You guys are having an election? And you’re not electing a narcissistic psychopathic braggart?
You’ll have to tell us Americans how that feels in the comments.
Pharyngula
Evolution, development, and random biological ejaculations from a godless liberal
UKIP is going under.
Well, I’m not dancing in the streets yet, but I’m relieved, and enjoying my schadenfreude at the Tories’ expense. Plus it looks as if UKIP will disappear leaving no more than a nasty smell.
I’m avoiding all the coverage. May will win (I’ve accidentally seen some early polls saying she might not but I refuse to believe polls any more) the only questions is by what majority.
We may not be voting for a narcissistic psychopathic braggart but we are voting for someone who seems to have no soul. She has made me long wistfully for the days of John Major which is not something I ever thought would happen. I’d take his traffic cone hotline over May’s throwing us over an economic cliff any day.
sarah00:
The Tories are likely to get the most seats, but it’s by no means certain they will get the 326 needed to actually win outright. Given that the Lib Dems have explicitly ruled out a coalition with either Labour or the Tories, and it’s incredibly unlikely the SNP will even consider a coalition with the Tories, if a hung parliament is the end result, the only other possibilities are the Tories trying to govern with a minority government (which would be difficult in the extreme, given they’re trying to negotiate Brexit), a hodge-podge coalition of several parties, or the whole election needing to be re-run. Even if the Tories do get an outright win, given that the PM called this election three years early pretty much in order to substantially increase the Tory majority, anything less than a win that does this will hurt her politically – perhaps to the point of it being impossible for her to remain as Tory leader, and therefore Prime Minister.
Sadly my constituency of Somerton and Frome has just elected a Tory (admittedly not quite as bad a Tory as the one the poor people next door in North Somerset have had for the last seven years – Jacob Rees-Mogg, MP for the Eighteenth Century). It would appear I have failed to corrupt the local youth sufficiently this time round. Bugger.
Still, the overall results are looking very promising at this stage. If nothing else the good showing that New Old Labour is putting up will help to make everyone sit up and take note that there is a real hunger for progressive policies in this country. Jerry Cornelius for the win!
In the meantime, here’s Stewart Lee telling us why we should all vote Conservative…
http://www.filmsforaction.org/watch/stewart-lees-reasons-to-vote-conservative/
my constituency of Somerton and Frome has just elected a Tory
My deepest sympathy. Corruption is a hard path to follow.
We lost the last election here but at least not to a Conservative. Here in Canada we try not to dignify that party as “Tory”.
But thank you for the Lee link.
cartomancer, Rees-Mogg is North East Somerset. Those of us in North Somerset have the dubious ‘pleasure’ of having disgraced former defence minister Liam Fox as MP. He’s been my MP since before I was able to vote and (I’ve just looked) he still is with yet another increased majority despite being an incompetent buffoon.
I wouldn’t be too sure of that. May will have to resign *loud cheers*, but the Tories have got just enough seats to stay in power (at least for now) with support from the nearest thing we have to your religious right (the DUP), and Boris Johnson evidently favours his chances of succeeding her.
That’s a strange thing to write, “Tory” is an insult, using it is not dignifying anyone.
It literally means ‘thief’ and is an ironic reference to people forced into penury and thieving by the enclosure and clearances acts in Britain’s past.
It looks like a slight increase in the influence of the fifth estate, as the papers instructed us not to vote for the terrorist sympathising marxist traitor etc etc. (see Daily Mail et al) Quite spectacular msm anti-Corbyn for yonks. And his own party hate him too. The parliamentary ones that is. I expect they quite like him this morning all of a sudden. Interestingly Brexit-neutral overall. Let’s have another one, that was a draw. May Kaput.
“Conservatives confirmed largest party, but the cannot win the majority, hung parliament confirmed”
Gotta go – minimum wage is calling. We’ve gone even bluer here – 48.6%. How my colleagues laughed at The Sun’s witty Cor-bin front page yesterday. Then learned they were no longer being paid for breaks. Then voted blue. I didn’t say we were clever.
fentex
nope
Any scuttlebutt on Robert Mercer meddling in this election?
So happy to hear this news. Good on ya UK! With the US regressing, UK, Germany, France and Australia can take over and drive world progress forward.
I know It’sComplicated™
If we can use this to reverse Brexit, the nightmare will be over. Short of that, we’re still fucked. The aspiring alternatives to Theresa May are pretty awful
If you’re looking for progress or leadership from Australia you may have to wait a while – our next election is May 2019
I wouldn’t have thought I’d be so happy to see a hung Parliament. I got up early to get the results and couldn’t stop grinning at the news. May is toast. Boris will be sharpening his dagger in readiness.
