2017 General Election thread

[Another Surrey Shrimper]

PMSL....I so hope this a true story!.... can you imagine! :smile:

fact is stranger than fiction:

https://www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/how-to-win-a-marginal-seat

 

[Another Surrey Shrimper]

Interesting tweets, same thread but each written by a different person:


Sinn Fein says the Tories are breaching the Good Friday Agreement for favouring one side over the other, they're playing with fire.




They are right, according to one of the negotiators of the Good Friday agreement, this coalition should not happen!




NI voted remain taking DUP the only NI brexit party into goverment and giving them favour means all hell is going to break loose in Ireland




Sinn Fein raises serious issue of massive conflict of interest. Tory Govt CANNOT be honest broker when governing WITH ONE SIDE




There will be no neutrality when going to form a new NI assembly if the DUP side with the tories. Will put peace process at risk






not only favouring one side; getting into bed with a party mired in financial scandal. Not clever.








And that all sounds pretty miserable so this one to lighten the mood:


There once was a woman named May
Who threw an election away
She lost her majority
And has no authority
How long can she honestly stay?

 

[mattitouk]

fact is stranger than fiction:

https://www.bitebackpublishing.com/books/how-to-win-a-marginal-seat

Brilliant!...Oooh the shame!

Loved your poem by the way :smile:

On a serious note, were any of your tweets actually politically accurate?

 

[Gt Yarmouth Shrimper]

Could of been worse if Steptoe had won.

It really couldn't:facepalm:

 

[* ORM *]

What a "delightful" bunch of dinosaurs the DUP are. Climate change deniers, anti-abortion, against gay marriage, even Creationists within their ranks.

Well those in the constituencies they stood for seem to like the policies. I despise Sinn Fein but I don't deny their right to attend parliament and form alliances

 

[callan]

if you are 20 points behind in the polls and being slated from all angles and your opponent decides to finish you off by calling an election to cash in on that 100+ seat majority that is apparently there for the taking - when your opponent ends up with no majority at all there is no way you are not going to have a bit of a swagger about you.

This may be what it's come to for Labour, until the party can work out how to win a majority.

They wont get many worse opponents than May nor such a poor tory manifesto....yet somehow finishing 50 + seats behind is seen as an 'incredible result' to quote Corbyn.

If having your opponents running the country with the DUP is something to celebrate and have a swagger about....whilst the country suffers....then crack on.

 

[Another Surrey Shrimper]

Brilliant!...Oooh the shame!

Loved your poem by the way :smile:

On a serious note, were any of your tweets actually politically accurate?

all of those tweets were other people's - I just thought the conversations were interesting. I won't claim to know to much about NI politics but it's safe to say that the peace they have is always on a knife edge and I suspect the terms of the Good Friday Agreement will be complex and great care should be taken not to disrupt it.

 

[Another Surrey Shrimper]

This may be what it's come to for Labour, until the party can work out how to win a majority.

They wont get many worse opponents than May nor such a poor tory manifesto....yet somehow finishing 50 + seats behind is seen as an 'incredible result' to quote Corbyn.

If having your opponents running the country with the DUP is something to celebrate and have a swagger about....whilst the country suffers....then crack on.

the timing of the election was 100% to cash in on an easy win. It is an incredible result because the assumed 100 seat majority came up against a progressive manifesto and a willingness to debate and ended up with no majority. May didn't want to carry on for 3 years with a tiny majority - you think she will last 5 years with no majority? It's an incredible achievement because Labour were not expected to get through the group stages but now we are waiting for a date to be announced for the knock out round.

Corbyn's swagger (my word, it's not official policy!) was at 4 or 5am on Friday morning - he would not have known that May would go running to the DUP - at that point she didn't even know herself. I assumed that blaming Corbyn for everything may be an outdated concept.

 

[southendkid]

This may be what it's come to for Labour, until the party can work out how to win a majority.

They wont get many worse opponents than May nor such a poor tory manifesto....yet somehow finishing 50 + seats behind is seen as an 'incredible result' to quote Corbyn.

If having your opponents running the country with the DUP is something to celebrate and have a swagger about....whilst the country suffers....then crack on.

Honestly if May goes because of this it's a victory in my books. I'm not fan of the Tories but if they're in power I'd rather have someone I have some degree of confidence in to run things than her.

The result also shows Labour they can offer an actual alternative manifesto and still have support, I agree with you that Corbyn is unlikely to ever get a majority (although I suppose if the Tories let the DUP have too much influence it might just swing it for him) but I'm hopeful when the next Labour leader comes in he/she can identify the policies that resonated with people (although some of the more financially improbable stuff needs to go) and offer a proper alternative that prioritises the NHS and teaching a lot more than the Tories do.

 

[callan]

the timing of the election was 100% to cash in on an easy win. It is an incredible result because the assumed 100 seat majority came up against a progressive manifesto and a willingness to debate and ended up with no majority. May didn't want to carry on for 3 years with a tiny majority - you think she will last 5 years with no majority? It's an incredible achievement because Labour were not expected to get through the group stages but now we are waiting for a date to be announced for the knock out round.

Corbyn's swagger (my word, it's not official policy!) was at 4 or 5am on Friday morning - he would not have known that May would go running to the DUP - at that point she didn't even know herself. I assumed that blaming Corbyn for everything may be an outdated concept.

It was absolutely a result that is a million miles away from what the polls predicted, however the reality is that Labour has failed in its attempt to gain power....any claim to success (for Labour) is built around ....we aren't as bad as the Press, polls would have people believe.

