"Revoked" or "invoked"? In any event, I think the chances of Teresa May being soundly defeated in this election is not that much higher than the chances of Le Pen having soundly defeated Macron on the French election

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In gratitude forever … .

People haven't been paying much attention to the upcoming U.K. election because it was looking like a fait accompli, but Corbyn has surprising momentum. May's decision to call an election when the Conservatives already had a majority is starting to look questionable.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_Kingdom_general_election%2C_2017#Opinion_polling

Interesting!

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In gratitude forever … .

Ouch

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*title copyright: Teremia

'You just said "your getting shorter": you've obviously been drinking too much ent-draught and not enough Prim's.' - Jude

Something else I find particularly interesting is that the Labour vote has increased significantly as the UKIP vote has declined by around the same amount. That the UKIP vote is declining is not surprising - the party was formed to get the U.K. out of the E.U., and it achieved its purpose last year. But where are the UKIP voters actually going? Are they going to the Conservatives, while the Conservatives are bleeding a similar number of voters to Labour? Or are they going directly to Jeremy Corbyn's Labour Party?

This might lend some credence to the idea that there is what I've heard described as the "random pissed-off vote": people who do not have particularly strong ideological preferences but give their support to those candidates whom they see as being unacceptable to the establishment. To people who do have clearly-defined ideological positions, going from the right-wing Farage to the left-wing Corbyn without changing your own views would seem odd. But there are people who vote based on other things.

Of course, I could be wrong, and the shift might be largely due to a UKIP-Conservative-Labour move of voters.

We saw some of that in the U.S. election as well, in the other direction, with some Sanders voters voting for Trump (maybe enough to turn the election in his favor).

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In gratitude forever … .

Looks like the latest polls have the Conservatives just a couple of points ahead of Labour. What effect is the recent terror attack likely to have on the election. And will Trump's incredibly ridiculous tweets about London mayor Sadiq Khan likely have any effect?

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In gratitude forever … .

Redundant phrase is redundant.

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I wanna love somebody but I don't know how
I wanna throw my body in the river and drown
-The Decemberists

Even by his standards, Trump's tweets about Khan were particularly incredibly ridiculous.

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In gratitude forever … .

It appears that the Conservatives are likely to lose their majority, resulting in chaotic uncertainty.

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In gratitude forever … .

Can we get Trump to call an election?

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“I am not so blind that I can't see darkness.”
Dangerous Beans
Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

It appears that despite losing their majority, the Conservatives will be able to form a new government in alliance with Northern Ireland's Democratic Unionist Party, who are very conservative, oppose same sex marriage, and are reputedly climate change deniers. Though they only have ten seats in parliament, they will essentially be able to hold the Conservatives hostage on legislation.

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In gratitude forever … .

After reading their manifesto, I don't understand why Lord Buckethead did not get more votes.

https://twitter.com/scottbix/status/873 ... 45794?s=09

The solution to nuclear weapons is particularly brilliant. Who's going to know, indeed.

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“I am not so blind that I can't see darkness.”
Dangerous Beans
Terry Pratchett, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

This relationship does run both ways. For the DUP, the alternative to supporting the Conservatives is bringing down the Government, forcing an election and making a Corbyn Labour Government increasingly likely. The Conservatives will need the DUP, but the DUP will also need the Conservatives. I certainly wouldn't want to be in Theresa May's position, but the arrangement could be stable.

Of course, the Conservatives and DUP have only 327 seats between them. Given that Sinn Fein don't take their seats the effective number of seats needed to control the House of Commons is 322. So the Government is exceptionally vulnerable to losing seats through by-elections (US: special elections) - six losses would be enough to allow the other parties to bring down the Government.

May's calling an election in 2017 will certainly go down as a political blunder for the ages.