There are few things as enjoyable as Tory party in-fighting. Watching them elect another incompetent is great fun.
@davem 17:
Unfortunately I don’t think there’s much chance of reversing Brexit, but at least there’s a better chance of avoiding as much of an economic crash as the Maybot seemed set on imposing upon us.
#2 -lucifersbike
UKIP may well disappear but they have left a damn sight more than a nasty smell.
Tories climbing into bed with the DUP makes the accusations of “terrorist sympathiser” thrown at Corbyn look a bit hollow.
It certainly went a bit better than I was expecting (though not quite as good as I was hoping). My own constituency also had the dubious pleasure of George Galloway running after the death of Gerald Kaufman. He came third with 2,615 votes. First place went to Labour (No surprise. It’s one of the safest seats in the country) with 35,085 votes. I’m awaiting the reaction from the alt-right that we’ve just voted in a Muslim. For reference the kippers came 6th with 952 votes.
It feels very good – like hope is no longer unthinkable. Weakening the tory grip on the UK will be good for our chances of avoiding the disaster of an ultra-hard brexit, and good for having at least the hope of avoiding the worst tory excesses domestically.
And irrespective of immediate developments, it has helped significantly with moving the Overton Window back leftwards; helping to make it thinkable and speakable to question and counter the political doctrine of austerity.
It felt like Lord Buckethead doing a dab on stage next to the Prime Minister.
https://twitter.com/LordBuckethead/status/873092191173828612
Well, that wasn’t entirely unpleasant.
I mean, I’m flabbergasted at how half the country are still willing to vote Tory, after seven years of austerity, the disaster that was Brexit, Michael Fucking Gove on Education, Jeremy Hunt (sic) trying to dismantle the NHS, Boris’s buffoonery, IDS on shafting pensioners and Theresa May on shafting asylum seekers and the Police. But sadly there are still a lot of crusty old Little Englanders, economic illiterates and dupes of the Murdochracy in this country.
As for what happens now… very difficult to say. But it’s certainly going to be better than it would have been had May achieved a parliamentary majority or, even worse, increased the slim one she had in the first place. Even if it only makes the Tories shrink back from their austerity programmes for fear of becoming even more unpopular it will have done us a sterling service. One can only hope for a coordinated front from the newly resurgent Left and to let the inevitable Tory backstabbing tarnish their brand even further.
KG:
Yikes (from 2015). It looks like gains in Scotland and a few squeaker wins allowed the Tories to hang on for the moment despite Labour’s biggest vote-share increase since 1945. Young people turned out.
Also felt a bit like a failed highfive
http://mashable.com/2017/06/09/jeremy-corbyn-emily-thornberry-awkward-high-five/#8x3tB7ILvSqd
The disparity between Millenials and Boomers is stark.
As an English man i would like to know just what Scotland is on electing so many tory MPs ,Labour increased its number of MPs ,even took seats off the tories that they have held for 100 years .
Cross-posted from Discuss: Political Madness (where I have made earlier comments on the UK election):
May is intent (*quack* *limp*) on staying in office (*limp* *quack*) with the support of the DUP – fundy Ulster Protestant bigots, basically – who she is now calling (*quack* *limp*) “our friends in the DUP”. Not an actual coalition, but the DUP will vote for her in a confidence motion. Of course, every vote for this motion (“This House has confidence in Her Majesty’s Government”) will be a lie, including May’s own. Nobody believes May will last long, although it’s possible a minority Tory administration will keep going, doing very little apart from trying to push Brexit to a conclusion, and handing out fiscal and political bribes to the DUP. The political bribes could threaten the peace process in northern Ireland, which depends on the UK government appearing to be neutral between Unionists and Nationalists – but hey, what does that signify when it’s a matter of keeping the Tories in office?
I must admit I hadn’t paid much attention to the Tory manifesto but there are some interesting points I can’t now see them trying to push through. One is a repeal of the Fixed Term Parliaments Act – which was supposed to prevent the PM calling an election whenever they wished, but completely failed at its first test – I suppose in case a future opposition has the gumption not to simply agree to whatever date the PM wants. There are a number of other measures listed at the link which would be formulated to give the Tories an electoral advantage in future elections, and which they may also have to put on the back burner. But the really big one is promising to leave the EU single market and customs union as part of Brexit. It’s by no means obvious either the DUP. or all their own MPs, will support that.
