General Election BEFORE ARticle 50

[citroenpresse]

According to Nick Clegg in the Guardian, BREXIT so far has been ‘a debilitating cocktail of hubris, incompetence and dishonesty’. In an article for the Guardian, he suggests that a general election should take place before Article 50 is triggered. Given that Switzerland is STILL struggling to come to any agreement with the EU (some two years after their referendum took place in 2014) this seems pretty sane. Surely the leader of a country conducting such a momentous negotiation is something all citizens should have a say in, not just members of the Tory party?

There is absolutely no reason to have GE. We had a referendum. Leave won. The current government has until 2020.

Montylgueldo? Are you saying we should never question a referendum? Or have more than one? Or that a government can't be ejected through a snap election? Happens all the time. What makes the result of this one so sacred?

I hope there is a GE.

Slightly off topic, but I really think the fight in the Labour Party is not actually about Corbyn as a person, but about the direction of the party itself. Corbyn supporters really want to see the Labour Party return to being a legitimate left-wing alternative the Tories. It's not good enough for the Labour Party to just rely on votes from people who only vote for them because they think the Tories are worse! (Which is what they seem to have done for the last two elections!)

And the whole 'Corbyn is unelectable' argument...well clearly so was Milliband, and Brown! Corbyn supporters would rather split the party than go for an 'anything but the Tories' candidate.

This is one massive cock up and as a result we'll end up with someone we didn't vote for as PM. Theresa May and Michael Gove are both hugely unpopular. We absolutely should have another GE. Cameron took a massive risk and we are now up shit creek.

SchnooSchnoo (Gosh, that's hard to type!). I think that makes the Labour party quite small…surely there's room for a Centrist alternative...

I guess your right citroen, but I do think some labour MP's have probably been swayed by the idea that Labour won't get elected under Corbyn, and the most important thing is getting Labour elected, rather than following there true political feelings, and they may align with a more left-wing party and actually me able to produce a more suitable leader if everyone was singing from the same hymn sheet. I have no idea what the consequences of a labour split would be in actuality, but I guess I'm saying that the Labour Party as is is not really fulfilling its function, and it's the party that is unelectable, not just Corbyn! Something has to give. Perhaps a centrist party, a left-wing party, and a right-wing party is what we need, with more emphasis on coalition rather than clear majorities?

Labour MPs are as shifty as Tories when it comes to self-preservation…They are all such cowards. A new progressive party would be great. Errrr, haven't we been this way before?

tiggytape I get that the snap election legislation was in place to stop a run of the mill squabble turning into something more major and causing instability but that legislation ALSO included ways in which snap elections could happen and where we are now is probably one of them.

Not sure that the whole world thinks we are out quite yet, though it's like being made redundant when you still have to come into the office for a couple of days. Technically still an employee, but everyone ignores you. In terms of EU attention, keeping a grip of the union and resisting Nexits or Frexits, or dealing with the Eurozone debt crisis and Italy, refugee crises etc etc will all come a LONG way before UK attempts to get a 'good deal' with our European allies and trading partners who we have turned our back on. And what do leavers think is a 'good deal' anyway?

Why on earth should there be a GE? This is just opportunistic politicians hoping to create more uncertainty for their own gain.
The current Conservative party won a majority government with an away referendum as part of their manifesto and with David Cameron making it clear to the voters that he would be stepping down during this current parliament. I could see if the EU referendum had not been part of their manifesto or if DCameron had not said he would step down before the end of the term how someone could claim that the electorate didn't know what they were voting for but that wasn't the case. So no need for a GE?!

• EU not away!!

I thought many Leave votes were because of the issues of Democracy and Sovereignty? If so, then isn't actually kind of ironic that they want the country to be piloted out of the EU by an unelected prime minister and without scrutiny of whatever-the-hell the eventual deal is by our elected representatives in Parliament?

The overwhelming parliamentary majority is for remain (two-thirds? not sure). I don't think it's so easy to do a direct correlation between UK voting area (on party lines) and IN/OUT (referendum). I know a few idealogical leavers who will (carry on) voting Labour - whose leader is Eurosceptic.
Of all the arguments NOT to hold a GE, that the Tories would have an even bigger majority are, I agree, the most frightening.
Why should there be a GE? The Tory manifesto included the referendum and now they've held it. Yes, David Cameron said he wasn't going to be standing again. But they never expected a leave majority and there is NO mandate for what to do next. Because it is so apparent that there were many different reasons for voting leave, I think British people would like the chance to vote for that strategy and have a say in who is going to run the country, not the few that can vote in the Tory leadership election

Did David Cameron say it would be great if you vote for me - but actually I'm only going to hang around for a year or so….

Gah, if anyone thinks that its fine that David Cameron resigning in that way was actually fine, ecause it was in the Tory manifesto…Truly that's the most ridiculous yet...

Or that perhaps something unusual has happened in the UK. Nope, no need to panic or discuss anything until the next election which is in, ooooh, 2020.

I agreed with the Nick Clegg argument. But Tories aren't going to put anything more than they absolutely have to to the electorate.

I don't think things will move quickly anyway.

Will be really interested in seeing what happens once new leadership in place. Also however long it takes for economic problems to bite.

Tories do NOTHING unless it serves their own vested interests. That's the whole point of the Tory party.So even though only 37% of the electorate voted for them, they control the whole shebang, including the process whether we have any greater say or not. The leader, that suggested this whole mess, has gone and we get a replacement, voted in by a teeny proportion of the electorate, and we have to shut up about that because it's 'democracy'.

Relived we are not in the Eurozone. Happy to be progressively working towards fairer working practices, human rights, global responsibilities, innovation and science and free movement of people and capital. Firmly believe working with your neighbours brings safety and security. Absolutely don't sign up to the political aims of moving closer together but that's OK because a) David Cameron negotiated us out of that and b) lots of other countries don't buy that either. And because it is a DEMOCRATIC institution, those kind of policies have to be agreed by everybody. Most of the 28 (now 27) countries, quite rightly want to have control over how they spend their own budgets on health, welfare, education - the things that control the quality of our lives. We've voted in a Tory government, so that's not going to be fair or optimal, and by not bothering to vote in the European elections, we see Nigel Farage shaming Britain in Brussels, so that's not particularly optimal either. What silver bullet is the NO vote delivering? More crappy politicians that we somehow keep on voting for?

This sort of echoes my thoughts on the matter.
colinrtalbot.wordpress.com/2016/07/05/the-uk-after-the-referendum-all-that-is-solid-melts-into-air/