Theresa May’s snap election that wasn’t meant to happen turned out to be a bit of a disaster for her. She was handed a majority on a silver platter and somehow managed to squander it all on horse manure. Now she’s carrying on as though nothing happened. It’s a bit like that Monty Python sketch where the fellow loses each arm and then each leg but continues fighting as though nothing happened.
While I’m pleased Jeremy Corbyn did so well given the depth of the hole he had to climb out of, I’m not particularly pleased with the result. Which is worse: a majority government with Theresa May at the helm or a non-majority with, to quote Craig Murray, “The nastiest people in politics.” In order to form a government she has jumped into bed with the only party that agreed to join her: The Democratic Unionist Party.
Craig Murray’s article about the alliance is pretty scary reading.
The loyalist terrorists murdered 1,016 people in the period 1969-2001. They shot someone dead in a supermarket car park in an internecine dispute actually during the election campaign. In all the media attacks on Corbyn about the IRA, there was no acknowledgement that Loyalist terrorism even existed. I think we can be pretty certain that the media are not going to start digging into the terrorist links of the Tories’ allies now. But social media is going to discredit them.
Full story here:
https://www.craigmurray.org.uk/archives/2017/06/tories-leap-unpopularity-abyss/
It’s hard to see how DUP supporters will like this alliance given their election campaign posters:
There’s only one thing left for me to do and that’s to get one of these “Strong and stable my arse posters” for our front window.
rachel.blog 
That black knight from Monty Python looks suspiciously like Lord Buckethead!
Speaking of whom, I think you’d like some of the items on his manifesto:
“10. Legalisation of the hunting of fox-hunters.”
“15. Free bikes for everyone, to help combat obesity, traffic congestion, and bike theft”
😀
I can’t believe the people of Maidenhead chose Theresa May over Lord Buckethead. I would definitely have voted for him 🙂
Wouldn’t have thought there’d have been any competition?
There are, I think, a few reasons to be maybe not cheerful, but at least less downbeat than last week:
1. Nick Timothy has been replaced by Gavin Barwell as May’s chief of Staff. – The latter appears to take a more sensible position on Climate change and Brexit.
2. There are a few reasonable voices in the Conservative party, and now they count even more (Allen is my MP – I didn’t vote for her, but if she was entirely representative of her party, I almost could). We can, I think, kiss goodbye to any attempt to re-legalise Fox hunting with dogs, for example (see clip)
3. People like Allen and Ruth Davidson seem deeply opposed to a formal coalition with the DUP – with good reason – so a “confidence and supply” arrangement means that, apart from votes of confidence and the budget, bills will have to be argued through Parliament which is kinda how it should be really.
4. So bills supporting issues such as climate change are likely to receive support from the opposition and LD’s, even if the DUP opposes them. Ditto on LGBT issues.
5. “Better the devil you know …” ? Whilst Corbyn, or even Farron, would have been preferable, May is at least better than BoJo or David Davies (IMO) – especially with regard to Brexit. The resignation of Timothy and Hill, should (in theory) keep those two m*r*ns on a leash.
Ok, I can see there are some things to be hopeful about. I will be pleased if the alliance with DUP falls over and it’s also looking more and more like a hard brexit is off the table which is good.
we are in a pretty terrible state aren’t we – it’s hard not to be very depressed about it all
On the plus side the Labour party is in a much stronger position than they were before and are looking like they might unite behind Jeremy Corbyn now which is a good thing.
Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, it’s Michael Gove.