Sometimes I hate how the American news shows are so insular. While Comey Day was big news and should have been big news, Thursday was also a huge day in international politics. Prime Minister Theresa May had called a snap election ahead of the Brexit negotiations – May was hoping to strengthen her position in the negotiations by gaining an even bigger Tory majority, and when she called for the snap election, the Conservative Party had a double-digit advantage in most polling.
Well, long story short, Theresa May never should have touched Emperor Bigly’s Baby Fists of Doom. That was her undoing. Everything Donald Trump touches turns to sh-t, and as soon as May held the Baby Fist at the White House, she was done. The Tory lead evaporated in the past several weeks, and the results were rather startling: the Tories lost so many seats, they do not have a clear majority in the House of Commons. 326 is the number they needed. They got 319. Labour ended up winning 261 seats, and many want Jeremy Corbyn to be the new prime minister. That’s not going to happen. Even though this is technically a “hung Parliament” (meaning, no party has a clear majority of 50% plus one), it is now believed that the Conservatives have worked out a deal with the DUP party, who garnered 10 seats. So, 10 seats plus 319 seats equals 329 seats, a slim majority. May is meeting with the Queen today to ask to form a government.
Which isn’t to say that Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn – sort of a British Bernie Sanders figure – is sitting around and licking his wounds. Corbyn was widely hailed this week as a much more impressive campaigner and savvy political animal, moreso than anyone was expecting. He invigorated young voters and is now being hailed as the political second coming. It’s May who looks weak, probably because her position has been terribly weakened, and that’s a self-inflicted wound. She’s being called “arrogant” by pretty much everyone. Oh well – she’s still the prime minister. But for how long?
Photos courtesy of WENN, Pacific Coast News.
When I woke up this morning i realised that I had hope in my heart again! That I’d been hope-less since the Brexit vote . I feel so proud today, I know it’s not a win for Labour but it’s knocked back the Tories and I’m feeling relieved!!
This!!!!! I was almost giddy at the news 😀 She’s doomed for sure,but that doesn’t mean everything is okay. We need to keep the pressure on so we can get rid of the Tories and get some common decency back into politics. Can’t help feeling that the tide may finally be turning.
I giggled at the news. Im an SNP voter and we lost seats to the TORIES! but I loved that the pendulum swung ever so slightly over to the red left. I can only hope that May gets her arse handed to her by her party and told to gtfo but then we could end up with buffoon Boris at the helm and thats a scary thought!
While I’m glad Labour did better than expected I’m disappointed that they didn’t win. But hopefully their stronger than expected performance means Corbyn will stay on as leader.
I give Theresa May 6 – 12 months
She has lost Kensington – which is basically UNHEARD of. Everyone (incl people from her own party, albiet off the record) are saying her leadership is untenable in the long term.
I fear this is going to be bad for Britain re: Brexit negotiations (in terms of us ending up with a huge payout – although perhaps rightfully so). The pound is falling. Our house lost £20k+ value overnight. Blah blah blah. Yes I am grinning from ear to ear knowing this has blown up in May-hem’s face.
Well, folks were saying that June would be the end of May 😉
Lol. My husband’s prediction was Theresa May Not.
This is her last campaign. Tories will probably keep her for a while then get rid of her for another candidate.
I hope so. It looks like she’ll manage to cling on a little bit longer but I do hope the Tories will give her the boot sooner rather than later.
I’m literally in shock that Kensington can turn red.
I’m shocked Old Boris hasn’t come out to stab May in the back yet.
But how did you feel about the turnout for the Official Monster Raving Loony Party?
Heaven forbid that self seeking slimy toad Boris ever becomes leader, but he must surely be plotting as we speak.
@ LAK
Same here ! When I read about the recounting, I thought ‘oh……oh’…..but then remembered that Kensington had voted Remain.
This is what happens when you ignore the wishes of 48% of the electorate!
@ Clare
Trust me, he is stabbing – we just don’t know about it yet.
You can bet that Bozo and his minions are huddled in rooms right now covertly calling Tory MP’s as we speak….
Voted in May out in June!
Lol she gambled and lost big. Apparently trump also helped her demise with his comments about London
Love seeing people get their just desserts
Glad to be of service…
It seems the people most like our Orange Maroon are not winning in Europe, despite Putin’s best efforts, which is encouraging.
Love the photo of the two of them in front of the Washington portrait – Uncle George looks like he thinks the whole thing is dodgy! And, he’s right.
I am awaiting comments from Sixer et al to help me further understand May’s rather reckless call for a snap election. But I agree that the moment May accepted baby fists’ slithering, forced hand hold she was doomed to be connected to his every insane word and action.
I don’t think that even Sixer will be able to explain the extent of May’s stupidity. Unless it’s all part of a mastermind plan to have the Brexit negotiations carried out by someone else.
Actually disagree that pawing Trump caused her nightmare yesterday – remember that she was polling very very well until a few weeks ago.
I think the things that really hurt her are as follows
1. U-turn on the ‘dementia tax’
2. Refusing to appear at the Leader’s Debate
3. Refusing to actually engage in ANY debate
4. Uncosted manifesto
5. The nightmare in Manchester/London –> she cut the police numbers massively
6. Her stance on Hard Brexit
7. General arrogance – she has been described as an ‘iceberg’ by people in her own party
8. Incredible campaign run by Labour
9. Enormous turn out from ‘young people’ (credit to Labour for this?)
The huge issue right now is no senior figures in the Tory party are speaking on the record. Hammond, Johnson, Davis…all MIA.
I think she called the snap election for one of two reasons
a) Wanted a larger mandate to basically do what she likes – it is said she likes to function in an authoritarian manner
b) She didn’t want to be saddled with the responsibility of ‘owning’ Brexit
But now she has ended up in an informal coalition with the bloody DUP – which is actually not a good thing…but it does pretty much guarantee an open border with the EU.
Agree 100%!!!!
DUP-May says how Corbyn is rallying around with terrorists and she gets into bed with the DUP.
May is shameless
yes, thinking it’s because of Trump is deeply related to the ‘insular’ criticism in the OP, although that was not the intention. Trump didn’t bring May down, not everything is about Trump, May brought May down.
Has she actually ever had to personally campaign in her life ever? Because it just seemed like her first time. I’m not familiar with her political activities before her HS position.
I think there were people saying that every time she spoke publicly, the polls would drop more points on the Tory side.
I’m glad someone else said it – May brought herself down and Corbyn smashed it, Trump has been irrelevant to this election.
Spot on Clare.
She was 20 points up when she called the election. Corbyn was getting dreadful press and people were saying Labour could lose 100 seats. A landslide victory seemed inevitable, and as a PM who was brought in to replace one (as opposed to being elected) she wanted the election to be a sort of show of confidence in her. It seemed like a good time for that.
It backfired horribly. She’s a dreadful and timid campaigner, whereas Corbyn is quite good. The Tories manifesto pissed off some of their base, and making crap like bloody fox hunting a major issue just annoyed everyone. Primarily though it looks like everyone underestimated how many young people would come out. It seems many learned their lesson after Brexit.
Reasons she called the election:
* polls disastrous for the opposition
*could rely on hyper partisan media
*to get the extreme hard core Brexiteers in her party under control
Things she forgot:
*austerity fatigue
*to put even a single positive thing into her manifesto
*to buy a second hand personality on eBay
And then she ran the worst election campaign in living memory!
@Sixer – seriously this was like Yes, Minister/Yes, Prime Minister come to life.
Part of me actively wonders if there was a Humphrey Appleby permanent secretary type with an ear to the ground who managed to manoeuvre the Maybot into calling a snap election.
Honestly, so many facts here are incorrect, but others have explained it in their comments so I wont repeat. The fact that the DUP (a Northern IRELAND party) will end up as part of the UK government will be a disaster.
The rest of Ireland is Irish. The DUP think they don’t live in Ireland
Just Google Arlene Foster
Trust me, this had nothing to do with Trump, Europe thinks for itself, but Tresseme (my little shampoo pet name for her) ran THE most dreadful campaign I agree.