Corbyn is pretending he has some chance of forming a minority government. I’m not sure why – he has no chance at all of doing so – but in the light of his recent performance, maybe he knows what he’s doing in terms of political strategy.
Well I wish we hadn’t, but I would point out that there are 13 Tory MPs out of 59 in Scotland, and at least 296* out of 433 in England. If it was up to Scotland, there wouldn’t have been a Tory government since 1964.
*Not counting the Speaker (who doesn’t vote in Commons divisions), or the possible additional seat in Kensington, not yet decided.
Sorry – 296 out of 533 @32. Point still holds.
KG, #31
It seems to me that Corbyn is keeping his options open by refusing to rule out the possibility of forming a minority government. I expect he doesn’t want to say anything now that he would regret in future if the situation changes. Probably he has an eye on any future elections that may happen when the May bandwagon finally gives up the ghost and collapses – he wants to project the sentiment that Labour is a credible party of governance as hard as possible.
As for the DUP… they’re a very peculiar card in all of this. They’re significantly to the left of the Tories on economic issues, which would make their support on anything but their pet projects of unionism, homophobia and social regress very uncertain. Given recent upsets to Northern Irish government following the energy remissions scandal they’re not exactly in a strong position at home either, despite their extra seats at Westminster (Sinn Fein also gained a few). They’re perhaps the most rabidly anti-European party of all in British politics now, though, with the annihilation of UKIP, so having them on hand for the Brexit negotiations is just asking for trouble.
‘Saved’ by Paddy Power and a kick-boxing lesbian. They’ll get on famously. No reds voted blue north against Yes yellow. All looks strong and stable, and ready to conquer europe. Blue on blue will be fun…
@ Cartomancer but it’s not half the country voting Tory is it? Here in Hazel Grove (Stockport) 54% voted for the LibDems, Labour or the Greens. I am pissed off bcausse I held my nose and voted LibDem and too few others did, Labour got over 9,000 vote, put them with the 14,500 LibDem votes and the Tories would have lost by 3,500 votes. Feel dirty for nothing now.
“Whatever your views on the election results, pause to rejoice that Britain has elected more than 200 female MPs for the first time.”
Having the DUP in “government” will seriously challenge the situation in N.Ireland, as it explodes the polite fiction the N.Ireland Office is a neutral party.
Looking at the current Grauniad live blog, I (now) see several people have already pointed this out. One example, Tory deal with DUP could jeopardise peace process, says Blair’s former chief of staff (16:13 mark):
In addition to the pro-Brexit silliness of the DUP (contrary to how the area voted in the referendum (N.Ireland c.56% to remain)), it comes with numerous other (often-)nutty ideas, From climate denial to abortion: six DUP stances you should know about. They are already licking their chops at the stranglehold they look set to be able to exert, DUP leader vows to help bring stability to UK with Conservatives (
(Posted bind due to still not-working “Preview”.)
me@38, For feck’s sake, that should have been — SNORT!
(Also posted blind…)
In addition to all the female MPs (see @37), there will also be a record number of LGBTQ MPs:
Ms Mayhems’s new best fiends, the DUP, is notoriously anti-LGBTQ (N.Ireland does not allow same-sex marriage (and also has possibly the most restrictive abortion laws in Europe)).
(Posted blind…)
Jazzlet, #36
Okay, it’s not quite half, but 42% is still far too high given what the Tories have been doing to us over the last seven years.
As for the vote on the left being split between Labour and the Lib Dems, well, that’s been a problem for decades. The First Past the Post system we use really is an issue. Here in Somerton and Frome the combined Lib Dem and Labour vote wouldn’t quite equal the Tory vote, but in the past hardly anyone voted Labour round here and now they’re getting about two thirds of what the Lib Dems do.
I would say that the solution is for Labour and the Lib Dems to formally merge – as the Liberals and Social Democrats did in the 80s to form the Lib Dems in the first place. But I am very wary of two-party systems like the US, and feel it would be a good thing if we had several parties to choose from on both sides of the spectrum. But the Tories seem secure in their slimy oubliette on the right now that UKIP have dissolved, so until there are serious splits on the right it seems counter-productive to split the vote in this way.
Nonsense, FPTP is magnificent. And now we are to be run by the ghost of Ian Paisley. Just as the voters intended. The people have spoken.
For Americans with slightly longer memories and slightly more cynical bents, this is as if the 2000 election had been thrown into the House of Representatives, and W had been forced to seek alliance not with the national “third place” candidate, but with Pat Buchanan because he held the balance of power in an otherwise-deadlocked state (since state delegations in the event of Electoral College failure vote together, all-or-none).
