Politics

[Fortmax2020]

Jun 9, 2017 9:09:56 GMT blueshift said:

Jun 9, 2017 7:09:19 GMT The Doctor said:

I'm loving how May thinks this result "gives a period of stability". Is she insane???

-Ralph

What if we get rid of all elections, that would be extra stable!!!

You fool! Don't give May any more ideas!!

[Dezzeh]

I have quite a few concerns about the DUP being a shot caller, they have some very strange world views.

[The Doctor]

I hope Lord Buckethead stands again.

-Ralph

[browny87]

Free bikes for all!! it reduces the amount of bike theft!

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Jun 9, 2017 11:08:21 GMT browny87 said:

Whichever way you look at it, this is a huge Labour victory

Unless you look at it in the sense that they didn't win.

I'm quite upbeat about things for the simple reason that the prospect of a hard Brexit is considerably less likely now than it was 24 hours ago. Which is a really big deal. Governments are for 5 years or less, Brexit may be for our lifetimes.

Martin

[Bogatan]

Hard Brexit might be less likely but the chances of crashing out with no deal feels a bit more real to me now.

[The Doctor]

I was feeling positive until it became clear the evil DUP now effectively run the country and that May and the top 5 Tories stay in the same job. All this for an election that was not required that cost the state over a hundred million pounds when we keep being told there is no money for anything. What a fucking joke. What was the point? No wonder some folk can't be bothered voting. Can't blame them when this is what we get.

-Ralph

[Fortmax2020]

Fear not chum. This new state of affairs is inherently unstable. Tories rebels will ensure DUP don't call the shots and even the DUP don't view May as being around for more than a few months.

May's arrogance will still destroy her and the fools she has surrounded herself with. She moved fast yesterday because it was the only way for her to survive as PM but she forgot to actually make a deal with the DUP before announcing they'd be working with her plus she basically spat on all her colleagues who lost their seats because of Team Theresa. Her fall will be mighty. Hastened by consequences of getting into bed with the DUP.

[blueshift]

Jun 10, 2017 10:35:22 GMT Fortmax2020 said:

but she forgot to actually make a deal with the DUP before announcing they'd be working with her

Wait what? Seriously?

[Pinwig]

I think the country should be made to do it again until they get it right. Given the limited number of choices we could probably have it sorted by Christmas.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

The PM's advisors have just resigned.

I don't think another general election will help. The country is divided about fifty-fifty, so a slight majority for either a hard-Brexit-Tory party or a Corbyn-Labour party would be a bad thing as it would alienate the losing half of the population. Whoever is in power just has to recognise that they need to give ground to the people that didn't vote for them. Anyone could do this, even Theresa May, if they just accept that a working majority in Parliament doesn't make it right to force through the implementation of a manifesto that only suits half the voters.

Whoever is PM should talk to the opposition and try to knock up a compromise budget and a compromise Brexit negotiating position. Otherwise we just remain divided and end up like America.

The Scottish Conservative Leader seems to have the right idea.

Martin

[Fortmax2020]

An excellent comment.

Similar problems of not reaching across the divide occurred in Scotland after Indyref1. The SNP made a good talk of reaching across and working with other parties but couldn't manage it as they got bogged down with the inevitable calls for Indyref2. But at least they recognised this was a way forward.

[Bogatan]

Sounds good, but I can't see it happening for a second.

Either theres another referendum (which, yes, probably wont be helpful, unless the public rightly punish the conservatives for making them go to the polls so often) or virtually nothing constructive (or destructive) is going to get done for the next 5 years apart from the exit negotiations.

And they surely will now be even messier than they would have been 8 weeks ago.

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Jun 10, 2017 16:17:04 GMT Bogatan said:

Either theres another referendum (which, yes, probably wont be helpful, unless the public rightly punish the conservatives for making them go to the polls so often)

Referenda are rubbish because they are only called when the nation is divided on something, and whoever wins they don't heal that division. Division is healed by compromise, not by the larger faction winning and the smaller faction losing.

Two-party political systems are rubbish for the same reason, and just result in different sides taking it in turn to be dominant and miserable.

Which is why I like proportional representation and hung parliaments, where the largest party has to compromise. (And why I wish the Lib Dems had won more seats.)

One plus result of this election result is that the party with the largest number of seats and which may form a government is the one that has lost a lot of seats. They have been humbled and sent a message that they need to compromise. If Labour had won the number of seats the Conservatives currently have, and vice versa, the fact that Labour are on the rise would have left them triumphant and feeling they had a popular mandate to implement all their policies (despite having less than half the vote). When actually they would have had no more a right to implement all their policies than the Conservatives now have to implement theirs.

We'll see!

Martin

[Bogatan]

Yes much of the last 2 years might have been avoided if the PR referendum hadn't been screwed up.

But its too late to worry about that now.

[Fortmax2020]

I detect no new sense of humbling from Team Theresa. Now, in some Conservatives on the other hand there is.

[The Doctor]

Just seems like business as usual. Nothing has really changed. Very depressed about the future.

-Ralph

[The Doctor]

I've just watched Trump announce his "great idea" to put solar panels on his Great Wall so Mexico "pays less for it" and it becomes a "solar wall". Words fail me. This is beyond parody now.

-Ralph

[Dezzeh]

It's going to be yuge.

[Bogatan]

The infrastructure required to make use of the power would actually make the wall more expensive than a non solar wall.

[Fortmax2020]

The idea was in the press a few weeks ago and originated with some of the companies competing to build his wall. It is not his idea or an original idea. He's a buffon and an egomaniac.

He has also just admitted he has no recordings of his meetings with the previous FBI director as threatened until his bluff was called. He has however taken the opportunity of his climbdown to insinuate unknown folks may be recording him. Again.

[The Doctor]

*checks news*

Good grief, I had not thought Trump could sink any lower. Surely he's finished now? Who would vote for him after this???

-Ralph

[Fortmax2020]

White supremacists and Nazis?

[Dezzeh]

A lot of people in the deep south I imagine. and unless he is impeached, which probably would have happened by now if it was going to, they have to deal with this for at least antoher 3.5 years.

[Fortmax2020]

The Republican party had ample opportunity to distance themselves from crazies when it was just the Tea Party folk after Ombama's elections leading them by the nose. They failed to nip it in the bud then and this is what they have fallen head first into. They were warned.

[The Doctor]

They were indeed. We have a 'leader of the free word' who endorses nazis and white supremists and in turn is endorsed by them. He is not fit for office though I do not believe he represents the majority of the American people. I hope he is voted out by them at the next election. That country deserves better.

-Ralph

[The Doctor]

Exactly.

www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/23/bbc-nigel-farage-boris-johnson-jacob-rees-mogg?CMP=fb_gu

-Ralph

[Fortmax2020]

Agreed.

[Philip Ayres]

[The Doctor]

Are we in some alternate universe where the WHO just made Mugabe a GOODWILL Ambassador? I think I saw that on the news but that can't be real!

-Ralph