U.K. Election, 2017

[DzM]

Well ... That was unexpected.

Thoughts from U.K. people? What do you think this means for you and yours? Is this actually a clever plan of Ms. May's to be able to say "Well, now the People haven't even given us a mandate to negotiate the exit. Perhaps the people don't actually want the Brexit and are regretting their earlier vote. Perhaps we should offer a 'are you sure?' re-vote."

[Low D]

I understand the Tories have only managed to form government with he support of the Northern Ireland Democratic Unionist party. Wankers (Tories & DUP, that is).

[firehazard]

Tory hubris called the unnecessary election. Tory sense of entitlement means they've devised a coalition of bigots to keep power, for now at least.

Anyway, tonight I am mostly laughing and drinking. Stunning result in my constituency, which needs celebrating. Not much sleep was had last night.

I suspect we may all still be screwed but will enjoy the moment and think more seriously later.

[DzM]

I suspect we may all still be screwed but will enjoy the moment and think more seriously later.

A solid dose of screwed always goes down a little bit better with some schadenfreude mixed in.

[Low D]

I suspect we may all still be screwed but will enjoy the moment and think more seriously later.

I might tattoo this backwards on my face so i see it every time i look in a mirror.

[firehazard]

One day later...

A lot of it's about what the expectations were at the beginning of the campaign and what actually transpired.

Theresa May saw a series of opinion polls giving her party a massive lead, with the opposition looking very weak, and so changed the law (the last government passed a fixed-term parliaments act, meaning general elections could take place only every 5 years) to allow her to call a snap election, imagining a Tory majority of 150+ MPs.

Something happened during the subsequent campaign, and things changed. The Tory campaign was frankly terrible, and seemed based on their sense of entitlement - "We know what's best for you plebs. Don't question us." Meanwhile, and against everyone's expectations (including mine, I have to admit), the Labour party produced a raft of policies that were both sensible and popular. More significantly, for the first time possibly ever in this country, Jeremy Corbyn energised the "youth" vote. Historically, in this country, people aged 18-24, in particular, have been politically alienated and just haven't voted. This time they did, and the vast majority of them voted for him.

So Labour improved markedly on what was expected, and increased their number of MPs significantly. The Tories still won most seats, but lost their parliamentary majority. Theresa May had stated repeatedly that if that happened, she'd step down. She has since, obviously, changed her mind. So now, to retain power, she has to make a deal to get support from other parties. And her chosen allies have turned out (predictably) to be Northern Ireland's DUP, who are notoriously homophobic, opposed to reproductive rights, anti-Catholic, climate-change-denying social conservatives. Oh, and with strong links to loyalist paramilitaries. Which is somewhat ironic given the repeated Tory charges against Jeremy Corbyn that he's a "terrorist sympathiser".

Meanwhile, many Tory MPs are reportedly furious with May (one senior Tory MP quoted as saying, "We all fucking hate her. But there is nothing we can do. She has totally fucked us"). And the leader of the Scottish Tories (who gained about a dozen seats in this election, thus saving May from even more electoral problems), Ruth Davidson, a strong supporter of LGBT rights, has expressed grave concerns about any alliance with the DUP, and there are rumours that the Scottish Tories are considering setting themselves up as a separate entity from the UK party. And today May's two closest advisers have resigned...

Get the popcorn. This could get interesting.

[DzM]

So here's a thought - What really held the UK and the USA together, in a societal sense, for a very long time was having a common enemy that (for the most part) everyone could rally around. Those Commies were scary and all levels of society, generally, could be on the same page of "we all pull together of those godless reds will over-run us."

It's now been 20 years since the USSR collapsed. The societies of the member states obviously had to immediately deal with a cultural shock and readjustment. In the west we've taken longer to adjust. Now the differences in our internal factions are becoming more obvious and it's becoming increasingly easy for us to turn on ourselves rather than put aside our differences in service of the greater goal.

Or something. I dunno. I'm blowing this out my arse right now. It does feel a whole lot like at this moment in history we're all trying to adjust to not having a common enemy that we can all agree poses an existential threat (ironically we HAVE a common enemy that does pose an existential threat, but it's also an abstract one that is brought about not by an us-against-them mentality but rather a screw-the-future-me-me-me mentality, and that's harder for people to wrap their heads around).

We need a good space invasion to cause us all to unify.

[firehazard]

...
We need a good space invasion to cause us all to unify.

Indeed. Nothing can unite us like space invaders.

[DzM]

...
We need a good space invasion to cause us all to unify.

Indeed. Nothing can unite us like space invaders.

https://html5-space-invaders.herokuapp.com/

[Low D]

Yes, but unfortunately UK voters missed the mark on that because only 249 people voted for Lord Buckethead. However John Oliver has proposed the UK send him (Buckethead that is) to negotiate Brexit.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... ead-brexit

[left]

A short recap of what the hell is going on in the after-brexit UK, pleaseee?

[firehazard]

Yes, but unfortunately UK voters missed the mark on that because only 249 people voted for Lord Buckethead. However John Oliver has proposed the UK send him (Buckethead that is) to negotiate Brexit.

https://www.theguardian.com/tv-and-radi ... ead-brexit

Lord Buckethead has said that he was happy with the result, as he increased his share of the vote.

Lord Buckethead and Mr Fishfinger together would be a formidable negotiating team.

[firehazard]

A short recap of what the hell is going on in the after-brexit UK, pleaseee?

I think the short answer is that nobody bloody knows. Especially not the government.

[Low D]

A short recap of what the hell is going on in the after-brexit UK, pleaseee?

I think the short answer is that nobody bloody knows. Especially not the government.

The same episode of "Last Week Tonight..." included a clip of Lord Buckethead criticizing Theresa May for having no plan in place for Brexit, or even the beginnings of a plan (hard/soft, negotiating team, etc). It's strange times when the only one who seems to know what's going on is Lord Buckethead.

[DzM]

A short recap of what the hell is going on in the after-brexit UK, pleaseee?

I think the short answer is that nobody bloody knows. Especially not the government.

The same episode of "Last Week Tonight..." included a clip of Lord Buckethead criticizing Theresa May for having no plan in place for Brexit, or even the beginnings of a plan (hard/soft, negotiating team, etc). It's strange times when the only one who seems to know what's going on is Lord Buckethead.

I do believe Lord Buckethead put it concisely with something along the lines of "It will be a shit show."

I admire his lack of bullshit.