This is horrible - heads are going to roll over this!

http://www.ctvnews.ca/world/anger-erupt ... -1.3461962

The resident's council had been complaining since 2013 about inadequate fire protection for the building - dangerous power surges, emergency vehicle parking being blocked, obsolete, non-functioning emergency lighting, and outdated fire equipment that had not been inspected in many years.

The cladding that was recently installed on the building is one that is banned in the U.S., and it seems to have been a major factor in the fire's spread:

http://www.cbc.ca/news/world/london-fir ... -1.4163560

May is taking a lot of flack, because she refused to meet with survivors due to 'security reasons', while Britain's 91 year old monarch, and her grandson weren't afraid to visit with them:



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06 ... residents/

A more expensive, fire-resistant type of cladding would have cost only an estimated $10,000 more, and the installation of sprinklers would likely have prevented the fire from spreading at all. The government is being blamed for ignoring warning, and sitting on reports about the dangers. The area is one of the poorest in the city, and the building was designated as public housing. Residents are saying that's one of the reasons nothing was done: the government doesn't care about the poor.

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When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.

Scroll down to hear what former fire minister and lawyer Aamer Anwar has to say about the fire. He pulls no punches!

(This is not a YouTube video, so I cannot embed it.)

"This should be a criminal investigation."

http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2017/06/1 ... -language/

I have posted a much longer version of the video on my FB page, but cannot get it to embed here, either.


The anger at May is continuing to grow, and many are calling for her resignation.

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When the night has been too lonely, and the road has been too long,
And you think that love is only for the lucky and the strong,
Just remember in the winter far beneath the bitter snows,
Lies the seed, that with the sun's love, in the spring becomes The Rose.

Unless the Mayhem is very anodyne with her policies she will not last 6 months.

The idea that the alliance with the DUP, which historically has ha links with protestant terrorism, will offer stability I don't buy.

The manifesto of the DUP was anti-austerity so it will be interesting to see how they respond to the anti-austerity amendments that the Labour party are planning to make to the Queens speech, do they ditch their manifesto, or do they vote against the Queens speech. A vote against the Queens speech is as good as a vote of no-confidence.

It is true that the DUP would not like a Corbyn Govt, but in Britain the Tories are as pro-inclusion as Labour (unless of course you are poor), so it will be interesting to monitor the response of the many homosexual Tory party MP's as well as those who belong to the Catholic church. A former leader accussed the "Bishop of Rome of being the anti-Christ.

When is so wonderful is that so many people have voted and called the Tories out, despite all the lies of the press and the TV companies, BBC included, a large proportion of the British public have rejected austerity, xenophobia and the self-serving meaness. They have responded to a set of proposals which will consign the neo-liberal dogma to the waste-paper basket. I feel happy about living here again.

A recent survey by YouGov. the Tories favourite polling company has come out with some interesting numbers, the only 2 demographics where the tories have a majority, are the elderly and those with low educational attainment.

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Since 1410 most Welsh people most of the time have abandoned any idea of independence as unthinkable. But since 1410 most Welsh people, at some time or another, if only in some secret corner of the mind, have been "out with Owain and his barefoot scrubs." For the Welsh mind is still haunted by it's lightning-flash vision of a people that was free.

Gwyn A. Williams,

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Since 1410 most Welsh people most of the time have abandoned any idea of independence as unthinkable. But since 1410 most Welsh people, at some time or another, if only in some secret corner of the mind, have been "out with Owain and his barefoot scrubs." For the Welsh mind is still haunted by it's lightning-flash vision of a people that was free.

Gwyn A. Williams,

(That's from the same bloke as the Donald Trump/Game of Thrones parody by the way)

ok a talented guy.

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Since 1410 most Welsh people most of the time have abandoned any idea of independence as unthinkable. But since 1410 most Welsh people, at some time or another, if only in some secret corner of the mind, have been "out with Owain and his barefoot scrubs." For the Welsh mind is still haunted by it's lightning-flash vision of a people that was free.

Gwyn A. Williams,