Heartland

So as an American I've never really understood the coalition alignments in a parliamentary system. How much clout does it give the DUP that the Torys were dependent on them to stay in power? And is the DUP the political wing of the Protestant terrorists?

Do the results weaken the Torys? Or is it just business as usual?

And can the queen really not allow the coalition?

EPWB, To try and answer your queries, IMHO...

In theory the Queen could refuse assent to laws and so paralyse a government, but I cannot see this ever happening.

The DUP, although viewed as the more extreme of the the two traditional unionist parties, are not the political wing of loyalist terrorists. They have risen in popularity as the UUP has slid into obscurity after the Good Friday agreement.

Doubtless the DUP will be able to extract some favours from a Tory lead UK government, probably in terms of an increased budget provision for Northern Ireland. Both them and the Tory's will have to be careful though because the Northern Irish assembly still needs sorting out and any whiff of conspiracy between them will backfire tremendously.

Historically the Tory's are the Conservative and Unionist party, so, as mainstream UK parties do not field candidates in Northern Ireland, the traditional old unionist parties are their natural bedfellows, just as the SDLP were with Labour. Being an Englishman, but with Irish blood in me, I have always found this strange. I often thought that perhaps the UK mainstream parties standing there could have helped break the sectarian element to NI politics.

I rather suspect that (in the past) had the Labour and Tory parties stood in NI then a large proportion of the vote would have been split along sectarian lines anyway, and now the system is too entrenched to overturn.

While technically the DUP are not the "political wing" of any of the Loyalist paramilitaries, there are pretty undeniable links between the DUP and the UDA.

Both parties but mostly the Tories at best ignored or at worst encouraged the excesses of mostly gerrymandered Unionist domination pre-Troubles and then both parties generally inept handling of the Troubles I guess entrenched the sectarianism that is never far from the surface with us lot over here.

Swinnow wrote:In theory the Queen could refuse assent to laws and so paralyse a government, but I cannot see this ever happening.

It would probably trigger a constitutional crisis and possibly an abdication. Did you watch that Charles III play that was on telly the other week?

So from a lefty perspective is the U.K. better off post vote?
Will May step down? If so who becomes the new PM? And would they be more or less appealing to the middle of the road voters than May?

So many questions, sorry.

Don't know.
Don't know.
Don't know.
Don't know.

Hope that helps

Serious answers:
1) probably - May will struggle to force any legislation through with an effective majority of 5
2) probably - Boris Johnson is probably already sharpening his knife
3) Whoever wins a Tory Leadership election - again probably Johnson - but maybe not
4) Johnson is a populist, but not necessarily popular. I think he'll actually lurch to the right. Hard to tell at this stage.

Who knows?
I doubt May will be around for too long. The Tory's might let her stay through Brexit, then when things get more and more messy for them, they can use her as a scapegoat, get rid of her and blame the whole mess on her, then put someone else in ready for the next election.

If the next 6 months goes really bad for them, we'll probably be back at the polling booths again before the year is out!

My answers:

1) we still have a Tory lead government insistent on brexit, so no, we're not better off

2) May won't step down, but the Tory's will remove her before Christmas

3) probably the laughing stock that is Boris Johnson, I bet George Osbourne is now kicking himself.

4) Johnson will be popular with our S*n and Mail reading masses

A lurch to the right seems inevitable from the Tory's, God help us

EmmaPeelWannaBe wrote:So from a lefty perspective is the U.K. better off post vote?
Will May step down? If so who becomes the new PM? And would they be more or less appealing to the middle of the road voters than May?

So many questions, sorry.

There's a really good set of guidelines as to what will happen over the next week or so here

Bottom line is that if her plan, which will be in queenie Lizardbreath's speech on 19th, is given a vote of no confidence, she'll be forced to step down & the leader of the opposition will then take over.

markfiend wrote:Did you watch that Charles III play that was on telly the other week?

Yeah, I enjoyed it, despite the acting lol, with a fine bottle of Malbec 🍷

EmmaPeelWannaBe wrote:So from a lefty perspective is the U.K. better off post vote?

yes, if for no other reason than we now have a credible opposition party, with proper "old-labour" socialist values....for the first time since John Smith died.

At 4am this morning I was thinking that maybe Sinn Fein might break tradition and take up their seats. I understand their reasoning for not doing so but thought this might be the time for them to do so.

That would have made things even more crazy

Pista wrote:
There's a really good set of guidelines as to what will happen over the next week or so here

Bottom line is that if her plan, which will be in queenie Lizardbreath's speech on 19th, is given a vote of no confidence, she'll be forced to step down & the leader of the opposition will then take over.

is a vote of no confidence likely?

EmmaPeelWannaBe wrote:

Pista wrote:
There's a really good set of guidelines as to what will happen over the next week or so here

Bottom line is that if her plan, which will be in queenie Lizardbreath's speech on 19th, is given a vote of no confidence, she'll be forced to step down & the leader of the opposition will then take over.

is a vote of no confidence likely?

It's hard to tell really. Seems quite a few Tories are pretty p!ssed off with her after the campaign & could end up rebelling. So anything's possible.

Depends on the agreement they reach with the DUP, it could easily collapse. Mind you, any Lab-Lib-SNP agreement is potentially explosive too. Another election within a year probably.

I'll keep my fingers cross for you. And hope you're at least seeing some good memes about the result.

Well at least Jeremy Corbyn's having a good time.
It's happened to us all right?

Largest party. Largest vote share. People have spoken. Mandate.*



*NB terms and conditions apply. Offer not available in Scotland.

Oh don't get me started on devolution as well, four countries and four different solutions, that's another horror show to place alongside brexit. I'm in favour of it in principle but how on earth did we end up with this dog's dinner? Can any of our politicians organise a party in a brothel????

Abridged: DUP. Eeeew gross. Just gross.

Charlie: Lol!

I feel for you all. 2017 is set to be extremely chaotic. But it's so delicious to see how rattled May and the rest of the Tory vipers really are. Schadenfreude, most definitely, for a year of bull-s**t rhetoric. And it's uplifting to see that people got off their asses to do something about them.

Pat wrote:

... ... although the mess should have doubled after the election date ...

Still, I'm very pleased to see that May received a lovely cold shower from Britisch voters ... ...

* Really wishing we manage something similar (or even better) in Germany in September ... but the chances are low ...

https://twitter.com/theresa_may/status/ ... 8454806529

Theresa May wrote:If I lose just six seats I will lose this election and Jeremy Corbyn will be sitting down to negotiate with Europe

She lost twelve seats. So she should keep to her word (:lol:) and fcuk off.