I suspect that's something of a pattern among recent Tory PMs :D
Speaking of patterns, I wonder if my country will impeach its second president in two years. I know Brazil isn't in Europe but I had no other thread to post it in and I'm off to bed anyway. G'night everyone (and goede morgen to you!).
Trance-M
quote:
Originally posted by Lira
I know Brazil isn't in Europe but I had no other thread to post it in and I'm off to bed anyway.
Bom dia!
Are you sure it's that different, meanwhile at Brussels?:
quote:
The Mayor of the City of Brussels, Yvan Mayeur, is to resign. The Francophone socialist politician has been taken to task for accepting royal payment for attending meetings of Samusocial, the not-for-profit organisation that is supposed to help the homeless in the city.
Since we're talking politics :stongue: Smack...
djshire
Surprised no one is talking about the real hero of UK politics, Lord Buckethead
Lira
Yeah, but, who's the women in orange standing next to him? :p
Also, I'm glad to see Bucketheads age so well. Remember them in the 90s?
DJ RANN
Useless trivia fact 142:
That bucketheads video was directed by none other than a young Guy Ritchie (yes, he of Maddona, Snatch, Sherlock holmes and the Man From uncle fame).
Lira
Hah, I had no idea, nice :)
By the way, this election is just one more example of why I love Britain:
David Cameron: Hey, let's have a referendum to silence the annoying prats in my party. Will you vote "remain", please?
Brits: NO!
Theresa May: I'm now taking care of the country. Will you help me get a larger majority?
Brits: NO!
Country Elders: We have created the most popular of sports. The whole world shall love it and we will rule the world!
British footballers: NO!
:D
SYSTEM-J
quote:
Originally posted by Lira
Hah, I had no idea, nice :)
By the way, this election is just one more example of why I love Britain:
David Cameron: Hey, let's have a referendum to silence the annoying prats in my party. Will you vote "remain", please?
Brits: NO!
Theresa May: I'm now taking care of the country. Will you help me get a larger majority?
Brits: NO!
I'm still not entirely sure what the supposed logic here was. The Brexit Bill had been passed. The UK's desired outcomes for the Brexit negotiations had been laid down. Parliament voted against having a veto on the final conditions of the negotiations. So what difference, exactly, did the size of the Conservative majority make?
I still think the real reason the election was called was a tacit admission that the Brexit negotiations would almost certainly go very badly and the country would suffer in 2019. As things stood, the next election was 2020 and the Tories would get hammered over the aftermath of Brexit. By calling an election in 2017 when the Labour party was in disarray, the Tories could wipe out the opposition and secure government until 2022, when the economy was more like to have recovered from exiting the EU. All this stuff about "Crushing the saboteurs" was a pretext and only the right-wing cheerleaders ever bought into it.
Lira
quote:
Originally posted by SYSTEM-J
I'm still not entirely sure what the supposed logic here was. The Brexit Bill had been passed. The UK's desired outcomes for the Brexit negotiations had been laid down. Parliament voted against having a veto on the final conditions of the negotiations. So what difference, exactly, did the size of the Conservative majority make?
I've read political analysts who agree with you and believe it was a gambit to make sure Theresa May would cling on to power during tough post-Brexit times at the expense of a destabilised Labour party.
However, regarding what you said about saboteurs, it doesn't look like the PM wanted go gentle into that goodbye to Europe. Wouldn't a larger majority give her some more leeway to pursue a hard Brexit even if a number of backbenchers rebelled?
Lews
Many in financial circles actually thought that a larger majority would give May more leeway to pursue a soft Brexit, as she could then maintain enough confidence/votes while dismissing the hardcore Eurosceptics. I'm not sure how much that line of thought was misspent optimism, though I'm sure it was a bit.
Amusingly, many also thought a Labour or Lib Dem victory would also give way to a soft Brexit - a slim Tory majority was seen as the worst possible eventuality.
Part of me thinks there is some truth in the large majority / soft Brexit view, but I also think a lot is what Jack said. Inflation hasn't even begun to properly kick in, yet (thanks derivative contracts!), which Philip Hammond and Mark Carney are definitely aware of, and Philip May is most likely aware of. Negotiations will indubitably be difficult. If they could ensure 5 years of power now, that would very much be good for the party long term.
SYSTEM-J
Maybe I don't understand the negotiation process properly, but at what point would anything be put to the house for anyone to rebel? Surely the details are thrashed out between the negotiators, not in parliament?
Lews
From what I understand, the backbenchers wouldn't rebel on any specific negotiation vote, but if they disliked the negotiations, then they would not support May in any sort of confidence vote she might face, the failure of which would result in another General Election. The deal with DUP now is that if any confidence vote like that comes up they will support May, even though they won't formally join the government. They're taking the 'Kingmaker' position a minority of Eurosceptic backbenchers used to have, which gives them an inordinate amount of power.
SYSTEM-J
Before this election was called, was there any chance of her facing a confidence vote? She was sky high in the opinion polls and had the right wing tabloids firmly on her side. If she called an election out of fear of a potential collapse in party confidence in her, then she must really have no faith in the Brexit negotiations.
She really has single-handedly destroyed her own reputation and political career in the space of a month. It's a remarkable act of political suicide. She's surely a dead woman walking, DUP confidence or not. And frankly, she deserves everything she gets. The campaign she ran was arrogant, hubristic and intellectually insulting to the British public. I voted Labour, less out of faith in Corbynomics (although I would be interested to see what happens if we did smash up the neo-liberal economic consensus for five years, just for a change) and more as a protest vote against the kind of politics she enacted. The best thing that came out of this result was a giant You to Lynton Crosby, Paul Dacre and the gutter press tabloids in this country.
