Topic: The UK General Election

[Milsap]

So, we've got a general election soon. How's everyone feeling about it?

We've got Maggie May in the Blue Corner, promising a 'strong and stable' Britain while at the same time screwing the poor.

Jeremy Corbyn in the Red Corner, wanting to nationalise everything but at the same time making sure the mega corporations pay their taxes.

The UK Independence Party that... Well... Do they even need to exist anymore?

The Liberal Democrats want to legalise weed, so there's the stoner vote

And the greens, 'the hipster vote'.

I've been a Labour voter since 2010 (my first election) and this year I'm on the fence. Corbyn's a wet blanket and I'm worried about my small business' corporation tax increasing as a result. Just hoping the mega corporations are going to get taxed harder and my rate staying the same.

What about you?

[not chloe]

Just sent off my Labour postal vote.

Voted Green last time around but our candidate for the Green Party didn't run this time.

[Specstile]

My vote is going towards labour, conservatives seem to be crippling the NHS and social care.

[SaRo|Rapidash]

Still really unsure. Labours budget holds water, however I'm not entirely okay with how insanely high their tax is on £80k+ pays, nor am I convinced their budget will hold up when the rich flee to lower taxes (esp. relevant with brexit). Don't trust the party at all with defence either - there's something to learn in Corbyns preachings of talk, don't shoot, but he goes a bit too extreme in his peace. That said, the rest of the party would hold him back.

Conservatives have pretty good policies this time round, and a pro-business party is definitely what we need ATM (only party planning to drop corporation tax). History suggests they're the better party financially (Labours pandering to the union's collapsed the economy in the 70s, Brown was in power for the '08 crash, Thatcher lead the country out of the winter of discontent), but I don't trust Theresa May one bit, and that's incredibly concerning.

That said my vote is basically useless, the Bethnal & Bow constituency is ~60% Lab, 17% Tory, so like unless May pulls off a 43% swing nothing exciting's happening lmao. Will probably just vote for the independent to help them get their £500 running "deposit" back tbh.

[The Shrub Dragon]

I think May is a poor leader whose deficit in leadership skill is surpassed only by her awful communication skills.  It seems an awful lot like she's functioning on autopilot, if you ask me.  To be quite frank, she's answered questions in interviews with answers that are so rehearsed they seem to have come straight out of autocorrect, which gives me little faith that she'd be able to make intelligent and sustainable decisions in the event of a financial crisis.  She's not the face I want to see handling a matter as controversial as Brexit when she's barely able to string together a sentence to explain how she's going to help improve connectivity in the south west.


That said, I don't trust Corbyn either.  He very much gives the impression that he's taking radical far-left views and trying to operationalise them without understanding them.  One such example would be his public u-turn on the shoot-to-kill policy.  It suggests to me that he's a man who wants to take approval at any juncture, and I can't imagine him doing any good when we're this close to breaking point as a country.  The man is far too idealistic, and I think the damage done by the imbalance in his morality would leave us anaemic financially and in terms of social growth should there be a financial or political disaster.


I'm voting Lib Dem.  I don't love them, but I think a party that wants to put decisions back in the public's hands and abolish our pseudo-oligarchy whilst also inciting its changes in funding gradually (E.G. decreasing mental health waiting times as opposed to the Green Party's plan to fund mental health and physical health the same when the NHS is under such huge strain that even redistributing tax and government funding wouldn't cover everything, effectively worsening physical and mental health epidemics). I think the Lib Dems are the most rational choice at the moment.

[Milsap]

Brown was in power for the '08 crash

The crash started in the States and by the time anyone could do anything it was too late.

[SaRo|Rapidash]

Looks like Theresa Mays staying in number 10, idk how this government will stand up with an effective majority of 13 (when you add DUP and remove Sinn Fein from the commons) especially when it's effectively a coalition (whether formal or not). So much for strong and stable.

Idk why Corbyn is calling to be PM at this point though, he can't command the commons without relying on a rainbow coalition, which DUP and Tories are obviously not agreeing to.

