UK General Election, June 8th 2017

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Damn you're fast.

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Will Labour MPs support the motion in the commons? I suppose DUP\UUP\LibDem will

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What will happen with the Manchester Gorton by election?

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Corbyn says Labour will support the vote tomorrow. Game on

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The ancient and noble principle of 'well look some polls have us with twenty point leads'. 'pon such things the British Constitution is founded.

Anyway looked at rationally - which isn't very easy - a landslide isn't actually guaranteed, though the return of the government pretty obviously is. Corbyn should step aside, but I suspect that won't happen.

Will this force another Labour leadership election? Is it mandatory to have leadership elections after a lost GE? Also applies for the deputy position, I suppose corbyn will want to squeeze big Tom out

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http://www.electionpolling.co.uk/swingometer/2015?CON=44&LAB=23&UKIP=10&LD=12&GRN=4

why so few seats for LibDem?

FPTP meet kelestian, kelestian FPTP

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http://www.electionpolling.co.uk/swingometer/2015?CON=44&LAB=23&UKIP=10&LD=12&GRN=4

why so few seats for LibDem?

FPTP meet kelestian, kelestian FPTP

they had 57 seats in 2010, and i have heard that LibDem regain their positions after Brexit

They had 23% of the vote with safe seats in Scotland and Cornwall. They are on 10% now with their rural seats practically gone (they might some back in Cornwall), I think they'll win around 20 seats come June

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Why is Labour supporting this?

I know whenever we have these over-confident snap elections in Canada, the governing party gets turfed. See Ontario 1990 and Alberta 2015.

Because the official opposition cannot say no to a GE, it's like admitting they're pointless

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Corbyn's strategy of not talking about Brexit when May staged it as a Brexit election is perplexing to say at least. I don't think "save the NHS" would carry as much weight as he thinks.

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Corbyn's strategy of not talking about Brexit when May staged it as a Brexit election is perplexing to say at least. I don't think "save the NHS" would carry as much weight as he thinks.

That slogan was worn out by 1950, in my opinion...

In fairness, the NHS crisis this winter was so historically bad that a Kinnock or a Blair (certainly) would have brought the government to it's knees on that one.

I don't see why any average Harry Stones should think Corbyn really cares for the NHS, he certainly failed many in his ambiguous stand with the junior doctors. Anyway, as was said, it's not that it's unimportant but rather that it's not what moves the electorate about.

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Osborne standing down to edit the rag ES

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It was a tradition in the pre-Coalition days that the Lib Dems would rise during GE campaigns.

With 1997 being a good example of that.  The Libs polled pretty dreadfully over the whole campaign which masked the reality of tactical voting in Con/Lib Dem marginals. Their overall vote share barely increased from '92 but they doubled their seats.

I remember the underpolling of Labour, at one point it looked like there was going to be a lab-lib coalition afterwards (I think Ashdown even suggested it)

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The race to succeed Corbs heats up. New statesman already bigging up Cooper (again). I actually think Watson would perform better than her electorally.

On my current count 8 lab incumbents are standing down making their seats competitive.

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On a brilliant night the tories could take Slough

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http://www.labour.org.uk/index.php/10-pledges

Shortest suicide note in history?

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Panelbase/Scotland
SNP - 44%
Con - 33%
Lab - 13%
Lib - 5%

This poll might be off but does fit into my thinking about all this talk about LIB revival in Scotland.  I always figured that the idea of LIB making gains in Scotland was most likely fiction.  If LIB were to go after the Remain vote it seems that vote should go SNP, if anything to stop CON.  If LIB were to go after the Unionist vote then that same vote most likely voted for Brexit and would go CON anyway.  I always figured that it will be a SNP vs CON battle this time in Scotland even if it will be an uneven battle.

I wonder if they'll finally lose Orkney and Shetland

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Tim Farron is continuing to dig himself into a hole over whether gay sex is a sin. 

I think the attacks on him are repugnant. Now I don't believe in god or sins but Farron does, he is also a Liberal and as long as he believes the state should be neutral on that account and treats gay people impartially as a public figure, his own private thoughts are his own. That's true Liberalism, tolerance is towards things you personally disapprove of.

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YouGov poll of Wales:

CON 40 (21 seats)
LAB 30 (15 seats)
PC 13 (3 seats)
LD 8 (1 seat)
UKIP 6
GRN 2

Shocking. First Tory majority since 1922

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YouGov poll of Wales:

CON 40 (21 seats)
LAB 30 (15 seats)
PC 13 (3 seats)
LD 8 (1 seat)
UKIP 6
GRN 2

Shocking. First Tory majority since 1922

My impression is that CON did not get a majority in Wales either in 1922.  I do not think CON has ever been the largest party in Wales ever.

Correction: according to the New Statesman it will the first time since 1922 Labour didn't win a majority in Wales.

Of course early polling are misleading and I guess we'll see the margin growing narrower but the picture as of now is quite dismal. This is also going to be the first election I am not going to support Labour and encourage my friends who can vote to put their support with the Liberals. So on a personal note I'm sad, when I was a socialist youth I spent a week campaigning for Labour (and watching Spurs of course) and I have always read Labour publications, so I do feel in some sense a close affinity to Labour and I saw it severed the past year.

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At last! Labour has a Brexit policy

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Bob Marshall defects to the LibDem

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https://stv.tv/news/scotland/1386953-msps-on-alert-as-white-powder-sent-to-politicians/

STV News are reporting that 'white powers' has been sent to the constituency of office SNP MP John Nicolson (East Dunbartonshire), the Municipal Buildings of Angus Council (SNP-run) and the SNP headquarters in Edinburgh. Suggestions are that it's linked with the General Election.

White powder in Scotland...I wonder which druggie lost his wee heroine bag

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Some movement of remainers headed by Blair, Gina Miller, and others is rumoured to kick off next week, I know from a contact they rented offices in the City and journalists are coming and going.

Oh the hubris, the splintering of the remainers is going to give the Tories a three digits majority

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Wow. I expected the Grauniad to back the Lib Dems, not go full Tory.

This is not the guardian but rather the readership, the endorsement is in the week before the GE and I expect it to be to "your local remainer"

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The 'old dinosaurs' remember what it was like in the 1970s.

I am sure they do, which is why they want to strengthen & continue the disastrous Reagan-Thatcher economy (But you know it's on borrowed time with the massive polarization of young people coming into the voting bloc & old people dying, even if some of these young people turn conservative, it's only a matter of few years !

Very selective data picking. I suggest you go read about the three days work week, the social decay of most British cities (captured beautifully in The Special's Ghost Town), the general feeling that things were falling apart, social unrest as unemployed youth turned football terraces into battlefields, NF running amok, and etc.

Situation was so bad that in one point some thought of overthrowing the government and placing Lord Mountbatten at the top