Because what we all needed was another vote on things.
Who will you vote for? Poll to follow (not the last one, alas).
Theresa May's Conservatives
Jeremy Corbyn's Labour
Tim Farron's Liberal Democrats
Paul Nuttall's UKIP
2 people's Greens
Nicholas Durgeon's Scottish Nationalists
Satan's Sinn Fein
Dr Ian Paisley's DUP
Some other bunch of nonces
I'm foreign, but I wish I were an Englishman
Because what we all needed was another vote on things.
Who will you vote for? Poll to follow (not the last one, alas).
I'll either waste my vote and go liberal or Labour and stick with Emily in Islington.
Same as Kikó, but I realise its a bit of a pointless exercise. Caroline Lucas will run away with it here.
GS just heard the news.
Dunno.
I align with most of what the red team say but i don't know if i could vote for Corbyn. Might help if he stopped pretending to love Europe.
I live in Glasgow Kelvin though so it really couldn't matter less. Ż\_(ツ)_/Ż
Lol better get some childish confectionary and binge food ready so I can do an all nighter and watch the results come in! Will have to postpone my sex arranged for that night! Can't wait!
A dominant woman decides to capitalise on her advantage over an unpopular man trapped in an unhappy situation in order to strengthen her position still further and gain the upper hand in the inevitable exit deal to be signed in a couple of years' time. And then there's also the election.
A harsh but acceptable retort.
Lol Tories about to wreck shit
So, nobody cares that the repeated denials of an early general election turned out to be lies? We're post-cynicism now I suppose.
You can't exactly say "we'll have a general election in about six months' time, depending on how it goes". It creates uncertainty, by spooking markets, and it puts every party on an election footing in case it's called. Nothing would get done. It would have been far more damaging to intimate repeatedly that you may have one and then not call it, frankly.
That said, it's very interesting to see continued adherents to the Red Menace claiming it's a 'nakedly political act' to call an election. Of course it is. As it has been every time ever before the constitutional abomination that is the Fixed Term Parliament Act. What they mean is that Jezza is about to be annihilated and that's going to be a particularly unpleasant reality to confront.
Anything described as 'post-' anything can just get to fuck, as well as the clown using it.
No bollocks telly debates as well.
Some immediate polling data here, gentlemen. It suggests that the Tory lead is around 20% (consistent with two other polls over the weekend), and the public are supportive of another general election being called.
Perhaps more indicative of the final result, May has a massive lead over Corbyn on leadership and perception, whilst May/Hammond also have a huge lead on economic competence. These were the two key drivers in 1992 that helped to bring Major back into power, and that was without an already huge poll lead and Labour's numbers being a bit soft.
Assuming nothing goes hugely wrong for the Tories before the 8 June, then it could well be a massacre.
Majority of voters think May right to change her mind and call an early election, poll suggests
Voting intention
ICM has carried out a snap poll today on the general election announcement. The state of the party figures are very good for the Conservatives, although that is not particularly surprising because other recent polls have produced similar results.
What is potentially more significant is that the poll shows strong support for Theresa May’s decision to call an early election. Voters accept her argument for doing a U-turn on an early election, and do not seem to mind being dragged to the polls only two years after the last general election.
Here are the key figures.
Conservatives: 46% (up 2 from Guardian/ICM over the weekend)
Labour: 25% (down 1)
Lib Dems: 11% (up 1)
Ukip: 8% (down 3)
Greens: 4% (no change)
Conservative lead: 21 points (up 3)
This is the joint highest Conservative lead in Guardian/IMC polling, matching the Tory lead in June 1983. And, at 46%, the Conservative share of the vote is also at its joint highest, matching its figure in the 1992 general election.
Snap Guardian/ICM poll suggests Conservatives have a 21-point lead over Labour, their joint highest lead since this polling series started in the 1980s.
Reaction to snap election
People were asked if they supported or opposed Theresa May’s decision to call an election.
Support: 55%
Oppose: 15%
Most voters support an early election, the poll suggests. Conservative, Labour and Lib Dem voters back the early election in broadly equal numbers (64%, 65% and 60% respectively). Those least supportive are Ukip voters, only 49% of whom back holding an early election. It was then put to respondents that May used to be adamant that she would not call an early election. They were asked which of these three statements they most agreed with.
