Britain at a crossroads - United Kingdom general election June 8 2017

{{ You are right about Abbott- she is a great mystery of British politics to me, self serving, egocentric, media luvvie, and completely and utterly incompetent in every tv interview I have ever seen her in (which would be ok if she was one of those politicians who just doesn't do interviews and just gets on with the job, but she cant stay out of tv studios). I have no idea how she has survived this long in politics, let alone got to so far in the Labour party. }}

I would love to be wrong about Corbyn's electability. Fingers crossed that the recent polling trend holds true through election day.

yep its good news, a hung parliament would be interesting. Petty's lot in charge making everyone drink Buckie instead of tea.

As for Abbott, well she did erm, you know what she did with Corby-Worby in bed.
As you said Petty, a more egotistical numpty is hard to find, racist too, her disdain for white people is thinly disguised. I reckon she swept in on a wave of political correct bollox and just hung around because I is Black.   quoting Ali-G.

{{Another in my view bad interview for May today, this for the BBC- and she has chickened out the tv debate tonight, so much for strong and stable! }}

She was never going to join the debate. Sturgeon didn't bother her arse either but nobody complaining about that.

I genuinely don't know what to do this time around. I find Corbyn to be as May when it comes to ethics. He picks and chooses what is important versus what would get him elected... he just gets less of a bad rep.

May has come across like an idiot recently and I am not a big fan of the policies... but I still prefer her to Corbyn.

What to do??

{{Sturgeon wasnt there because she is First Minister of Scotland- unlike May, Corbyn ect she isn't standing for reelection in this election. She is not an MP and does not sit at Westminster, given she isnt in the running and you cant vote for her its hardly surprise they didn't ask her to the debate.
May on the other-hand is standing and her not being at the debate did her no favours. If the Tories lose this election May will be the main reason for it. I have been genuinely surprised by how badly she is performing.}}

I'm voting Labour.

She has managed to turn up to plenty of others... She is the head of her party so of course she should be there. The SNP is contesting seats!

{{No she hasn't- that's not how it works. For a UK election she doesn't represent the SNP- she campaigns for the SNP candidates, but she is not standing or in the running.
At the TV debate you chide her for being absent from the SNP were in fact there, represented by Angus Robertson- who is the Leader of the SNP in the House of Commons. He leads the SNP MP's.
Its a bit like Westminster Labour and Scottish Labour only they are both on the same page.
At UK election Robertson or one of the SNP frontbench MP's represent them as they are who are standing for election. }}

Yes she has!!!! She was first minister on every debate she joined in the 2015 election.

{{That was the stipulation of the Tv companies- Robertson wasn't allowed to do it as it had to be party leaders only, and he isn't leader of the party. This time out that doesn't seem to be a stipulation.
Not exactly sure why it was different. Probably just because of the Indy referendum. }}}

Ok... so therefore she could do it as leader and isn't.

{{No I am saying 2015 was the exception not the rule- and only came about at all after fierce demands from the SNP and the Welsh Nationalists.
If you remember they were both excluded from the 2010 leaders debate (the one Clegg did well in leading to the coalition) and fought to get on the podium- which resulted in the 2015 debates where both devolved party leaders got to take part- but the rules said it had to be the leaders.
The rules this years obviously do not say that as Robertson is representing the SNP in the debates so far, and he's only deputy leader- which is the obvious solution as he is an MP, standing for re-election and leader of the SNP at Westminster and these are Westminster elections. If Sturgeon does any I would expect it to be solely Scottish Leaders based. }}}

It seems like there are no rules if it changes every time.

She is the face of the SNP... she should be representing the same as the Welsh chick whose name I can't remember!

