Theresa May has been forced to scrap a host of her most controversial policies after the Conservatives lost their majority in the snap general election.
The Prime Minister used the Queen’s Speech to outline multiple bills on the UK’s exit from the European Union.
Legislation on trade, agriculture and immigration previously handled by the EU needs to be written into British law, meaning Brexit will dominate the next two years of Parliament.
Source: The Independent
Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) has played down reports it is seeking £2bn in extra funding for Northern Ireland in return for supporting the Tories. Earlier, sources told the BBC the DUP wanted £1bn invested in Northern Ireland's health service and a similar figure for infrastructure projects.
[...] Prime Minister Theresa May is seeking the support of the DUP's 10 MPs after losing her majority in the general election.
Both sides have been locked in talks for 11 days, but to date they have not confirmed a deal to prop up a Conservative minority government. On Tuesday, a senior DUP source said the party could not be "taken for granted" and urged the Conservatives to give a "greater focus" to their negotiations.
Source: BBC News
British negotiators have capitulated to key European demands for a phased approach to Brexit talks, agreeing to park discussions on free trade until they have thrashed out the cost of the multibillion-euro UK divorce settlement.
Putting a brave face on a concession that may further strengthen the tactical dominance of the EU, the Brexit secretary, David Davis, insisted [...] “It’s not how it starts, it’s how it finishes that matters,” Davis said in Brussels after the first day of formal talks. “Nothing is agreed until everything is agreed.”
[...] One EU official said the first day had been a show for the cameras and the meat of the negotiations would start on 10 July.
Source: The Guardian
Jeremy Corbyn insisted Labour is a “government-in-waiting” as he taunted Theresa May over the loss of her parliamentary majority, promising to vote down unpopular austerity measures and offer “strong and stable leadership”.
[...] Corbyn called May’s minority administration “a government without a majority, without a mandate, without a serious legislative programme, led by a prime minister who has lost her political authority, and is struggling to stitch together a deal to stay in office”.
[...] MPs will vote on the Queen’s speech next week and senior Conservative sources have repeatedly said they believe it will command the confidence of the House. But even if MPs fall into line, it became clear on Thursday that May could face a series of battles in the House of Lords over Brexit legislation.
Source: The Guardian
Representing centre-right to right-wing values, the protestant party [DUP] is the largest in Northern Ireland by number of seats but only represents constituencies within Northern Ireland.
[...] Though Northern Ireland could be set to benefit financially from close ties to Westminster, critics argue that these ties could threaten to undermine hard-fought political cohesion in the country.
Under the 1998 Good Friday Agreement, the British government is supposed to be an impartial broker on any disagreements within Northern Ireland's devolved – and currently suspended – parliament, the Northern Ireland Assembly.
[...] The Troubles refer to three decades of sectarian conflict within Northern Ireland, which took place between the late-1960s and the late 1990s.
[...] Power-sharing in the Northern Irish Assembly has been suspended since January amid a political stalemate between the member parties.
Source: CNBC
Unionists/loyalists, who are mostly Protestants and consider themselves British, want Northern Ireland to remain within the United Kingdom. Irish nationalists/republicans, who are mostly Catholics, want Northern Ireland to leave the United Kingdom and join a united Ireland. During The Troubles (1968-1998), 368 republican militants, 291 loyalist militants, 1049 British armed forces, 11 Irish armed forces and 1841 civilians were killed.
There were many incidents of collusion between the British state security forces (the British Army and RUC) and loyalist paramilitaries. This included soldiers and policemen taking part in loyalist attacks, giving weapons and intelligence to loyalists, not taking action against them, and hindering police investigations.
Operation Banner was the operational name for the British Armed Forces' operation in Northern Ireland from August 1969 to July 2007. While the withdrawal of troops was welcomed by the nationalist parties Social Democratic and Labour Party and Sinn Féin, the unionist Democratic Unionist Party and Ulster Unionist Party opposed the decision, which they regarded as 'premature'.
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @09:53AM (1 child)
When is Queenie planning to die?
