Post-Brexit British politics
Forgetting international relations, trading with the rest of the world, or with what's left of the EU ... one thing that has been little discussed here is the impact Brexit either has or will have on domestic British politics.
The one party to instantly adapt was the one party previously most divided on the subject of the EU, my Tory party. Going from a party divided and at best lukewarm about the EU since the late 80s to under a new leader that (nominally) campaigned to Remain but now says "Brexit is Brexit". Now though in the position of taking full ownership of whatever happens next.
Labour have descended into full blown farce and acrimony with the unbelievable position that 172 out of 230 MPs voted that they have "No Confidence" in their leader [who makes Bernie Sanders look like Ronald Reagan], who looks like being re-elected anyway. If they're not led by Corbyn then they'll be led by Smith and the Labour rebels who want to make fighting Brexit and remaining in the EU a key goal.
UKIP seem to be melting like the frost in spring. Long a one-man and one-issue band, they've lost their issue and their leader has also retired. Now they've somehow ended up in a position whereby all their other prominent names have been excluded from the leadership ballot on one technicality or another. They have never won a seat not from a defector in their entire history, now I think they'll wither on the vine and disappear like the BNP before them.
The Lib Dems have decided to double-down on Europhilia (despite a third of their voters voting for Brexit) under a campaign slogan of "we are the 48". The problem is nobody cares and the media doesn't want to report on them.
The SNP have swept all before them in Scotland but with the oil price having collapsed wiping out 92% of the revenues that Scotland would have received from the North Sea, the notion of an independent Scotland right now is a bankrupt one. Plus Scotland exports far more to England and the rest of the UK than it does to the rest of the EU combined. So it seems probable they'll continue to dominate Scotland but do so within the UK like the Bloc Quebecois dominated politics in Quebec from 1991 - 2011.
Under First Past The Post, nobody else likely matters unless Labour do split into two parties like the SDP in the 80s. From a breakdown of the parties it seems the Tories are (to great surprise) the best-placed of all the parties to do well in the next few years, but with the risk that if it all goes wrong then they are the ones to take the blame.
However what's little discussed is the electorate. While the referendum result was relatively close, if it was based on a Parliamentary system for constituencies then it wouldn't have been. Remain dominated some areas with deep support, while Leave swept a majority in most of the nation. Of our 650 constituencies, approximately 220 constituencies voted Remain, approximately 430 constituencies voted Leave. To make matters worse for Remain/overturn-the-referendum inclined parties 70 of those constituencies are within Scotland and Northern Ireland, for which almost every seat goes to local and not UK parties. Within England and Wales the split is approximately 150 Remain, 422 Leave. Without rehashing old arguments, that was while the full forces of the government and Project Fear were suggesting doom, gloom and war if we voted Leave, none of which now looks likely.
Most marginal constituencies that decide a General Election are located in the Midlands, the North West and 'Yorkshire and Humber'. Leave took almost every single marginal constituency. So I'm not surprised our new PM is refusing to countenance the idea of a second referendum (not that our neighbours would likely have much patience for one either), but I think it will be suicide for Labour if they decide to back Remain now. It will also be suicide to keep Corbyn. So either way, I can't see a way forward for them in the short term. Its interesting but the more marginal a constituency, the stronger the Leave vote. Across the West Midlands and East Midlands where the vast bulk of the marginal constituencies are the Leave vote was 59.3% and 58.8% respectively. Across the North West and Yorkshire and Humber it was 53.7% and 57.7% respectively.
Originally Posted by Ominous Gamer
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She even contrasted herself with Libertarians with Libertarian being an insult 