The DUP will push for a hard border in Ireland again. I remember the border tower the guns, the bombings, the British soldiers opening fire and mowing down civilians, the Loyalist bombings, the Nationalist bombings. We can’t go back there
@Aphrodite101, I disagree , the DUP will definitely want a soft border as it makes economic sense.
There was a (somewhat) similar situation here in Quebec a few years ago. The political party in power at the time called a snap election because they wanted to get a majority, as they were trying to pass a very controversial bill and so wanted to consolidate power. They were spanked, to put it mildly, and they not only lost seats but their opponents ended up getting a majority and the leader of the losing party ended up resigning.
So yeah, snap elections are often very stupid ideas.
Thank you everyone for those posts. While baby fists and his small, short sighted coterie of pure evil believes only the US matters, I think a lot of Americans are waking up to the fact that our ultimate well being is tied part and parcel to the global community. Best to understand.
Ah yes, I was so relieved that the Quebec people thoroughly rejected the PQ’s “values” charter. Although now we’re stuck with the Liberal’s austerity measures. I always feel stuck between a rock and a hard place with Quebec politics. I don’t vote for either party, but no else has a legitimate shot at winning currently.
@Lee1 I’m right there with you. I was so happy when the PQ got voted out (not only because of that idiotic charter, but for a host of other reasons too) but at the same time the Liberals aren’t exactly the best. It’s always tough for me come election time, I generally just end up voting for the “lesser of two evils”…which is really sad, when you think about it.
The joys of politics.
I was thinking about the same this morning: She should have called Pauline Marois to ask her if it was a good idea before calling to elections 😀
same thing in Alberta in 2015 – the NDP won an election the Conservatives were beyond confident they would win. They not only lost, they gave a 40 year consecutive leadership run of the province. Alberta went down to 10 seats from 70, and the NDP went from 4 to 54 seats. It was completely unimaginable to the ruling party.
She also massively underestimated young people. I’m so proud that people my age went to vote and made their voice heard. As an EEA passport holder who just finished university here, who’s lived here for nearly 10 years I’m glad my age group represented me well. Last I checked, both my university city and home city are entirely Labour
#bunthetories (sorry, couldn’t resist)
I reckon Jme and Akala got half the youth vote out between them!
Im glad my daughter (26) and her partner got out and voted and glad that she urged friends and family to do the same, but then again she has voted in every election that she has been able to as we talk about what the various manifestos mean and about politics in general. I think thats where a lot of young folk are let down, no one talks politics anymore, theres no discourse but Im proud so many young folk voted yesterday!
Grime artists came all the way through for Labour! Akala had never voted (unsure how I feel about that but to each his own) but he’s been very active on social media and there seemed to be a lot of engagement online when he started talking politics. May was too arrogant and Corbyn actually did what you should to when you campaign-engage with people.
Also Sixer, what you did with your kids was a brilliant idea! Such a great way to make the best out of being in a Tory stronghold- all the kudos and admiration from me!
Thanks! I almost started a family feud over it – some of the other kids in the extended family felt their parents should do it to, but the they were in marginals so the parents weren’t having any of it!
I’ve loved Akala since the hip hop Shakespeare days – I get his reasons for not voting but am inclined to think lesser evil is better than not voting at all.
Well, it would have been a worthy cause if it did start a family feud, though I definitely understand why the parents in marginal seats wouldn’t do the same.
I would go for the lesser of two evils as well personally-I wouldn’t be excited about it but there’s usually a greater enemy. Akala is great though, he did a talk at my uni during Black History month about the history of black people in Britain and it was great-so educational and interesting. I think you would have enjoyed it!
Many people voted for UKIP the previous election, and what May was trying to attempt was to get those voters to the Tory side, so that the Tories would have a large majority going into Brexit. Since the Brexit is official and UKIP had that as its only policy, the party ceases to have a purpose and she thought it was an easy grab for their votes.
This was why in the beginning of the campaign she only talked about brexit. She only gave a shit about getting those UKIP votes, and neglected all subjects but Brexit (part of her downfall, because tories felt their concerns were ignored).
With a larger majority, her party would stand stronger in Brexit and get things voted easier through parliament, and also as an actual elected PM instead of as someone who got the job after everyone else dropped out of the PM race she would stand stronger personally.
The rationale was also that the natural timeline would mean that the elections would have been right after the Brexit-break, which might be a very difficult time for the citizens due to austerity. People would be bitter about the circumstances and would not have been a certain win for the Tories then. She assumed it would be certain now because the polls looked good for the Tories and Labour and SNP were in chaos.
Labour got a lot of UKIP vote in this election too! Tories targeted very stereotypical unapologetically xenophobic brexiteers and thought they had all of them locked down. Corbyn was the only party leader who targeted Brexit voters without shitty judgements and stereotypes. Do not even get me started on some “progressive” labour backbenchers interaction with Brexiteers.
What a fool!
I hear this term a lot Hubris..
This move was her Hubris..
She even lost Canterbury, which has been Tory since 1918. Mayhaps she had to much covfefe.
Kensington too.
May lost Kensington? OMG
I thought the recount was suspended because the staff were exhausted? That the final count for Kensington wouldn’t be out until later.
3rd recount at 6pm tonight. I believe someone keeps asking for those recounts. It is possible they did lose it by a very few votes and want it checked and double-checked.
But only by 20 votes. On the other hand, the Tories took Stoke on Trent South, a long time Labour stronghold. From what I could tell, it looked like quite a few seats changed hands after a long time in other hands.
haha thanks for the first laugh of today @Rice. It was a loooong night 🙁
Here’s a Pippa Tip: Too much covefefe? THEN DON’T CALL A SNAP ELECTION THERESA!!
Pre election stated she would resign if Labour gained more than 6 seats. So if she has any integrity she’ll be gone today.
Of course she doesn’t, so she’ll drag this thing out, but there’s no way she survives. She was stupid enough to very clearly define her goals and what would constitute success in this election, and she’s failed spectacularly on every count. It’s been a massive vote of no confidence in her personally. If she doesn’t go willingly she’ll be kicked out soon enough.
I don’t understand why people insist to say she was going to resign. She is a master of u-turns and doublespeak, I doubt she meant to resign when she said ‘I will lose the election if…’
I don’t see people calling out Jeremy Corbyn who refused to resign a couple of months ago when his party got drubbed at the local elections. Hypocrisy right there.
These elections results are pretty much the only thing that made me smile yesterday. Of course even now this old witch is cutting deals to stay in power instead of quitting.
UK Cbers-break it down for me-is this a good thing? Can she be forced to quit , or are you guys still stuck with her? Obsessive BBC listening has given me a glimmer of how it all works, but I’m still mostly confused.
At any rate, it was nice to see her plans blow up right in her hateful face.
Considering she is aligning the Tory party to the DUP (an homophobic northern Irish party stuck in the 17th century) to gain a majority, I don’t think there is anything positive in store for us in the future.
I don’t think she can be forced to quit.
Oh and BBC was heavily leaning right wing in their coverage…
DUP is soft brexit though. We will see how that goes…
I liked BBC’s graphics regardless. Man inside animated version of Big Ben to talk pendulum swing. The Road to Number 10 tiles on the road. At least that was entertaining.
@Rey, Northern Ireland as a whole voted Remain. The DUP don’t go in for a ‘soft” anything
She’s going to have a tough time of it. Getting any legislation through Parliament will be difficult for her. Plus, when she called the election of was predicted that the Tories would win a landslide. She managed to lose a 20% lead in the polls in 8 weeks. The Tory party are ruthless. It’s party before country before people with them and Theresa May has just lost them their majority. There will be a lot of people in the party gunning for her after last night. At the moment she’s hanging on by the skin of her teeth because allying with the vile DUP gives her a tiny majority, but it won’t be us that can get rid of her, it’ll be the party forcing her to go.
Yeah, but who will replace May? Liam Fox is an asshole and doesn’t travel well. Boris Johnson has poisoned the well with the EU and seems to have developed a keen coke habit. David Davis seems to have gotten drunker and more despondent as the enormity of Brexit dawns on him. Hammond threatened the EU about turning the UK into an offshore tax haven… the Tories have a weak second string.
