UK General Election 2017

[yellowcard]

Too many West Wing watchers talking about empty chair debates!

May would absolutely steamroll through Corbyn in a debate anyway. Labour should be delighted to get away from the prospect.

Have you watched both of them in debates or how exactly could you draw that conclusion?

Theresa May struggles to think on her feet when veering away from pre rehearsed answers. She is a poor debater and wants to avoid such a contest for that reason. I can however see her agreeing to some watered down version of a debate purely to avoid the cowardly accusations being fired at her by opponents.

[Milltown Row2]

Not bad for working 195 days a year 

And only 1265 hours.

So with over 20 years service she's doing alright, obviously had she been older or longer in service then she be better off but she's still got 15 plus years to work, not going to be millionaires but that's the public sector, teaching is a vocation, you're not doing it for the money 

[johnneycool]

Too many West Wing watchers talking about empty chair debates!

May would absolutely steamroll through Corbyn in a debate anyway. Labour should be delighted to get away from the prospect.

Have you watched both of them in debates or how exactly could you draw that conclusion?

Theresa May struggles to think on her feet when veering away from pre rehearsed answers. She is a poor debater and wants to avoid such a contest for that reason. I can however see her agreeing to some watered down version of a debate purely to avoid the cowardly accusations being fired at her by opponents.

Corbyn would probably get the better of her alright as May comes across as very wooden and intransigent, but Mary Doll would wipe the floor with all off them, she's a serious operator that Sturgeon one.

[Minder]

Have any of you seen Corbyn on PMQs every week ?

[seafoid]

The Brexit spin is very flimsy . It is emotional rather than rational and the Tories don't want May to flop in front of the cameras.

[gallsman]

Have any of you seen Corbyn on PMQs every week ?

Precisely - he's a disaster when given a platform.

[gallsman]

Obama kept his cool against Senator "mood swing" McCain and wiped the floor with Mitt Romney.

Obama lost a debate to Romney (the first I think). Badly.

[Owen Brannigan]

Have any of you seen Corbyn on PMQs every week ?

Precisely - he's a disaster when given a platform.

Actually, on watching most weeks, both of them are very poor. They 'sloganise' rather than debate often saying and replying on separate lines fed to them beforehand and end up trading insults.

[gallsman]

Moving away from May and Corbyn, I see Douglas Carswell, who had already left UKIP, won't be running again. Farage has said he won't run (although I wouldn't put it past him to do yet another 180) but it begs the question now more than ever, why does the party continue to exist?! Will this finally be the end of it?

[Owen Brannigan]

Moving away from May and Corbyn, I see Douglas Carswell, who had already left UKIP, won't be running again. Farage has said he won't run (although I wouldn't put it past him to do yet another 180) but it begs the question now more than ever, why does the party continue to exist?! Will this finally be the end of it?

Got over 4 million votes in 2015 but no return due to distribution across GB due to no stronghold as required by FPTP elections. They need PR, i.e. the significant number of MEPs.

Infighting and useless leadership will continue to ensure their decline but the Little Englanders and that mentality will continue to prevail throughout England so they will never go away.  Note how Tories will play Brexit card to pull most onboard.

[gallsman]

Those 4 million votes were prior to Brexit becoming government policy though. I wonder how they'll get on this time - Nutall is an absolute buffon

[seafoid]

UKIP had 2 policies.  Leave and grammar schools. The Tories adopted both which was amazing. The party will be around until the end of the Brexit process probably.

The KIP in UKIP is very appropriate.

[DuffleKing]

A lot of people here obviously have not actually paid any attention to the personal performances of either corbyn or may. May is horrific unless reading an auto cue or prepared mantra. Corbyn is no more than a decent off the cuff orator but he is light years ahead of may.

PMQs are an embarrassment. Corbyn consistently catches may out and asks questions she cannot answer. The fact that she reverts to scripted sound bites and never answers questions (literally) when this happens seems to entirely satisfy political commentary and journalism.

There is a very definite state of affairs here that the notion that Corbyn and a political approach that priorities societal values is unpalatable to the masses or unelectable. I firmly believe the masses have consumed this narrative while without analysis as it doesn't stand up to scrutiny.

The question is whether people will follow the media mantra at the polling stations as they have done 99% of the time or if they vote their minds as with Brexit and as Americans did with Trump. In both of those instances the media direction was way off and accompanying polls laughably out.

It never ceases to amaze me how working class brits can vote for Tory workhouse masters en masse when they are scared (usually by a succinct media campaign). The tories are parasites with middle and executive class interests at heart. This incarnation is particularly unscrupulous and I expect ruthless when the time comes. Their policy u turns since May took over have been staggering and have gone largely unquestioned. Their best people are not even in the cabinet. Ffs look at the foreign office, treasury, home office, brexit dept. It's laughable. May herself was a horrendous Home Secretary, who many believe was stayed from execution from government by the brexit result.

British politics and particularly British political journalism is a shambles.

[Owen Brannigan]

A lot of people here obviously have not actually paid any attention to the personal performances of either corbyn or may. May is horrific unless reading an auto cue or prepared mantra. Corbyn is no more than a decent off the cuff orator but he is light years ahead of may.

PMQs are an embarrassment. Corbyn consistently catches may out and asks questions she cannot answer. The fact that she reverts to scripted sound bites and never answers questions (literally) when this happens seems to entirely satisfy political commentary and journalism.

+1  see above, I watch PMQs most weeks and May has no spontaneity and unable to respond without insult or slogan.

It never ceases to amaze me how working class brits can vote for Tory workhouse masters en masse when they are scared (usually by a succinct media campaign). The tories are parasites with middle and executive class interests at heart. This incarnation is particularly unscrupulous and I expect ruthless when the time comes. Their policy u turns since May took over have been staggering and have gone largely unquestioned. Their best people are not even in the cabinet. Ffs look at the foreign office, treasury, home office, brexit dept. It's laughable. May herself was a horrendous Home Secretary, who many believe was stayed from execution from government by the brexit result.

British politics and particularly British political journalism is a shambles.

I believe that many of the English and the Welsh are serf-like.  Many of them prefer to elect Tories almost by default despite the suffering inflicted on the general population earning less than as much as £60-70K per household per annum by the austerity measures put in place by Cameron and Osborne since 2010.  They prefer to be governed by Tories with no interest in their welfare and conditions than allow Corbyn who they consider to be bereft of any ability to run the country. 

Corbyn has no hope of gaining any seats because he has to convince previous Conservative voters to change to Labour and they show no interest in doing so given his offer because in their serf-like mentality they prefer to doff the cap to the ruling Tory class because they want strong government.

The media has largely exposed Corbyn as a clown and those around him share his limited abilities, e.g. Dawn Butler on R4 and now the shadow Education minister on SKY news.

Labour needs the like of Yvette Cooper to take on destroy the Tories as she regularly does with T May in PMQs.

[seafoid]

Corbyn has to convince the floating voters in the middle that Labour will be better for them. The Tory economic record is atrocious.  This is why May's pitch is emotional.