Early UK General Election Woooooo

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Early UK General Election woooooo
 Cerberus.Tidis
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By Cerberus.Tidis 2017-04-18 10:23:24
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It's not official yet so to speak, but current Prime Minister Theresa May has announced she will seek an early election and main opposition Labour have said they will support the call for an early general election.

For those unfamiliar with British politics, back in 2011 the then coalition government of the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats introduced the Fixed Term Parliament Act, which in short meant that all terms lasted 5 years and the only way to circumvent that was:

  • 2/3 majority vote in the House of Commons.

  • overall majority vote on a vote of no confidence in the current Government.



As the two major parties have pledged their support for an early election, it seems inevitable that it will go through.

A little background as far as my knowledge goes, the current ruling party is the Conservatives, they hold a slender current working majority of 17 MPs and will be hoping that their strong polling figures will give them a stronger majority, this will be seen as a boon to Theresa May who has come under criticism as an unelected Prime Minister, taking over after David Cameron's resignation in late 2016 after the EU referendum.

The main opposition the Labour party are currently led by long term backbencher Jeremy Corbyn, a centre-left socialist who currently enjoys high level of support from Labour members, whose leadership has seen the party grow to the largest political party in Europe but often faces criticism from the media and even his own MPs, often referred to derogatorily as 'Blairites' (A reference to more right leaning Labour MPs who would have typically supported previous leader, Tony Blair).

The third major party in the mix are the Liberal Democrats who would be looking to make headway after a disastrous 2015 General Election result left them with just 9 MPs. They are now led by Tim Farron who is very pro-EU and would seek a second EU referendum based on the terms of the Brexit deal itself, he hopes to gain support as the only major party to be officially opposing Brexit. The Liveral Democrats are typical seen as the more centrist option.

The final major party, who gained massive grounds in the 2015 General Election are the Scottish National Party. As their name suggests, they only contest Scottish constituencies of which they won all but 3 in the last General Election, this performance in particular was particularly damaging to the Labour Party who previously were a major force in Scotland.

This place was getting too American lately anyway ;)

General Election is scheduled for June 8th.
 Sylph.Shadowlina
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By Sylph.Shadowlina 2017-04-18 10:48:11
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Ah yes, this is actually something i look forward too, i know lots of conservative supporters who don't like may and are swinging the other way as a result so.

could be interesting.
 Asura.Kingnobody
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By Asura.Kingnobody 2017-04-18 10:50:30
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Well, we were talking about it in Random P&R, but like good little boys and girls we are, got distracted by boobs and bumper stickers.
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By Garuda.Chanti 2017-04-19 17:29:28
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Commons approved.

Its official.
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By Ruaumoko 2017-04-21 14:41:25
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Labour might as well not even show up.

Infuriatingly enough, the Tories are going to absolutely *** hammer them.
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By Asura.Kingnobody 2017-04-21 15:08:57
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Ruaumoko said: »
Labour might as well not even show up.

Infuriatingly enough, the Tories are going to absolutely *** hammer them.
[+]
 Cerberus.Tidis
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By Cerberus.Tidis 2017-04-21 16:13:59
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Ruaumoko said: »
Labour might as well not even show up.

Infuriatingly enough, the Tories are going to absolutely *** hammer them.
We'll see, polls have been wrong several times in recent events. Add to the fact that the First Past the Post system means a 20 or so point lead now won't necessarily lead to a massive Tory victory.

One indicator will be how the local elections pan out on May 4th.
 Asura.Kingnobody
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By Asura.Kingnobody 2017-04-21 16:38:45
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Cerberus.Tidis said: »
We'll see, polls have been wrong several times in recent events.
Make sure to remind Clinton that, k?
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By Ruaumoko 2017-04-21 19:14:58
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Asura.Kingnobody said: »
Ruaumoko said: »
Labour might as well not even show up.

Infuriatingly enough, the Tories are going to absolutely *** hammer them.
God Labour is dead, the Tories killed them.
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By Ruaumoko 2017-04-28 10:13:16
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I want the BBC to really press Theresa May on taking part in a series of pre-election debates. Tim Farron (Liberal Democrats) has already agreed to take part, Jeremy Corbyn (Labour) will take part if Theresa May (Conservative Party) does... but the current sitting prime minister does not want to.

This isn't a regular election, this is a serious and pivotal point in British history (English history especially) and the reluctance of the prime minister to face the electorate on exactly how she plans to take the nation forward speaks volumes about the state of her conviction, or the lack thereof. Simply repeating 'I will provide a strong and stable government' (as she did ten times in the final PMQs before parliament was dissolved) is not good enough.

If she still refuses to take part I would like the BBC to press Corbyn to take part, invite Nicola Sturgeon (Scottish National Party) as a fourth debater and leave a vacant podium where May should have been. Let that podium be a constant reminder to potential Conservative Party / Hard-line Brexit voters that their party leader and incumbent prime minister could not muster the courage or the conviction to face her opposition.
necroskull Necro Bump Detected! [33 days between previous and next post]
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By Ruaumoko 2017-05-31 14:17:02
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Theresa May fails to show up to the Leaders Debate.

What an utter coward. She does not even have the courage or belief in herself or her government to face the electorate.

I've voted Conservative in the past but I just can't let this slide. I'm now going Left.
 Asura.Kingnobody
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By Asura.Kingnobody 2017-05-31 14:40:53
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Ruaumoko said: »
I'm now going Left.
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By Asura.Saevel 2017-05-31 15:14:51
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Ruaumoko said: »
Theresa May fails to show up to the Leaders Debate.

What an utter coward. She does not even have the courage or belief in herself or her government to face the electorate.

I've voted Conservative in the past but I just can't let this slide. I'm now going Left.

Now I'm not super knowledgeable in UK politics so I'm stepping on thin ice here, but from what I can see here is that people who really don't like her setup a "debate" and she simply refused to go into the trap? After the last media trap I wouldn't blame her, though again not sure how UK politics normally works. Do you guys have an election commission that organizes formal debates or are they adhoc / media organized?
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By Ruaumoko 2017-05-31 20:30:08
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Election Debates are actually a relatively recent thing in the UK as campaigning was previously left to the campaign trail.

Debates are organized by the various broadcasters and there are usually three, one is hosted by the BBC, one is hosted by ITV, and one is hosted by Sky News. This is about as close to a level playing field as one could hope for. BBC represents the more 'left', ITV the center and Sky News the 'right' (it's owned by Rupert Murdoch, the same guy who owns Fox News).

While showing up to a debate isn't mandatory it is more or less an unspoken rule that if you are running for office you need to. Gordon Brown once hesitated to debate David Cameron so Sky News told him that if he didn't show up he would be represented by an empty podium.

What Theresa May has done here is throw her Home Secretary under the bus because she knew that she would lose in a debate to her opposition, especially after the numerous gaffes of this past fortnight. Rather than be represented by a vacant podium she sent Amber Rudd to face the firing squad.
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By Asura.Saevel 2017-06-01 08:39:41
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Bah screw the election, we must find the meaning of Covfefe
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 Cerberus.Tidis
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By Cerberus.Tidis 2017-06-03 17:18:38
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Interestingly the polls, whether you believe them or not are all showing the same trend, Tory vote share dropping, Labour's rising as this graph shows: