UK Election June 8th

[Wokko]

Just announced by Theresa May

http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-politics-39629603

And Hi, glad to be back

[Skids]

good to see you back!

[stui magpie]

World politics is screwed. time to buy those acres in the bush and start digging a bomb shelter

[ronrat]

Actually I think the Trumping of the US is going to have a fire season back burning effect. All of a sudden the peasants are asking "What is going on". ISIL and the like want a holy war and are now fighting on 10 fronts. In 5 years time Europe may have completely dumped the European ideal and countries like Greece and Spain will have to start earning their way in the world. Nations will rearm themselves instead of relying on the USA but will do so on a scale reactive to small terrorist attacks. Border security will tighten and with anyluck more of these fruitcakes will be caught.

Once the UK bugs out Holland and France may want out of the EU and that will.

It could be the beginning of a massive restructuring of the world economy and that might be a good thing. I know here in Thailand some idiot is keeping the local currency higher than it should which is ballsing up the 2 main industries, rice exports and tourism. Cynics say it do the military can buy the 12 submarines it wants from China that most sensible strategists seem as pointless. Still if you are getting a kickback that will make you very rich who cares about a few million peasants in the field and hospitality workers . They can all get factory jobs with the car industry now we have ripped it off Australia.

[David]

Here's how Corbyn can win:

Just kidding.

[Wokko]

Here's how Corbyn can win:

Just kidding.

I expect at least a dozen articles in The Guardian titled like this, then a few more after the election how he can still win following a Conservative landslide.

What will be interesting to see is if UKIP can maintain any gains they had now that their hot button issue has succeeded.

[Mugwump]

Here's how Corbyn can win:

Just kidding.

Yep. On the other hand, the Liberal Democrats, the "centrist" alternative to Labour who are pro-Remain, will probably roar back. It's going to be an interesting night in June. Though I expect a comfortable Tory majority, it is a more volatile scenario than I have ever seen.

If Labour and the Dems (and the SNP) had any brains, they'd propose a non-aggression pact, not competing against each other so that the pro-remain vote is maximized (we do not have preferential voting here, just straight FPTP). If that happened, the Tories might well get kicked out. The trouble is that they do not have many brains, and that would make Corbyn PM, which is a truly appalling prospect. Absent this type of pact, however, May should win comfortably.

Ps glad you're back, Wokko. Nick's politburo is a little saner for having a crazy libertarian

[David]

^ Only trouble with that is that Corbyn's position on the EU seems mixed at best. That's one of Labour's biggest problems: they can't run an election on this issue, just as they couldn't wholeheartedly get behind the Remain vote to begin with.

[Mugwump]

[Wokko]

Surely after getting toweled up by Iron Lady 2 he's a goner.

[Mugwump]

Surely after getting toweled up by Iron Lady 2 he's a goner.

The Labour Party is so batshit crazy nowadays that anything is possible. Is the Iraqi Information Minister available to act as their Communications Manager when it is over ?

Personally I hope the Labour Party dies, to help precipitate a wholesale realignment that British politics badly needs. A truly Conservative Party and a reborn Liberal/Libertarian Party is probably what the age demands.

[David]

[Mugwump]

^A large chunk of the Working Class are Conservative, and May is trying hard to bag their votes. I expect she'll succeed. The party they really hate are the Liberals and the trendy Left.

Stepping aside from polemic for a minute, I think the old Left working class politics, based on the "security trinity" of unions, high taxation and state spending is probably a dead letter, In an age of mobile capital and ultra-fast technological change, we cannot go back to the old securities and we cannot raise the taxes to fund them without killing off investment. Old Labour is dead. All that I think we can offer the working class is better education, social order and identity, with a safety net of social basics based on contribution through work. For example, the state pension can stay at 65 or so as long as you are prepared to put in a few days a week at a care home, funding it by displacing the need for costly care workers. Some new settlement like this sorely needed, if we are not to tilt over to angry Right or angry left politics.

[Jezza]

Here's how Corbyn can win:

Just kidding.

That's a good one!

[David]