Paphos People

What went wrong? answer is simple
Pensioners , You do not say to pensioners oh we are removing the triple lock and have a full frontal attack on them, they are your core voters.
Arrogance - Assume everyone trusted them without asking the people what they wanted, The word Assume can be broken down to make an (butt -U - ME )
Fear - People were frightened at what May was going to do in Europe, frightened of what Brexit was going to do to them.
Polices - They based the election on Brexit and sadly recent events security, they gave us no indication on what their policies were on our core values.

The Tories blew it In a nutshell the UK is in deep pooh and there will be uncertainty in the markets Stirling is in decline.

Corbyn, love him or hate him was very shrewd, he knew which buttons to press and say the right thinks, dare I say Labour just might be the next government (look at the constitution).

What went wrong for me

Is that May went all the way on one point, the strong Brexit that we need for the uk
And people DO want a strong Brexit

But

What she forgot completely was that people have had enough of Austerities...people are sick and tired of cuts, people are frightened of losing the NHS

Corbyn gained seats by not putting his eggs into one basket...he has promised the earth across the age groups...with FREE everything

And the uk bought into the FREE

Wonder which coalition will rise from the embers! As none are going to be a great shout at all

Rough days ahead

If the Tories had not gain 14 seats off the SNP then an even worse disaster.

I was awakened this morning by the sound of laughter ... all the way from Brussels. :(

the people have spoken at the ballot box ..
sick of the rich getting richer and the poor paying for it ...
they decided its time to stand up ...
to many millionaire conservative MP`s ..

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REACH 1000`s of PAPHOS CUSTOMERS EVERY DAY FOR A FRACTION OF WHAT THE OTHERS CHARGE
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Whilst the optimist and the pessimist argued that the whisky glass was either half full
or half empty ? .
I drank it .....
The opportunist..

I agree with all the posts it is again party arrogance, UK people have changed in every aspect, they are tired of the same old rubbish and regrettably May and the Tories have not kept up with those changes, hence todays fiasco, as I type this she says she is going to try and form a minority government and not stand down.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing when commenting on todays situation.

Not quite the picture that was painted in the previous few weeks though.

Apparently, "old people" are still voting Tory even though they promise to take away the WFA, triple lock and "dementia " tax. Probably the same "old people" that voted to Leave.

What went wrong was - an election was called for when it wasn't needed. It was an ego trip to show how powerful the tories could be.... They didn't think for one minute they could fail. Instead of laying down facts, they simply showed they had nothing new up their sleeves so resorted to bad mouthing the other parties and hiding behind their skirts.

There was nothing strong and stable about their campaign and the great British public saw through their smokescreen.

Only the postal votes have kept them ahead. Another election could see them up the poo creek without a paddle.

A total waste of public spending which should have been put to better use!
How the mighty have fallen.... and the EU are laughing behind their hands as they've literally just said not to rush to the Brexit negotiations until we get our country back in order as they don't want to see a weak deal.

Oh deary me

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Busy exploring England's green & pleasant lands since May 2016 after 12yrs in Cyprus.
There appears to be a misapprehension I run a photography business... it's my passion as a hobby.
I sell and buy postage stamps!

Actually FF
The election WAS needed as Labour, SNP and Liberal Dems voted against May at every turn..trying to disrupt the Brexit deal as much as they could, blame those parties on what now could be a weak deal...as it is those parties that fought May at every step

Brexit is won, both parties accepted that! We NEED a strong Brexit!

But people are tired of Austerity, May truthfully promised them more...and so they turned to Labour as the FREE givers to society

We are now in a worse situation than before

And I blame the other parties for NoT standing behind the government for a strong Brexit for our uk

I think you'll find Labour abstained on many votes, they also supported her re Article 50. She had a working majority which she has needlessly thrown away at an unnecessary expense to the country probably needing another election shortly. Since 2010 the tories have led the country from one disaster to another.

All quiet on the Sturgeon front though eh?!

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And the Oscar goes to........

Austerity will be here for a long time whilst we dish out £Billions in overseas aid and see £Billions disappear in Tax Avoidance.
Stop and think what those £Billions could have done ie tax cuts for the upper echelon.

Seen this on the BBC, as I said it was an attack at the elderly also not discussing the manifesto with their own MP.s
Conservative MP Nigel Evans says the election result has been an "absolute disaster" for the Conservatives, claiming the campaign was "hijacked by [his] own party".
Evans, who retained his seat in the Ribble Valley, said the Conservative party "did a full-frontal assault on our core voters - the elderly."
He told BBC Radio 5 lives' Nicky Campbell: “We didn’t shoot ourselves in the foot, we shot ourselves in the head."

