European Politics

I get that, but wasn't this election meant to strengthen the conservative majority for brexit talks? My question is based on that.
 
Mosh said:
Any Europeans want to tell this American what a hung parliament or even labour victory would mean for Brexit?
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The UK parliament seems to have a rabid fear of non-majorities as if cross-party consensus is somehow something to be avoided. It could be argued that this is exactly what the UK needs from its parliament during the Brexit negotiations i.e. not a Tory Brexit agenda. According to the Tories (before the election) they'll simply form a minority government; which should be intersting.
LooseCannon said:
Brexit is still happening. That's for sure. The article was triggered.
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Is anyone suggesting otherwise? No.
LooseCannon said:
SNP getting spanked in the exit polls as well.
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Kind of hard to imagine topping, matching, or even getting close to 56/57 seats. A halving of their seat doesn't seem unlikely.
Mosh said:
I get that, but wasn't this election meant to strengthen the conservative majority for brexit talks? My question is based on that.
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The answer is: fuck knows.
 
I thought Jeremy Corbyn was some sort of a laughing stock because he refused to leave the leadership? How did he gain so much?

Bear in mind that all of my "knowledge" comes from watching British panel shows and nothing else, so that impression may be way off.
 
Curiouser and curiouser - they're now calling it as a likely Tory / DUP coalition government.

Being a Yank, I'd never heard of DUP until tonight. About to go look them up and find out what they're all about. Anybody across the pond have a take on them?
 
CriedWhenBrucieLeft said:
Kind of hard to imagine topping, matching, or even getting close to 56/57 seats. A halving of their seat doesn't seem unlikely.
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It was 56/59 seats two years ago. The three "main" UK parties each got one seat, by the skin of their teeth. Very encouraging results from last night in Scotland though. The Conservatives managed to overturn some massive majorities in safe SNP seats - even removing Alex Salmond and Angus Robertson, and not by tiny margins either! It's nice seeing the political map of Scotland looking a bit more colourful. :) Ruth Davidson has masterminded quite an extraordinary comeback from the Scottish Conservatives. Thirteen Scottish Tories in Westminster was unthinkable two months ago, but then Sturgeon said she wants to waste everyone's time again with a second referendum and May wanted to waste everyone's time with a snap election. The Conservatives' gains in Scotland were probably in spite of Theresa May (whose campaign was shit) and might be hard to keep hold of depending on how the imminent minority/coalition government does. Come the next election (which could be in six months...) things might change all over again.


A hung parliament is just about the worse result possible though.
 
If the DUP had their way, everything would close on a Sunday. Except churches.
I'm from NI and I'm certainly not a fan of the DUP but if they are able to wring some extra coin out of Westminister then hopefully it would be well spent here. However, the DUP have shown themselves to be backwards cretins on many occassions and I dont trust them to make the most of the position they find themselves in in terms of benefitting NI.
Who knows what they will have to lend their support to. But lend it they will. Do not expect the DUP to object to anything as a matter of conscience.
 
Yeah, DUP will push the Conservatives somewhat to the right. In some ways, it is better this is happening now after the gay marriage laws have passed. Seems highly unlikely they will be able to make any progress on their social change desires. I wonder how long this will work, because it does not seem to be a formal coalition.

Theresa May herself seems to be greatly weakened by this - I wonder if Boris Johnson or another prominent Conservative might push for a leadership review. She ran a truly terrible campaign.
 
Forostar said:
Lots of talk about "the manifesto" that fucked up the conservative campaign.
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The campaign was bad to begin with, the manifesto only made it worse. May tried to make it a battle of personalities - a bit awkward since she doesn't actually have one. I was impressed by her in parliament, where she would often walk all over Jeremy Corbyn. The opposite happened during the election campaign though. She repeated ultimately empty slogans at staged events in front of Tory faithful, avoided questions from journalists and refused to take part in TV debates, despite having comfortably dealt with Corbyn in parliament. The stage-managed campaign was an embarrassment and full of cringeworthy slogans like "May's Manifesto" and "Theresa May's Team". What a shambles. George Osbourne (former Chancellor under David Cameron, now editor of a London newspaper) has been making his opinion of her fairly clear with some front pages that don't hold anything back: https://twitter.com/EveningStandard
 
I get the impression they were overconfident, hence calling this election in the first place. They've made themselves the party of Brexit, but Labour aren't out to block Brexit. They've maybe been too distracted by the idea of trying to bring Tories with UKIP leanings back into the fold. They just assume that the default position of the centre ground is vote Conservative, and discounted genuine widespread fear about the future of the NHS and permanent austerity.
 
Another question from a semi-ignorant Yank too lazy to do 30 minutes of research: it's apparent that Theresa May has been badly weakened by this election. Who are the next potential Tory leaders waiting in the wings who could replace her in the near future?
 
I don't really think there are any credible ones. Jeremy Hunt or one of the other most outspoken cabinet members, maybe? Boris Johnson gets talked about a lot (he's former Mayor of London) but I'm not sure his cheerful oaf act is a good one for a national leader. There was a bit of an exodus after the Brexit referendum and resulting leadership contest last year.
 
We're in search of a new prime-minister, since the current quit to become president. Prime candidate is a lesbian who by all accounts is qualified for the job but the church is lobbying against her <_<
 
AlexS said:
Another question from a semi-ignorant Yank too lazy to do 30 minutes of research: it's apparent that Theresa May has been badly weakened by this election. Who are the next potential Tory leaders waiting in the wings who could replace her in the near future?
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Boris Johnson would be the obvious candidate. He's currently favourite with the bookmakers and probably very popular with the core Conservative electorate. The next on the list is David Davis (silly name), the Brexit Secretary, but he's already lost a leadership election to David Cameron. Third on the bookmakers list is, bizarrely, Ruth Davidson, the leader of the Scottish Conservatives. She's done a great job at bringing the party back from the brink of oblivion in Scotland but she doesn't have a seat at Westminster and being leader of the opposition in the Scottish parliament is hardly a great qualification for being Prime Minister. Plus she's not really a proper Tory either and seems more like a normal person.

The best thing the Conservatives could do now would be to bring David Cameron back. He actually tried to modernize the party in a similar fashion to what Tony Blair did with the Labour party. Theresa May has pretty much taken the party backwards by bringing up stupid crap like fox hunting again.
 
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