General Election June 2017

By having policies that discriminate against 'the Many', while favouring 'the Few'?
Annual public sector pay rises limited to 1% for 7 years, while reducing the highest rate of Income Tax, would be a good example.

https://www.irishtimes.com/news/world/uk/eu-we-will-kill-brexit-negotiations-if-may-insists-on-trade-talks-1.3116544?mode=amp

According to this, Juncker suggested May hold a GE to increase her mandate (er?)

;-/

I foresee a glorious future.

(soz for bad photochop, at work)

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Before the Tories go into any form of alliance with the DUP, they should take steps to allow Sinn Fein MPs to take their seats in the commons. With the obliteration of the SDLP and the UUP, the voice of most voters in Northern Ireland is now unheard in the Commons. Lifting the block on Sinn Fein sitting would, at least, be a small step to eradicating this.

You're dreaming. It'll never happen.

Getting rid of the oath - for "terrorists" - would be anathema to the Tories.

Getting rid of the oath for everyone would be a good thing.

And this could be just the time, if not for the Tories, for a future Labour administration
.

I read the same story, in a different newspaper.
Juncker must be laughing his head off, that May took his advice, and held a GE.

I'm guessing Juncker could see how divided the UK was over brexhit,
and,
with nothing to lose himself, could see that May was gullible enough to believe hre pre-election poll ratings.

Juncker: excellent bants.

Nice idea,
but surely getting Stromont up & running should be the priority,
as, in effect NI is currently without a Government?

May should not even be countenancing any sort of majority-enabling pact with the DUP, as it endangers the NI Agreement.

How are they going to get Stormont up and running when they've just leapt into bed with one of the two main stakeholders? The one that caused the precious power sharing executive to collapse due to their involvement in a corruption scandal, that if it were in Westminster, would bring down a government?

Meanwhile that cretin, Gove, is tweeting that the Tories always act in the national interest.

Do people like Michael Gove? Why did she bring him back, will that make her more popular?

I can grudgingly see why Boris is popular, but Gove... not a clue

Some interesting preliminary analysis on the turnout / age debate

https://medium.com/@psurridge/britains-divide-diversity-key-to-turnout-rises-a51626d5c969

(Although it raises as many questions as it addresses, and I think the comment on Remainers being motivated to vote may miss the point, in that it seems more likely to be the case that they would have been consistent voters but rather might have just switched allegiance)

A lot of my friends work in education, so I'm not the best person to ask on the appeal of Gove. Most of them would gladly pay to watch him be tortured to death over a period of years.

May has brought him back because she needs his support. She has to unite the entire Tory party so can't afford to have enemies. But in a party where divisiveness is a feature, I can't see how she can retain support on every topic.

I keep getting the impression basically neither voters of half the politicians take the seriousness of Brexit, well...serious.

Maybe they hope it will all go away?

Bizarrely, everything you hear about Gove, as an individual, is that he's a great guy - really popular, friendly, courteous, human, clubbable. To the public, he just comes across as clubbable, but in the other way

Yes, the divisions within the Conservative party are greater than ever, and with Theresa May having failed in her attempt to force through a restricted agenda, she now has to try to draw together the various and different extremes. Coalition of chaos indeed.

I've heard literally none of this

I saw Gove speak at an event a few months ago. He spoke well, and on the face of it appeared convincing. Fortunately the audience was able to see through him, and was evidently appropriately contemptuous of Gove and his arguments. But his ability to influence opinion is dangerous, albeit not quite on the same scale as Johnson.

This brings a wry smile.

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https://twitter.com/ladfleg/status/874199798659809280

Hmm, oooh which one to go for?...
It's like they're playing Russian roulette with a revolver and 7 bullets.

I've heard it from a few sources, most recently, and bizarrely, my dog walker (who has both worked in the Tory press office and been a touring member of Primal Scream).

Technically it's not, but I find it pretty difficult to trust the DUP to do the right thing.

And it looks pretty bad that Westminster goes in bed with an orange, but not a green party.

@kl, @christianSpaceman, @Sumo
The few I know that've worked with Gove (civil servants, not tories) have had generally positive opinions. They don't necessarily agree with his ideas but he seems intelligent, diligent and pretty progressive in a lot of ways. Quite an asset, assuming he's not sticking a knife in your back at the time.

Grayling, apparently, has zero social skills and is painful to be in a room with at the same time.