General Election June 2017

Thanks for that image... :):)

More Admirals than ships, though!

Osborne sold off the last of the Harriers, through a broker, to the only credible customer, the US Marines.

Doesn't Victorian history teach us that inducing Catholics to fight other Catholics seldom succeeds?

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Strong & Stable.

"So I says to him: 'A HUNDRED BILLION BLEEDIN' EURO?! I'll tell you where you can stick your €100bn!'"
"'Ere. Is that pint of Stella dead?"

Bit late to the Diane Abbot interview thing, but fuck me that is cringe.

We've all gotten some figures wrong at some point, but the faux confidence when she's called out on it? My guess is that she only surrounds herself with sycophants and therefore has lost the ability to gracefully admit a mistake.

Another interesting Twitter thread on Theresa May and her need to be seen fighting;

https://twitter.com/SimonFRCox/status/859799583249108992

Full version of Malcom the shouty pensioner is a bit different:
https://twitter.com/aljwhite/status/859777475672518656

It only takes a glance at todays tabloids to realise May know's what she's doing, and doing a bloody good job of it. The unwashed masses (joke) are lapping up her attack on Brussels like a cat to milk. She's building huge rapport with them and attracking the non conservative - leave voters, to vote conservative. They see her attack as being strong and the right thing, becasue they can't see beyond the facade she is.

And all these people on twitter who can't belive what she's doing, are either too smart for their own good, or just dancing along to the same song they keep playing.

Exactly, the whole brexit vote was won by people wanting to stick two fingers up at those bloody foreigners so May saying she's going to make their lives difficult, and them responding in kind, only strengthens her position. There's no point trying to reason with brexit voters because it was done in the firm belief we don't need the EU and that lot anyway.

The view is even more: See what vindictive bastards the EU are, this perfectly illustrates why we want out, I can't believe you Remain voters want to be a part of this.

There's a massive chasm between Brexit (UK is great, EU evil, we are the shit) and Remain (we are just one of the EU countries, a big one, but we have to play nice it's the way it is)

How do you even close such a gap?

It would be nice for May to understand the EU has to do some posturing too (elections, Le Pen, innit) and the EU to understand 48% of people are really quite unhappy and aggravating the situation is really not helpful (though it's entirely the fault of the referendum, the EU cannot comment promises were broken cos then that's seen as interfering...) but ultimately the UK did sign a contract.

It's like not paying your mortgage and being a dick about it, instead of understanding it sucks, but trying to come to an arrangement suits both parties better. May seems to be unwilling or unable to keep brexiters/remainers/the EU all somewhat in a good mood.

But she now needs to win an election. So bugger to any reality, she's got to build this insane image to win her silly election.
And the image she's curating is the EU slaying Queen. Down with the EU and their bureaucrats, at any and all cost.
All your points make sense, and are fair. But that's not the game. And it is ALL a game to them.

May has not much to lose... The rest of us do.

As an EU national I find all this quite worrying, Erdogan uses a similar narrative.

Perhaps us mainlanders are more paranoid after two world wars and millions dead.

What bothers me too is that the media also turns the EU nationals against the UK, the nuance gets lost there too. A lot think it's what the UK wants...which isn't that true with a 48/52 split and lotsa lies.

Who really deserves this crap bar a few total assholes?

Boris Johnson confirmed as the UKIP candidate for Uxbridge.

http://www.standard.co.uk/news/politics/boris-johnson-backed-by-ukip-in-general-election-a3530371.html

This 'strong and stable' mantra is beyond caricature.

Theresa May appears to be the leader of Blukip.

Honestly I'm still convinced that every single person that voted Out is a racist. I'm yet to hear anyone give a single reason how being in the EU affected their lives for the worse. All this talk about unelected bureaucrats, taking control of our future etc. is just excuses for people who really just want to say "I don't trust foreigners".

Fear/mistrust of foreigners is usually grouped under 'xenophobia', though. There's no doubt that this was a factor. Of course, racism and xenophobia are not incompatible, often occurring together, but racism is most likely espoused by a smaller number of people.

I had a similar discussion the other day with two Québecois. It was interesting to see the parallels. One of them was very strongly in favour of Québec going independent, the other wasn't. I think there is a more acceptable cousin of xenophobia, it's more positive mirror image, as it were, which is a genuine, if often corrupted and exploited, fear for the survival of a (mostly) smaller culture and a willingness to protect that/see it protected.

I still don't think that provides a sufficient justification for 'Brexit', but I can see the perspective, having lived in Britain (well, London) for more than twenty years, and liking certain aspects of various kinds of British culture rather better than certain aspects of various kinds of German culture.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lc7dmu4G8oc

I know quite a few local socialists...they are not racist and hate what is happening ATM.

They think the EU is racist for letting refugees down/not doing enough to save them.

But, as Greenhell would point out in more colourful language, they didn't mind being associated with racists either.

Perhaps I am too cynical/more calculating, I looked at who was going to execute Brexit, the gutter papers and official Leave, saw it was the Tories and though "yeah, that's going to end well eh?"

It would be nice though if more Brexiters would come out and say "hey, not in my name!" but such is life: The socialist probably think I'm too soft on capitalism. I think they are naive if they think leaving the EU will lead to a revolution.

Ultimately we may still have common goals, it's just become bloody hard to talk to each other with the frenzy being whipped up by the media. And it's hard to stay calm for many Remainers too.

But sure, we are just monkeys in suits sometimes...

The socialist probably think I'm too soft on capitalism

That's a problem which brings a new dimension to it all. There's been massive downside to neo-liberalism, the most obvious example being the culmination of the banking crisis in 2008, and the EU is a firm believer in the power of the free market. Hence the traditional Tory's liking the EU and the traditional Labour disliking it, because they would want more regulation and market protections.

However if someone were to sit down and count out the pros and cons of EU membership on their every day life, they're going to struggle to write down any solid negatives unless they're a farmer.

Sure there will be some staunch socialists that dislike the EU for it's free market ideals and therefore think it must be destroyed, but they've got to weigh that against the affects of leaving the free market and putting barriers between our economy and those of every single country physically closest to ours. They may get a warm and fuzzy feeling inside knowing the EU is a little weaker but they're also going to notice how everything is more expensive and they can no longer afford to go on holidays to Spain.

The rest of the people that voted leave, those that aren't staunch socialists, have no excuse apart from racism and xenophobia.

http://uk.isidewith.com/political-quiz

Confirmed what I thought

80% labour
80% green

Less than 30% conservative ukip or national party.

87% Plaid Cymru
77% Green

<30% for rhe fascists.

UKIP lose all 30 seats that were up in the local council elections.

Funny by itself, but not in terms of what it means for the possibility of splitting the Tory vote.

I might go and campaign for UKIP in marginal Tory/Labour seats.

I don't think Leave voters are necessarily racist or xenophobic. I think a lot of it comes down to disenfranchisement and being unhappy with the current situation but feeling unable to change it through traditional Westminster politics.