9:4 on a 2nd General Election.
The Pundits got it wrong but next time, with a new Tory Leader (Davis perhaps) they should pull it off and keep Corbyn out of No. 10
IMO
Geoff.

Corbyn promised the earth but whos going to pay for it.... Didnt Greece go down this route?

And, they reckon 72% of 18 - 25 year olds turned out to vote.

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Busy exploring England's green & pleasant lands since May 2016 after 12yrs in Cyprus.
There appears to be a misapprehension I run a photography business... it's my passion as a hobby.
I sell and buy postage stamps!

This is another fine mess and waste of the public purse which could have been better used.
I voted Tory but with a heavy heart as I did not have a great deal of confidence in T.May with all her u turns. My gut feeling was right that the manifesto was a vote killer.You don't bite the hand that feeds you.
One bright result was that more young people than ever have taken an interest in politics and as it is their future they should have a say.
Am not a great lover of Labour or J.C but he has played a blinder and led a very succesful campaign.
With respect Migmogs I don't think your comments count for much as you chose not to vote. I felt like you but still voted for what I considered the lesser of 2 evils. That gives me the right to comment.
Brexit now in more danger of a decent outcome than ever and I now feel that it may have been better if Cameron had never called it in the first place.I haven't changed my mind regarding how I voted but it has not worked out as was intended.
Good luck everyone, we are going to need it.

Time to emigrate? Oh, I already have, phew!
Geoff.

The SNP are the largest party in Scotland having more seats than the other parties combined and are the third largest party at Westminster. The 2015 election was a phenomenon as no party had ever won so many seats in Scotland before and it would have been virtually impossible to maintain this.

I would imagine President Putin is withdrawing his secret service field staff, as now being unneccessary. He has seen that moron, who has no political experience, in the USA become President, and is now hiring and firing at all levels as though he is running a business, and now he has a hung Parliament in the UK.

However, the result has told Sturgeon there is no appetite for another Independence referendum.

As the Government will be supported by the DUP (on occasions).
The SNP + Labour and the rest of the 'also-rans' cannot have the effect they would wish (still a minority total in Parliament).
Also, no-one has mentioned the number of Labour Brexiters who could side with the Government at times (Corbyn has been useless at getting the Whip on his troops). If Mrs. May does so, with her troops, the voting could be even more on the Governments side.
At least we don't have to listen to Angus Robertson, Alex Salmond, Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh and Nick Clegg 'whining' at PM's Questions in Parliament !
Deals will be done & time will tell.

There never was. Just that Mrs Sturgeon didn't realize or didn't want to realize that.
A trouble maker if ever there was one (IMO).
Geoff.

According to the polls the desire for another independence referendum is greater than the support for the SNP yet the SNP won 59% of the seats in Scotland. The tories only won 22% and Labour only about 12%. Geoff needs to ignore his pundits who have been wrong on just about everything they have predicted.

A good post Beverly, although I suspect that more "young people" turned out not because of a sudden interest in politics but the prospect of Free Uni Education, and as for Corbyn, who has obviously had an Army of "Style coaches" parachuted in, simply promised the world, a world he simply could never deliver.

Scottish independence is a single issue outwith party politics. The closest the SNP got was at the last referendum and that wasn't really that close in referendum terms

The split is still circa 60% (or more) against ,circa 40% (or less) for

Do Scotland a favour and get on with the day job Nobody "new" is listening any more

So TM has stood up for herself and going it alone, ok the lady has guts and deserves credit for that.
She will need all of the Tories to back her, if only a couple of back benchers vote against her then its going to be tough, it is going to be a turbulent few months for TM, I believe labour will not support her even if it was one of their ideas just to try and bring the government down.
In politics they all smell blood, do you trust the long knives within her own circle, give it a couple of weeks and there might be a call for her head from within, watch Boris he can be a scheming so and so.

Fact is that Cameron having been elected in 2015 on the basis of an EU referendum, holding that referendum in 2016, resigning in 2016 and being replaced by May same year and Article 50 having to wait a further year for legal clarification meant there was no chance of delivering a clear Brexit (given the opposition and the complexity) by the time of mandated General Election in May 2020. That is all part and parcel of the entrapment process of leaving the EU

So May was right to call an election, she just made a pigs ear of the manifesto.

