Well, that’s unexpected. Evidently she’s either getting Labour to vote for this, or she’s going to manufacture a loss of confidence. Edit: She’s daring the opposition to vote for it.
Curses Lord Feldon. I was going to post this.
May is fully out of ideas.
A couple of LiB Dem are saying they will vote for an Election. They are about 9 of them so she needs about 40-50 Labour guys.
On what do you base that statement? She’s not making Gordon Brown’s mistake. Beyond that, the announcement has caught me entirely by surprise.
My initial thoughts are that the Tories are going to benefit from the reduction in the size of the Commons, and they will benefit in Scotland from the increased taxes the SNP have imposed. I may well have to vote for them as being the best means of ousting the SNP; I voted for Dame Anne Begg - the Labour candidate - at the last General Election.
Corbyn has welcomed the chance of an election, so the vote will go through tomorrow without a problem (even if the SNP oppose).
May has just told Labour to put up or shut up.
If a general election doesn’t happen, they look like cowards.
It may back fire spectacularly, but I respect her for it. She wants her mandate.
It looks like a u turn, but it will stop all the constant sniping.
Tim Fallon is excited, he’s getting his chance, so the Lib Dems will agree.
So Labour, are you up for it?
It is the right choice.
I thought there should’ve been one when Cameron resigned and to be honest, trying to get the brexit deal through parliament without a large majority will be a big problem. May probably thinks that she can now run on a platform aligned with her plan for Brexit and if she gets a mandate and an increased majority it’ll be very difficult to argue against it.
Labour are now committed to an election with Corbyn at the head which will be interesting to say the least. They’ll be shitting themselves I suspect.
Lib dems should improve their position as they can at least point to a solid anti-Brexit position.
The SNP will probably have a worse showing and it’ll be interesting to see how that informs the referendum debate. (which will have to take a substantial back seat for at least the next few months)
This GE is going to be on the old boundaries.
Good point; the new ones kick in in 2018, don’t they?
This could go horribly wrong for May and the Tories. I think she should have waited until after the local government elections in May.
I have to say, I didn’t see that coming. Bold move, I must say.
No point. By then The House would have been packing up for the summer break. It would also have leaked well in advance and we would all have been sick of it by the actual vote. This way we get six weeks.
Word of caution though. No one expected DT to win in the USA - JC might just give the Cons (and the rest of us) a horrible surprise.
The review completes in 2018, so next GE after that I guess.
I really can’t see Labour winning. However, I wouldn’t be surprised if the result for Labour isn’t quite as bad as expected. Still, the result will probably not be good enough for Corbyn to hang on as leader.
It’s good decision for May. Labour and the SNP stand to lose big.
Corbyn will be out the day after the election, and Sturgeon will have a lot less power.
The pound jumped in value after the announcement.
I think it is very unlikely that they win. They may do better than the polls suggest at the moment (it simply can’t be worse) but for him to survive he’d have to do better than the last GE. Given that Labour have an open goal if he can’t at least match 2015’s showing then he is toast and at the moment it seems like they are miles off.
It will be very interesting to see how this plays out. As above, I think there is a significant chance that it doesn’t go as May hopes. There is a lot of unhappiness with the swing to the right, and the thing about pendulums is they tend to swing back.
This will be the fourth time I get to vote in a GE. The first three times I voted Conservative as I happen to have met my MP (Liam Fox) personally more than once and while he is undoubtedly a bit of a rogue, I think he has the interests of his constituents and the country at heart. He is in one of the safest Con seats but I don’t believe in the concept of ‘wasted votes’ - I believe if there is a significant swing to Lab or LD they will focus more efforts there next time, and in due course change can be achieved. The national percentages obviously make a difference as well. On a couple of occasions I nearly voted UKIP but in 2010 I didn’t think they were ready for government and in 2015 I was swayed by Cameron’s promise of a referendum. So obviously I’m fairly satisfied with how things have played out so far (i.e. we’re leaving the EU without the risk of an inexperienced UKIP government). But since the referendum I have become increasingly concerned about the backlash against immigrants/foreigners (the referendum was never about immigration for me, I am generally pro-immigration, we just need to build more affordable housing) and the government’s refusal to increase NHS funding (I wasn’t swayed by the £350m a week bus, but it’s becoming increasingly obvious the NHS needs a major cash injection, fast). I also feel that Osborne’s austerity, which I believed was the best plan at the time, has largely failed. However, Hammond has I think done a decent job so far (NI embarrassment aside) and I don’t really trust Labour (especially John McDonnell, who is a soundbite politician in my view, and they’re not even very good soundbites) on economic matters. So I’m not sure where that leaves me - at the moment, probably voting Tory again to try for some stability amongst the Brexit negotiations, but for the first time in my life I will seriously consider the alternatives.
Really, who do you reckon is going to take those Scottish seats? The Tories? What kind of numbers are we talking about?
I honestly can’t see any major reduction in the SNP. The gains they made nearly all came from Labour so I don’t see any way both Labour and SNP losing significantly in Scotland. Polling certainly doesn’t suggest any of the other parties making major ground.
Here’s CNN’s coverage: http://www.cnn.com/2017/04/18/europe/uk-snap-election-theresa-may/index.html
I suspect May will get the mandate she seeks, and then some.