British Politics Thread

You could just as easily argue that supporting Israel is Islamophobic.

Labour in coalition with Plaid has happened before, as has Labour functioning as a minority government. Wales doesn't consider either unusual. Here are the four assemblies we've had:

1. Labour largest party, but minority government, so coalition formed between Labour & Lib Dems
2. Labour largest party, majority government, but only just (bang on the nose of 30 seats), governs alone.
3. Labour largest party, but minority government, so coalition formed between Labour & Plaid Cymru, but only after Rainbow Coalition talks break down (Plaid/Lib Dem/Tory government)
4. Labour largest party, majority government, but only just (bang on the nose of 30 seats), governs alone.

Notice the pattern? This week's election is in the 'minority government so coalition' part of the cycle.

It's also 'normal' for Plaid to be the second party. The Tories became the second party only in the 2011 election, for the first time, and they weren't very far ahead of Plaid.

edited 3rd May '16 2:49:59 PM by Wyldchyld

@Finkelstein article: if joking about transferring Israel to the USA is fine, then so should be joking about transferring the Palestinians into Jordan. I doubt he'd like that, would he?

If Tories wrote children's books...

I suppose that would depend on whether he was a Palestinian Jordan who knew there was a history of jokes about Palestine being a state of Jordan due to how much Palestinian support Jordan historically has?

That seems to be why he said that the map is considered humorous in the US, at any rate.

I can see why it's considered a joke, that's not the problem. It's a massively unfunny joke made in bad taste about a serious subject.

Well, I'm not American, so I'm just going to have to take an American's word for it that there's a place for humour like that within America (although I was surprised when he claimed that American politicians could get away with making those kinds of jokes). It's not like Israel is the only '51st state' joke - the UK and Canada get those jokes, too, albeit each one tailored slightly differently for each nation's individual history.

edited 3rd May '16 4:31:09 PM by Wyldchyld

Thing is the joke isn't aimed at Americans, the joke is aimed at Israelis, it's up to them if it's a funny non-offensive joke.

I got the impression it was aimed at several groups of people if it originally appeared on the website of an American Jewish man who studies Palestinian/Israeli conflict, but that's just me. Really, the motive that matters here is why the MP retweeted it, which only she would know.

Anyway, I suppose I better go to bed so that I can be up early tomorrow to vote before work. Joy.

edited 4th May '16 3:37:51 PM by Wyldchyld

Voted. The PCC voting is being done at the same time - which a lot of people didn't know until yesterday. There's been a mixture of anger and lack of interest over the PCC voting being on the same day as the devolved elections.

At two different polling stations, I heard a number of people saying they intended to put a blank form into the ballot box. That seemed to be the general attitude at my place of work as well. People were willing to turn up to vote for the election, but not for the PCC. It'll be interesting to see what the turn out is this time - and what the number of spoiled or unusable ballot forms are.

@Wyldchyld: So it's the Conservatives' turn to join Labour in coalition?

edited 5th May '16 1:00:52 PM by Ramidel

• has heart attack*

Well I've voted, only got PCC in my local (forgot to move my registration from Kent to London), but I've voted, which beats the last PCC election, where I got my postal vote and cared so little about PCC that I didn't even send it off.

Morning everyone!

First result of the evening is in in Scotland, the Lib Dems have won Orkney with about 3/4 of the votes. Almost every other vote went SNP.

As I've said before, you could polish a turd and the Orkney Islanders would vote for it as long as you pinned a Lib Dem ribbon to it, so this is not a surprise in the slightest. Shetland is coming up soon as well and will go the same way. Highlands and Islands likewise.

This is what I've just posted on Facebook:

After 5 hours or so of attempting to sleep right after work in order to pull an all nighter to see the election results come in, I've finally given up on that. At least I've got tomorrow off.

Hope you all voted, or at least turned up at the ballot box to spoil your paper. Doesn't matter who you voted for, long as you were there. It's a fundamental right that we are very, very lucky to have - in centuries to come, we'll be considered among the first to have it, and we are the first for the devolved Scottish/Welsh parliaments. Even better - unlike the US, we don't have ridiculous ID requirements that disenfranchise the working poor while not solving the (all but non-existant) problem of voter fraud.