If she leaves they could push Amber Rudd or Ruth Davidson into the mix. Davidson would actually be a good choice – am no tory fan but she has personality and could give Corbyn a run for his money. I love watching FMQT – her telling Sturgeon to shut up was amusing.
Not sure its a good thing – given she is partnering with the DUP (see Sixer’s post below about this)…We will be in an enormous muddle now, sterling has fallen, the economy will hurt….but, for me, seeing her shell shocked and bloody nosed, is worth it.
and what does this mean for Brexit? I suppose she will not be able to approach the negotiations from a strong position, since the Europeans now know that she does not have the faith of her own voters behind her?
Instead of a hard Brexit there’s hope for a soft Brexit now. And it leaves negotiations up in the air because everything is in shambles because of her
The whole hard Brexit/soft Brexit thing should die.
EU has been clear there is only one Brexit. You’re in for all the 4 principles or out.
The EU would accept EEA status with a massive caveat- no cherrypicking. That’s the soft Brexit (it’s still a Brexit).
@silverUnicorn:
Word! -That’s what all EU leaders are saying for months! Clearly this basic message has a hard time to be understood
@SU – ITA, you would not believe how many people still spout that, believing its true. Even now some people still struggle with the concept of in or out.
@Cookiejar – EEA access would come with a hefty fee and free movement, something that neither party really wants to admit to thinking about. UKIP is dead and I think many Leave voters are now beginning to smell the coffee with regards to the EU and are changing their minds. If there were another EU ref today the vote would be very different.
The thing that most British people don’t want to realize is… there is no negociations at all.
From a EU standpoint, UK left and is therefor a third party country that cannot enjoy the same position as EU members.
Angela Merkel clarified this last month. So did Emmanuel Macron. So did the commission and the council.
But oddly UK newspaper and politicians still talk about negotiations…and negotiating the best brexit.
I am so sorry that UK left… but it left.So is now outside the EU.
that’s my impression too, the UK is totally over-estimating its position. IMO the UK need to take a good look at Switzerland and Norway (who BTW is consulting the EU on Brexit) to find out what a future partnership with the EU will look like.
And: if May had any dignity, she would resign.
Both Norway and Switzerland are paying to the EU in order to enjoy certain benefits. Switzerland will allways receive a friendly welcome because it is basically the tax haven of the rich and famous.
Norway pays nearly as much to the EU as it would if it were a member. But it is no EU member although it pays a lot. So as a consequence: they pay but have no say (in EU politics).
I have no idea why Norway doesn’t just simply join. It could be about Norway’s oil and the EU is slightly environmental-against-fossil-fuels.
Both Switzerland and Norway have dozens or even hundreds of contracts with the EU. It would take years to negotiate a similar amount of contracts between the EU and Britain.
May did the dumbest thing: she accepted the Brexit vote. She should simply have called for a repetition of a Brexit vote on grounds of the first one not meeting sufficient standards for two reasons:
1. there was no honest debate about the consequences of Brexit so the voters were not able to make an informed decision because they were not informed about the consequences. As a matter of fact MPs Gove and Johnson claimed that Brexit would result in saving 300Mio pounds / per week which was totally false.
2. The brexit vote didn’t meet formal voting standards.
Explanation: the more important the legal changes the more votes are required. Simple laws can pass parliament with simple majorities. But legal changes on constitutional levels do usually require not only a qualified majority (2/3 of all votes or even 3/4 of all votes) but they also require a major share of participation among parlamentarians – e.g. most parlamentarians (2/3 or 3/4 or all of them) would have had to turn up for constitutional votes and most of them would have to vote for it.
Brexit is on the level of a constitutional vote. But only 72,21% of all voters did participate in the election.
Registered voters/turnout 46,500,001 72.21%
@truthful Yep, you’re right. The UK has taken itself out of a trading bloc of 745 million. To put that in context the US has approx 325m or thereabouts
Now does everyone see why Europe doesn’t give a toss about either the UK or Trump. The power of the European Union is much, much greater than most people seem to realise
The UK should hold another ref. Remain. We’re all stronger together
Sorry, also meant to add that one in every four English citizens have Irish parents or grandparents and are therefore entitled to Irish passports and therefore will still qualify as EU citizens
Can you imagine how busy our passport office has been!
It’s not left. It’s triggered the process by which it will leave. Unfortunately.
@Annetommy: pure rhetoric. From an EU standpoint UK has already left: not part of any meaningful decision or program or even just meetings anymore. UK has already virtually left the EU.
Very well explained Zaratrusta.
IMO the UK media and politicians are wrongly communicating to its people that all options are still open. However, if you listen to EU-politicians like Junker or Tusk – or national ones like Merkel, Macron – they are making is (surprisingly) clear that there is no going back pre-Brexit, they are sticking to their defined positions (4 freedoms, especially access to the EU market/free trade only comes with free movement, UK must pay up to 100 billion Euros after 2019 for already agreed-on projects etc.) and talks should start asap (Junker said yesterday: we are ready to start tomorrow at 8.30 am). All 27 EU-countries agreed on their position when the EU commission was tasked to carry out negotiations with the UK. Having a status like non-EU countries Norway or Switzerland will come with a high pay and less say for the UK, as stated above. Or the UK is completely out, and has a status like let’s say Australia with the EU (that would require a strong partner like the US for the UK, which is a huge question mark with Trump).
I find it bizarre that after the Cameron disaster which led to Brexit, May made the same mistake and now has a weak minority government with the DUP.
The Brexit vote took place a year ago (!) and the UK is still struggling to have their ducks in a row. And what May did clearly weakened the UK’s position.
Considering that Merkel is usually VERY diplomatic, her straight-forward comments in recent weeks should ring alarms in the UK. However, when watching BBC or reading articles/comments on British newspapers, they seem to live in an alternate reality.
Except for the part about constitutional law. We have an unwritten constitution and no triggers such as Zarathustra mentions, those are contained in I.e. the US constitution. I don’t like Brexit any more than anyone else, but all proper constitutional procedures were followed (you may remember, it went up to the Supreme Court to determine what those were).
Eeek I apologise for all my therefores! But you get the drift.
She got cocky and it blew up on her face massively. I am sorry but I chuckled when I heard the results.
I am not sorry at all!
On the off chance you guys pay any attention to my wittering on here, you will all know that I’ve often pointed out that a big difference in UK/US politics is that we have no religious right – WITH THE EXCEPTION OF NORTHERN IRELAND.
The DUP, the party on which May will be relying to form a minority government, is a Northern Irish loyalist party – and is pretty much indistinguishable from the US religious right. Anti women’s reproductive rights, anti gay marriage, etc etc. This alliance is unlikely to go down well with the public at large, including a great many Tory supporters.
(The DUP was also formed as the political wing of loyalist terrorism during the Troubles. So it is rich for May to opt for a minority government depending on them, having weaponised her opponents links with the republican movement during the Troubles as a main plank of her campaign. I put this here in brackets for contextual information for non-British Celebitches but please just take as FYI info only as Northern Ireland is in a very fragile state right now.)
Another point about a minority government – we have a convention here that says the House of Lords can only make minor alterations to most legislation (more complicated than that but for brevity it’ll do). That convention probably doesn’t apply to a minority government so it will be almost impossible to get legislation through that the Lords doesn’t like – for example, further welfare cuts or anything resembling hard Brexit as the Lords has a big Remain majority.
It looks to be a very fragile, very lame duck administration that May is going to be running.
@Sixer
I am currently pulling my hair out. Can’t believe Mayhem found a way to align herself with religious nutcases and extremists even after the defeat of UKIP.
Worst outcome possible in my opinion….
P.S. Sixer, what about the EVEL requirement? I heard it mentioned a lot but couldn’t understand what it was….
EVEL is that Tory thing they put in to prevent the SNP frustrating any devolved legislation applying to England (or England and Wales) going through Westminster as England doesn’t have a parliament.
