[Khellendros]

Tiste Simeon, on 09 June 2017 - 10:01 AM, said:

Solidsnape, on 09 June 2017 - 09:49 AM, said:

Looks like a Conservative - DUP coalition could be set up.

Which is interesting as presumably the DUP are very anti-Brexit.

Also a lot of the Tory gains are in Scotland which means they won't be able to vote in certain things AFAIK, though that wouldn't effect the Brexit thing...

The opposite, DUP are super hard Brexiteers. So if May wanted to win more seats in order to weaken the Brexit extremists' power, she has utterly failed. Wonder what she's going to give to the DUP?


On a disappointing note in an otherwise good night, my constituency switched from Lib Dem to Conservative by forty-five votes. 45. UGH.

[Mezla PigDog]

Khellendros, on 09 June 2017 - 10:13 AM, said:

Tiste Simeon, on 09 June 2017 - 10:01 AM, said:

Solidsnape, on 09 June 2017 - 09:49 AM, said:

Looks like a Conservative - DUP coalition could be set up.

Which is interesting as presumably the DUP are very anti-Brexit.

Also a lot of the Tory gains are in Scotland which means they won't be able to vote in certain things AFAIK, though that wouldn't effect the Brexit thing...

The opposite, DUP are super hard Brexiteers. So if May wanted to win more seats in order to weaken the Brexit extremists' power, she has utterly failed. Wonder what she's going to give to the DUP?


On a disappointing note in an otherwise good night, my constituency switched from Lib Dem to Conservative by forty-five votes. 45. UGH.

45. Gutting. Mine is still massively Tory. The other votes don't even add up to their count but Labour had their biggest share ever.

[Macros]

Tiste Simeon, on 09 June 2017 - 10:01 AM, said:

Solidsnape, on 09 June 2017 - 09:49 AM, said:

Looks like a Conservative - DUP coalition could be set up.

Which is interesting as presumably the DUP are very anti-Brexit.

Also a lot of the Tory gains are in Scotland which means they won't be able to vote in certain things AFAIK, though that wouldn't effect the Brexit thing...

DUP want the hard border with the South back and are very pro Brexit and pro tory.
I'm always surprised when people are surprised the DUP will tow the line with the tories, they're unionists, they buy into all that make Britain great tory b7llshit

[Tiste Simeon]

Oh yeah I've since realised I think I was thinking of the UUP (I'm really not sure about Northern Irish politics I'm afraid...)

In fact, the more in read the less thrilled I become. They believe line dancing is a sin. That should tell you everything you need to know.

Predictions for this government? The other big Tory names are very quiet at the moment...

[QuickTidal]

On the lighter side...

You Brits have been holding out on us foreigners!

[Gorefest]

QuickTidal, on 09 June 2017 - 02:46 PM, said:

On the lighter side...

You Brits have been holding out on us foreigners!

Well, there also is or has been: the long-established Monster Raving Loony Party (their motto: "vote for insanity, you know it makes sense") who have been on the bill since 1982, Mr Fish Finger ("Hake Britain great again"), the Give me back Elmo party, the Al-Zebabist Nation of Ooog, the Church of the Militant Elvis party, and the citizens for Undead Rights and Equality party. Brits tend not to take politics too seriously.

[Tiste Simeon]

I saw one American tweeter saying "you Brits are never allowed to make fun of Americans and politics again" or words to that effect. Someone immediately replied "yeah but unlike you, we didn't vote the idiot into power."

Was a beautiful moment.

[Solidsnape]

Tiste Simeon, on 09 June 2017 - 03:35 PM, said:

I saw one American tweeter saying "you Brits are never allowed to make fun of Americans and politics again" or words to that effect. Someone immediately replied "yeah but unlike you, we didn't vote the idiot into power."

Was a beautiful moment.

This ^

[Illuyankas]

I feel bad for the student who couldn't pick between his home district and his uni one, then the one he picked the Tories took by 9000+ and the one he didn't was won by two votes

Also enjoying the people who say Labour would have won with a different leader who, when asked who this different leader would be, reply David Fucking Milliband

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Tiste Simeon, on 09 June 2017 - 03:35 PM, said:

I saw one American tweeter saying "you Brits are never allowed to make fun of Americans and politics again" or words to that effect. Someone immediately replied "yeah but unlike you, we didn't vote the idiot into power."

Was a beautiful moment.

Seems like she's trying to form a coalition with the (Northern) Irish version of... Republicans:

'It opposes same-sex marriage and is anti-abortion - abortion remains illegal in Northern Ireland, except in specific medical cases. One MP is a devout climate change denier, while a former MP once called for creationism - the belief that human life did not evolve over millions of years but was created by God - to be taught alongside evolution in science classes.'

And May is calling it 'a government of clarity'....

Will DUP have significant power to sway policy? ('It is thought Mrs May will seek some kind of informal arrangement with the DUP that could see it "lend" its support to the Tories on a vote-by-vote basis, known as "confidence and supply".') Is a (substantial) backlash expected, or do Britons not really care?

http://www.bbc.com/n...n-2017-40219030

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 09 June 2017 - 07:21 PM

[worry]

On the one hand, Trump is the worst. On the other hand, May wants to bring back fox hunting, Cameron had sex with a dead pig, and Blair is a mealy mouthed war criminal. But at least your PM isn't Boris Johnson (yet).

