[Devongone]

Apparently Theresa May is regularly being brought up on the doorstep.

My suggestion would be a bucket of boiling water and some Jeyes Fluid.

[0762]

All the same she'll be chuckling after observing the huge gains in the local elections due to UKIP's collapse - she transformed to a UKIP 'talker'in the past few weeks and her party has clearly 'sucked in' the absconding UKIP votes! No UKIP presence in Scotland but one can see they are 'pulling' absconding right sided voters from the SNLP and making some kinda gain that their perennial Tory liar, Davidson, will try to capitalise on while I'd say the solid SNP vote remains fairly static. This liar recently commented in that Tory 'rag', The Daily Express, that her party had a 27% swing over the SNP - total mythical nonsense if one just analyses previous margins to compare and divide it by 2!! But this woman never changes in that respect - a Tory liar through n through and full of gross exaggeration!!

[themaclad]

Until today Lancashire County Council was Labour last year they shut many public services claiming the savage Tory spending cuts. Last weekthey announced they were going to be re opening libraries etc. I knew elections were coming up but hadn't twigged they were County Council elections. So last year so savage cuts so savage that this year they could re open the facilities they closed. The cynical ploy didn't work they have been kicked out.
As for general politics if Labour were credible they would do better, personally do not buy into the cult of Corbyn backed up with McDonnell, Abbott et al, Labour has some decent MP but none support Corbyn.
As for the SNP they have one policy only that is Independence and the more Sturgeon spouts off the more people are getting tired of her. Interesting that even though Scotland receives £9 billion under the Barnett formula(free money) the National debt of Scotland is £15 billion and it has a greater % debt of GDP than Greece.
Last year growth in the UK was 1.8% in Scotland it was 0.4%, not one single bill has been passed in the Scottish Parliament this year, maybe if they concentrated their minds on doing what they are paid for i.e running Scotland instead of taking their eye of the ball with wanting another referendum then they may do better.

Deven and 0762 your political views are different to yours but I do respect them

[hibeejim21]

The tories made some worrying gains in Scotland as the labour vote collapses....the unionist vote is now moving.

Its creating a battleground between centre left snp and right wing tory and Westminster rule. Independence is getting closer now.

[St Charles Owl]

The collapse of UKIP was to be expected. They gained their overall objective with the Brexit vote and now are essentially irrelevant. I think it was Jim who in a different thread alluded to the possibility that the SNP could easily go the same way in the event of Scotland gaining independence, that has been their primary focus and platform for years. Now with the Tories being the second biggest party in terms of council seats in Scotland as 0762 states the battleground is now set!! Seems the "Nationalists" on both sides of Hadrians Wall are the parties with the political strength.

[hibeejim21]

Its not so much that ukip have collapsed....more that the tories have become ukip.

[St Charles Owl]

Its not so much that ukip have collapsed....more that the tories have become ukip.

True, but then the UKIP was also born out of the Tory party to start with so I suppose its just gone back to the status quo!!

I am still surprised that none of the main parties have come out as being against Brexit and pledge to overturn it if they are elected!! Having said that, now that Article 50 has been triggered is there even a mechanism to withdraw it and simply not exit the EU??

[0762]

Re your last comment - of course there is an option to stay in the EU but there is no courageous political will to do it and accept the simmering discontent in the country that this Brexit folly is being pursued regardless of the dire consequences. A deciding referendum could still be established to endorse the final deal or give the public the option of holding to the status quo after all!! Lets face it, lotsa voters were duped by the biggest load of populist misinformation and lies that I've ever witnessed in years of observing some awful political events that have previously damaged our country. From a Scottish viewpoint, I endorse Jim's view wholeheartedly re Scot Indy 2 - bring it on as England bizarrely votes in a Tory govt by a big majority when they shouldn't even be there but with no strong political opposition either???? Absolutely f###### crazy in a so called democratic country IMO and let the the English voters 'carry on in that vein' if daft enough but do it without us Scots, thanks very much. And by the way, the SNP covers various policies (not just one!!) that are good for the country but are administered under difficult financial circumstances. Same goes for running the country - as though they have f##### off to do other biz like seeking independence full-time - utter crap and it's a political line consistently used by shitheid unionist parties/officials with the Toerags and their 'blanket rw media at the forefront of this charade!!

[spireitematt]

UKIP had one main policy and that was to get Britain out of the EU. Now Brexit is happening UKIP are defunct and they are no longer relevant as they have served there purpose so all the UKIP voters who used to vote Tory have moved back to the Tories.

The reason why people are voting Tory is because the public now want to get on with Brexit, the Tories have set their stall out and said they will go through with Brexit but I don't trust them as they may go back on there word like they said there was going to be no election and then suddenly we're having an election. It does worry me because I think this could be the most right wing the Tories have ever been.

No one knows where Labour stand on Brexit. The Lib Dems are fighting this election on Brexit and say they will offer another referendum if they win (very much doubt it). At the moment I don't think Brexit is important I think the NHS and looking after our public services are much more important.

As for SNP all they are offering are Scottish independence. If the General Election has a parallel scenario to the local elections then I think a lot of Labour heartlands will be turning Blue and that goes for Scotland and Wales too.

The problem we have in this country is the media and the polls. The mainstream media and polls are mainly right wing in this country. The polls are owned by Tories, the media is owned by Tories. Certain TV channels are meant to impartial but you can tell they're not. They feed us so much bullshit and after a while people not everyone take it as red and end up believing it. What the media did to Miliband at the last election was a disgrace and it was nothing short of character assassination. This election all we are hearing from the Tories are soundbites and the media are not reporting any Labour policies because god forbid someone might vote for them.

[0762]

Just listen to the 'impartial' (???) bbc mate to realise how far this blanket propaganda media coverage goes - it's scary and I've previously said it's very similar to Germany in the 1930s - a vote of discontent breeds fascism and the Tories have the 'tools' to facilitate that.
However; I must challenge you on the SNP only offering independence??? No they are not! They are not perfect but they offer good pragmatic governance and policies under very difficult economic circumstances and the option to go for Scot Indy 2 has been formally set up and approved in the Scottish Parliament and IMO it's a 'safety valve' to cover for the eventuality of a total Tory screw up on Brexit. As expected, the unionist allied parties in Scotland have tried to capitalise on this SNP move and I'm sure it's no surprise to the SNP govt as it is to voters like myself - nothing is surprising re the shameless political antics of this allied political group as most indigenous Scots have witnessed since referendum year 2014. And Scotland 'turning blue' based on a false analogy that it will be similar to the local election results. The SNP have not exactly hit any 'meltdown' up here btw. So cut out the false premise that the Tories will somehow swamp the vote in the general election - absolute garbage and god forbid if my fellow country men/women vote this divisive group of people to ever get near to governance in Scotland. The SNP vote has 'held steady' even in the face of this shitty media campaign/onslaught - something all Scots have previously observed with great derision and it's an absolutely disproportionate disgrace in a country that professes democratic values- a f###### joke. And btw re UKIP, I spit at this hugely politically damaging creation of a populist party and that goes for it's xenophobic b###### of a founder, Farage. If I could go back in time and destroy it in some way, I would do it!!!