Unsure how it will work in this instance but presumably, the Opposition will be able to argue that the Tories can’t put anything devolved through by relying on DUP votes.
More lame duckism!
AND oh my god the way she COMPLETELY normalized this unholy alliance in her little speech outside number 10. As if an informal coalition with the insane DUP is the most normal thing in the world.
@SIXER – thank you so much for your insight, as I’ve been glued to British politics since Brexit – what do you think will happen with Brexit based on the election results? Is there even a remote chance that article 50 couldn’t be triggered? Thank you 🙂
Ostone, Art. 50 was triggered on March 29th; it cannot be revoked without all the other 27 European countries agreeing to it.
If you have Twitter, there was an interesting thread written by David Allan Green this morning.
I think the result is actually worse than a small Tory majority. The DUP who are the only people indicating they are willing to support the Tories are homophobic and anti-feminist. They are strongly for Brexit (removes any suggestion of re-unification of Ireland) and will require massive payoffs (by way of hospitals, roads, schools not outright bribes) to stay in line.
There is currently no abortion in NI and that clearly isn’t going to change in the next 5 years (I’m not saying it would have done anyway but there is no chance now).
This could end up like the Republican Party in the US – frantic attempts to placate the religious right. The US ended up with Trump as a result.
I cannot see it being stable enough to last, to be honest.
@Tia
Ireland doesn’t want the North back. Varadkar does, god only knows why.
Can you IMAGINE? We’d be back in a civil war. The Loyalist headbangers can stay North of the border and in England from now on and forever.
The Conservatives and the rest of us are all in for a rocky ride for sure but I thought that the DUP want a soft Brexit.
It will turn out to be a similar Tory/Lib Dem coalition where the Lib Dems were sidelined. It doesn’t seem anyone else wanted to partner with her. Her screw up with calling the election is up there Cameron’s Brexit ref. That manifesto and the poorly run campaign are the reasons why she lost.
Am no fan of either of the 2 parties but we are totally totally screwed with Brexit negotiations.
There is talk of another election in Oct – I hope not. The thought of Corbyn and McDonnell getting into No 10 makes me want to cry. They are just as clueless as the Maybot.
With all due respect, I am no Corbyn fan (nor my husband has voted for him, although he didn’t vote for the Tories either this time) but saying that Corbyn is as bad as May smacks of privilege and contempt towards minorities.
A bit like those American voters who said that Trump and Clinton were equally bad because they weren’t going to be affected by Trump’s policies.
Sixer, I’ve been waiting for your insights since getting the need this morning. Thank you x
Me too! And I was up most of the night watching the coverage.
Very helpful for understanding the situation, thank you!
This was a really, really helpful comment – I had no idea about the background of the DUP but you’ve explained it brilliantly. Thank you for the insight!
Great summary, Sixer.
What’s so comical about the coalition with the DUP is that the latter’s election posters all across NI said: “I want an MP who answers to us – not to the Tories.” LOL
Ugh I’m so late to this thread and just getting caught up. Thank you to Sixer and all our helpful UK commenters for helping me understand the depth of this. Also great to hear your own thoughts regarding the snap election and what it will mean for Brexit.
As an Irish person, it’s been infuriating to watch the British parties and media completely ignore the situation in the North, refuse to discuss the implications of Brexit on the Good Friday Agreement and the fact that the only physical border the UK shares is with Ireland and the massive knock on effects Brexit will have on both sides of the border. Now, they have to depend on a right wing, bigoted, sectarian, homophobic, creationist party to prop up this arrogant bitch and her party of arseholes. You reap what you sow.
Ignore unless it’s to weaponise it at a time of dangerous instability in the North. I am ashamed of our politics and media for this.
Agree. Given all the fuss about sealing the borders when it comes to Brexit, it’s been astonishing that no one’s been talking about Ireland. Given the state of our press is have at least expected a few ‘Paddy’s going to let the terrorists in’ outraged headlines from the S*n et al.
Oh man, I didn’t even make the point I was trying to make. The right have been banging on about Corbyn’s ‘sympathy’ towards the IRA and terrorism, and now the Conservatives are getting into bed with the DUP – literal terrorists.
I thought this might happen and crossed my fingers that it would, even though my own constituency is HUGELY Tory.
She was SO arrogant throughout – she thought she could just say “strong and stable” over and over and that would be enough. WRONG.
Whilst I’m glad that she has less of a majority now and it gives us hope for a softer Brexit, the DUP is FAR from ideal. But the Tories will do anything to stay in power, including aligning themselves with questionable parties.
However I think this site has over-estimated the impact of Trump’s influence on this election. After the events of the past two weeks in the UK nobody really cares about him right now. Give us a break from it and allow us to focus on our own sh*tstorm without him!
I agree, not much mention of Trump here, it was the terror attacks that really crystallised it for a lot of voters i think. The fact that there is a clear correlation between her approach to police funding over the last 7 years she’s been in control of it and 3 terror attacks in 10 weeks. And she can’t actually seem to talk like a normal human didn’t help
Agree it was the terror attacks. They had a huge impact imo on the outcome of this election.
It has also been said that the attacks are in part due to Brexit. A lot of time and resources are being used to debate on that subject, it has weakened not only the government, but also unity.
A divided country is an easier target, and it makes me think about who really benefits the most, from a weak and divided EU.
+100
Crazy, instability in such UNSAFE crisis times for all GB EU! I am ashame of the politics, watching armed security in polling places, thousands of dangerous people loose.
Catholic originally from Northern Ireland here. The DUP are as vile as it is possible for a political party to be. Anti-women, anti-minority, anti-lgbtq+, anti-Catholic etc etc. Naturally, after all the discussion of Corbyn’s links to Irish Republicans, I expect extensive UK media coverage of the DUP’s clear and continued association (to this very day) with loyalist terrorist groups. Or not. Rank but entirely predictable hypocrisy from the Tories to jump into bed with them.
Totally agree Bex. If a Corbyn government was being propped up by Sinn Fein the tabloids would be foaming at the mouth with outrage.
Sinn Fein wouldn’t go anywhere near Westminster. They don’t recognise their governorship of the north, which is completely counterproductive
The sooner Gerry Adams heads to whatever hell awaits him the better
Not to forget anti-Muslim (they would trust Muslims to go to the shop though!), generally xenophobic, climate change deniers, Young Earthers, anti-Irish language (what language do they think their ancestors spoke?), taxpayer robbing (google RHI scheme) and, my personal favourites, anti line dancing and anti ouija boards (no seriously). And that is the tip of the iceberg.
I knew this wasn’t going to turn out how they wanted, I knew it. But damn, her floundering was hard to watch.
Thank you Celebitchy for all of your articles about this election and about politics generally. It’s been interesting to read so many opinions and discussions over the past few days and weeks. However, I can’t join in the Jeremy Corbyn admiration parade today, I’m afraid.
I’m Jewish and the past couple of years have been difficult. I’ve personally experienced a great increase in blatant anti-semitism directed towards me, my family and my community mostly from people I would think would be our left leaning allies. I’m afraid that Corbyn, in his failure in dealing decisively once and for all with anti-semitism both in his party and amongst the Momentum faithful, has sown the seeds of a new youthful, left wing hipster anti-semitism disguised as anti-zionism while re-energising the older used-to-be-hidden anti-semitism of some of the “old guard”. If you ignore a weed it eventually overtakes your garden, no matter how beautiful it was before.
I’m sorry, but I am so very worried by this. Many in my community have told me they are looking to leaving the UK if things get worse than they are, and I also am thinking about our future here. My family does not deserve this animosity, both subtle and shouted. We will not go to Israel as we disagree with what the government there does, but it seems certain that we will be looking elsewhere unless this abuse is halted.
Many people today will not feel like winners: the Conservatives are lurching ever rightwards, many are alarmed, and have been directly affected, by the Labour party’s ideological shift and it seems there is little to celebrate. For what it’s worth, I voted Lib Dem yesterday.
