UK General Discussion Thread: mayy lmao

[joevsimp]

some of you with long memories may remember the Newark byelection 18 months ago, and this coming up in the thread

According to the Guardian UKIP and the Lib Dems are wondering aloud whether the Tories spent more than allowed on their campaign.

I doubt they'd be so blatant as to spend more that £100,000 0n the campaign, but there were some similar mutterings at the last general election that money was spent on the council election tab that had an effect on the parliamentary campaign. Might be something similar with euro money being disproportionately spent  in Newark

of course i'm merely speculating on what the lib dems might be thinking, i'm sure that the tories didn't do anything illegal.  Sneaky and underhanded on the other hand...

It's not like campaign overspending has ever happened before in Newark.

well lookie what have we here? undeclared hotel bills from Newark, Clacton and Rochester

http://www.channel4.com/news/conservatives-appear-to-have-overspent-on-three-by-elections

unfortunately, the intervening general election limits the possibilities for action, a very worrying precedent though...

[joevsimp]

There are a lot of PbP posters in my area for some reason.

do you happen to live in Lewisham? don't think they're very active anywhere else

[joevsimp]

https://www.politicshome.com/news/uk/political-parties/labour-party/news/73724/jeremy-corbyn-overstated-income-his-tax-return

I love how Corbyn made half a grand last year taking surveys.

I still haven't reached my 50 quid off YouGov, maybe he won the monthly prize draw?

[joevsimp]

Apparently Khan wanted nothing to do with Corbyn and hewed the middle road between Corbyn's socialism and Blair's centrism to win

people have said it further up the page
, but I can really see Kahn deciding tht 4 years is enough and getting reselected for a parliamentary seat at the 2020 election, either to a major cabinet position or front runner for leadership and picking up the pieces after a defeat

[joevsimp]

Spoke to my very right wing uncle about this , and  he said he wanted the death penalty for the bloke. Surprised I haven't seen this argument come out

Harold Wilson abolished the death penalty 51 years ago. You'd think people would realize that its not an option anymore. It's sad when people have no idea what their own laws are.  

On a side note, this is a major event so it should have gotten its own thread.

Although if you ask the British people whether capital punishment should be legal or not, it's very close: 48% would support it. http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-32061822

although it was abolished before we entered the EEC, the European Human Rights Convention precludes it from being reintroduced.  Expect it to rise up the agenda if we leave and end up with a hard right government for the next 4 years, although I think Boris and, to an extent, Gove have enough Libertarian instincts to resist,

[joevsimp]

Corbyn refuses to resign, says no confidence vote has 'no constitutional legitimacy'

This is what happens when you let the Neo-Marxists into the party. They seize power and never let it go.

there is nothing neo-anything about Corbyn and he has not made significant changes to the party rulebook either, the procedure is for a challenger to, you know, challenge the incumbent. if the PLP want him out that badly they should've pulled their fingers out and nominated a challenger on monday morning rather than fartarsing about with a non-binding pantomime

[joevsimp]

A question about leadership contest procedure: I know Labour had much wider range of people who votes other than PLP, but the Tories are still MPs-only contest, right?

Conservative MPs vote in a multi-round ballot eliminating the bottom placed candidate until there are two left, the membership then chose between the two in a postal vote (about 250,000 last time)

so if five are nominated, there will be three rounds to whittle them down to two for the members to vote on

[joevsimp]

government has lost the Article 50 case;

A good thing IMO: any precedent that would increase royal prerogative powers is IMO a bad thing.

Absolutely,  what with Parliamentary Sovereignty being such a high scorer iin Brexit Bingo. Better to have our all above board and kosher this way around rather than have it thrown out later

I don't see what May is so scared of. Most pro EU MPs with constituencies that voted leave will either hold their noses or sit on their hands; Labour would be wise to whip the PLP to abstain  It should be simple enough to remind MPs of the advice the people have given and use the usual channels to ensure that the vote is carried. The only problem is the SNP voting against it en bloc  and grandstanding about it. Some of the Lords might kick up a fuss but the threat of further reform should be enough to keep most of them in line (not that abolishing the unelected house would be a bad thing either)

[joevsimp]

I would've expected Bercow to be stepping down in a year or two anyway.  I think he will survive this, no speaker has been ousted in over 300 years, although Martin jumped before he was pushed. Even though i don't disagree with him,  i think it would've been better for him too take a leaf from William Lenthall's book: "I have neither eyes to see nor tongue to speak but as the house directs me"

If he does retire before the next election,  i wouldn't be surprised if a Labour moderate with a relatively precarious majority tries to go for it,  and hopefully gets shut down. I think we'll have another conservative. I imagine Rifkind is the type  might've fancied it if he hadn't torpedoed his career

[joevsimp]

And if these constituencies were declared void by an election court, the expenses limit would be £100 grand per seat for the byelections

[joevsimp]

And if these constituencies were declared void by an election court, the expenses limit would be £100 grand per seat for the byelections

£100 grand per seat? That seems a lot for single constituencies.

i suppose it's to make up for the lack of "air game" in a general election, but yes, completely absurd

[joevsimp]

YouGov poll asking people about things that could be reinstated following Brexit: http://d25d2506sfb94s.cloudfront.net/cumulus_uploads/document/tl8kg6q3i9/InternalResults_170222_AfterBrexit_W.pdf

Death penalty at 36% support...must be the lowest ever, surely?

It's Britain's membership of the ECHR not the EU that precludes the return of the rope, and I think May will have a tougher time pulling Britain out of that.

this is the result of 44 years of right wing press saying that the EEC/EU is the source of all that is "wrong" with Britain. what about the rest:

imperial measures are fairly commonly used in parallel with metric and I don't see that changing any time soon, plenty of things still come in standard sized packs of 454g

smoking ban is completely unrelated to the EU, I was on a site visit in Germany last week and they had smoking areas inside factories and warehouses

Blue Passports, literally a symbolic gesture, no harm in it if it makes people happy,  the insides will still conform to more or less the same standards anyway

£.s.d was replaced before we joined the EU and the Dominions decimalised of their own accord in the 60's

incandescent bulbs: 33% of Ukip voters want to willfully use a less efficient product just..because?

corporal punishment: the ECHR ruled that it isn't a human rights violation as late as 1993, 11 years after British Laws Passed at Wetminster ended it in state schools