For my own part, my status as a European federalist who wants a United States of Europe, there were three parties I could realistically vote for. As it happened, only the big three parties and the Lib Dems fielded candidates in my area (sorry Matthew, the truth hurts), which meant I didn't need to decide whether to favour ethics or pragmatism with my main vote. Pragmatism won by default and I obviously voted SNP. It was pretty much a coin flip for Greens or Rise for my list vote, and I went for Greens.

For what it's worth, while I've nothing against tactical voting, personally I think it's better to vote for a party that fits at least somewhat with your conscience, rather than voting only to exclude another party. And I can say that I'm happy with my vote, even if from a purely ethical perspective I'd have gone Green/Rise main, SNP list. That wasn't an option anyway, and regardless of the tactical implications I still wanted to support one of the other two, so I was never going both votes for any party, so I'm comfortable with my decision.

Regardless of the result tonight though, I feel a more significant battle awaits in a month's time, with the European referendum. Hopefully pro-European parties will be elected tonight, but the referendum result is still very much up in the air.

Donald Trump backs Brexit, saying UK would be 'better off' without EU.

Well to be fair we knew that was coming. Can't have him agreeing with Barry on stuff.

Brief update from last night.

Scotland: SNP largest but no majority, Tories second and Labour third, Lid Dems fifth with no change behind the Scottish Greens. Look I get that Scottish Labour are assholes, but that's no excuse for the Tories gaining 16 seats.

Wales: Labour at 29 so could go for a minority government, PC in second with 11 seats UKIP pulling in 4th with 6, Welsh Lib Dems down to one seat.

No word yet on London and England is far from done counting, likewise no word on NI.

shit, have Labour lost seats? update: Epsom and Ewell continues to elect blue shit on a stick

Epsom and Ewell, where I live, would vote Tory if they put a literal shit on a stick, and since our current MP is an open homophobe...

We're down one seat in Wales and thirteen in Scotland (SNP down six and the Tories up sixteen).

I'll post England results once we have them in full and not before, the numbers keep shifting and there's no point in posting half the results.

Still nothing on London or NI.

THE RELENTLESS ADVANCE OF CONSERVATISM CONTINUES IN SCOTLAND - TORIES GAIN 31 SEATS, NOW SECOND LARGEST PARTY

I still have no idea why Labour is doing so bad in Scotland. They lean enough left,but I guess that's what the SNP is for.

And it can't be because they backed IN, otherwise the Tory's wouldn't be growing there either.

edited 6th May '16 3:48:44 AM by Woodywoo01

It's their attitude rather than their policies - they are extremely entitled and self-important up here, even Silas might admit to that. I was a Lib Dem voter in 2005 who wanted a new party to vote for after their betrayal in joining with the Tories - Labour assumed I'd vote for them, the SNP encouraged me to. It was the SNP who reached out to disaffected young left-wingers like me, told me what a difference they'd make to my life. Labour just arrogantly said "well we're not the Tories, obviously you're voting for us!".

Scottish voters are highly vindictive it has to be said, too; the Lib Dems lost every single mainland seat in 2011, and Labour have been punished for their failings this time around. Even their leader - Kezia Dugdale - lost by 5000 votes.

I've never bought this idea that there's no right wingers in Scotland, they're just the type to keep quiet because young vocal left wingers tear seven shades of shite out of them every time they try and speak up. Last night has been a backlash from such voters.

At the same time though, Sturgeon has been affimed as First Minister, so there's a lot of positives to take from this.

Election news from my area:

Cambridge: Labour strengthen their hold with the Lib Dems making gains. Conservatives are wiped out.

Peterborough: Conservatives gain from No Overall Control but this is mostly due to boundary changes apparently.

South Cambridgeshire: Conservative hold but Lib Dems make gains.

My own constituency of Huntingdonshire is yet to declare but should stay Conservative, the big question is how the Lib Dems do as they were always the second party here.

edited 6th May '16 4:26:13 AM by SebastianGray