Poll: General Election - TheatreBoard Decides!

Huh?

So the people who tried to vote the Tories out are to blame for them cozying up to a load of reactionary bigots and risking the Northern Ireland peace process!?

Nope the Tories and them alone are to blame for this whole mess.

A lot of people voted for the current brand of Labour: an antisemitic, Communist, bullying rabble, while dressing it up to the rest of us as progressive and saintly. If you vote that way, I'm afraid I'm a little short on sympathy when things don't go as planned. And I'm not sure those people have put themselves in any position to criticise what you absolutely correctly point out are the unpleasant beliefs of others. That's my point.

Communist, are you joking, is this the 1950's again.

Labour may have some dodgy people within its ranks, though no worse than the Tories, and should have taken a firmer stand against them but its manifesto and policies contain none of these things which you certainly can't say about the DUP.

And Theresa May didn't call an election to give people choice she did it to increase her majority and strengthen the Tories grip on power. In her arrogance she didn't even think she had to campaign properly or expose her policy to scrutiny.

It was her fault for taking the electorate for granted.

Yes, people who attempt to exercise democracy should definitely be punished for voting the 'wrong' way by having their reproductive rights taken away unelected fringe party, and a Britain run by religious extremist creationists is something we should all be super duper excited about! (I also recommend watching the the DUP's documentary-style party political broadcast which was so good it's being rebroadcast on the BBC1 under the new title of "The Handmaid's Tale".)

I find it disturbing that supporters of the Conservatives keep trying to invalidate the result: people who voted Labour were misled by Corbyn, young people were tricked into voting by promises about tuition fees, it was just a protest vote, the constituency boundaries are wrong. Not: our policies don't reflect the will of the country. Not: perhaps we should try listening instead of commanding. Not: we're driving our supporters away. Not: people know what they want and what they want isn't what we're giving them.

It's always someone else's fault. I'd have more respect for the Conservatives if I was seeing a bit more "Hey, perhaps the reason a smaller proportion of the country likes us than they did two years ago is down to us". For me, the reason I'm against the Conservative Party right now is nothing to do with Labour. It's entirely down to the fact that for the past year we've had a government that has acted as though the job of parliament (and of the country as a whole) is to shut up and do what it's told.

And yet this is so similar to what I hear from my left-wing young friends; honestly. "We elect MPs to make these decisions, we shouldn't be making them ourselves." No, I couldn't believe it either. 

I studied German and Russian to degree level, and lived in the former East Germany not long after the wall came down. I know how Communism and socialism is done, and how repressive it is. I see some of its tricks alive and well in Putin's Russia today. I see Labour appropriating some of them, and being allowed to get away with it by unquestioning youth. (Who oddly enough are happy to question Tory decisions and opinions. All hail the Dear Leader!)

The SWP, now merrily present at Labour demos and speeches, aligned with the Communist party and others to form the Stop the War coalition. Former Chair of this Coalition? All hail the Dear Leader!

One of Corbyn's key advisers during this election is someone who, until a year ago, was a member of the Communist party. He quit his 40 year membership there to join Labour...but only after Corbyn became leader. Tom Watson has pointed to the infiltration of Momentum by some extremely undesirable elements. Momentum; key in galvanising the youth vote. Those who are, as you point out, too young to remember anything of Communism and I daresay in some cases any of the groups who terrorised Northern Ireland, Republic of Ireland and the mainland. Who are therefore happy to accept Corbyn's rather revised version of what exactly his motives were when he met with Sinn Fein historically. All hail the Dear Leader!

Some Labour supporters routinely address each other as 'comrade' for heaven's sake.

You may not consider this lot Communist. Fair enough. Personally, I say the connections are murky, and draping them in an acceptable cloak to pull in impressionable, idealistic young people makes them exceedingly more dangerous.

In any case: sigh. My original post was merely intended to point out the irony of people voting tactically for a progressive alliance to stick it to the Tories, and ending up with the Tories and something far worse. (For now - who knows what the coming days and months will bring? Soon every conversation we have with each other may begin and end with 'comrade'!)

Then you have very strange left wing young friends if they actually exist.

I'm no fan of Corbyn but he ran on a moderate left platform.

And the same in reverse, where are the right wing tabloids attacking May for aligning with the DUP the way they attacked Corbyn?

I couldn't care less about the DUP's connections to terrorism my objection is to their policies and that it prevents the British government from being neutral the way they agreed to be in the Good Friday Agreement.

The DUP being astonishingly corrupt doesn't help matters either.

Strange, I hadn't noticed much policing of humour going on round here. Has it started now? Better revisit that 'bad behaviour' thread and censor anyone who engaged in amusing revenge fantasies there! I laugh at Jimmy Carr and Frankie Boyle. It doesn't mean I agree with what they're saying. Heck, most of the time THEY don't agree with what they're saying. Humour works by different rules.

I swear to you, I am not making this up. I know it sounds like I am, because it suits my argument, but believe me: I used to work in a charity overrun with young lefties and the day after the referendum, this is precisely the conversation that went on. I came very close to falling out with someone over it because I couldn't believe my ears. 

As ever when I talk to any left-wing folk about legitimate concerns around Corbyn and Labour, they avoid all discussion about it and return to attacking the Tories. That's quite telling, wouldn't you say?

Laying a wreath on the grave of a terrorist involved in the Munich Olympics atrocity?

Article in publication of which Jezza wrote the front page story: "The British only sit up and take notice of Ireland when they are bombed into it."

Programme for IRA event Corbyn attended and spoke at: "force of arms is the only method capable of bringing about a free and united socialist Ireland."

I fear you're trolling, HG, and I have better things to do with my day.