But worse: Pat Buchanan was only a staff speechwriter for Nixon (not Sam on iThe West Wing, but one of Sam’s minions trusted to do first drafts of parts of speeches and provide notes), not in a leadership position. The current leadership of the DUP delegation was… more centrally involved in matters in Northern Ireland.
Theresa May’s friends:
Yes, that’s plausible. I suppose a Tory split (hard or soft Brexit?) is at least a remote possibility.
Snarks dead ahead, The PM is like a deadbeat dad who’s gambled away the housekeeping:
About the only thing missing is Yakety Sax (the Benny Hill theme).
(Posted blind…)
Yep, https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/09/jeremy-corbyn-plans-alternative-queens-speech-challenging-may:
And so on.
(Posted blind due to still not-working “Preview”.)
#42+42 Cartomancer+richardemmanuel. First Past The Post is an undemocratic disgrace.
Takes deep breath
Because of the reluctance of a sizeable chunk of Scotland to vote for the Tory alternative which would have led inevitably towards a second independence referendum for Scotland and the almost-inevitable breakup of the UK, the Tories snatched away sufficient SNP seats in Scotland giving them just enough numbers to toddle down to Buckingham palace to see the Queen about forming a regressive government propped up by Creationist bigots in Northern Ireland who now get to call the shots on their soapboxes stuffed full of pet bigotry even though the DUP have the mostly religously-born partisan support of less than 300,000 people which pales into insignificance when compared to, say, the 525,000 people across the whole of the UK who voted green yet only scored one MP leaving the 495,000 Green voters who don’t live in the centre of Brighton with no MPs at all, no-one really in a position to champion their issues, and therefore only a smug inner feeling of satisfaction that they made a pyrrhic point.
runs out of breath and slams pint down on table as though I’ve just made an important point,/i>
Yeh, so that’s why I hate FPTP.
Proportional representation is messy, yes. We’d always be dealing with partisan opinions, and some truly yucky ones like UKIP once were before they infected patient zero in the Tory party and went mainstream. But at least we would be treating partisan opinions all alike and with due weight instead of some lucky bigots in Northern Ireland holding undue influence for the next term or so.
finishes pint, looks around, but everyone’s gone home to fix FTB preview
The Grauniad is reporting: “Labour has taken the Kensington seat, the country’s richest, from the Conservatives. […]”
(“Preview” unfunctional so posting blind…)
don’t know how to quote but:
WrathPanda
9 June 2017 at 6:52 am
It certainly went a bit better than I was expecting (though not quite as good as I was hoping). My own constituency also had the dubious pleasure of George Galloway running after the death of Gerald Kaufman. He came third with 2,615 votes. First place went to Labour (No surprise. It’s one of the safest seats in the country) with 35,085 votes. I’m awaiting the reaction from the alt-right that we’ve just voted in a Muslim. For reference the kippers came 6th with 952 votes.
I had the dubious pleasure of having the fucker’s office on my street corner, I don’t think I’ve told so many people to “fuck off” for such a prolonged period.
leophoreo@50, Like this:
<blockquote>text…</blockquote>produces:
(Assuming, of course, I haven’t fecked it up — with the current not-working “Preview” it’s difficult to tell…)
like this then hopefully if I haven’t fucked it up as no preview
An interesting fact I haven’t seen talked about yet (although probably I haven’t looked in the right places): the centre and left parties represented in Parliament (Labour, Liberal Democrats, SNP, Plaid Cymru, Greens*) between them got 52.8% of the vote. Thie Tory/DUP regime in preparation has no popular mandate – it is demoratically illegitimate even though it narrowly won the election and so it will undoubtedly be the legal government – very like Trump, but even more convincingly so, because the centre and left parties’ votes . Now is the time for a “Broad Popular Front”! The Labour Party, with Corbyn at its head, has established its right to lead that broad anti-Tory coalition, but it would have to accept that it is not strong enough to defeat the Tories alone, and in practical terms, accept electoral reform.
*Strictly speaking the Greens are three allied parties (England and Wales, Scotland, northern Ireland), and only the E&W Greens are represented (by the admirable Caroline Lucas, re-elected MP for Brighton Pavilion with a 15,000+ majority), but excluding votes for the other two Green parties would only cut the total a few tenths of a percent.
Sorry – incomplete sentence @ 55. This sentence:
should read:
Of course the various anti-Tory forces have deep disagreements, over Brexit, Scottish independence, nuclear weapons … but the next two years are politically vital – if the Tories get their preferred version of Brexit through, post-Brexit UK will combine corporate power with a powerful security state. That must be prevented, by all peaceful* means.
