To think that we need a general election

[ReallyTired]

The recent referendum has shown that our current politicans are totally out of touch with many voters. David Cameron is resigning and I feel that all of us should get to choose the next PM to get us through Brexit. (There can even be an option via the ballot box to vote for a party that promises not to enact article 50 as the election is not legally binding.)

No thanks - I'm satisfied with both the government

I don't understand how even a Tory could be satisfied with a deeply divided and self serving government that have brought about this mess.

I would go for a GE. One with PR as the voting system though of course that's never going to happen. Things can't get a lot worse than they are and IMO we need far more equality in our society and a massive shake up of elite complacency.

Theresa May in charge of the Tories. Jeremy Corbyn replaced by someone who could actually win an election. Yes and a general election after that.

And the leader of the libdems is Tim Farron.

I think we we need the two main parties to have time to settle, regroup, rally and stabilise before we even consider it.

I think there needs to be one. Not because I am undemocratic but because the mandates that we voted for at the previous election are now defunct. The people need to choose how the country operates outside of the EU.

As for 'I dont trust the electorate' omg the alternative is dictatorship.

We can't have a general election when neither of the two main parties have a leader that could potentially lead the country / win an election. Although in theory you vote for an MP not a leader, I'd really like to know who the future PM would be before I cast a vote.

Agreed, cheminotte.

I think we're heading for a Monty Brewster (Brewster's Millions) situation "None of the above" I actually think it's what we need to getter politicians to sit up and take notice of what the electorate really think!

I don't trust the general public. The only thing we need is a second referendum allowing people of 16 and 17 to vote.

Pud have thought the leavers would want a ge considering that boris is now back pedalling like fuck.

I think this is a time when the parties need to work together and concentrate on how to move forward rather than have in house battles against each other. When everything has calmed down and new leaders are in place they can consider it.

Well I wouldn't mind having a GE if there was someone to vote for

Conservative - infighting has caused brexit
Labour - 20 or 30 resignations today
Lib Dem - ok but they are kind of annihilated
UKIP - don't want it go there
Green - nice but too idealistic, not practical or big enough, lacking sufficient experience/expertise

I would worry that people would see UKIP as a good option given the gigantic problems the three main parties have.

For Remain, the best option is to vote Lib Dem as the only party pro-eu and not actually shredding itself apart at the moment. If enough people put their weight behind it, it can be revived.

Sorry, but totally disagree - the last thing this country needs is a general election. We need to have and demonstrate stability both domestically and internationally. Currently, nothing has really changed, so let everything settle down and then look at changes.

What I don't understand - and I'm prepared to admit I am a naive, lowly, ignorant pleb - but what I really do not get is why they are so hell-bent on singlemindedly taking us out of the EU.

And don't tell me "Because there was a referendum and that's democracy".

Cobblers!

This Government has U-turned more times than a Yodel driver; the Leave campaign has backtracked and admitted "mistakes" and promises it had no right to make.

So why is this so set in stone when it's not even legally binding? And why was the referendum set up to allow more than 50% of the vote to carry?

If it's such a disaster for the country then why on earth are they doing it??

I was a Remain voter and am distressed about the result of the referendum. But, if you put that to one side..

Surely, surely, even hardened leave voters who were thrilled at the result must be a teeny bit annoyed/feld up/concerned about the way things are going now. Any i see on social media are forthright in their positivity and certainty that all is fab BUT: We have a PM who is not going to do anything about anything 'because that's for the new leader,' a Tory party that's only fussed about who's going to stand for leader, with whom, for whom and on what day etc. Labour are wasting all their energy winding each other up and ensuring they don't have a leader instead of concentrating on the matter in hand, and all we've heard from Boris Johnson has reached us via the medium of a newspaper column?! Gove has disappeared (oh, well) and Farage...

In the meantime, not one single one of them is doing any work at all! Nothing! And the country still needs running. Presumably they all had stuff to do before this implosion. Domestic affairs? Global affairs? Meetings to go to?

I just don't get the lack of worry and anger from all voters, whatever you wanted last week. Surely this week we just need to be begging for someone, somewhere to be doing their job?

Tanith - I completely agree with you. People are starting to realise they've made a mistake. We don't have to do it.

And I think there will have to be a GE. There always has been pretty soon after a new leader (GB held off for a bit) and none of the parties had a manifesto for post-Brexit so have no mandate for the negotiations.

Leave voters have to see this too? This isn't a leave/remain thing anymore is it?

I think there has to be a general election too.

The whole thing is a massive shit storm though. A GE might just focus people's minds a bit and once you have a newly elected government in it does draw a line.

The fixed term thing was yet another example of the hubris of the ruling classes (see also Brexit). It was designed to stop a coalition or minority government being ousted before it could get going.

Bloody fuckwits.

I think a General Election right now would bring further turmoil, and we have enough of that at the moment. The dust needs to settle a bit, if it will.

