The Theresa May General Election thread (edited)

Heartfeltdawn

octatonic said:

Can also work as Terminator Jesus. 

Fretwired

octatonic said:

Actually, Jesus would have taken from the filthy rich, selfish pensioners and redistributed their wealth to the poor pensioners and struggling under 30s. I'm sick to death of listening to them on the radio complaining that they may have to contribute to their frail care. National Insurance only paid for their Triple Lock Pensions.

They actually had it easy - free education, plenty of well paid jobs, no shortage of housing to rent or buy. Those with homes saw the value rise while they sat on their fat arses on the Costa-del-Sol. Those under 30 have had the ladder pulled up by these greedy bastards so that they're worse off.

May's Dementia Tax was right ... Corbyn will get them though ... :-)

Axe_meister

The way I see it, the Dementia tax, may well help get the housing market moving again. All those properties hitting the market after the owner passes away, Rather than staying in the family.

fields5069

Plus they will be cheap as I understand there will be a limit on the time they can spend on the market. Bonus!

Axe_meister

And this is the problem the Torys have sometimes they have great ideas but they have no idea how to communicate them it always sound like they are taking something away, never explaining the benefits.

Rocker

What is this about it being a close run thing?  Everyone on the radio is suggesting that it could be a hung Parliament or very close with the Tories edging it by less than a dozen seats.

Of course it could be the radio programs way of attracting listeners.....

ICBM

Rocker said:

What is this about it being a close run thing?  Everyone on the radio is suggesting that it could be a hung Parliament or very close with the Tories edging it by less than a dozen seats.

Of course it could be the radio programs way of attracting listeners.....

Big shifts and uncertainty in the polls - May losing her way, the political arguments, and the personality battle with Corbyn. Whether it will be as close as (some of) the polls are currently showing, I don't know... but look at what happened in the US - Clinton had it in the bag until a few days before, and arguably still 'won' the election in terms of percentage vote. But Trump is in the White House now.

It remains to be seen if the closing gap will re-invigorate Tory voters, or whether it will give others hope that May can in fact be beaten and swing behind Corbyn. A lot can change in seven days.

littlegreenman

ICBM said:

Rocker said:

What is this about it being a close run thing?  Everyone on the radio is suggesting that it could be a hung Parliament or very close with the Tories edging it by less than a dozen seats.

Of course it could be the radio programs way of attracting listeners.....

Big shifts and uncertainty in the polls - May losing her way, the political arguments, and the personality battle with Corbyn. Whether it will be as close as (some of) the polls are currently showing, I don't know... but look at what happened in the US - Clinton had it in the bag until a few days before, and arguably still 'won' the election in terms of percentage vote. But Trump is in the White House now.

It remains to be seen if the closing gap will re-invigorate Tory voters, or whether it will give others hope that May can in fact be beaten and swing behind Corbyn. A lot can change in seven days.

I'd go with the Tories still winning, but without the "definitive mandate" that Theresa thought she had in the bag. A hung parliament is also pretty unlikely at this point by the looks of it. Quite where that leaves us is currently anyone's guess, is anyone selling shit creek paddles?

But, it does look like May's big promise of "strong and stable" isn't going to pay off and the lack of an expected landslide could well be her downfall, sooner or later, and therefore the rest of ours. Either way she's shown herself to be lacklustre in the extreme for leading any kind of negotiations regarding Brexit.

ICBM

I think her downfall - with or without a loss of a Tory majority - will be to our benefit. She is a very poor, and dangerous, leader in my opinion.

I second Fretwired's opinion that in only a year she has managed to replace Cameron as the worst PM in living memory.

Fretwired

As I feared .. social media manipulation.

Labour’s election campaign is being boosted by fake social media accounts that pump out positive messages about Jeremy Corbyn thousands of times per day, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

One in eight messages about British politics posted on Twitter are generated by automated accounts known as web robots or “bots”.

Individual accounts each post up to 1,000 messages per day attacking Theresa May or promoting Labour. They are set up to look like personal user accounts to trick other users into thinking real people are backing Labour. Automated accounts also back other parties, but to a far smaller degree.

They were described last night by Oxford University researchers as “worrying” because of the power of automated accounts to “distort” and influence views. Twitter is predominantly used by young people, who are also more likely to be Labour supporters.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/01/exclusive-labour-election-campaign-boosted-fake-twitter-accounts/

thomasw88

Fretwired said:

As I feared .. social media manipulation.

Labour’s election campaign is being boosted by fake social media accounts that pump out positive messages about Jeremy Corbyn thousands of times per day, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

One in eight messages about British politics posted on Twitter are generated by automated accounts known as web robots or “bots”.

Individual accounts each post up to 1,000 messages per day attacking Theresa May or promoting Labour. They are set up to look like personal user accounts to trick other users into thinking real people are backing Labour. Automated accounts also back other parties, but to a far smaller degree.

They were described last night by Oxford University researchers as “worrying” because of the power of automated accounts to “distort” and influence views. Twitter is predominantly used by young people, who are also more likely to be Labour supporters.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/01/exclusive-labour-election-campaign-boosted-fake-twitter-accounts/

This kind of stuff is really disturbing. The Tories are as bad if not worse.

paulads

I think the single biggest and most important thing that has influenced this election has been the utterly woeful performance of the Prime Minister.

Fretwired

thomasw88 said:

This kind of stuff is really disturbing. The Tories are as bad if not worse.

