leader with an effective media strategy?

Hey, Trump won, remember.

[Professor Bear]

I'm actually quite interested in seeing the mental gymnastics of the coming weeks, though it'll probably just be variations of "can't vote Labour because they're unelectable" and then most people will just stay at home on polling day.

Although UKIP are fucked right now, so arguably this is the Greens' chance for glory.  Now if they can just get on tv...

[Theblazeuk]

What Jim said.

Also everyone will forget Teresa May's last 10,000 statements on this exact thing and about how it would be a terrible idea to hold a general election so quickly after the last.

[Professor Bear]

It's such a foregone conclusion, let's not vote at all.

If nothing else, Russell Brand will be happy to have been proven right.

[IndigoPrime]

Greens will get one MP (Lucas) and have a small shot of Bristol West. Otherwise, there's going to be a lot of people saying they can't vote for anyone and won't, a great many Con wins where the combination of Lab/LD/GP votes would have won the seat had they actually cooperated, a Labour mugging, and probably a few LD gains, but nothing that will make a difference.

On the basis of online predictions, we're probably looking at a Con majority of 100, during Brexit. Just fucking great. The slim hope: the other parties get over themselves, work together, and figure out how to stop this from happening. Given Labour arrogance in the past, this seems unlikely. Combine that with Green's doing things on a local level and the LDs having a bug up their arse about the SNP and, well...

[The Legendary Shark]

Another vote?

[Tjm86]

It's such a foregone conclusion, let's not vote at all.

The most depressing thing about it all is this is highly likely to be the general view.  The consequence is that we are going to end up with the screwing we deserve.  The First Past The Post system may be a complete balls up but with the current state of play we have the potential to put both major parties on the spot.  Labour's arrogance and Tory spite leave both of them with plenty of baggage.   That gives the opportunity to pressure them in to listening for a change since they can't take anything for granted. 

The local elections will give some indication of how vulnerable MP's of all stripes are.  I wouldn't be surprised to find loads of Labour MP's demurring on Corbyn support, preferring to galvanise local support, particularly in light of how well it has gone recently. I can see UKIP putting pressure on both parties, albeit ineffectively.  SNP will probably use it as a chance to hammer home their view of Westminster and we may well see the end of The Last Tory of Scotland.  Wales will be interesting considering the inroads both Plaid and UKIP have been making.  Not so sure the Red Rosetta Wearing Donkeys will be so successful this time round.