That's it

[Workingman]

I just don't understand what the heck is going on.

What has happened to our P.M.? What's her game?

Her game is to get the Cons in power for a long, long time.

She has taken the cynical decision to override a law that has not even survived one term in order to promote her party - not the UK. She has done it on the back of polls by ComRes and YouGov showing the Cons with a 21% lead. Comres polled 2,200, YouGov polled 1000.

I hope that they got their demographic profiles wrong and that about 3000 of us do not represent the majority. The pollsters have got it ever so wrong in recent times, this could be another case.

Let's hope so.

[Suff]

Our PM has a problem. The Tories are divided and the others are taking advantage.

Time to vote in more EU skeptical Tories to ensure that the great repeal goes smoothly.

If we want anything like a workable settlement in the end, then we need a united government.

[TheOstrich]

Big dilemma for sitting centrist Labour MPs. Do they bail out like Tristram Hunt? Will they be pushed out / deselected (Angela Eagles?)? What sort of Momentum-influenced parliamentary party will emerge? And it looks like McClusky is going to retain the Unite leadership as well; there's no evidence of any moderate trade union surge.

The SNP are on a slight hiding to nothing. They can hardly do better than the last election. Any loss of seats north of the border, even just one, will be seized on by the media ....

Overall, however, I think Theresa May may have miscalculated. Just look at the "Oh good grief not again" reactions, not only on VV but also on media interviews yesterday. People just wanted her to get on with it and get Brexit done, for better or worse. If there's a backlash against the calling of this election and the Tories lose seats (not impossible if the Labour vote holds up in the north and the LibDems are resurgent in the SW), then where the heck will we be?

On a personal note, we are in what for us is a new Parliamentary seat, having relocated. I guess it's cast-iron Tory down here, but I want to see what the local MP's stance has been over Brexit. If he's not a Brexiteer, he won't get my vote. In which case, I shall either not vote, spoil my ballot paper to appease WM , or vote for whichever independent candidate promises to dangle Laura Kunnesberg and the rest of the BBC political commentators over a shark tank .....

[Suff]

People just wanted her to get on with it and get Brexit done, for better or worse.

Yes that has been the attitude hasn't it. Never mind the reality which is that the Lords are against Brexit, Labour and the Lib Dems want to sink it but Labour is tied to the wheel of the massive numbers of Labour voters who wanted to leave even though their party didn't and that a significant chunk of Tories don't want it or even that this is the Cameron government who campaigned on a platform of Remain.

What was May to do? Wait 12 months till the great repeal was in trouble and then go to the country as an embattled PM who can't get the job done? Or seek a full mandate from the people for what has to be done?

People tend to forget that this was Cameron's government voted in post coalition on a host of different issues, of which a referendum on Brexit was only one of them. Also people forget that they voted Cameron in on a "stay in Europe but have a vote anyway" platform.

If people were thinking clearly, instead of the convenience of their TV programming for the next 6 weeks, they would realise that an election was almost certain once Cameron stood down.

Come on, it could be a full normal election, you'd get 6 months of it and it would be tireless.

Let's face facts. This government was not voted in with a mandate to exit the EU. Just because it messes up your TV and you have to listen to a complete bunch of wasters for 6 weeks, it is hardly a high price to pay in order to get a government which is going to do what the people mandated. Is it?

This is what democracy is about. It is OUR responsibility to make sure we have the best Brexit team in place. That means we _need_ to elect them. We did _not_ elect that team in 2015.

It if all went horribly wrong everyone would be moaning and complaining that May did not give them the choice. So May gives us the choice and everyone moans because they have to listen to a load of cr@p for 6 weeks then mark a ballot paper (hardly the hardest thing in the world).

Anyone who does not want this election should stop talking about conspicuous democracy forthwith. Because both the referendum and this election IS IT!!

[medsec222]

Completely agree with you Suff. Unlike Gordon Brown who wasnt elected either and did nothing, Theresa May has had the guts to go to the country to get a mandate. She is hampered on all sides by the SNP, the Liberals, the Labour Party and even some of her own Party. She has got it in her to do the right thing for everyone in the UK. She has called the electorate out to get behind her. If it is politics for the next six weeks, so be it.

[saundra]

I do see the logic of an election but alot of people I'm afraid just won't bother or say well my m p didn't do as I wanted so who do I vote for now
I do a postal vote so it's easy for me
I really don't think there will be a good turn out plus alot of spoilt voting slips

[AliasAggers]

I don't know who the hell I will vote for now - if anyone.

I'm fed up to the teeth with politicians. Between them they are ruining this country.
One advantage of being old, like me, is that one won't have to put up with all this
political nonsense for much longer. It's obvious that the younger generations are now,
generally speaking, more interested in twiddling with their smart phones than they
are about thinking about what the future will bring.

[Suff]

For me, this election is about a single purpose. Getting the UK out of the EU with the least damage to the UK, the citizens of the UK who live in the EU and the citizens of the EU who live and work, in the UK.

So you have one of 5 choices, as I see it.

Vote for someone who is for Leave and will do their very best, in their votes, for us to get a good leave deal
Vote for someone who is for Remain, who will do their very best to get us maximum access to the EU at whatever cost
Vote for complete and utter mayhem by voting in someone who just wants to disrupt things
Don't vote
Vote but Spoil your ballot paper. However this, to me, apart from the protest element, is the same as not voting.

Seems simple enough. All you need to do then (assuming you intend to vote), is work out who your candidates are, do 20 minutes of research on each one, the day before the election, to see what they are saying and what their record is as to whether what they say can be trusted, then go vote the next day armed with your choice and the relevant information.

You can then simply switch off all political rubbish and watch something else.

BTW, I hear that May has refused to enter into any TV debates, or other debates for that matter. Good on her, this is not about manifesto's or anything like that, we did that 2 years ago, this is about getting out of the EU with a whole skin.

[Workingman]

The appeasement of May's decision is all fine and dandy except for one vital thing: The Fixed-Term Parliament Act 2011.

It was brought in so that governments took the good with the bad and to prevent prime ministers from calling general elections at times best suited to their party's chances of winning. It was cited by the present government, you know, the one May now leads, as a reason NOT to hold a general election when David Cameron was caught with sticky fingers over the Panama Papers affair.

Having used it to prevent an election it is now uber cynical of the same government to overturn it to call for one. And with other parties also seeing an 'opportunity' it brings the whole of parliament into disrepute as well.

There is no dressing it up any other way.

We might as well bring in a 'When things are not to my liking I will throw my toys out of the pram' Act.

[medsec222]

During the debate I heard one MP state there was provision to call an early election within the fixed term period. I assume that is quite correct. That is why she was able to call the election but she needed a two-thirds majority.