UK General Election announced for 8th June

Boris is great entertainment if nothing else :grin:

I don’t agree. It seems the Conservatives will have to offer them something and word is it’ll be a vote on reducing female reproductive rights, which is appalling in this day and age even if the vote has little chance of passing. The openly gay Scottish Conservative leader has apparently had to seek reassurances that they’ll be no regression in the area of LGBQT rights.

I think people need to continue to hype up this pact with the DUP as much as possible. Whether it’s necessary for the Tories to do this or not, we should demand some basic level of principles from our government and in this day and age it is wholly unacceptable to get into bed with such a bunch of bigoted and regressive nut jobs. We need to keep pointing this out and be merciless in not letting then off the hook on this one.

Even leaving aside the ethics of the situation, pragmatically people shouldn’t let up on this DUP thing, the Tories are reeling and the Labour Party, the media and the public need to be relentless in holding them to account now more than ever.

I know in your post you perhaps meant overhyping what the DUP will actually be able to achieve, but imo even if they achieve or influence nothing this still isn’t being overblown.

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I just can’t see them getting anything across that puts the Tories in a negative light (other than standard Tory policy of course) and giving away anything related to equality will certainly do that, especially now there’s a more left minded opposition (although if it’s only in NI then I guess a lot of voters probably won’t care and the media might not bother to cover it). The Lib Dems managed to get very little through that was their own with 50 seats in an official coalition.

Basically we can’t judge what it is until something happens and we see what kind of give and take there is but my point was more the hype of how dare the Tories side with these villains when they were left with little choice and even if they’re bigoted regressive nutjobs they’re still a legitimate political party and now the 5th biggest one in the country.

I’m getting the sense that people think the Tories are doing something massively wrong by trying to be in power but I think the DUP are the bad guys here for supporting this shitty government. They had the power to force May to run a minority government and If the Lib Dems, SNP or Plaid had propped up this government they would have been the ones getting the blame for making that alliance, not Theresa May.

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If the Tories require the DUP votes to get legislation passed in the commons, then I don’t think they’re being hyped at all.

Marching season could be interesting this year…

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Dosnt maths imply any government will need the DUPs support?

It feels like one of those things where pragmatism is needed for the sake of getting shit done. As ever though people love to be offended.

Dont Labours sister party in NI share many of the same views as DUP?

I think we can label both parties the bad guys in this situation tbh. DUP for being bigoted nutters and for propping up this shitty government, and the Tories for teaming up with and legitimising said group of nutty bigots.

People are right to think that the Tories are doing something massively wrong here. I expect nothing better of them than to ally themselves with such a party because they want power, as calling an EU referendum and a snap election already shows that they’ll do anything for power, but that doesn’t make it any less worthy of outrage imo.

I see what you’re saying though.

Not necessarily. For a vote to pass it just needs more yes votes than no votes. What might happen in practice is that if the DUP disagree with some legislation they will just abstain. That way even if every other MP voted no the vote would still pass as long as all the Conservative MPs voted for it.

In a lot of ways brining them in on this semi formal basis seems pointless as they would likely support most of what the Conservatives want to put through anyway.

But they need their votes to pass confidence for the Queen no? So it makes sense to formalise it? A slender majority with another right wing party is more sustainable then a minority government.

Also what im seeing is for most things DUP will vote on the same issues as conservatives which is fine nobody minds. However it is unacceptable to formalise this?

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For sure! He is preparing something behind the scenes, the sneaky bastard.

I’m not sure about that to be honest but I suspect it’s the same as any other vote in that its a majority of the votes cast that wins the vote.

Anything that legitimises the views the DUP hold is a bad thing imo.

The most important thing for the government is actually be able to get stuff through parliament. If they are relying on SNP and Labour they will struggle. Especially if it becomes clear the seizing parliament process by rejecting government bills/legislation will just lead to another election.

NIreland voted for those social rights. The only thing that concerns me is the impact on the peace agreement (of which I have no idea how this could impact).

Osborne: “Theresa May is a dead woman walking”.

He does love it, doesn’t he?

They shouldn’t have wasted two months and tens of millions of pounds so given they were already in that position.

I recognise its easier for me to hold these views as an outsider mind.

We’re all in agreement their bloody fools dont worry.

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Theresa May has responded to her failure by retaining Jeremy Hunt in her reshuffle. If ever she had an open goal easy score to prove she was listening, a new Health Secretary was it. She’s brainless.

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It was an open goal last time too and she didn’t take it. You can only assume they’re happy with the job he’s doing.

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The things she is saying at the moment are absolutely delusional. She got absolutely no mandate from this election and she seems to believe her previous policies are still viable.

OH JEREMY CORBYN

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Get in there Jeremy!

:poldi:

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