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No - but communicating to the public that the reason you are calling an election is to silence the opposition parties and other bodies holding you to account (a

No - but communicating to the public that the reason you are calling an election is to silence the opposition parties and other bodies holding you to account (and espousing the view that the opposition should effectively shut up and put up) definitely registers high on my dark and scary times scale

DanBC 10y ago
Especially when the mandate for Hard Brexit is so weak.
sir_throwaway 10y ago
Nobody is silencing anyone. The Lib Dems campaigned for an EU referendum [1], and now want to reverse it because the result wasn't what they wanted. The SNP campaigned for Scotland to leave the EU (as it would have done if leaving the UK) in their independence referendum, and now behave as if leaving the EU is unthinkable. Both are playing politics. The ground has shifted, and so it's helpful for the government to get a new mandate. [1] http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/images/Clegg-referendum-page-001-353x500.jpg http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/images/Clegg...
- matthewmacleod 10y ago
  The statement that the SNP campaigned for Scotland to leave the EU is a bald-faced and deliberate lie. Please do not spread misinformation like this; there are enough lies kicking around already.
golergka 10y ago
Silencing someone with open election that would show that they have no support doesn't sound very sinister. If anything, it sounds like the best possible way to resolve such a situation.
- louisswiss 10y ago
  No. This is a common (and very cunning) straw man and I hope it stems from a position of ignorance not deceit. Silencing someone should never be the goal. If the Conversatives are experiencing difficulties pushing through their agenda due to opposition from other parties, then the best way to resolve that is either via compromise or by calling an election to increase their majority in parliament which should allow them to push through their agenda more easily. Even if (arguably especially if) the Conservatives win 99% of the seats in the House of Commons, the remaining 1% should be opposing, scrutinising and holding to account as well and as loudly as they can. Yet Theresa May is after something different here (a tactic which we've heard recently, but by no means exclusively, from many Brexiteers as well) - she is implying that unless opposition parties can beat the Conservatives in a general election, then they should put up and shut up as the public have spoken. That's not how democracy works. ----- edit: For those who don't see the straw man here, it is that while silencing someone who is standing up for the beliefs of people who don't exist is okay, in real life the parties who are currently opposing the government are guaranteed to be defending a none-zero number of British citizens, who we cannot allow to be silenced on principle (even if we act against their wishes).

DanBC 10y ago

Especially when the mandate for Hard Brexit is so weak.

sir_throwaway 10y ago

Nobody is silencing anyone. The Lib Dems campaigned for an EU referendum [1], and now want to reverse it because the result wasn't what they wanted. The SNP campaigned for Scotland to leave the EU (as it would have done if leaving the UK) in their independence referendum, and now behave as if leaving the EU is unthinkable. Both are playing politics. The ground has shifted, and so it's helpful for the government to get a new mandate. [1] http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/images/Clegg-referendum-page-001-353x500.jpg http://www.newstatesman.com/sites/default/files/images/Clegg...

matthewmacleod 10y ago
The statement that the SNP campaigned for Scotland to leave the EU is a bald-faced and deliberate lie. Please do not spread misinformation like this; there are enough lies kicking around already.

golergka 10y ago

Silencing someone with open election that would show that they have no support doesn't sound very sinister. If anything, it sounds like the best possible way to resolve such a situation.

louisswiss 10y ago
No. This is a common (and very cunning) straw man and I hope it stems from a position of ignorance not deceit. Silencing someone should never be the goal. If the Conversatives are experiencing difficulties pushing through their agenda due to opposition from other parties, then the best way to resolve that is either via compromise or by calling an election to increase their majority in parliament which should allow them to push through their agenda more easily. Even if (arguably especially if) the Conservatives win 99% of the seats in the House of Commons, the remaining 1% should be opposing, scrutinising and holding to account as well and as loudly as they can. Yet Theresa May is after something different here (a tactic which we've heard recently, but by no means exclusively, from many Brexiteers as well) - she is implying that unless opposition parties can beat the Conservatives in a general election, then they should put up and shut up as the public have spoken. That's not how democracy works. ----- edit: For those who don't see the straw man here, it is that while silencing someone who is standing up for the beliefs of people who don't exist is okay, in real life the parties who are currently opposing the government are guaranteed to be defending a none-zero number of British citizens, who we cannot allow to be silenced on principle (even if we act against their wishes).