(Score: -1, Offtopic) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @04:05PM
Just asker her majesty and she replied "A year to the day after that nasty AC!"
(Score: 4, Interesting) by Snospar on Thursday June 22 2017, @10:05AM (11 children)
What I don't understand about all this is how on earth Theresa May has been allowed to continue on as Leader of the Conservatives and Prime Minister when she completely bungled the entire election. She didn't need to call the election, her party already had a majority government in power, she only did it for her own personal gratification and it backfired spectacularly.
Even with the result of a Hung Parliament and no clear majority she just appeared to ignore the issue and scuttled off to the Queen stating that with the DUP she had enough seats to form a Government. Only problem was, at that point, she didn't have any agreement with the DUP so she basically lied to the Queen.
And yet she still continues as though nothing is wrong and she's still in charge of a strong and stable government. Where's the vote of no confidence? Where's the leadership challenge from within the Conservatives themselves?
And lying to the Queen! Off with her head.
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(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @10:09AM
Fake it until you make it, they often say. It's not lying if your bluff comes true.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @10:12AM (1 child)
Theresa May is a great leader. She's so great that she wants to change human rights laws if they get in the way of the government's ability to stop Bad Guys. Every great leader not only wants to do away with human rights, but openly and explicitly admits to desiring to do so. That's the one thing we need less of in our increasingly authoritarian world: Human rights.
(Score: 3, Funny) by FatPhil on Thursday June 22 2017, @01:28PM
Great minds discuss ideas; average minds discuss events; small minds discuss people; the smallest discuss themselves
(Score: 5, Informative) by zocalo on Thursday June 22 2017, @10:41AM (3 children)
The agreement with the DUP is just icing on the cake to try and make sure that when something contentious comes up for a vote they have a better chance of getting it through on a three line whip - which *should* guarantee everyone in the party or coalition votes for it regardless of whether they support it or not. You can (and do) still get rebels though - ministers that ignore a three line whip are expected to resign, but for back benchers the blowback is mostly just the equivalent of a reprimand. How she presented the status of that agreement to the Queen is a matter of conjecture - she may have been fairly honest and said it was still a work in progress for all we know; it clearly wasn't a done deal at the time so it would certainly have been a mix of bold and stupid to claim otherwise.
The timing of any leadership challenge / no confidence vote is mostly up to the Conservatives at this point. Someone needs to decide they are going to go for it, quietly assess how much support they have, and - if they can meet the required levels of support - they can then mount the leadership challenge or call for a vote of no confidence. That takes a little time, and I suspect any potential challengers are waiting to see what happens with the DUP and early Brexit negotiations - anything reflecting badly on May there is only going to help their cause. My guess is that if it's going to happen at all we'll start to see some serious signs of activity next week. Labour could also try to force the issue, but they're probably better off playing an even longer game, letting the Conservatives become even more divided and maybe go through a leadership challenge/vote of no confidence. The only way Corbyn is going to become PM would be if there was another general election, and the only way they can realistically force that would be if a Conservative government was clearly ineffectual at getting laws passed. The last time this happened - in 1974 - it took about several months for that process to work though.
UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @11:29AM (2 children)
The security services have already said they will not work with him. The Tory manifesto was so awful that they couldn't even campaign on it, this is why Corbyn was able to gain votes (from those 'xenophobic' UKIP supporters no less). I doubt the conservatives will make the same mistake again. The only real concern for now is defanging the stupid internet regulation bill.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by purple_cobra on Thursday June 22 2017, @02:24PM
Were he PM, they'd have two choices: work with him or resign/get sacked. No doubt the question of "leaks" would arise, e.g. showing what terrible people the Labour leadership are; that would be foolhardy in the extreme and would likely result in sacrificial head chopping from the very top of the security services.
Labour will try to widen the already-gaping ideological gaps that have riven the Tories. I can't see the Queen's Speech being voted down - Corbyn's support for peace in Northern Ireland *without* demonising the IRA/Sinn Fein means the DUP are wildly unlikely to side with Labour, even if May brings in an 'Irish babies for fertiliser' bill - but that isn't entirely set in stone; it depends how many backbenchers hate May and how strong that hatred is. Postponing next year's Queen's Speech was an...inventive step, something that any conscientious MP (ha!) should have objected to. That said, the likelihood of the hard right getting anything on the statute books during the next five years is very slim indeed.