Anyone who thinks Britain is now in a better place (other than shutting the Scottish harpie up) is deluded

I totally disagree with you. The Tories had won the last election, but needed four complete years to handle some very difficult negotiations with the EU, and to ensure trade agreements with others outside that paramater. However, the likes of that utterly weak pair of Corbyn and Abbott, plus the stabbing in the back by Sturgeon(who fortunately has now received her come uppance), who conspired to rock the boat, resulted in another General Election. They would have commanded far more respect, if they had put on a united front to the EU, but no, they had to try their chances at destabilising everything. Don't blame the Tories. Blame the so called leaders of The Labour Party and the SNP, who are both on the same level as Donald Trump - Wasters!

WD, hope you are sitting down, I totally agree with you, Mrs May had no choice but to call a GE

It was an unmitigated disaster for Sturgeon & the SNP in Scotland, whichever way you try to spin it!

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And the Oscar goes to........

It was even worse for the tories. Any party would give their eye teeth for 59% of the seats available.

I could make the point that Nicola Sturgeon did not stand in this election, but Teresa May did.
Nicola Sturgeon did not call this election so that she could gain a bigger majority, but Teresa May did.
The Snp didn't lose their majority in this election, but the Tories did.
It's not time for Nicola Sturgeon to resign but it's time Teresa May ....

By that logic Nicola Sturgeon should have resigned when the SNP lost their majority at Holyrood in the last Scottish election ?

Fortunately she didn't and not only has she seen SNP representation collapse at Westminster under her continued rant-a-thon, she will probably oversee the SNP ousted as the biggest party in 2021 courtesy of her incessant spouting of unsubstantiated drivel on all matters economic, making Scotland look like some sort of racist hell hole where no sensible business would invest and running Scotland's once proud public services into the dirt

I think you must be listening to the same pundits as Geoff.

Two of the big 3 in the Westminster SNP have been given their jotters by their own Scottish electors in their own constituencies - Sturgeon will probably get the same treatment when she has to face her own electorate too That isn't guesswork- that's simple extrapolation of a current trend

When you realise your obsession with independence has cost you votes and your raison d'être is independence you are effectively admitting you are barking up the wrong tree surely ? because that is what just happened whether you realise it or not

"Welcome to Tory Britain, you'll have had your democracy. The Tories in Scotland came a distant second to the SNP, but they're acting as though they're the largest party. There was only one party which lost its majority this week, and it was Ruth Davidson's. Theresa May has lost, but she's acting as though she won the crushing majority she called the election for. Her speech on Friday morning was an exercise in denial. It was a remarkable speech, the speech she was going to deliver anyway. It's a speech that called for unity without compromise, even though the electorate had stripped her of her majority. It was a speech that showed she has learned nothing, a speech that illustrated how unfit she is for the office that she clings to. Theresa May delivered her words but all she told us is how arrogant and out of touch she is. When Theresa May calls on the country to get behind her it's because she means she wants us out of sight so she doesn't need to engage with us or consider us."

From exactly the same source as your cut and paste

"You can put lipstick on a pig, but it’s still a pig. There’s no spin you can put on it, no positive gloss. This hasn’t been a good night for the SNP. The results of the General Election have been terrible for the party. Some of its biggest names are no longer representing Scotland in Westminster, replaced by third rate Tories and no-hope Labourites."

I agree with some of the last sentence, but the no-hopers are simply replacing even bigger diddies and Scots have worked that out (hence the swap )

Spin, spin, spin. Talking of Scotland, which i am, it is a disaster for Sturgeon, her dreams of yet another referendum lay in tatters, people being so fed up with her spouting about it yet again whilst ignoring far more pressing problems in Scotland, such as education. Yet still she won't listen, and face up to the fact people are fed up with her one track policy of independence at any cost.

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And the Oscar goes to........

I have sat down Hudswell! Is this the first time you and I have agreed?

Given the results, Sturgeon should call an election in Scotland now if she continues to bang on about independence, to
get a clear mandate from the electorate. May at least had the guts to do that, but Sturgeon will not because she knows
she will take a hammering were she to do so. Given that she won't do that, what she should do now is to forget
independence and get on with running Scotland properly. However, she won't do that either, because the SNP (a bit
like UKIP) are a one issue party and only really interested in gaining independence and that is the reason why Scotland
is being run so badly and getting worse. May's problems were that she ran a poor campaign and did not engage in debates
with Corbyn to highlight the financial holes in the Labour manifesto and this meant many voters believed in the usual
"we'll give you anything and the rich will pay for it" content of their manifesto. Particularly young voters who don't usually vote at
all but who turned out to vote for "free" university education etc. These of course are people who have never experienced the
effects of a Socialist government - increased taxation, council tax, national debt etc.
May will not be able to continue as PM, there will be a change of Tory leader and another election within six months I suspect.

