Ot- May calls for election in June.

[ramAnag]

Good political judgement or not Rog?
If it goes the same way as Cameron calling for a referendum her term of office could be one of the shortest ever.
With Labour currently in disarray I see failure in June as seeing the end of Corbyn and hopefully UKIP will be seen off as well. Imagine the opportunist Farage will stand - yet again - somewhere, probably in the South East or Lincolnshire.
Either way we face another spring - third in a row - when politicians stop doing their jobs in order to concentrate on winning votes but how sensible/reasonable/fair was it to trigger Article 50 just a month before calling an election?

[roger_ramjet]

Good political judgement or not Rog?
If it goes the same way as Cameron calling for a referendum her term of office could be one of the shortest ever.
With Labour currently in disarray I see failure in June as seeing the end of Corbyn and hopefully UKIP will be seen off as well. Imagine the opportunist Farage will stand - yet again - somewhere, probably in the South East or Lincolnshire.
Either way we face another spring - third in a row - when politicians stop doing their jobs in order to concentrate on winning votes but how sensible/reasonable/fair was it to trigger Article 50 just a month before calling an election?

It has to be totally unpredictible but if I have to, then I would guess that the misdirection between party lines and Brexit lines would hurt Labour more as they are already in disarray and confusion, and this will confuddle their voters still more: will they vote for party against their own emotions? So on that basis May might be right in taking a calculated risk, but its a huge gamble if sentiment has shifted towards remain to any degree.

UKIP will be a non factor to the Tory vote - but may impact the Labour vote who will not want to support a party now publically opposed to Brexit? Farage might be best off standing in Sunderland east, then for a fleeting moment he could be in the majority when he wins it!

The SNP or Scottish Labour vote? Both will be prima facie pro Europe, so that may not impact anything. The Tories dont have any seats there to lose but a switch between SNP and Labour wont worry them in terms of overall majority. The Tories have an overall working majority of 17 so do they care?

I suppose it will come down to how the politicians try to sell themselves - ie who lies the best! I cannot believe it will simply be a question of a one issue election and certainly it is in the interests of the opposition to muddy waters wherever they can: to use the constituency EU referendum numbers to tailor their pitches.

eg my constituency (Reigate/Banstead) voted leave by 50.5% to 49.5% and has an almost 24,000 conservative majority over second place UKIP. Easy call you'd think, but they wont all work out like this: eg Middlesbrough 57% share of vote for Labour at last election, big majority; 65.5% voted for Brexit.