Looks like the UK is heading to polls on the 8th June for a snap election as the PM has called for a snap election. Parlimanet just has to approve it by 2/3rds majority according to the Fixed Term Parliament act but what opposition party wouldn't vote for a chance to get into power?
Unfortunately/fortunately depending on your point of view it'll probably just mean at least another two years of Tory rule.
I was just on Reddit, and the consensus there (and they're mostly lefties, mind you) is that the Tories will shoo it in, because Corbyn is, and I'm generalising, a generally hateful prick, useless politician, and crap. Why? No one's really explained to us foreigners why Corbyn is so hated. We know his shadow cabinet can't stand him, but the rank and file love him and keep him in. What's he doing wrong? Genuinely curious.
Corbyn spent years in Parliament being utterly disloyal to the Labour Party leadership and yet once he became leader there was a push for loyalty contracts and MP's who didn't support him have been threatened with deselction. His vote into the leadership was considerably help by elements of the extreme left using a cheap membership scheme to vote for him. He's nowhere near that popular among long term party members. His supporters also refuse to see any flaws, everything is a right wing/media conspiracy against him. Despite the Labour Party (and Labour voters) being pro Remain he clearly wanted Brexit and essentially sabotaged the Remain campaign. He followed that up by demanding Article 50 was triggered immediately after the referendum vote. He's essentially a protest politician who has no idea how to run a national campaign or operate as leader in the House Of Commons. His performances at Prime Ministers question time have been usually poor - failing to press May or Cameron on anything important. He makes his hatred of the media all to clear and avoids them as much as possible, preferring rallies of supporters. None of which helps get his policies, such as they are, across to the wider population.
Yeap, just horrible we seem to have no real opposition to the Tories at the moment, no doubt why they are happy to do this now, almost a sure bet.
If many of his own (Corbyn) MP's don't support him why should the electorate? Not to mention when people are asked who would make the Best PM, May or Corbyn, Corbyn trails well behind May. But at least we only have 6 weeks of electioneering.
The Tories are 21% ahead of Labour -- they'd be daft not to go for it -- especially as Corbyn appears to agree it's a great idea.
Jeremy is a socialist and most of the MP's aren't. The Labour party membership are still mainly socialists and the party is at war with itself. Socialism is toxic to the electorate in general who don't realise that what now passes for the centre ground was not all that long ago the area occupied by the right wing of the Conservative party. They view Corbyn with the same sort of affection as they would a revolutionary communist.
https://www.theguardian.com/politic...es-hinder-labour-chances-of-winning-coalition And if the survey in that above link is correct most Brits place themsleves a in the cente ground of UK politics with perhaps also a very slight edge towards centre-right over centre-left. And Labour is often seen as a left wing party it makes their task harder.
UK politics has been almost like the soft drinks war. Tory are Coke. People just continue to go to them, i have no idea why, have you seen what it does to a penny. lol Labour are New Pepsi, Long gone now is the old Pepsi we all liked. Lib Dems are sugar free lemonade. There were full sugar cloudy lemonade, but after the coalition they went weak. Ukip are Ginger beer. Nasty horrible stuff that give you gas from both ends. SNP are Iron Bru. Well obviously. And all the other parties are non brand names that you will occasionally have a look at but decided to to go with what you are use to. lol Don't take offence, just some humor.
And lucky me I live in a marginal seat( what I suppose our US cousins would call a swing state)which was won by only 1265 votes at he last election.
^^Oh you missed a trick there, as MacLeod you should have stated "They can be only 1......................265". lol
Simples really, she'll have to call one at some point, the timing is tactical in that they'll almost certainly win. Essentially the issues around Corbyn boil down to his inflexibility and his lack of polish. He spent years as a protester, campaigner and eventually somewhat out of touch back bencher. In many ways elements of the labour membership (myself included) admire his hard and fast adherence to socialist principles and support of trade unions and they are the reason he remains in the leadership role. Unlike the tories (whose MPs select a leader amongst their number) the labour party essentially run a mini democracy amongst the paying party members, many of whom are trade unionists (me), left leaning intellectuals (sort of me after a fashion) and students (once upon a time....oh never mind). This means that the rank and file MPs can in theory be saddled with a leader whom they would not choose. Their main concerns really are that he struggles in a number of key areas, revolving most notably his ability to garner public support outside of the core membership. He lacks the professional appearance, does not engage even remotely with spin doctors or image consultants (often turning up to official engagements wearing second hand corduroys and sandals and sporting unbrushed hair whilst claiming parliament is not a catwalk) , struggles with his presentation skills when dealing with the press (mumbling, ignoring journalists, failing to make eye contact, refusing to play the "soundbite game") and stands firm on some fairly unpopular or even politically suicidal policies (unilateral nuclear disarmament) on ideological grounds. He is a man of ideals and few would question that, what they doubt is that he is competent to deliver on those ideals, whether he could in fact lead a country, regardless of how earnest his beliefs may be. His lack of basic social skills or charisma plus the almost draconian approach he has to running the shadow cabinet have made him unpopular with his colleagues, with them allegedly drunkenly taunting him to his face at parties, chanting "back in the USSR" until he leaves in frustration, which obviously is divisive and fractious within any working environment. Theresa May on the other hand is riding the populist wave on the back of being the great Brexit mastermind (despite having voted against), runs an extremely professional PR set up and knows full well her current ratings are more than sufficient to sail in. As the Lib Dems are currently pretty much a non entity in British politics following the disastrous coalition government it's hard to see this not being a tory landslide and May knows this all too well.
That's the big one, if polls are to be believed most people don't see has a PM material, and I think the previous Labour Leader had the same issue. And whilst Labour might be more trusted on some key issues like the NHS is that enough to win? Secondly as I posed above most voters place themselves in the centre on the political spectrum and Labour might be viewed as too left wing so that could hurt their chances. As for the polls being wrong sure they could be wrong but one thing to consider is that in previous have tended to underestimate Tory support the so called "shy tory factor" witness the 2015 election which most polls predicted a Hung Parliament albeit with the tories having most seats. Now unless the polls are widely out I think we are heading for another Conservative victory. We also had a by-election recently were the Tories gained a seat from Labour the first time a governening party had gained a seat at a by-election since 1982 a seat which Labour had held since 1935 My Prediction Tories 344 Labour 215 SNP 57 Lib Dems 11
Thanks for the replies, everyone. So, Corbyn does as little as possible to appeal to the people who can put him in. Being a contrarian is all very well, but at some point it starts to harm you, and he seems to be well past that.
Essentially yes, although just possibly he's conserving what support he has by not selling out.......