People can be anti Zionism and not be anti Semitic. The UK doesn’t even have that big of a Jewish population.
There are about 300,000 Jews in Britain and I’m sorry to say that being anti-Israel’s policies often serves as a convenient hiding place for anti-Semitism – collective responsibility assigned to Jews for whatever Israel does is not excusable. If we assigned collective guilt to Muslims for Islamist terrorism, we would be condemned, and rightly so. Europe has a very sorry history here: of all the places in the world to be careful about this, Europe should be first on the list.
@Jelena while I agree that Antio Zionism and Anti Semitic should not be conflated and that they are two different things – I think your comment is really unfair. Even if there isn’t a ‘big’ Jewish population in the UK, if there is an inkling of antisemitism it needs to be addressed.
So because we are few we don’t count? Your dismissal is telling.
The rise of anti semitism has been both surprising and shocking for me.
Sorry to hear you have been the victim of hateful twats 🙁
Sadly the fact is many (most) minorities have become targets of hateful shit – I mean, the overt and veiled attack on Muslims have become entirely ‘normal, the entire Brexit campaign was built around how evil immigrants are, etc. You are correct that loads of people are talking about leaving – ranging from Polish friends to French colleagues. The past couple of years have been tough on most people who aren’t white British. My point is not to discount your experience/feelings, obviously, but to say, we are in this together, and I hope we (minorities) will stick together.
The truth is, none of the parties have been strong and straight forward agaisnt the anti Semitic/Islamophobic/Racist elements amongst them. Unfortunately this isn’t a Labour/Corbyn problem (frankly I’d argue this is a bigger problem amongst the Torys).
For what it’s worth, I also voted Lib Dem.
I agree, but it is incredibly wearying. My muslim friends have also had issues with ethnocentric bullying, but I just wanted to voice a small note of caution at Jeremy Corbyn and the influence of some of the groups around him. He’s a brilliant campaigner but I think he can lead the party better than he has done. To put it simply: in the past I knew where to find the racists and anti-semites, whereas now some allies and places I felt safe and secure in have been infiltrated and it has become a bit like living in a topsy-turvy kind of world.
Far be it from me to try to put myself in the shoes of someone actually living there and experiencing this, but I’ve been struggling to get a handle on UK and EU politics over the last year or so, and if I’m not mistaken, your community’s experience (which I am extremely sorry to hear about) is one increasingly on the rise for the Jewish community across Europe.
But it seemed to me that May has been trying to drag the Conservatives closer to the center, not further rightward – I could be getting this wrong but it seemed to me that is what she was trying to do, but doing it clumsily. Corbyn, as I understand it is far left. I know much less about the Lib Dems, but I gathered they expected some sort of resurgence yesterday?
I don’t think Corbyn’s brand of old-line socialism will play anymore in a globalized economy, and I was interested to see that neither party has remotely addressed the issue of automation, which within 25 years will be eating away massively at low-skilled jobs. At a glance, I think Cobyn promised the moon to the electorate and May went in for more austerity, and neither were really honest with the public about the deiliverability of those economic policies.
I do hope you and your family figure out what works best for you.
Yes i was suprised that nobody has been talking about globalisation and automation. As we become more globalised I don’t think the right wing will be going away any time soon. It will just increase.
You are correct it is a Europe wide increase and I do wonder if it is to do with an increased dissatisfaction with globalism (on the left amongst working class voters and young voters with fewer prospects now than their parents ever had) and the growth of grass-roots nationalism (on the right). I do fear for our future in Europe. I also completely agree with what you say about the globalised economy and automation.
Do not be distracted by our highly partisan press and commentariat talking of May as pulling the Tories into the centre. Based on the party manifestos, she is further to the right than Labour is to the left, and further on the authoritarian scale than Labour is on the liberal scale.
Here’s a graphic showing the relative positions:
http://www.politicalcompass.org/uk2017
Neither manifesto was particularly helpful on future jobs.
However, the Labour manifesto’s blue sky section (not its five year policy platform section) promised to investigate the possibility of a universal basic income and to consult on an industrial policy looking at climate change and tech for long term jobs. The five year term policy plan included a large public investment programme based on regional, publicly owned investment banks in terms of medium term jobs.
Since the Tory manifesto was basically policy and content free (and I did read every single word of it) in this area, voters had no idea of the party’s policies on these things. I very much doubt they even have any – the campaign was genuinely THAT ill thought-through.
In hindsight the Tories were more centre under David Cameron who was holding the very right wing part of his party back, May allowed them to surge forward. While she is an authoritarian figure, am not convinced she is as right wing as those who are holding the power base in the party. Labour also has that problem, the old boys who are stuck in the 70s have been allowed to surge forward under Corbyn (a man who’s political ideas are also stuck in the 70s).
People should be scared of McDonnell (shadow finance minister), who’s brand of Marxist Socialism will take us back to the chaos of the 60/70s. The current Labour leadership have been bought and paid for by the unions (Unite in particular) and Momentum – people who don’t like change and modern technology. Looks at the strikes about guards on trains – they have been working guard less trains in Europe for many years.
You are correct when you say that neither party were honest with their costings, the IFS (Institue for Fiscal Studies) basically blew holes in them. There is no way Corbyn/McDonnell can raise the kind of money they are promising by taxing 5% of the working population. Everyone should pay more to use public services that everyone uses – that is fair. The reality of Corbyns tax promises means that its the self employed and small business owners who will get shafted every way from Sunday. The big corp’s will just take their money and jobs to Europe.
My mother is Irish. She left ireland at the at of 20 and has lived in England for almost 40 years. She still gets xenophobic comments even now. It’s truly shocking.
I am so sorry. It is shocking and should not be tolerated. We’ve been here for two generations and the level of abuse has definitely increased recently.
ayelet, I too am sorry you are going through that. The anti-anybody who isn’t white, male, and Christian is rising in the Western world, and we seem helpless to stop it. Extremism abounds in many forms. I’ve been reading up on some Jewish people who are so desperate to get out of the UK, they are seeking German citizenship. A country that attempted to eliminate entire generations is now seen as their best hope post-Brexit.
I wish it would stop too. I have some friends going to Germany, others considering other parts of Europe (but not France) and others drawn, by interest or family already there, to the Jewish communities of Latin America.
in Germany it really depends on where you are (which federal state), but all in all because of our history people are more likely to be über careful with the Jewish nowadays.
what is a problem though is the attitude towards refugees in general, but as it seems it’s the same with all of Europe
Anti-Semitisim covering as Anit-Zionism is on the rise on the left in Germany as well, together with the whole Anti-American, Anti-Capitalism conspiracy nuts. And on the right there is the identitarian movement.
Antisemitism is more covered over here, but still existing.
It breaks my heart that your family feels they need to leave. It’s a never ending cycle, isn’t it? Jewish people made to feel unsafe, needing to leave. My own great grandfather fled Russia for this same reason and found peace in Argentina.
I used to think the Argentine Jewish community was in a great place, but antisemitism is on the rise, too, and all of us who care are taking caution and demanding policies from our governments. However, look into countries founded by inmigrants, like Argentina. We welcome diverisity because we exist thanks to inmigration. Hopefully you won’t have to leave your home. Hopefully people will some day grow into decent human beings.
It’s true, it never seems to stop. Anti-semitism seems to be on the rise everywhere, unfortunately. Argentina was one of the countries that my friends were looking to moving to as they have family there and it’s a long established Jewish community and because, as you say, there is a history of diversity and immigration. My family is starting to research countries and debate our future as we no longer feel welcome or comfortable here and have been attacked and shunned too many times. The denial of there even being a problem is another issue. It feels like banging your head against a wall when people choose not to see the problem because it is inconvenient to their narrative. We used to know who to trust, but now we can’t even rely on that.
Let’s be careful and not pretend Argentina has been a shining beacon for human rights all these decades; ranging from the times of Peron to the Desaparecidos. After World War II some of the highest ranking and worst Nazi war criminals found a haven there and lived out their lives in relative wealth and happiness and Argentina refused to extradite them (Nazi hunters had to stealthily capture Eichmann in order to bring him to trial in Israel).
