On Europe I don't think anyone has much of a clue how it'll go since nobody's ever done it before in any country. Looking at how trade negotiations go between other countries there's no way it'll be sorted in 2 years unless there's a willingness on both sides to make it work. It took 7 years for a Europe/Singapore trade deal to get agreed. 2 years to negotiate leaving the EU seems wildly optimistic. Leaving without a deal will trigger a recession.

The sticking point is going to be the "divorce bill". The right wing of the Tory party and the right wing press won't want to pay a penny. That's just unrealistic. May is going to have a job on to appear tough to placate those idiots but retain a decent negotiating relationship with European partners. I doubt she can do it. We'll end up leaving with no deal and all the blame being put on Europe when in actual fact the whole mess was brought about by the Tory right.

May isn't as tough as she makes out. She's gone for an election to shore up her position internally in the party but she's totally under the influence of the Tory press. Has she got a good negotiating team? Boris Johnson is incapable of being a serious politician. Liam Fox is a spiv. The government have been advertising for negotiators because they lack expertise - even trying to persuade ACAS people to come on board despite ACAS not having any trade negotiating expertise.

If it was Labour doing the job you're in the same situation pretty much although I rate Keir Starmer far higher than David Davis or Boris. The difference is they don't need to play up to the press since they're hated anyway.

It's a sorry state of affairs. My rationale is that I'm always going to need public services so I'm going to back the party with the best record on looking after them. As we get older we're all going to need the NHS and social care.

May’s pretence of being strong & stable is crashing down on her. She has no conviction. She sat on the fence on Brexit until she thought the remainers were going to win then plumbed for them. The most radical thing she has ever done in her life is run through a wheat field which upset the farmer a tad. The bureaucrats of Brussells will be terrified. It’s a good point you raise though. 99% pf the negotiations will not be by the PM, or MPs, but by civil servants.

I suppose the kindest thing you could say about her calling for this election at this time was planning to get enough support to be able to comfortably ignore her rabid Right wing.

Diane Abbott replaced as shadow HS.

Temporarily, for ill-health says Corbyn.

rlRelated?rl

Senior civil servants will be made of SPADs hurriedly brought in at the last minute. Many of our best have left recently since they disagree with the direction things are going.

Whitehall is really struggling to find people up to the job since experienced trade negotiators are well rewarded working already for multinationals and unlikely to move job unless they get mega bucks and they do already.

Boris will play to the gallery (as usual) and do more harm than good undermining the negotiations. May will be a hostage to the right wing press who are trying to paint her as a Thatcher when she's not in the same universe.

If Labour get in I expect they'll try a more conciliatory approach. The end result will be a deal that's worse than what we had if we'd stayed in as the EU won't allow anything else. No deal is significantly worse.

I wouldn't be surprised if Abbott's illness is stress related.

She's gets more than her fair share of stick but doesn't help herself either. Same for Corbyn. Don't turn up on national radio to announce a flagship policy without full briefing and costings. They're old enough that they should know better. The spin doctors should be tattooing it on their palms.

I know people who have worked directly with Abbott and they found her to be warm, capable and credible. Sadly these attributes do not automatically translate to positions of power where regrettably she is all too easy to shoot down.


Not much different to Corbyn himself in that I have no doubt at all that he is a decent and honorable man, who has dedicated his whole life to standing up for the downtrodden. Not, in my opinion, reason enough to be leader of the party but a valuable party resource nonetheless.

So a few days ago I posted my utterly fruitless vote for the LD candidate in my constituency which has been Labour since 1478 and will remain so until the planet is consumed by the sun. MUST...VOTE...LABOUR...COS...MY...NAN...DID...BAAAAH.

I always love that phrase. No "5 a day for you" tomorrow. Do you get more fruit for voting for someone else? Is that not illegal?

The BBC are reporting Diane Abbott as taking an "indefinite break" from her post. Basically I think she's not duplicitous enough to be a politician in this day & age. The ability to evade and/or lie effectively is almost a prerequisite now, which is a real shame.

The whole sham of being, 'Strong and Stable', is the biggest laugh of all, as she is by far the weakest leader of the major parties. Far from leading, she is dragged around by the Ukipian, far right of the Tory party and the Daily Wail. Even the obvious trick of surrounding herself with even lesser lights, like Boris and David Davis isn't sufficient to make her appear 'strong'.

The saddest thing of all is that I can see her cosying up to Trump and getting us a TTIP type deal with the US, complete with the tribunals giving their multinational companies the right to sue our government for loss of income if they don't get all the big health service contracts. This is exactly the sort of deal which the EU has, if not exactly told the US to go away and multiply, has most certainly kicked into the longest of long grass. I can see May and Trump now, hand in hand, outside Downing St, telling us what a wonderful deal we've negotiated..

Suspect that what it was all about in the end

So when Theresa May gets back in she'll start screwing you with redoubled effort, but at least you can get a free £40 back if you open up a new Betfair account - for new customers you can then back TM for PM up to £10 at odds of 4/1. That's forty totally free quid.

A small consolation. But you're gonna need every penny

Funnily enough Boris does it everyday but the media portray him as a lovable buffoon. 'Bah err yes, err Corbyn, you see, Corbyn votes against this, something or other, that's why you can't trust him, yes not to be trusted'
'But you voted the same Boris?'
'Did I?? Really? Oh well there you go then!'
Guffaws and bonhomie all round........

When did it become a personality referendum not the election of a party who's policies you agree with?

Decades ago Scarey.

It just gets worse with every one.

Take your point about Boris, but he's of the establishment and gets a free pass.