(Score: 2) by PartTimeZombie on Friday June 23 2017, @12:56AM
As noted below, the Security Services can say what they like, the Prime Minister sets policy. If they don't like it they can find other work.
The reason the Tories didn't campaign on their manifesto was that Theresa told them to go back to their constituencies, she would handle the national campaign.
I'm pretty sure they all had a hard time trying to justify the dementia tax to their strongest supporters which is one of the many reasons why her time is limited. She's really just awaiting the leadership challenge.
(Score: 2) by theluggage on Thursday June 22 2017, @11:50AM
It won't be long coming. The trouble is, her successor is still going to have to deal with the lack of majority and might end up leading a failed government. So, there are a lot of members of the tory party who would quite like to be the leader after next of the party. Also, the tories are incapable of agreeing amongst themselves what to do about Brexit.
Also, there is the issue of Brexit talks - my guess is that, if the talks can sort out a couple of urgent but non-contentious issues (e.g. both sides want to ensure that EU citizens living in the UK and UK citizens living in the EU can stay - they just need to get it done) then the tories will start wielding the long knives.
(Score: 2) by r1348 on Thursday June 22 2017, @04:54PM
I think it's a hot potato scenario: nobody wants to step in and deal with Brexit.
Once Brexit is done, so will Theresa May.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @08:04PM
She was put into the job of home secretary to do a job.
It turned out that in that position she didn't have the pull to get the whole job done.
Suddenly a anti-brexit figure becomes the leader of the brexit process in an attempt to use it as cover for the real job.
The pull to do it would require a strong electoral mandate and the early election was the best chance to get it.
The short cut didn't work out, but she's still the strongest figure in the pockets of the people who need the job done.
The first part of the job was to make everything done by UK spooks retrospectively legal.
The second part was to allow everything they hadn't got round to yet and had on their wish list legal.
The third part, well wait and see...
(Score: 1) by khallow on Friday June 23 2017, @03:16AM
I disagree on the "personal gratification". The Conservative party has a good opportunity to increase their majority. That means among other things, less compromises and political capital needed to pass legislation. Given the scheming that led to May's tenure, I suspect the Conservatives collectively would rather go with the bungler currently in charge rather than go through a round of Machiavellian maneuvering just to get another bungler. It seems to be a common thing to go with a weak leader rather than risk the turmoil from replacing that leader.
(Score: 2) by Bot on Thursday June 22 2017, @10:19AM
The fragmented government is just a normal immunological response of the underlying political/financial system reacting to brexit. They are able to withstand both brexit or reentrance, anyway.
Account abandoned.
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @11:02AM (2 children)
after importing a bunch of child raping terrorists
(Score: 2) by n1 on Thursday June 22 2017, @08:55PM (1 child)
Jimmy Savile is dead, but I guess you're right... Until recently the preferred child rapists in the UK were loyal to the crown.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday June 23 2017, @07:14PM
https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2014/jul/05/lost-child-abuse-files-home-office [theguardian.com]
http://www.express.co.uk/news/politics/487664/MPs-paedophiles-Theresa-May-David-Cameron-British-Parliament-lost-dossier [express.co.uk]
http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/wanless-report-into-westminster-pedophile-ring-says-key-files-were-destroyed-this-century-9853662.html [independent.co.uk]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/11224065/Theresa-May-Home-Office-could-have-covered-up-paedophile-claims.html [telegraph.co.uk]
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday June 22 2017, @04:06PM
Buy and sell your political ideals for $MONEYS$ No wrong or right, just $MONEYS$
(Score: 3, Insightful) by Azuma Hazuki on Thursday June 22 2017, @04:12PM
The second coming of Margaret Thatcher can go get stuffed sideways. Bloody regressive.
I am "that girl" your mother warned you about...