I should say I’m not optimisitic such a BPF will happen – but the potential for it is there.
*By peaceful I don’t mean legal – civil disobedience will very likely be needed.
Theresa May’s political legacy is the date 29 March 2019.
Some broader implications of the UK election result.
It was always going to be a hung Parliament.
The beardy guy still has a chance though. Dominic Hinkins.
Dominic Hinkins@58,
Did you predict that before it happened?
#59 Corbyn is now Leader of the Labour Party and Leader of the Opposition in fact as well as in name.
Labour came second and Corbyn and Labour are the big winners (genuinely – I’m not being sarcastic, but noting the irony). May came first and is the biggest loser. The next biggest loser is the Conservative Party, and after that, the SNP and Nicola Sturgeon, who won an absolute majority of Scottish seats (but lost 21), while the big winners in Scotland are the Scottish Conservatives and leader Ruth Davidson, who came second, 10% behind the SNP. Any scriptwriter who came up with ironies as neat as those would risk being dismissed as fancifull. The Liberal Democrats gained a few seats but only reached 12, from 7% of the vote.
I’m in a small rival party (the Scottish Greens), and won’t be changing that, but only Corbyn can now head the anti-Tory struggle. He needs to reach out beyond Labour, though, in Parliament and outside. Article 50 gives us the timescale – ubefore 29 March 2019 – within which we have to stop the Tory-DUP project.
From the Graunid’s live blog, 16:55 mark.
@KG – I think they’ll be kaput long before then if we do nothing. The internal evil will triumph. I’d be impressed with 6 months. How will round 2 go? Now people can see that he can win? What would you say from up there – surely half the yellows are really reds fed up with getting blues?
Ha. It didn’t take long for a Labour MP to resume the “Corbyn is unelectable” nonsense: https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/jun/10/chris-leslie-labour-should-have-won-against-theresa-may-open-goal
richardemmanuel@62,
Given that I was quite wrong about the election outcome, I’m hesitant to predict! But the Tories will be desperate to hang on until the Brexit terms (or lack of terms) are settled – their aim is to remove any possible constraints on the corporate/security-state agenda as the UK leaves the EU. OTOH, the initiative in UK politics is now undeniably with Corbyn – twerps like Chris Leslie (see ck@63) notwithstanding. And suddenly it’s the Tories saddled with a hopeless leader most of their MPs want rid of.
To some extent – there was a poll indicating that in the event of a Tory win, 30% of Scots would be more likely to back independence. But this “Tory win” won’t do that, because there’s an obvious possibility that it won’t last. The widespread desire for independence isn’t going to go away, but the SNP and broader independence movement need to recognise independence is not coming before Brexit, and focus on maximising the powers that come to Holyrood (Scottish Parliament) rather than Westminster when it happens. Remainers, in Scotland and elsewhere, need to recognise that Brexit is almost certainly going to happen, and focus on keeping as many links as possible (single market, customs union, ECHR…) – with, even, the possibility of rejoining at some stage. (I’m pro-independence and voted Remain, but political realities must be faced.)
On the subject of Scotland, Ruth Davidson, the Scottish Tory leader, has been asserting her independence, querying the pact with the Fundies (Davidson is engaged to a woman), and indicating that she will push for a softer Brexit. Of course there will be many Tory MPs across Britain, and many of their business backers, wanting the same.
Further to #64 and Scotland, although the election dealt a serious blow to the independence movement, it emphasised once again the differences between Scottish and English politics. In the longer term, those differences will keep the independence issue alive.
KG@60, yeah, I’ve been telling people for weeks it was the likely outcome. Couldn’t understand the polling and media – they totally underestimated the youth vote. It was clear from the point record numbers registered to vote.
I think there’s an awful lot of people fed up with their votes not counting, and the simplest trick to get a one-off ‘lending’ of votes would be for JC to tack on PR as a PS. But I’ll be surprised if he’s not in by Christmas anyway. I think much earlier really.
Good point. I admit, I was pessimistic when I learned that the polls showing a close result were relying on a high youth turnout – but I’m delighted the youth proved me wrong!
richardemmanuel@67,
Are you expecting another election, or the Tories losing a confidence vote, and Corbyn subsequently winning one? (I can’t think of any other possibilities, other than a revoltioin that would put Corbyn in.) Both another election and Tory-failure + Labour-success in coinfidence votes are both possible, but I don’t think either is likely – by Christimas, at least.