Both the Conservative Party and Labour are pretty rudderless at the moment, and systematically ripping themselves to shreds too. Cameron has already said he will be stepping down and Corbyn looks so embattled at the moment that he too might have to follow suit, so both may soon be embroiled in simultaneous leadership contests.

Therefore, at the moment I can't see that there is anyone to vote for, and nor can I see an early end to it. Who on earth would want to take on party leadership of either in the current climate?

The only party that hasn't hit self-destruct is the Lib Dems. They are also opposed to Brexit, which attracts me and might just be their ticket back into Parliament if this all rumbles on, as it will for a long time yet.

Didn't the Lib Dems self destruct at the last election? It's probably easier to stick together when there's not even enough of you to make a football team

GEs bring uncertainty. It's already pretty damn uncertain out there so may as well go all out and get it over with.

TheLib Dems have always been pro EU. Tim Farron has pledged to keep the UK in the EU as part of their election manifesto. Thousands have joined the Lib Dems over the past few days because of their pro Europe stance.
Go Lib Dems!

I hate to say this, because I voted Remain and am as aghast as anyone else at the comprehensive trashing of our economy and international standing thanks to a bunch of lies, opportunists and a kack-handed attempt to neutralise a single issue, but Leave won a popular vote, some of which was on genuine issues, and I don't think this can be played with or ignored.

Yes I believe that constitutionally there will need to be a vote in Parliament but if I were an MP I would be inclined to vote according to the referendum result.

We have made our bed, over decades of policies and cultural shifts that could have been designed to make sure that half the country felt excluded from the other half, and now we have to lie in it. We will be poorer, smaller, laughed at and left out. We have no more oil and will not have much influence. We will be a different kind of service economy, a cheap place that the children of the next emerging power come to learn English while that is still desirable, and to attend Eton while that still has cachet. Given that Rome still has appeal 1600 years after the fall of the Empire we can probably trade off our past for a while yet.

Tanith - I completely agree with you. People are starting to realise they've made a mistake. We don't have to do it.

What are you basing this on?

Given the impassioned lunacy of the Remain crowd, I am very skeptical of the various petitions currently making the rounds.

Don't you need only an email address to sign it? If even that?

www.standard.co.uk/news/london/panic-set-in-voter-who-backed-brexit-reveals-regret-a3281551.html

This reads more like an Onion article than anything else.

We have made our bed, over decades of policies and cultural shifts that could have been designed to make sure that half the country felt excluded from the other half, and now we have to lie in it. We will be poorer, smaller, laughed at and left out. We have no more oil and will not have much influence. We will be a different kind of service economy, a cheap place that the children of the next emerging power come to learn English while that is still desirable, and to attend Eton while that still has cachet. Given that Rome still has appeal 1600 years after the fall of the Empire we can probably trade off our past for a while yet.

Oh my God I am so depressed .

I agree with tanith. I am not sure why so many people in power are saying this absolutely has to go ahead.

The referendum is advisory.
37% of the electorate wanted out - this is lower than would be accepted by a TU strike ballot.
There were many lies in both campaigns.
The percentage difference between results is very small.
Fuckwit himself said that if the result was 48 - 52 for the other side, the matter would be taken further.
The massive inequality in this country needs to be tackled now, but leaving the EU would be IMO throwing the baby out with the bathwater.
A decision of this magnitude should never have been left to us.

www.independent.co.uk/news/people/richard-dawkins-eu-referendum-brexit-david-cameron-a7059201.html

Or, as Ken Clarke said - a referendum is
“a curious way of governing a modern and sophisticated country”.

I hope to God that behind the scenes politicians and civil servants are trying to get us out of this god awful mess.

IMO what we need is a massive shake up of our political system, a massive drive on tackling social and economic divisions, proportional representation to become our voting system, and the issue of Europe taken to a General Election. I don't believe that a Tory government has any kind of mandate any more. I hope that Johnson's career is over and that David Cameron realises how much damage he has done to this country instead of making smarmy jibes at the opposition saying he thought he was having a bad day - and then looking at his chums on the front benches for affirmation as he laughed.

A bad day ? Is that what he calls it?

Tanith - I don't think anyone (including Boris) actually wants to leave, but they don't want to be the ones to say it (there would be an outcry).

So instead the leave campaigners seem to be back-pedalling and changing what they said they were arguing for. They have all admitted that there is no cash injection for the NHS (no doubt they'll mention the need for cuts in a collapsing economy later). But what is really interesting to me is that they seem to be changing what they said they said about immigration. So this morning & yesterday I have read that no-one voting leave wanted immigration to stop, nor did they want it massively reduced - I suspect they're setting up for us to become part of the EEA (if allowed), which seems to me to be an expensive way of belonging to the EU without any say in how it's run. But I suspect they'll try & bullshit their way out of that as well.