If you want to claim positives, then from Labours perspective there are several, from a positive campaign, to an energised younger vote and a manifesto that offered a genuine alternative....Corbyn for once looked like he was actually enjoying himself, and grew in stature as the campaign wore on, all this in contrast to a most pathetic and incompetent Tory leader , who presented a manifesto that the Public and their own core vote clearly had problems with.

Ultimately May is responsible for creating this mess, along side the reality of neither Corbyn or Labour doing enough to convince the electorate that they should be trusted to form a government.....again being 50 plus seats short of power against the tories six is not a success.

A Tory / DUP coalition is totally unpalatable to me personally...but what other choice is there?

 

[callan]

Honestly if May goes because of this it's a victory in my books. I'm not fan of the Tories but if they're in power I'd rather have someone I have some degree of confidence in to run things than her.

The result also shows Labour they can offer an actual alternative manifesto and still have support, I agree with you that Corbyn is unlikely to ever get a majority (although I suppose if the Tories let the DUP have too much influence it might just swing it for him) but I'm hopeful when the next Labour leader comes in he/she can identify the policies that resonated with people (although some of the more financially improbable stuff needs to go) and offer a proper alternative that prioritises the NHS and teaching a lot more than the Tories do.

There will be no Tory or indeed Labour supporter that woudn't be holding May in utter contempt for the mess she has created.

Her record as home secretary was abysmal, and she failed in even achieving that record as PM.

Like you I want to see her go, but that does beg the question what next?

 

[EastStandBlue]

Like you I want to see her go, but that does beg the question what next?

 

[Massimo Giovanni]

I'd like the Nasty Party to look at some of the "for the many" manifesto items and recognise them to be good policy and adopt them, as happened with the £10 minimum wage plan.
They MUST stop the hemorrhaging of NHS, Police and Military; and start to get to grips with the widening gap between haves and have nots.

 

[RHB]

If the Tories went for Boris, then they might as well offer No 10 to Labour and not bother turning up.

 

[Another Surrey Shrimper]

It was absolutely a result that is a million miles away from what the polls predicted, however the reality is that Labour has failed in its attempt to gain power....any claim to success (for Labour) is built around ....we aren't as bad as the Press, polls would have people believe.

If you want to claim positives, then from Labours perspective there are several, from a positive campaign, to an energised younger vote and a manifesto that offered a genuine alternative....Corbyn for once looked like he was actually enjoying himself, and grew in stature as the campaign wore on, all this in contrast to a most pathetic and incompetent Tory leader , who presented a manifesto that the Public and their own core vote clearly had problems with.

Ultimately May is responsible for creating this mess, along side the reality of neither Corbyn or Labour doing enough to convince the electorate that they should be trusted to form a government.....again being 50 plus seats short of power against the tories six is not a success.

A Tory / DUP coalition is totally unpalatable to me personally...but what other choice is there?

yes I agree with all of the positives that you state about Labour and obviously the fact is we still have a Conservative government. If we have this government for 5 years that is very bad news, but many people are predicting it will last 6 months to a year, and the Labour movement is ready to go again. A disunified Labour increased its vote share by 10% on the 2015 vote and 30 more seats - lots of anti-Corbyn Labour MPs have already come out to say they were wrong. This time round the Tories called an election from a position of strength, next time round it's more likely to be called if the government has fallen apart. A united Labour Party in those circumstances would look to increase their vote by another 10% and then we are there we want to be. We are very very pleased, not with where we are but with where we are going.

 

[EastStandBlue]

If the Tories went for Boris, then they might as well offer No 10 to Labour and not bother turning up.

Genuinely, who else is there?

Rudd's incompetent and would be found out very quickly. Her record at DECC was even worse than May's at the Home Office.

Spreadsheet Phil's got even less charisma than May and we've already seen the danger of pinning hopes on a charisma vacuum.

Gove's detestable.

Who does that leave? Fallon? Davis?

 

[Another Surrey Shrimper]

If the Tories went for Boris, then they might as well offer No 10 to Labour and not bother turning up.

with May gone he would at last be able to use his water cannons

 

[londonblue]

Corbyn has been pilloried on here for his "links" with the IRA, but it's ok for May to jump in bed with someone who actively supported loyalist terrorists. The hypocrisy of the right!

Not just the IRA. How about Hamas and Hezbollah? Not only did he call them his friends (which has been widely reported), but a few sentences later on in the same speech he said that they're both working for "peace and social justice".

 

[londonblue]

Labour wins Kensington by just 20 votes....I read that for just over 2000 votes, Corbyn would be PM today. Small margins..... :sad:

Excactly. If he were any good he would have been. The only reason labour didn't win is because there are too many people that refused to vote for Corduroy.

 

[londonblue]

The tories clearly miscalculated Corbyn and his team. They thought he was for the taking and he stepped up with a costed and popular manifesto that tapped into the key issues facing many people. He also rose above the horrendous personal attacks from the tories and media which strengthened him. He also worked hard and implemented a strategy to make clear messages across multiple mediums to ensure his message was clear, positive and consistent. He also capitalised on the mistakes by the tories without coming across as opportunist.

Basically, he played a blinder, but May was there for the taking. He can only see this as positive though because he's proven his value with, and with a more united PLP behind him he can definitely make more of an inroad in the next election

That's the point, it may have been costed, but it was poorly done. The IFS said it simply doesn't add up. I know who I believe.