{{Well debates at all are a pretty new thing in UK politics- but makes more sense to me as a Scot (in that it keeps it clear who your voting for) for the SNP to be represented by the Head of the group thats standing for election and will represent the SNP in Westminster.
In fact Labour could do with something similar to prevent the muddle of having contradictory policies. If at a Westminster election you had a Westminster Labour candidate as opposed to a Scottish Labour party candidate it would solve a lot of their issues.
Different story for Holyrood elections- then yeah should be Sturgeon every time representing the SNP. }}

Doesn't look like the BBC livestream will be available Stateside until the start of the main election night results broadcast at 22:00 BST (5:00 PM EDT for me), but I'm looking forward to it. I always enjoy getting to watch these. Glad Dimbleby is still kicking.

First exit poll is out:

CONSERVATIVES 314 (-17)
LABOUR 266 (+34)
SNP  34 (-22)
LD 14 (+6)
PLAID 3
GREEN 1
OTHER 18

If this is anywhere near accurate Theresa May looses her overall majority (and will most certainly resign...) and we will be either heading towards a hung parliament, or some sort of coalition...could the Northern Ireland parties/Independents hold the keys to this election?

I really have no idea what to make of those numbers, I have a feeling it's going to be tight, but that tight?

SNP -22? really?

It's going to be a long long, crazy night...

(Glad to see David Dimbleby overseeing the election coverage again on BBC he's always solid, I believe he had originally intended to retire from the role in 2015 but came back for Brexit he's 78 so this is most likely his last election)

BBC's exit poll isn't that different from the latest YouGov seat projection, although the BBC put the Tories slightly closer to a majority. They show the SNP having a big drop but they're less confident in that than the other figures since there are apparently a lot of very close constituencies that they polled.

Another hung Parliament seems very likely. Can't imagine the Lib Dems deciding to commit suicide again. A Tory/DUP coalition might get to a majority but too early to say even that.

Glad that the UKIP prediction has them down to zero seats but the more relevant question for me is what their percentage of the overall vote is since that will be a better indication of how much the other parties feel obliged to court UKIP voters moving forward, IMO.

Simul with Malick.

I could see May resisting calls to step down even if she loses her majority. Curious how much pressure she'd face from within her party if it comes to that though.

Eldorion wrote:Simul with Malick.

I could see May resisting calls to step down even if she loses her majority. Curious how much pressure she'd face from within her party if it comes to that though.

There's alot of people suggesting that Theresa May's lacklustre campaigning was a deliberate attempt to throw the campaign (i.e whoever gets elected and deals with the shitshow that will be Brexit will get hammered by the media, the Tories may be trying to loose so they can blame the shitshow of leaving the EU on Labour...)...

Not going to judge anything after just two results, but if this trend continues the exit polls may have been off and the swing towards Labour isn't as high as predicted.

Apparently around 70 seats are far too close to call at this stage.

{{{ Reports hinting that the fall in SNP votes has not gone to the tories but to Labour in Scotland- which would make sense to me as many of the votes SNP got at last General Election were disgruntled Labour supporters. And I got the feelings as Corbyn did better in the polls that more folk thought it worth taking a punt on him in the hope England did the same.
Bad night for May if the exit polls hold up though- she gambled a lot on this election and hard to say if its going to payoff }}

{{{Well if part of May's tactic, and I think it was a large part of it, in calling this election was to try to reduce Sturgeons position by reducing her MP's- then it was a successful tactic on that front.
It was all but given after the last election result that the SNP could only go down at any subsequent election- but it seems their might be a high price to pay in terms of Mays own Westminster position. Possibly even as PM. If the exit polls hold out then she will have a much smaller majority- if she can get one at all.
We might see a Labour/SNP/Lib Dem alliance to prevent her. Could be interesting! }}}

{{{ Interesting potential result in Glasgow where it looks like Labour might take a seat from the SNP- whats interesting here is that we just had the local council elections and in the same bit of Glasgow the SNP for the first time took the council from Labour.
I think this shows there is a definite change in voting patterns for UK elections and the Corbyn effect is largely responsible for that change for Labour in Scotland.
Looking increasingly like May is in the shit though with her own party. }}}

{{Got to love live election results as the BBC give us our first "recunt" of the night! Freudian slip indeed }}}