TY Detta, for educating me about my own country.
@Ayelet
Thanks for your lovely comment. You can join us (I’m a EU citizen) on our way out of the UK. Corbyn has voted twice to remove our rights so whoever was going to be PM after yesterday was bad for our situation.
I don’t see a worsening of anti-Semitism per se, more of a general xenophobia and intolerance against the ‘Other’, see anti-immigrant tirades on the British press or hatred towards Muslims.
Don’t think all White British people are exempt either, hubby has suffered same treatment because married to a dirty ‘forriner’ (me).
Many hugs to you x
Thanks for your thoughts! Best of luck to you and your family in the future too, no matter what it brings. *hugs back*
I am sorry you are experiencing this and I worry with you. Europe has been heading this way it seems for the last several years. I know what you mean about Israel. I love to visit but what is happening goes against everything I believe in and teach my children.
I wouldn’t go to France either. It hasn’t been widely reported here but a lot of Jews have left because of violence and fear but truthfully it has never had the greatest track record in that regard. I have family in Europe and some in Germany but the community is small and sometimes too conservative for some but they like it.
What I experience here more is insensitivity and stereotyping and being confronted about Israel by fellow liberals. There has been some vandalism at the JCC (Jewish Community Center). Stupid because it is open to everyone and all sorts of people participate in activities and classes. I am not sure if it is going to get better.
If all of this scandal with the president had not happened I believe things would have escalated.The anti Muslim rhetoric is alarming and worrisome. Bigotry as a whole is on the rise here unfortunately
I don’t know about Latin America.
Good luck!))
So, some Brits here help me out. A month ago, Labour got creamed in regional elections. But last night, some of those seats changed hands again? Or were they new seats? Or both? Technically, the Tories “won” the election with the most seats, but not enough to form a government – but they can add the Unionist Party’s seats to theirs and have enough to form a government, and what that means is, they vote together? I get that her decision to call the election was clearly ill-advised, but she was far ahead in the polls when she did. Was it the platform (manifesto) that was her big mistake? Was she held responsible for the terror attacks?
As an American, I have to say that I am rather charmed by the British electorate’s refusal to sit in the same place for very long. They threw Churchill out right after WWII, didn’t they? They went for BREIXT when no one thought LEAVE had a chance. They pummeled Labour a month ago in the regional elections, and now they’ve pummeled the Tories (albeit with a sort-of win).
I think I like the British voters’ refusal to be taken for granted and easily pigeon-holed.
She was not (and should not) be held responsible for the terrorist attacks.
What was WAS called out for, was the drastic reduction in police numbers on her watch as Home Secretary.
Also, the recent regional elections were not got parliamentary seats – so those seats have not changed hands. Any seats that were established as a result of bi-elections between 2015 and yesterday, will have been re-fought, and some (such as Richmond) have changed hands.
We have three tiers of government here – similar to, say, your city councils, your state legislatures, and your national legislature. The recent regional elections were for the basic equivalent of your state legislatures (our county councils) and have nothing at all to do with the election yesterday, which was for the national parliament (your House of Representatives).
We run on a cabinet system, so the population elects representatives from various different parties. The largest party usually has a majority in the parliament, so forms a government. That party will have already elected its own leader internally and that leader will become Prime Minister. We don’t directly elect the Prime Minister. We only elect them into parliament as a representative of a constituency. This time, there was no majority and the largest party doesn’t want an official coalition, so has entered into an informal agreement with a smaller party so that the smaller party votes with them to ensure a majority.
Hope that helps!
Thanks for the very clear explanation Sixer!
It’s been so confusing to me because media in Spain were talking about May “losing or winning”, and the comments were also talking about a new PM.
I can’t believe it wasn’t an election for that! And even more shocking that newspapers’ headlines were about May “winning and staying”.
Wow, it’s like a parallel universe appeared and kept growing without anybody noticing.
Thanks to both of you for the explanations. I could not figure out how Labour could do so badly one month ago, and so well yesterday.
Out here we are 7 hours earlier, so I was able to watch the coverage and get close to final results without ending up staying up till AM. I thought the most interesting comment came from someone named Alastair Campbell, whose name sounded vaguely familiar but I don’t know who he is, who said that he thought what the numbers showed was that the voters didn’t want either of these options. I thought that interesting – he was sitting with Paul Mason, a Guardian columnist whose articles I am familiar with.
If what Campbell said was true, I think the British electorate sent a message to the two parties – but whether May or Corbyn will actually absorb it – well, you know politicians: in one ear, out the other.
There was a great deal of talk about how the Tories took Moray and Alex Salmond’s seat in Scotland, and about Stoke on Trent South, a Labour stronghold that UKIP failed to take at another regional election earlier this year. So, I am correct that in that earlier election the fight was over a local council seat, but yesterday it was over the Parliamentary seat?
I don’t wonder you all have election fatigue. What happens, if I may ask another question, if May cannot survive? Do the Tories appoint someone else from the party to replace her, or do you all have to through another national election?
Alistair Campbell was spin doctor to Tony Blair and quite visible during the Iraq war, so that’s probably why you recognise him.
I agree with his (and your) basic premise. For all the tribalism, the British electorate is quite capable of sending a nuanced message to its political class and probably did that in this election. The problem is that the political class is incapable of hearing it properly.
A great many things are going on at the same time and they all overlap and intersect and conflict. Brexit threatens the union (Scotland and Northern Ireland). Brexit itself, while having elements of racism and xenophobia and all the rest of it, was also a spontaneous rebellion against the status quo but has very different meanings to many different folk. People on both left and right are tired of market fundamentalism but desire different alternatives to it. Austerity fatigue has set in. And a million other things.
Constitutionally-speaking, the Tories could depose May and appoint another leader who would become PM and continue to lead a minority government. Public opinion might wear it but might also revolt to the extent that the administration was no longer viable. I honestly don’t know.
Almost certainly, what’s actually needed is a unity government concerning itself almost entirely with negotiating Brexit and with a cross-party set of ministers overseeing it. Normal government should be kept ticking over but with no significant legislation being passed that changes anything. Once the Brexit deal is done and passed, then a new election. But it won’t happen because tribalism. The Tories won’t want to give up the power they can currently enjoy for at least five years and Labour won’t want to stall its perceived momentum. Politics is shit.
(An interesting point about this election – the Tories got the biggest vote percentage of any political party, but the vote for anti-austerity parties was the clear majority. The era of retrenchment is over. All parties, of right and left, will need to work out investment programmes. Labour is ahead in that game with state intervention policies from the left. The Tories are currently nowhere with stimulation policies from the right. So that’s what THEY need to be thinking about.)
@Sixer – apologies for the late thank-you for all this very detailed information. Back to office on Friday and all the housekeeping, grocery stuff I rush to get done on Sat. morning so I can have the rest of the weekend freeeeee !
I can’t thank you enough for taking the time to provide this info. It takes awhile to absorb but does help add detail to the landscape.
I have always thought the bitterness between LEAVE and REMAIN understandable but horrifying. Personally, I have deep suspicions of huge, increasingly powerful centralized bureaucracies. Nation-states have downsides, but also confer some benefits. Juncker is hardly what I’d call a noble statesman! I wonder Merkel hasn’t shoved a sock down his throat yet.
It’s always about trade-offs and it’s a shame more compromise and less rigidity isn’t to the forefront. I’ve seen Guardian posters call LEAVE voters things that their mods would never have permitted to stay up if they were about any other group. People have reasons for how they feel, even if they have been poorly expressed. I do wish we could all show a bit more curiosity about why people think differently from ourselves, show a bit more charity. I have been a registered Democrat since I turned 18. I split my ticket once when I thought the Democratic candidate was incompetent. Echo chambers are dangerous places. It’s like never getting to know the people who live next door.
I hope the UK and the US here both find their way through the difficult time both nations seem to be bogged down in.
A few years ago people voted to keep first past the post. I’m beginning to think we get the politicians we deserve. Even with a higher youth turnout than usual we still have a low turnout. It’s appalling.
