There could be an arguement that this us a huge waste of money, (for those 13 cowards).

I don't know, is May doing this to solidify her leadership? ie get a mandate from the people (having only taken over with a promise to trigger article 50, as the people suggested in the referendum). Or is there something wrong with the party/parliment that she feels she needs to fix?

Glad to hear you can have elections after less than five years. But i suspect it will push back towards a two-party state, largely due to one of the worst election system you can have (first past the post). Ok, not paying attention to the US, but really, whi thinks they have democracy any more...

See CGP Grey's analysis of voting systems for details.

I don't follow English politics too much, but wasn't the reason behind the rush vote to try and solidify the Brexit vote?

There are quite a lot of reasons for the election. There have been mutterings from a number of people that May has a weak mandate as no one imagined her as Prime Minister when they last voted. There have been fears that, as the next election was due straight after negotiations with the EU were meant to have reached a conclusion, that EU negotiators would be tempted to draw the negotiations out to cause chaos and weaken our position. The small Tory majority means that as things stand a handful of Tory rebels can have enormous influence and push us in directions the government don't want. The Lords have been arguing strongly against Brexit, and a strong public vote for a Party with a Brexit manifesto would convince a lot of them that Brexit is inevitable. It likely gets rid of Corbyn and, although him being such a poor leader has its advantages, ultimately it's bad for democracy and I think Theresa May genuinely dislikes him.

Plenty of other reasons too, and a fair few reasons not to. I think the narrative that in Theresa's mental spreadsheet the balance has recently tilted in favour of it is about right.

Also the Lib Dems are strongly anti-Brexit. Moreso than Labour has been. Trying to kill them off from their seats would also be good for morale. But, obviously, that's not a result I want, even though I'm American and can't vote over in the U.K. due to me not being British and all that.

(And the way the SNP want to spin Brexit is something May wants to avoid.)

@ TrPrado

I'd be extremely surprised if if the Lib Dems lost any more seats. I don't reckon anyone in politics is expecting anything from them other than a revival of sorts. The SNP may lose a couple of seats, but no one imagines that their stranglehold in Scotland will be threatened either.

Very unlikely, yes, but also very appealing to Conservatives.

Speaking as a Conservative, I'd say no. Well, giving the SNP a bloody nose is appealing. Killing off the Lib Dems isn't.

I have heard the SNP is not doing too well in Scotland, not sure whether they will get all the seats they took after the referendum (despite losing the refefendum, i think perhaps pushing for a second referendum will hurt the SNP a lot in the national election - though what happens in the Scottish election matters a lot for them, they don't hold a majority in Holyrood).

Interesting to see.

My predictions, Cons gain a larger majority, Lab lose seats, Lib dems more or less stable, SNP lose out, UKIP lose out, Northern Irish politics remains the status wuo for Northern Ireland, Green Party fails to see any gains, same with Welsh national party.

The SNP have 56 of the 59 MP's in Scotland. It's pretty much a foregone conclusion that they'll lose from such a high watermark. It'd hardly be that damaging for them if they did.

What is interesting is that in the meantime, the Scottish Conservatives have surpassed Scottish Labour to become the second party there. So the SNP seats that fall are likely to fall to the Conservatives and not to Labour - and given May's stance on IndyRef2 - the more Scottish Conservative MP's and votes, the more solid her position of vetoing a referendum looks.

Furthermore, as a result of the UK election moving forwards, the Scottish Assembly election will move from 2021 to 2020 (as it was going to be delayed by a year to avoid a clash with the UK Election, but that's no longer the case). Given that Brexit won't happen til 2019, and any IndyRef won't clash with a Scottish Assembly Election, that gives May another year before IndyRef2 can realistically be called - so it's now 2021 at the earliest. And the 2020 Scottish Assembly election can be fought on an IndyRef basis - meaning the SNP might lose their majority up there (it's already only a majority with the backing of the also pro-Indy Scottish Greens).

TrPrado: Thanks. So SDLP was the only party to vote no. Interesting.

Only one SDLP MP voted no. No party did.

"SDLP Leader Colum Eastwood has said that the British Prime Minister’s rush to call a snap Westminster election reflects the disdain she holds for Northern Ireland and attempts to restore power sharing government here."
http://www.sdlp.ie/news/2017/mays-rush-to-election-reflects-disdain-for-north/

Hellenic Riot: What are the "Tellers"? Both of the "Tellers" for the "Noes" were SDLP too. That makes all three SDLP MP's.

Octavious: I was partly joking by calling them cowards.

Y can't Lords in the House of Lords vote in the Snap Election, or is it just the non-hereditary ones ?

bump

WHO the F cares about European Elections! the whole content can just sink into the sea starting with holland

Media polls: French 'Likely' vote to hurt May, Brexit; whither future stay-at-homes ??

if le pen wins france leaves the EU and it will collapse. france is saved and it gives other nations a chance to save themselves. le pen could pull off a trump like victory. especially with the LGBT community loving her. and the disliked president of france threw his support behind macron

@Capt Brad, go find your own thread to whinge about. If you don't like the topic you're free to mute this thread.

ortho are you building your wall to keep out deplorables again?

*muted*

you probably want to take some of my "D's" to pay for it too. Ortho says: MDGA! Make Diplomacy Great Again

MDGA Make Documents Genealogical A --- wtf ?

Busy fighting local elections at the moment, so will comment fully later.

May's reasons for snap election are bizarre IMHO. She is an unelected PM accusing the unelected Lords of trying to sabotage Brexit. They're not, but even if they were then where are the proposals to reform the house of Lords. She accuses the opposition of opposing her, which is their job and she wants an increased mandate. Brexit has a 52% mandate. She is never going to get much above 40% even if she wins a landslide. She just wants to cripple Labour but many will see Labour loss and Corbyn standing down as being the start of Labour's renewal.

Strange times.

#voteGreen

What's the downside? If May retains power (very likely), she is now an ELECTED PM. Cameron was against Brexit, so it was not really a Tories' issue. By running on Brexit, May can make it a Tories issue.

I like the way Maniac criticises May for calling an election and criticises her for being an unelected leader in the same paragraph :p

#SplitTheLeft #voteGreen

She's a self-serving, cynical opportunist who has called this election at a time which significantly affects smaller parties' ability to contest it - given that they'll just have been putting what resources they have into local election campaigns.

The Tories want people to think a vote for a party led by Mrs May is a vote for stability and strong leadership. It isn't. She's an incompetent coward who breaks her own promises and was "leading" Britain into negotiations with the EU from a position of weakness made worse by her attempts at bullish posturing.

Stable? Trustworthy? Mrs May repeatedly assured the public that she would not "throw the nation into uncertainty" by calling an "opportunistic snap general election" before 2020... and then she did exactly that.

Then, she tried to justify her self-serving opportunism by claiming that the opposition parties had been blocking Brexit. She's a liar. Really, it's just an outright lie. It wasn't even, in the words of Tory-lover Octavious, who loves a good liar as long as they're on his team, "in the general direction of the truth". The truth is that 2/3 of MPs, including opposition MPs, voted in favour of Article 50 (many of them against the wishes of the majority of their own constituents). Mrs May's entire justification for the snap election is a complete lie.

She's made an opportunistic U-turn and can't even tell the truth when trying to justify it.

Now she's even too cowardly to take part in a TV debate with the other leaders. Shameful.