Politics

[Grand Moff Muffin]

Jun 30, 2016 19:58:33 GMT Philip Ayres said:

With the next conservative leader 3 of the last 5 Prime Ministers will not have been initially elected by the Great British Public

The Great British Public has never elected a Prime Minister. The Great British Public elects MPs. The MPs elect the Prime Minister. If one party has a majority of MPs (they rarely have the majority of the popular vote), the Great British Public can normally assume its current leader will be the PM to begin with (though actually they can't just be leader on paper like Corbyn, they must also command the confidence of a majority of MPs in Parliament), but cannot assume they will be so for the full five years.

Unlike America where the people do elect the President, but the downside of that system is he often can't deliver on his electoral promises because he doesn't command a majority in the legislatures.

I think it would be good _not_ to have another general election, because (a) we had one to elect our current MPs a year ago, (b) the Labour membership might de-select lots of MPs that the public elected a year ago, something I don't consider very democratic, and then lose those Labour seats, and (c) if we don't have a general election to endorse our Brexit negotiating position, there's a much greater chance we'll have a referendum on it instead.

Martin

[Pinwig]

Johnson knows what he's doing. He knows now isn't the right time. Too much of a mess to sort out. He isn't half as stupid as he comes across.

It wouldn't actually surprise me if he was hoping Brexit would fail so he could build a reputation through going on about how great it would have been. I think winning has actually pulled the rug from under him.

[Bogatan]

I honestly dont think anyone campaigning for leave really thought they would win. Boris almost certainly didn't.

[The Doctor]

An amusing cartoon:

www.gove2016.co.uk/

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

I see now we're expecting an interest cut to 0.25% next month and there are scare stories of a new recession within six months.

[Fortmax2020]

Don't worry, Boris has another Telegraph article (*sound of cash register*) out telling us to chill. We are all just simply suffering from collective hysteria and all will be well when the government tells us of the positives from Leaving the EU.

Oh look, tumbleweed...

[The Doctor]

Farage quits as UKIP Leader but keeps his job in the EU that he hates. You couldn't make this up!

-Ralph

[browny87]

lol yeah i thought that was hillarious!

[Fortmax2020]

The rats are fast abandoning the good ship Leave to stay on the gravy trains I see.

[Fortmax2020]

Jul 4, 2016 11:57:22 GMT The Doctor said:

Farage quits as UKIP Leader but keeps his job in the EU that he hates. You couldn't make this up!

-Ralph

I especially liked the sob story he tried to sell in his leaving speech today about how he wanted his life back.. so he can spend it encouraging nationalists continent-wide in the Europe he hates.

I think he is about to find out just what real nationalists can be like when unrestrained by the traditional British reserve..

[Benn]

"Atishoo, atishoo, they all fall down..."

[The Doctor]

Jul 4, 2016 13:59:44 GMT Fortmax2020 said:

The rats are fast abandoning the good ship Leave to stay on the gravy trains I see.

But they won! They got what they wanted!
It's all a bit mad.

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

Did anyone think to make a system restore point? Can we just roll back to June 22nd?

[browny87]

or could we just turn it off and back on again?

[Fortmax2020]

I think that's what they're all trying!!

[Stomski]

Jul 4, 2016 7:54:10 GMT Fortmax2020 said:

...and all will be well when the government tells us of the positives from Leaving the EU.

Shouldn't the leave campaign done this from the off instead of spewing nonsense immigration statistics and how we could ise £350m/wk on the NHS?

[Fortmax2020]

Yes.

[legios]

Jul 5, 2016 12:20:53 GMT Stomski said:

Jul 4, 2016 7:54:10 GMT Fortmax2020 said:

...and all will be well when the government tells us of the positives from Leaving the EU.

Shouldn't the leave campaign done this from the off instead of spewing nonsense immigration statistics and how we could ise £350m/wk on the NHS?

Do you mean from a moral point of view, or a tactical one? Because from the latter then trying to present a reasoned argument wouldn't have fitted with the narrative of their campaign. It might have sounded too much like thinking, when the tone of their campaign was "don't trust facts! Experts are misleading you with their facts! Trust your hearts, rise up and free your country from the foreign people oppressing it. Throw of your shackles of the evil people of foreign land and the country will become great again just like when we ruled half the world! Economics, politics, sociology they are all keeping our country down. We can win because BRI-TERRRRRN!"

There isn't much room in a strategy like that for reason and thought. Morally they probably should, but from a tactical point of view it would have been a diversion of effort.

Karl

[The Doctor]

What breaks my brain in particular is that if May becomes the PM then we have a 'Remain campaigning' leader of the country who replaces the previous 'Remain campaigning' leader...thus changing nothing. Cameron quitting would therefore make no sense!

I am reminded strongly through all of this of a scene in a Doctor Who episode where a mad power crazed tyrant shows off his great plan to the Doctor who promptly screams back: "What's it for? WHAT'S IT ALL FOR??!!!"

-Ralph

[The Doctor]

Pound has hit another low against the dollar. It was at $1.2798.

What a farce.

-Ralph

[browny87]

its crept up slightly think its pushing $1.29 this morning

[Andy Turnbull]

The ongoing leadership fights in the two main parties make me shake my head, admittedly for different reasons.

Great to see that Michael Gove was knocked out, but finding ourselves in a position where Theresa May is the better candidate for the Tories...madness!

Labour I fear will self-destruct entirely. Angela Eagle is not a credible candidate for leadership and Corbyn will win. The problem we have his the Parliamentary Labour Party do not want Corbyn, but the membership do. The problem is Corbyn is not electable as far as I can see, and the membership need to see that before it's too late.

However, there is noone I can see of sufficient stature that can bring the membership and the PLP back together.

Andy

[legios]

Jul 10, 2016 20:52:59 GMT Andy Turnbull said:

Labour I fear will self-destruct entirely. Angela Eagle is not a credible candidate for leadership and Corbyn will win. The problem we have his the Parliamentary Labour Party do not want Corbyn, but the membership do. The problem is Corbyn is not electable as far as I can see, and the membership need to see that before it's too late.

However, there is noone I can see of sufficient stature that can bring the membership and the PLP back together.

Andy

Corbyn is never going to be accepted by the PLP - for a start he is far too left-wing for them. He probably will win a vote of the membership, but can't win the confidence of the members as you say. The thing is, until recently this issue would never have arisen - until recent years the leadership of the part was decided by the MP's and the major Union leaders. I am willing to bet that the PLP are probably thinking that they rue the day they changed the rules to modernise things...

I'd agree, that when we live in a world where Theresa May has the least extreme political and social views of the field who want to be Conservative party leader...That is quite something.

Karl

[Andy Turnbull]

Leadsom withdraws from the leadership race for the Conservatives.

Theresa May as PM...

Andy

[The Doctor]

It's all gone mad today. Again.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

Yup.

Andy

[The Doctor]

I can't believe I now live in the Judge Dredd timeline.

-Ralph

[Andy Turnbull]

Once Trump get's the US Presidency you know it's for real.

Andy

[The Doctor]

Trump looks uncannily like President Booth (in Judge Dredd comics he is the last President of the US when things go Badly Wrong).

-Ralph

[Pinwig]

Right. In that case let's get her in and get the hell on with it then.