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The Prime Minister is running scared of a general election - PETITION!

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I would generally be in favour of a GE, as would May be because it's largely accepted that Labour will suffer a huge blow.

However, there is a huge amount of uncertainty which has had negative effects. I think the politicians just need to focus on getting a deal to provide the 'glorious' future ahead. I honestly think if we do it right, we could become 'a Norway' in terms of happiness, freedom, employment etc.

...and population.

Only reason Norwegians are so rich, aside from that small population, is because they put all their oil in a sovereign wealth fund. We wasted ours on handing the rich massive tax cuts under Thatcher.

Still, I favour an EEA exit, and it would help the EU progress, at the expense of some City jobs. But we need to keep at all costs free trade and the banking passport, which as far as anyone can tell will require freedom of movement.

I favour a general election in theory at least because I think the British public should have a choice of what sort of exit to do and actually be forced to think about the issue in a bit more detail.

A general election rather than a prescriptive referendum allows a free market in ideas to develop, within the time-honoured bounds of the British parliamentary constitution.

An election fought principally on each party's Brexit offering would also help us head off the coming constitutional crisis whereby Parliament has a two-thirds Remain majority but they have to vote on various measures to implement a Brexit.

And for self-interested reasons it would allow the Lib Dems to run on an ignore the referendum and stay in platform, putting Remain back on the ballot paper.

Reply 21

Rakas21

Original post by jneill

Who said the above about Gordon Brown when he refused to call a GE after becoming Prime Minster?

Answer: Theresa May, 2007

At the same time she also “Yesterday in Prime Minister's questions his excuse for not calling an election was that only 26 people had signed a Downing street petition calling for one. I checked the website this morning and there are now 4,408 signatures and rising. Can the Leader of the House arrange for the Prime Minister to give us an update on the petition every week in Prime Minister's questions?” she added.

Well guess what... there's a new petition saying "A change in prime minister should trigger a general election."

You can sign it here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/137376

So far it has over 7,500 signatures.
i.e. significantly higher than the petition she was waving at Gordon Brown.

100,000 could lead to a rather awkward debate for Mrs May...

I signed the petition but only because Labour will never be weaker. If we hold an election now, it will be nothing short of a massacre for Labour.

Reply 22

Doones

Over 16,000 signatures now.

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Reply 23

Legendary Quest

Original post by jneill

Over 16,000 signatures now.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Which party would you vote for?

Reply 24

Doones

Original post by Legendary Quest

Which party would you vote for?

That may depend on which parties stand and on what manifesto.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Reply 25

Fullofsurprises

Original post by jneill

Who said the above about Gordon Brown when he refused to call a GE after becoming Prime Minster?

Answer: Theresa May, 2007

At the same time she also “Yesterday in Prime Minister's questions his excuse for not calling an election was that only 26 people had signed a Downing street petition calling for one. I checked the website this morning and there are now 4,408 signatures and rising. Can the Leader of the House arrange for the Prime Minister to give us an update on the petition every week in Prime Minister's questions?” she added.

Well guess what... there's a new petition saying "A change in prime minister should trigger a general election."

You can sign it here: https://petition.parliament.uk/petitions/137376

So far it has over 16,000 signatures.
i.e. significantly higher than the petition she was waving at Gordon Brown.

100,000 could lead to a rather awkward debate for Mrs May...

Lol, lovely quote from her!

Petition signed.
Someone said tonight that if she'd called a very quick general election tonight she could have won whilst Labour were still in their marathon NEC meeting. :teehee:

Reply 26

Paraphilos

Running another general election may actually be in her interest, if anything. I don't think she's necessarily 'running scared'.

I'm personally more concerned about the state of the Labour party at present. If all crumbles on that front then I cannot foresee the Tories losing power ever again.

Reply 27

FredOrJohn

wow - vote going up quite fast!

Could be another big one!

I signed it (once)

Reply 28

Legendary Quest

Original post by jneill

That may depend on which parties stand and on what manifesto.

Posted from TSR Mobile

Would you vote for Corbyn? :tongue:

I like Lib Dems but I haven't heard too much about them lately. They could take advantage of the mess that's going on right now.

Reply 29

FredOrJohn

Original post by Legendary Quest

Would you vote for Corbyn? :tongue:

I like Lib Dems but I haven't heard too much about them lately. They could take advantage of the mess that's going on right now.

Their leaders have more less taken over the Evening standard - big columns more or less every other day...

http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/nick-clegg-the-five-big-fat-lies-being-perpetuated-by-brexit-s-project-fib-a3211021.html

http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/comment/nick-clegg-labour-s-turmoil-isn-t-just-bad-for-its-own-supporters-a3292866.html

But I'd vote Corbyn - ANYONE at all who would keep us in the EU.
Its far easier to get rid of a party you don't like then it will be to reverse BREXIT:

So vote Corbyn if that is what it takes - who cares?
ANYONE AT ALL
JUST ANY ONE!

Reply 30

Doones

Original post by Legendary Quest

Would you vote for Corbyn? :tongue:

I like Lib Dems but I haven't heard too much about them lately. They could take advantage of the mess that's going on right now.

Nope. And yes.

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Reply 31

Doones

Original post by FredOrJohn

But I'd vote Corbyn - ANYONE at all who would keep us in the EU.
Its far easier to get rid of a party you don't like then it will be to reverse BREXIT:

But he's not really a Remainer nevermind being unelectable in a GE.

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Reply 32

TimmonaPortella

These epetitions are really proving a fearsome weapon at present. Really driving policy in a tangible way. Thank god variously small minorities of the population care enough about these issues to click two or three buttons on the internet.

Reply 33

Doones

Original post by TimmonaPortella

It's a part of the democratic environment. It raises the visibility of issues, gets them talked about, and sometimes leads to changes.

We have always had petitions...

If it was easy to get 100,000 people to sign a petition then every petition would have 100,000 signatures. Most have very very few.

Of course it's unlikely to lead to an early GE but gaining a debate would be a worthwhile result.

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Reply 34

burbe

It's the wrong time for a general election! However, I do think there should be one before 2020. A General Election right now would probably lead to either a Tory landslide or the rise of UKIP in the North continuing. No General Election until Labour sorts itself out. Plus a GE would detract from sorting out this mess. Let Theresa get on with the job for a while and then we can judge her and both main parties can bring their manifesto on post exit Britain.

Reply 35

Platopus

Petitions haven't had a very high success rate recently...

Reply 36

Craig1998

I'm completely for it. Given how much people are on about how the EU referendum was 'democratic' and everything, being democratic is electing our own leader, not having somebody decided because some incapable woman left.

Reply 37

Rakas21

Original post by Craig1998

Unless you live in Maidenhead then you won't be electing our leader.

Reply 38

Jammy Duel

BEcause of course what the country needs right now is a massive dose of uncertainty! Okay, not so uncertainty, but elections never bode well for the economy compared to not having one, and there isn't really much of a basis for having another election so soon, it's only been 14 months and half of the last 10 PMs were not directly elected by the masses before taking office, May's mandate is the 11, 334,576 people that voted Conservative last May.