[lets all go out for some frosty chocolate milkshakes]

i had to ban myself from politics posting until the election was over b/c i just couldn't behave but HAHAHAHAHA omg


cameron gambled with brexit and lost. theresa may gambled with a snap election and lost her majority before brexit negociations. l m a o people call labour the inept ones and the tories the ones who have got it together but...................................wth?????????? even with the tabloids and murdoch press savaging corbyn 24/7 and the PLP knifing corbyn in the back for like the first 2/3rds of the entire run she still lost, just like how cameron lost an unlosable campaign back in 2010 after years and years of labour. sheesh. and now she's gotta make concessions to the DUP which'll totally help her hard brexit, not, 

she probably has to stay on b/c otherwise we have boris johnson as PM and people pretend to like him cos hignfy et al. try to make him look cuddly but he's kind of a horror and the british version of trump and shouldn't be allowed anywhere near positions of power.


im also pleased to report south yorkshire went ALL RED including sheffield hallam which was a shock, not quite the socialist republic of south yorkshire of yesteryear (i can dream) but im wondering how and why there is blue popping up in scotland of all places cos thats not good for indyref2


also milsap u got lucky, walsall south was lab hold by a huge margin but if u campaign indirectly for the tories ever again i will shout every line of karl marx's engels outside your house till you serve me a restraining order

[SirBlaziken]

i had to ban myself from politics posting until the election was over b/c i just couldn't behave but HAHAHAHAHA omg

That was pretty much my brother in our house during the American election tbh.

also milsap u got lucky, walsall south was lab hold by a huge margin but if u campaign indirectly for the tories ever again i will shout every line of karl marx's engels outside your house till you serve me a restraining order

I'll be stealing this.

From what you all are saying, it seems like your election is going a lot better than the American General (dear lord what have we done send help).

[The Hooded Trainer]

Corbyns a socialist, everybodys been screaming about how unelectable he is since he became leader, the media was fully against him, his partys been a joke for years now, and he still blocked a majority government with just 7 weeks of campaigning.

Im going to be laughing about this result for a looooong time

[Milsap]

also milsap u got lucky, walsall south was lab hold by a huge margin but if u campaign indirectly for the tories ever again i will shout every line of karl marx's engels outside your house till you serve me a restraining order

My in laws are in with the local Tories so I had to lie about voting for/supporting James Bird to the local Tories that came into the office. Then yesterday dropped in my X on Valerie Vaz. Labour. Boom!

[not chloe]

im also pleased to report south yorkshire went ALL RED including sheffield hallam which was a shock, not quite the socialist republic of south yorkshire of yesteryear (i can dream)

Including my constituency Bassetlaw, but we're always Labour because the district encompasses at least 3 mining towns and everyone around is still butt hurt at Maggie Thatch. I'm real proud of old Sheffield & screwing Nick Clegg out of his seat which honestly is not even soon enough cos he's a bit weasly and I don't think he's a good leader.

I identify with u Milsap my parents are also Raging Blues and it hurts my soul but as a small business owning family I think Tory is actually the right choice for my parents. I just hope this political speed bump doesn't spiral the precision engineering industry and make us bankrupt again cos I hate bankruptcy ty

[Milsap]

I don't actually know who my parents vote for. I'm presuming dad votes Labour given he was in the unions at BT and that. My father in law votes Tory based on the business rates and my mother in law votes Tory because she thinks Thatcher's still alive.

[Lord Raven]

I too have been following and the fact that Theresa May didn't even do the bare minimum to win (because this was the Conservative Party's to lose, because their goal was to gain seats) is quite hilarious.

[lets all go out for some frosty chocolate milkshakes]

I too have been following and the fact that Theresa May didn't even do the bare minimum to win (because this was the Conservative Party's to lose, because their goal was to gain seats) is quite hilarious.

the 1922 committee are also meeting up (tory partys way of sayin "the boss wants a word with you") so its going to take a miracle to keep her in her position tbh,

she more or less had to enter a joint deal with.........well imagine an irish militarised version of the tea party (DUP is the paramilitary arm of a staunchly pope-hating anti-catholic irish unionist party set up by a late shouty guy mr ian paisley who are all v creationist v anti lgbti etc etc) just to stay in power. 

and if we go through with brexit and get a hard outside-EU northern irish/irish border, well, that whole northern ireland politics thing. which was a bit. well. fighty. and explodey. kinda complicates things. so the whole DUP alliance thing might have a vested interest in the brexit talks. which will be interesting to see!

tbh as far as things go even if it falls to bits and theres another election and we get a strong tory majority in about a year after all its been a bit of a laff anyway