May was the best of a bad bunch last time, but actually did a very good job in her time in power. Her communication skills let her down this time and her strong woman stance didn't go down well with the the British public. They like to see a PM who will stand up to bullies abroad, but they don't really like a PM who looks like she'll bully them as well

You cannot simply stand up and tell people who have not had a pay rise rise for years there is no chance of getting one (even if the country cannot afford it), you cannot threaten to cut universal benefits (even if they are unaffordable) and you can't threaten to use pensioners homes to pay for their long term care (even if we have an old age crisis of epic proportions looming.) At the very least you have to sound a little sympathetic when you're announcing it

These are no ways to increase your majority and whoever drafted the Conservative manifesto should have been aware of that. The Corbyn free for all appealed to some, although anyone who has experienced the effects of the sort of policies Corbyn has been elected on and some of the "causes" he sympathises with really ought to take a good long hard look at themselves if they voted for more of the same.

The belief obviously was that May was popular enough and Corbyn mad enough that they could get away with it. If you look at Cameron's manifesto from 2015 it's like a give away compared to the one they just turned out. To be honest it's a testament to May's popularity that they still won this election, but she is indeed now damaged goods and might indeed have to step down soon.

This was the Brexit election and that's what the focus should have been- everything else could have waited. It was May's chance to become an elected PM with the opportunity to put a lot of dissenting voices to the sword such as the SNP (who did get their comeuppence) and the Lords (who had wilfully obstructed the will of Parliament and the British people) and get the mandate required to negotiate with Brussels from a position of strength.

Unfortunately she (or her spin doctors) blew it and no one in politics is going to let her forget it

Another good post, Ilex !
Except, that I hope Mrs. May ignores the 'moaning minnies' .... and just carries on regardless.

I suspect the 'Santa List' created by the Corbyn & Abbott show appealed to them, given the promise of higher education without the currently associated tuition fees.This coupled with their daily access to 'bank of mum & dad', would mean that they could continue to avoid growing up at no cost to themselves.
They didn't need to evaluate how this would be paid for by others, just happy that they would not have to carry the burden personally.
The only thing that surprises me is that they were not given an 'App' to facilitate their voting (since they barely look up from a screen on some type of media device or other, to participate in real life anyway), if it had been, I am in no doubt the percentage voting would have been much higher.
In essence I think Labour have successfully weakened the UK's position before the upcoming Brexit talks, which (apart from self-engrandisment) was the ultimate objective of Corbyn the Commy traitor. Little wonder he's smiling & Abbott's purported illness has evaporated! Both their Manifesto & her 'illness' are simply concocted fiction.
These two facts alone indicate their lack of integrity for all to see - remember the 'Gordon Brown Show', I'm sure Osborne does!
Great Britain I'm afraid is a distant memory, too many witchdoctors with a vote making it a third-world country, which of course is what they are used to.

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I'll be back!

The cynical use of the internet  :-
After the evidence of tweets by Donald Trump getting massive views and reactions from the media & general public, Labour decided to use the Internet
(to 'whip up the gullible' into attending imminent hustings events). Youngsters attended, cheering & clapping, as if they were at a free concert
So many pathetic attempts at humour and promises of 'milk & honey' for the younger generation have swayed new voters into believing Corbyn & Co..
Sadly, those new voters are not old enough to have experienced the damage which previous Labour Governments have caused to the UK.
I fear that the decisions they made, at the 2017 General Election, will come back to haunt them in years to come .... and they will be left to pay the bill for it !!!!!

Ultimately a country ends up with the politicians it deserves.

Repeatedly the term "strong Brexit" surfaces in these posts.
May I ask, what a "strong Brexit" might be? One that does the least damage to the UK or one that is "as hard as possible"?
Thanks

According to the BBC and Mr Google
http://www.bbc.com/news/business-37500140

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Dave
Moira And Dave

“I know that you believe you understand what you think I said, but I'm not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant.”

Exactly, the young who felt let down on Brexit have made a stand.
Good luck to gay people, whilst the Cons go to bed with the DUP creationists etc etc etc

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Dave