Yeah, I think First Past The Post is going to come up again. It’s definitely getting some traction in my part of the world. Because we’ll be at the polls again come October, watch.
I have read up on this – why do you think people rejected proportional voting in favor of FPTP?
I think America is also a FPTP system – that is, winner take all.
That’s what was different about the referendum – it’s raw numbers. If a city voted 60% LEAVE and 40% REMAIN, the votes were split proportionally between the two sides of the ballot question.
But the danger of proportional voting, as I understand it, is that parties you don’t like could end up with real influence in Parliament. Polly Toynbee said while she hated UKIP, it was outrageous that it could get 13% of the vote but end up with only 1 MP – if Britain had proportional voted, UKIP would have had 60 or something like that.
It’s like getting rid of the Electoral College here – it sounds appealing except when it goes the wrong way – as, gulp, it recently did.
Because we fudged it and didn’t have a referendum on PR. We had a referendum on maintaining the same constituency system as before but using Alternative Vote instead of First Past The Post.
I personally would support PR but can see that our constituency system has distinct advantages. I have personally met every single MP in every single constituency I have lived in. Not because I am somehow special or important but because they are always available to every constituent. PR would have to be a regional thing and it would take away that personal and accountable link between constituent and MP.
PR would definitely result in a more representative parliament and better, more collegiate administrations. But because it would be regional, it would take away an important plank of our democracy – the constituency surgery system.
Late to the party but I am enjoying this conversation very much. For those unfamiliar to MMP, here is a good explanation from New Zealand who moved from FPTP to MMP in 1993:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8Uk44aykGg4
and also a short article about its pros and cons:
http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/news/politics/election-2011/mmp-referendum/5768693/The-case-for-and-against-MMP
One effect is that it supposedly produces parliaments that are “less pale, male and stale”.
When May said that she wouldnt let basic human rights get in the way of fighting terrorism, i realize how dangerous this woman truly is. Like human rights were a disposable thing, use when its convinient to the government. Corbyn despite being heavily criticized by mayor media outlets constantly, and even by people within his own party everything, got a pretty good result, far better than expected. No so unelectable, huh?. 😄
And btw being critical of policies and actions of the state of Israel towards palestines doesnt mean you are antisemitic, it just means you want people to be treated like human beings.
You must be able to see that there are some who are using the shield of legitimate and justified criticism of Israel to disguise their anti-semitism and, for some reason, they have aligned themselves with Jeremy Corbyn. He, or his leadership, is attractive to that element of society in a way that previous Labour leaders and movements were not attractive to them previously.
There is a lot of dismissal of both anti-semitism as a legitimate issue in the UK (and Europe as a whole) and its specific resurgence on the left that is astounding and quite heartbreaking. As the saying goes “There are none so blind as those who will not see.”
Concerns should be properly addressed even if, as I was told above, my community is so small as to be insignificant in voicing our concerns and the abuse we have suffered from those who we thought were friends.
And, btw, we on the left are the good guys; we shouldn’t turn a blind eye and slowly sleepwalk into being the bad guys.
While I like Corbyn, I’d be the first to say there are some very racist elements among his followers. There can be quite a lot of racism in the old guard far left, in general. The comments some of Corbyn’s followers made when Sadiq Khan didn’t endorse him, for example, were horrifying.
I think the rise of this new xenophobia, which can target anyone depending on how convenient it is, is connected to globalization and the automation revolution. People are very insecure, which isn’t to excuse their racism but explain it. Personally, I don’t think a politician or anyone else can just say ‘stop that’ and it’s cured. We have to deal with the underlying social and economic issues.
@CdnMagician – From what I recall many of the issues with bullying and xenophobic behaviour came from Momentum supporters who are hard core. He has done very little to stop the bulling and xenophobic behaviour from them and others within the party. He might know how to run a good campaign but he is and always will be to me a weak and incompetent leader.
I’m not sure there’s a dismissal of it in Europe, since in Canada i here about the attacks (well more often vandalism or threats than casualties) that occur in France. It’s a weird phenomenon to me that people obsess about Israel and Jewish people today. I know Israel goes over the line a bit but it’s far from the only nation with that kind of thing but the only one people obsess about. Why not china because of Tibet human rights violations ? (There’s a Great clip by john oliver about Tibet) Incidents in the USA increased with trumps campaign and election – even though trump is pretty clearly friendly with Israel…. these people must be seriously confused. Sadly I’m aware of a lot of online conspiracy theories connecting Israel to anything and everything powerful and or evil. i even saw one YouTube video (somehow browsing a Facebook page that was not one my friends….) connecting Facebook and mark z to Israel in an ominous way. It was in Arabic so I didn’t get the logic but I’m sure it’s utterly ridiculous. I guess I’m trying to say there are a lot of fools out there. i feel sad and scared for you and your family/friends.
@Fiorucci: Hate is always unbearable and ugly. In France (I am french) the problem right now is not hate directed toward jewish people, but toward anyone who isn’t white christian and I actually assume that being jewish is slightly better than being muslim, or black or asian (many attacks against asian communities this year) in France right now.
Otherwise, I don’t see people obsessing so much about jewish people. There is a clear distinction between the jewish religion and the state of Israel in most people’s mind over here and the later gets indeed a lot criticism.
And to be fair Israel doesn’t just “goes over the line a bit ” as it’s the state in the world which is violating the most international laws at the moment: more than China, Iran, Afghanistan, North Korea… actually more than all these countries combined.
So maybe , maybe people aren’t obsessed by Israel but rather (and for a reason) critical… most south american countries and scandinavian countries have stopped having diplomatic representations and embassies in Israel… so maybe violating the international laws to such a level is an actual and legitimate reason for criticism. Criticism no hate or obsession.
I read that a record number of women won seats? Hope that’s true!
This comes in the good news section! Labour also got three more black women MPs elected, our first woman Sikh MP elected, and our first observant/turban-wearing Sikh man MP elected. That made me feel a bit better about post-Brexit racism.
And another piece of genuinely warming news was Diane Abbot’s 75% majority (an increase of over 11k votes!). It was a righteous response to the nasty, bigoted shittiness she’s been subjected to.
YES!
Yes, I was particularly happy that Diane Abbott increased her majority after the vicious hounding, baiting and bullying she has been subjected to by the media over the past few weeks especially. Also her loyal support to Corbyn has been vindicated, she could see what many could not. Already some anti Corbyn Labour MPs are saying that they would now like to get back into the shadow cabinet.
I was at a charity gala yesterday night and was glued to my phone trying to get any decisive results, or even some clear information for those of us who understand very little about a parliamentary democracy, so thank you Kaiser and everyone here, for making some things clearer for me.
I suppose Brexit’s only positive outcome is that it made people realise that they have to VOTE.
MWAHAHAHAAAAA I love that Theresa May got several breakfast’s worth of egg in the face.
Though it would have been nice to have a complete and total Tory rout, a hung parliament is better than a Tory majority. And I’d also like to raise a glass to the 18-24 turnout -72 percent!
This is great news for the UK. The fight isn’t over yet. May will try to maintain the little power she has left, but as an American (and strong Bernie Sanders supporter) I was positively giddy to see that Jeremy Corbyn has widely succeeded in invigorating young voters and the liberal base. At least there is some hope for the UK, unlike in the USA right now, that things can move left and stop the conservatives from cutting important social programs there.
As I was watching the results this morning and saw Elmo on the background in several clips I started thinking that this isn’t exactly how I imagined things as a child. I’m all for the wacky characters, but given the overall wackiness of the global political landscape and childish behaviour, I wasn’t sure whether to laugh or cry. Everything seems like a huge mess.
It was pretty upsetting when after the Brexit vote it was clear that they actually had no idea what to do next. Then May took over and there were leaks from the EU side that they thought she hadn’t grasp at all what an enormous task she was dealing with. When she refused to take part in debates I just couldn’t help but think that perhaps she isn’t the sharpest tool in the shed. Their manifesto also had the weirdest stuff, like prohibiting encryption and blocking access to sexual content on the Internet. I have two questions: how and why?