[WinterPhoenix]

Yeah the DUP are pretty much the most pro-Brexit party this side of Nigel Farrage, plus they run on an anti-Abortion, anti-LGBT rights agenda. The thing is though I do wonder what Theresa May has been prepared to offer them, pro-Brexit they may indeed be but it's a soft Brexit with a porous border with the Republic of Ireland that Arelene Foster has spoken for. A hard Brexit with the restriction on the freedom of movement pretty much requires a hard border with new enforcement, which could threaten the Good Friday Agreement. Not to mention that the DUP are against two of the more key policies in the Tory manifesto. Even with the 10 DUP MP's voting the same way the majority is miniscule, this government will find it difficult to push through legislation if the opposition is any kind of organised. One hopes the strength of the opposition would lead to a situation where our Brexit negotiations are not entirely run by the Conservative and Unionist Negotiating Team, but that's probably a vain hope.

Still I'm kinda loving the irony, all that time spent attacking Corbyn as a supposed terrorist sympathiser, now look at her new bedfellows! When she warned us about a coalition of chaos propped up by terrorist sympathisers, she neglected to tell us she'd be in charge.

[Werthead]

We shouldn't forget the ticking time bomb of by-elections as well, which could destroy the majority. There were 21 by-elections in the last Parliament and a similar number this time maintaining both the Labour boost and the general trend of by-elections (where votes are generally happier to "punish" the ruling party) could well push things into another election well before 2022. If that happens right in the middle of the Brexit negotiations, that'd be cataclysmic for May.

There's also that core of 15-odd Tory MPs who are very strongly anti-hard Brexit (and maybe another dozen who aren't keen on it and might vote against it if they feel confident of defeating it) who can play merry hell with this anyway. And the DUP are really not keen on the Tory social progressive agenda: if gay marriage was on the cards this time, for example, the DUP would probably shoot it down instantly.

[Macros]

DUP are a bunch of fuckwits. That unfortunately get a lot of support because my country is populated with fuckwitted people. Also if you don't want to vote republican they're currently the only option to keep sinn fein out of power, the status quo is depressing.

Most of their stances are based on 'christian' ideals (you know, the good old fashioned ones your bigoted great grandad would have loved, down with the gays and that kind of stuff)

That said, a lot of the reporting is saidensationalised, especially the climate denial, that's just Sammy Wilson, even his fellow party members admit he's a fuckwit, and it's based off a comment he once made and not any part of their policies.

I am in no way defending the DUP, in case anyone thinks I am, but trying to give a window into how such a seemingly backward party can take such a majority of the votes here. Most people here vote with their religion, and with the collapse of the upp that means dup for prods, and the collapse of the sdlp that means sinn fein for the catholics.
Independents (bar one) are generally a non runner.
They're all a fucking embarrassment most of the time, I have seen debates here where a translator is sitting between two candidates even though English is both parties FIRST LANGUAGE, because, why not, it's Northern Ireland and it's Marching Season (get your sash or bricks out!)

The upside is we're too fucked up for isis to bother with

[worry]

https://twitter.com/...231939221823488

[Tiste Simeon]

worry, on 09 June 2017 - 08:53 PM, said:

https://twitter.com/...231939221823488

That's pretty savage. Chuffed for the guy.

[Tiste Simeon]

Ooh, could one of you who knows a bit more about these things answer me this: I've heard that Sinn Fein are now saying working with the DUP beaches the Good Friday Agreement because it is the UK government taking sides.

Now I imagine the Tories will get around this by using the thing that they are not in a forensic coalition with the DUP (AFAIK is a sort of informal "we'll help you with this if you vote this way a couple of times" type deal.)

Also what might be interesting is the Tory MP's who are LGBT and how they will react to this...

[HoosierDaddy]

USA #1 for idiots in office! Yaaaaay!

So, May is aligning with an ultra-right Irish group to form her government? Sure Scotland loves that.

[Tiste Simeon]

Well the head of the Scottish Conservatives is a gay woman and she's already started vocalising a lot of concerns. As the Tories did pretty well in regaining ground from the SNP and it was largely down to her, she has a lot of clout.

I think I even saw something about her forming a splinter group in Scotland but that is likely just pure conjecture.

[Macros]

its just sinn fein showboating, they are pushing to get stormont moving again quickly because they're terrified of the power the DUP could potentially have as the Tories majority holders. DUP naturally hold the reigns here and are in no mood to offer Sinn Fein any compromises to get power sharing back up and running

If the Sinners would go and sit in westminster they would be in a position to offer such leverage but they won't and so don't. Re- the GFA - so long as it's not billed as an outright coalition it doesn't touch the GFA as it will be the DUP voting in westminster as they see fit, that it happens to coincide with what the tories want is "happenstance", their likely loggerheads over the issues of abortion and gay rights will prove this and take any sting from Sinn Feins claims.

if Sinn Fein walk on the GFA because of this it will cripple them and put the SDLP back on the map as well as cementing the DUPs position as the pre-eminent unionist party, would be a ridiculously stupid move, all noise for the media