The situation has changed, and May is right to change her mind: 54%
Nothing has changed and May is wrong to hold an election: 21%
Don’t know: 25%
A majority of voters think May is right to change her mind on an early election.
Expected outcome
Respondents were then asked what outcome they expected.
About a quarter of respondents said they expected the Conservatives to win a majority of more than 100.
People were asked if they would treat this as a normal general election or as a second Brexit referendum.
Normal general election: 67%
Second Brexit referendum: 17%
Personal ratings
There was a question about which team is best able to manage the economy.
Theresa May and Philip Hammond: 51%
Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell: 12%
May and Philip Hammond have a 39-point lead over Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell on economic competence, the poll suggests.
And finally, there were questions about whether leaders are doing a good or bad job.
May
Good job: 57%
Bad job: 24%
Net score: +33
Corbyn
Good job: 13%
Bad job: 61%
Net score: -48
May has a massive lead over Corbyn in terms of general approval ratings.
ICM Unlimited interviewed a representative sample of 1,000 adults aged 18+ online immediately after the announcement that a general election had been called on 18 April 2017. Interviews were conducted across the country and the results have been weighted to the profile of all adults. ICM is a member of the British Polling Council and abides by its rules.
There's a second poll showing support for calling the election, so it won't be an effective attack line to say she shouldn't have called one:
http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entr...e9848ec795?iqk
Make it happen.
Probably Terry May but with absolutely no pleasure in doing so.
Alright, mate.
It's a pity she ruined such a joyous and happy occasion.
It's almost as if dead relatives of unimportant MP's didn't factor in the decision.
Won't somebody please think of the poor mums!
Ironic this snap election is happening with a local council election just 2 to 3 weeks away.
Corbyn will probably walk into number 10 with TTH pointing fingers and lolling at him.
With the Polls performances in the last few outings Corbyn will win all of the seats. Including the Queens throne. I for one welcome our new Communist overlord.
Corbz is going to get absolutely felt up here.
It's about as easy an election to call as there's been in my lifetime. May might as well go for it as there's no way she'll lose, it gives her credibility (#mandate) and settles things down pre-Brexit.
Tenner on Corbz? Lol.
I don't even think an election defeat would boot Corbyn out of leadership.
Tony Blair campaigning for (sorry, 'alongside') the Liberal Democrats would be all sorts of lol.
The problem for Labour is not so much that Jezza is an idiot, but the fact that they as a party are completely unprepared to run an election campaign. They don't have any candidates currently, for example, except for whichever brave souls are prepared to run as incumbents. Then you'll have all the Momentum entryism and process-driven wank getting in the way as well, and that's before you've even started to think about forming a coherent policy platform, let alone one that will defeat the Conservatives.
It wouldn't surprise me if they lost 100 MPs and the Conservative majority after this was around 250-300.
Tim 'I hate the gays' Farron running alongside Tony 'I led to the deaths of millions of brown people' Blair to unite the country would be quite the sight.
Oh and lol at someone coming up with a 'Tim Farron hates homosexuals' narrative already.
Yeah, it all got dredged up pretty quickly. Wasn't his position basically what dela cried off over expressing? I don't see much wrong with it, but if you imagine what would happen if Nigel Farage said it then balls to Tim Farron.
'They' tells you all you need to know before we even get to the gay frogs, at least Nige would have thrown a French joke in at the end.
He, of course, claims he was hacked.
Is there a Lib Dem who hasn't had some sort of gay related scandal lurking under the bedsheets?
A group of us once got told off once for turning a part of a school assembly hymn (so weird now I think about it) into Paddy Pantsdown. I assume he had one?
IIRC, it was year 4 or so so our satire must have been pretty high level.
Outstanding.
That's game over for him then.
It would be if game over if he was exposed as the massive insubstantial charlatan he is, but never underestimate a Lib Dem's ability to come back from a scandal. It's basically a right of passage.
You would think that the sort of perma-outraged wally liable to be put off by that is probably a demented remainer anyway, in which case it will just win them Bradford East back.
That Mail front page is, erm... Yeah.
Couldn't you post it?
EDIT: Just seen it on Facebook. Fucking hell.
They almost certainly believe it as well, which is the worrying part of it. It's representative of the nutter fringe.
Newspapers need to do ridiculous front pages now in order to draw attention to themselves. 'May calls snap election' isn't going to sell many copies.
Do you think that sells papers?
Can't wait to be crushed.