In fairness the Tories just push their message and attack Corbyn - it's pretty poor. I read a political blog which said the Tories are going to sell the NHS to the Americans - there's no evidence - it's just fake news but people believe it and share it.

An ex-member from here wrote that he didn't care if there were lies so long as the Tories lost and he was happy to spread fake news.

Drew_TNBD

Fretwired said:

An ex-member from here wrote that he didn't care if there were lies so long as the Tories lost and he was happy to spread fake news.

Oh I reckon he's still around. Lurking in the shadows like some high-kicking pissed up Batman playing Honky Tonk blues in a bar to three people.

paulads

I've worked in the NHS 25 years now and I'm genuinely frightened for its future under the Conservatives...not just because of this 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/naylor-plan-outline-sell-nhs-10544577

is it fake news? How can I tell?

rlw

Fretwired said:

octatonic said:

Actually, Jesus would have taken from the filthy rich, selfish pensioners and redistributed their wealth to the poor pensioners and struggling under 30s. I'm sick to death of listening to them on the radio complaining that they may have to contribute to their frail care. National Insurance only paid for their Triple Lock Pensions.

They actually had it easy - free education, plenty of well paid jobs, no shortage of housing to rent or buy. Those with homes saw the value rise while they sat on their fat arses on the Costa-del-Sol. Those under 30 have had the ladder pulled up by these greedy bastards so that they're worse off.

May's Dementia Tax was right ... Corbyn will get them though ... :-)

oi!  I've never sat on my arse on the Costa del Sol or anywhere else.  I've worked hard since 1969 and been through all the ups and downs too.    When I finally retire, at 67 I reckon, we will have to sell the house to raise funds to live on as my pensions which would once have provided about £20k annually will now make about £6K.

If either of us need care, we will be happy to fund it out of the sale of the house after death as will, I expect, the vast majority of reasonable minded people.  Although, I suspect, most of will want to see it used properly rather than just pissed up the wall which is what all governments do.

Please don't tar all of us oldies with the same brush.

Moe_Zambeek

paulads said:

I've worked in the NHS 25 years now and I'm genuinely frightened for its future under the Conservatives...not just because of this 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/naylor-plan-outline-sell-nhs-10544577

is it fake news? How can I tell?

You could try reading the Naylor report and then decide for yourself? I'd certainly advocate taking the Mirror's political agenda under consideration in the same way I'm sure you would if the article was in the Mail.

In any case, whoever gets into power won't have enough cash available *or* enough political capital to properly address the NHS' issues, and there's a good chance it'll collapse under its own weight one way or another. 

Heartfeltdawn

Fretwired said:

As I feared .. social media manipulation.

Labour’s election campaign is being boosted by fake social media accounts that pump out positive messages about Jeremy Corbyn thousands of times per day, The Daily Telegraph can reveal.

One in eight messages about British politics posted on Twitter are generated by automated accounts known as web robots or “bots”.

Individual accounts each post up to 1,000 messages per day attacking Theresa May or promoting Labour. They are set up to look like personal user accounts to trick other users into thinking real people are backing Labour. Automated accounts also back other parties, but to a far smaller degree.

They were described last night by Oxford University researchers as “worrying” because of the power of automated accounts to “distort” and influence views. Twitter is predominantly used by young people, who are also more likely to be Labour supporters.


http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/06/01/exclusive-labour-election-campaign-boosted-fake-twitter-accounts/

On the other hand, you can read the actual study which came out two days ago and look at the facts of the study. Pause to laugh at the Telegraph's big "reveal" of something two days old first. 

http://www.ox.ac.uk/news/2017-05-31-labour-dominating-twitter-conversation-uk-election-campaign-says-study#


"Automation

• One in eight tweets (12.3%) about UK politics are generated by bots (highly automated accounts).
• Labour is, by some margin, attracting the greatest interest from highly automated accounts (Labour: 21,661 tweets; SNP: 13,819 tweets; Conservative: 13,409 tweets).
• However, the analysis does not show whether automated accounts are run to reflect positively or negatively on a particular party or candidate, nor who is running these accounts."

As the Sun reports, "Automated accounts also back other parties, but to a much smaller degree."

So all parties have these automated backers but two Conservative newspapers choose to focus on Labour. Apparently 21,661 pro-Labour tweets is deemed worthy of a scare story but 13,409 pro-Conservative tweets gets no mention at all. The study doesn't indicate whether accounts are run for or against particular candidates or parties. 

Telegraph: free media manipulation and bias is terrible!

Andy: but what about paid media manipulation and bias? 

Telegraph: .....

(repeat for all newspapers)

fields5069

Axe_meister said:

And this is the problem the Torys have sometimes they have great ideas but they have no idea how to communicate them it always sound like they are taking something away, never explaining the benefits.

I think the dementia tax "benefits" are well explained here. It seems to suggest that the 100k you think would be protected would in fact be used to pay the insurance premiums, mandatory if you want to use this deferred equity release scheme, once the government have taken what they are owed.

http://voxpoliticalonline.com/2017/05/19/now-it-makes-sense-dementia-tax-is-an-insurance-scam/

Drew_TNBD

paulads said:

I've worked in the NHS 25 years now and I'm genuinely frightened for its future under the Conservatives...not just because of this 

http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/naylor-plan-outline-sell-nhs-10544577

is it fake news? How can I tell?

How can you tell?? Read the bloody report!!
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/nhs-property-and-estates-naylor-review