General Election - December 12th, 2019

[The blue phantom]

Surprised October is the fave - might be worth lumping on November!

October was 8/15 yesterday morning. Money to be made but it just seems a flick of a coin.

 

[Eds]

Johnson has a nuclear option left.

He could feasibly call a no confidence motion in himself. If he wins the no confidence in himself vote, that I think could be used as a trigger to have a GE.

As crazy as it sounds the opposition parties would have to vote they had confidence in Johnson in order to stop a GE. Now the question is, has Johnson got the bollox to call a no confidence vote in himself, it would be contrary to his character, but if he lost the vote and confidence was shown in him, he could take that as an endorsement of his Premiership and as he is a vain **** he might just do that.

We desperately need a written constitution as I don't think precedent would cover this eventuality. If you think it is confusing now, it might get a hell lot more confusing in the days to come, it depends on how desperate Johnson is to remain in power and all indicators are, he believes he was born to do the job as his inherent narcissism shows.

I know I will be derided as a Corbyn fan boy, despite me saying he is a little too right wing for me, but I have to say he has played the long game here quite superbly, he has the government on the ropes, hanging on for dear life and he can choose when to deliver the killer punch to end this fucking miserable excuse for an administration. Corbyn visibly grew in stature yesterday as Johnson shrunk into his little boy lost petulance routine. Johnson sewed the seeds for these events over the last 20 years and now his hopes and dreams are crashing down around him, it is glorious to see the **** get his comeuppance and its even better to see the miniscule Tory electorate get handed their arse on a plate for falling for the charlatan. He is succeeding in destroying the Tory party and for once I think I might even kiss him.

Corbyn - right wing! LOL...

 

[bluethrunthru]

what mustn't be overlooked is the role their advisers played in all of this. Man of the people Dave surrounded himself with a cabal of Old Etonians who gave him advise ref the promise of a referendum. Mayday famously sacked hers after they suckered her into an election which Lynton Crosby the electoral mastermind that lost them the London Mayoralty didn't deliver the 100+ seat GE majority and now Johnson who has Cummings - a real life Malcolm Tucker with added drunkenness who, if he is deemed to be helping isn't very good at his job at all. Yes successive PM's have been shite but like a racing driver they will tell you its not just about them but the team they have backing them.

 

[bluethrunthru]

Conference season should be fun. Well the Tories anyway.

I wonder if those kicked out can/will attend? I hope so - TV interviews with them will be dynamite.

 

[TheRemainsOfTheDave]

I wonder if those kicked out can/will attend? I hope so - TV interviews with them will be dynamite.

https://conservativepartyconference.com/index
Shouldn't that read "100 stands, 500 events, 11,479 people"?

 

[Rascal]

Corbyn - right wing! LOL...

In relation to me, probably

 

[Chippy_boy]

Good points. I think that GE result wasn't just down to May's complacency though. As much as I don't like Corbyn, he and Labour did an infinitely better job of reaching out to to voters via social media, etc, and Corbyn spoke better in that campaign than I ever expected him too. In fact, I think I've just contradicted myself there as what I've just posted highlights the complacency you spoke of but I guess what I'm - rather clumsily - trying to say is that Corbyn and Labour perhaps deserve a bit of credit too for conducting a decent campaign.

OK, yes, agree with all of that.

That said, a 20 point gap should not, and would not, have been bridgeable had she been anything better than completely and utterly awful. There were a number of rather obvious conclusions from that campaign:

1. May was unbelievably complacent. The manifesto was a shoddy, paper thin effort, commensurate with a party which felt a comfortable victory was in the bag, and that they hardly needed to bother trying.

2. That over-confidence led the Tories to believe they could get away with anything, and that they could put all sorts of shit on the table (in particular the crap about using proceeds of the sale peoples' own homes after their death, to pay for their social care. Effectively introducing uncapped, 100% rate inheritance tax.)

3. May should *never, ever* have been selected as leader. A good administrator (is she? fuck knows) does not a good leader make. Someone who completely lacks charisma, cannot handle even a basic interview without monotonous repetition and awkward stuttering and fumbling, CANNOT be selected as leader. When it got so bad that she had to send Amber Rudd to stand in for her in the stand up debates, I knew we were fucked.

 

[aguero93:20]

Someone who completely lacks charisma, cannot handle even a basic interview with monotonous repetition and awkward stuttering and fumbling, CANNOT be selected as leader.

*cough*

 

[Chippy_boy]

There are a number of factors which got us into this mess, one of which is Johnsons contributions to the Telegraph from Brussels where he lied about much of what the EU was doing, hence we got the bendy banana stories and the like, then we had the Farage phenomenen, how on earth a man who was not even an MP was allowed so much airtime to spout his bile is beyond me and there is Cameron and Osborne who sought to save their own skins by holding the referendum in the first place. May got the poison chalice and did her best but it was never enough for the ERG nutters and Johnson riding to the rescue has turned the whole charade into a farce.

I still believe holding the referendum was a huge mistake, it was then made worse by it being so unclear in its purpose and without a mandate threshold that could not be disputed. Say 50% of the overall electorate + 1 vote, that failure and the arrogance of Cameron and Osborne in believing they would win has led us to where we are now.

If we were to leave i would have preferred it to be by Parliamentary means, there was no need to hold a referendum and the dangers of handing sovereignty to the people would have been averted. All the referendum achieved has been division and it has made our country a nasty vicious place to live and allowed extremism on both sides a voice.

Then we have this mysterious notion of the will of the people, it was the will of the people to leave but also the will of the people to vote for a parliament that is remain. Which will of the people holds more weight? We live in a Parliamentary democracy so that will of the people must surely take precedent because if it does not it delegitimises Parliament. This is why I hold Cameron and Osborne responsible, they never gave it true forethought because in their arrogance they truly believed they would win and never contemplated the effects of losing. Its no wonder they disappeared quickly because they knew they had fucked up big time.

Spot on. Great post and I agree with every word.

That said, what I said is true as well. Had May been even vaguely competent, this would all have been done and dusted by now. It was her losing her majority which led to the parliamentary impasse. You can get what the fuck you like through parliament if you have a decent working majority. With no outright majority and being reliant on support from the DUP in order to remain in office, they were never going to be able to get anything contentious through. Let alone something as divisive as Brexit.

 

[Chippy_boy]

*cough*

Whilst not being, er "perfect", he's a massive upgrade on Theresa May.