There have been a lot of offensive and hurtful things said by all sides, but for some reason what gets me the most is the utter incompetence by supposedly adult people who are supposed to handle some pretty important issues. It drives me crazy. You don’t have to know everything, but then at least have some humility to try to learn or ask for help from those who do know how things work.
It seems like a world-wide problem. People don’t know what they want so they drop the systems that work, then elect people who are just as clueless as them, and everything starts to crumble.
Yes. It also seems as if, not only the elected leaders, but a lot of people in general suffer from the Dunning-Kruger effect. People think that the simplistic solutions they understand can easily solve complex issues. We have higher education for a reason, so that we could have people who are experts in their respective fields. Yet for some reason we are in an era where people think that they know better than the experts. “I understand it and it sounds about right, so I think that’s what we should do.”
@ Wonderbunny
I admit that experts are often ignored and ridiculed and that people are “empowered” = being told they wouldn’t need experts. And then they do usually get frauded by those who told them they wouldn’t need experts.
But that is one of the great deceptions of both media and politics.
When a politician tells gross lies on political matters he won’t get punished.
And when an expert tells the truth on political matter he might get ridiculed and ultimatively ignored.
That is not just the way of things in the media but also many blogs and comment sections are “controlled” that way by excluding postings with opposing opinions. If you publish a well-reasoned opinion and if you post well-respected website links who provide evidence then you will get deleted if your posting contradicts the opinion of the blog’s author.
@Zaratustra Oh, absolutely, it is prevalent in all media. I don’t think all the people who write about “The Truth” (what ever the subject) are bad people. They might truly believe that what they are saying is the ultimate truth that will set others free. That’s still not very helpful though, and there are of course a lot of people who can benefit by peddling their easy solutions to people who want them.
The “fake news” thing is probably one of the worst things to have happened to journalism and critical thinking in recent times. Valid criticism can be drowned by all that noise.
I’m still hopeful though that at some point people will start to crave a more reasonable atmosphere.
Karma is such a bitch, man. I LOVE her.
This is what happens when you abuse power and are ruled by ego.
What in the world does it mean to “ask to form a government”? Doesn’t the government already exist? I’m so confused by this, and I keep seeing it. What is there to form?
It’s just a bit of constitutional flummery. We have an election and the winner goes to the head of state (in our case, as we are a constitutional monarchy, the Queen), explains that the voters have indicated a preference in their favour, then gets official permission to form an administration. We elect heads of governments here, not heads of state. It’s the constitutional equivalent of a president not being the president proper until inaugurated. The inauguration is the US constitutional equivalent of the winner of a UK election getting the signal from the head of state to go ahead and form a government.
It’s feudal codswallop basically.
It is a sign that Brits are still subjects who have to ask the Queen permission to form a government because they can’t do that on their own as they are still subjects not citizens.
It means they are bending over to an unelected unaccountable intransparent head of state.
It’s the opposite, actually.
There is no such thing as a British subject. There are only British citizens (except for a tiny minority of Irish folk and Commonwealth folk who were born before 1949 and technically have British subject status in addition to citizenship of their own countries. When they die, there won’t be any).
Nobody has to get permission from the Queen to form a government. Our representative democratic system has a requirement to demonstrate the outcome of an election to the nation before forming a government. The nation, in our representative democracy, is symbolised by the concept of the Crown. The Queen is the symbolic representative of the Crown.
It’s simply the validation of the election result.
I know I’m way late here, but I just wanted to say thanks for the explanation. 🙂
Jeremy Corbyn is my local MP (Islington North) and we are so happy today in my house, and in the houses of my friends and neighbours, that the JC we know and love and respect for the innately decent, engaged, active, committed, inclusive local MP he is, is now being recognised and celebrated for all those qualities on a much wider and national (if not international) scale.
That the deplorable May is unfortunately still standing can’t impact upon that. <3
I can’t wait for the day that a first world country gets a “Bernie Sanders figure” (let’s read that as populist socialist) to lead them so they see what it’s like. It’s certainly worked wonders for Venezuela, Argentina, Brazil…
Argentina hasn’t had a populist government in decades (or ever?). As for Brazil, with the recent leaks, it’s clear the leftists were doing many more things right than the… right.
Venezuela, well that’s a HUGE mess, but perhaps their biggest problem is corruption.
Many countries in the EU have all their citizen’s basic needs covered, and yet nobody sees them as “socialists” or “populists”.
My country (Austria) has been a working social democracy for decades with free kindergarten & education, universal healthcare, Mindestsicherung (basic income for those unemployed, unable to work). “Free” = it’s funded by citizens through taxation.
But I agree with other comments that these achievements are eroding and no longer considered as such by a certain part of the population. I guess it’s partly a case of “you don’t know what you got till it’s gone”.
The real tragedy is that many first world countries have had “Bernie Sanders figures” already. They had more socialist governments who really tried and mostly succeeded to improve the life and chances of “the little men and the little women”. But then all the media started to blast these figures as “bad” and then voters started voting for governments who impoverished them and who settled them with student debt and decreased workers’ rights and decreased workers’ pensions and workers’ social insurances (unemployment money and such).
Achievements of the past.
These features can be found in most first world countries:
14-hours work days were banned.
Child labour was banned.
Health insurances were built.
Free general education is offered.
Unemployment insurances are built.
Remember the G.I. bill (post WW2) that enabled a lot of working class people to go to university?
Things aren’t going exactly well in those countries…
I am late here but in case someone wanders in over the weekend…
What does this mean for Scottish Independence? I thought it was unfair that she wasn’t open to allowing a vote but will this result mean that this will change? What is the feeling about that in the UK?
From here it seems unfair not to let Scotland decide how they want to proceed but I am not familiar with the arguments for and against or if it is even popular.
This is a good result but it sounds messy. Does the UK even have a choice how Brexit is handled at this point?
I am hoping now that Scottish independence is truly dead in the water.
Scotland had a choice, and it made its decision. There is not enough support for independence to justify a second referendum.
I am happy with the result because I could not bare the thought of Theresa May gloating over a landslide and continuing to avoid telling the British public what she really wants from Brexit. The hung parliament is result of a terrible campaign by May who is not as clever as we thought she was, and is definitely not fit to negotiate with Europe. Corbyn led a brilliant campaign and has transformed himself into somebody who could be prime minister. Some anti- Corbyn Labour MPs are now trying to cosy up to him. The result is a disaster for the Conservatives, and for the rest of us whatever the political persuasion the times ahead are unfortunately going to be very difficult. Weak government, weak economy and Britain’s standing in the world greatly diminished.
While I agree with you in principle re both May and Corbyn, I must point out 2 flaws in your post:
1. I and nobody I know – from all political persuasions – has ever thought of Theresa May as clever, so this notion that she was regarded as such is a fallacy. She was seen (both as Home Sec and PM) as, at best, capable but uninspiring, dull, cold and pretty much lacking in all the essential traits that make for good leadership.
And we can now see that with serious blind, arrogant knobs on.
2. Corbyn has NOT suddenly transformed himself into somebody who could be prime minister. It’s only the snivelling, back-tracking media who are trying to justify their nasty bias by suggesting his unexpected rise is him being newly packaged. The Corbyn you now see is the decent Corbyn he always has been, and I say this from the perspective of him being my local MP so I know him and know who and what he is.
I lived in John McDonnell’s constituency for a short time and members of my family still do. The media portrait of him as some kind of thuggish Stalinist and sexist to boot, is just that. A fanciful portrait. Years back, I’ve been at meetings about local services where the men have been talking over the women and JD has told them to pipe down and made sure to call on every woman with a hand raised. He was quietly spoken, always came prepared and briefed on the particular issue, and also always had an impressive command of the detail. Yes, he’s on the very left of the Labour Party, which may not suit all members and definitely not opposition parties, but he is NOTHING like as portrayed.
I’m sorry but Trump had nothing to do with this. May ran an appalling campaign, alienated her core voters with the Tory manifesto. America does not influence everything.