I literally just bought a bottle of cava on the way home from work

[dolorosa_12]

Let's go!

Meanwhile, three consecutive items on the Guardian's politics live feed read:

17.17 BST: Sunak confirms election to take place on 4 July
17.17 BST: Sunak is almost being drowned out by someone playing 'Things Can Only Get Better' very, very loudly in Whitehall.
17.18 BST: Sunak says the election will be a choice — who will take the right decisions to give the people a better future. (Sunak is getting drenched in the rain.)

[Only because it was the Guardian, at least two of these items had typos that I've corrected.]

You love to see it!

Comments

[rekishi]

what is going on across the channel???

ETA: this is a rhetorical question, I have half an idea of what is going on, which is probably only the tip of the iceberg anyway

[dolorosa_12]

What's wrong (in the sense of what on earth has gone wrong to get us to the point of what's currently happening) is a) the ubiquity of private (and often boarding) school education for the wealthiest/most upper class people in the country and b) first-past-the-post voting systems in elections.

Oh, it will be so satisfying to vote them out.

[conuly]

Will you be able to vote better people in this time?

[tellshannon815]

Couldn't be any worse!

[dolorosa_12]

A toy hamster would be better than the current people, so absolutely, yes.

[conuly]

Well, yes, a toy hamster wouldn't do anything and doesn't have any friends who want power and cushy jobs.

[rekishi]

Well I do hope it happens. I know the numbers look like it but...

I guess I need to listen to the catchup show with James O'Brien from today

[yarnofariadne]

😂😂😂

[dolorosa_12]

My entire social media is just a wall of British citizen/resident friends gleefully celebrating.

[goodbyebird]

Hoping for some kind of improvements for y'all ❤️

[dolorosa_12]

Thank you!

[nineveh_uk]

It's important to stock up on the fizz now, it would be awful to miss out in the rush.

[dolorosa_12]

Indeed!

[corvidology]

\o/

I'm overly amused that it's on July 4th... which also happens to be my wedding anniversary because that's the way our minds work! ;D

[tellshannon815]

That made me smile when I realised as well. Independence from that shower of eejits!

[dolorosa_12]

I'm overly amused that it's on July 4th... which also happens to be my wedding anniversary because that's the way our minds work!

Amazing!

[hoarmurath]

This is so fucking funny.

(I am taking my funny where I can get it, but it's very funny, okay?)

[dolorosa_12]

Oh, it's hilarious — I was laughing on the train all the way home!

[tellshannon815]

The cynical part of me wonders whether the threshold of letters for a vote of no confidence was coming up for being reached, and he's called the election to preempt that. But whatever the reason is, I'm just happy it's finally happening.

[dolorosa_12]

From what I can tell, it sounds as if he thought things were going to make their prospects worse as the year progressed, so calling the election now was an attempt to staunch the inevitable wounds.

But whatever the reason is, I'm just happy it's finally happening.

Absolutely, it's a massive relief.

(And your icon is perfect!)

[nerakrose]

Me reading those headlines: didn’t those have typos in them ?

Oh, I see 😂 don’t make the guardian look better than they are, they made their bed those typos

[dolorosa_12]

Yep, good old Grauniad.

[merit]

Oh well you can always count on English weather I suppose! Fingers crossed it goes well. My partner also suggested booze either way.

(also an election on a weekday?? unnatural)

[dolorosa_12]

Elections in the UK are always on a Thursday — which as you say always feels a bit wrong (the other weird thing is that unlike in Australia where you can vote at any polling station within your electorate, in the UK you have a single specific polling station that you have to use — or you can do a postal or proxy vote, but those are the only options). The polling stations are open from 7am-10pm though, so it does give most people time to vote before or after work (and if you're in the queue at 10pm they have to keep the polling station open until everyone in the queue has voted).