UK friends, wtf is going on over there!?

[conuly]

Seriously, I have no idea.

Comments

[angelofthenorth]

Sings: things can only get better!

[oursin]

General Election on 4 July!!!!! Rishi in the rain announcing it to subversive musical accompaniment....

[ioplokon]

*wetter - Rishi Sunak

[wenchpixie]

So, having a general election in the summer time is practically unheard of - a lot of the senior tories seem to be furious, but it HAD to be called this year (we have a thing called the fixed term parliment act, which sort of limits when they can call general elections, but there's more leeway than one might expect) so the Prime Minister seems to have decided that now, when the interest rates have just come down is the least worst time for him to call it - all the polls have Labour in the lead, at least by 15%, which would be pretty much a landslide up to 25%, which would be an annihilation (we have more than 2 parties, but the government is called by the one that can make an overall majority, with those sort of numbers Labour would have a very easy majority). So, the Tories will almost certainly lose very thoroughly either way, but maybe less badly.

The general election is now right in the Scottish School summer holidays (the rest of the UK take them at different times, about a month later), so that may also be a factor - the Tories won't pick up more than one Scottish seat - they've not managed more than 3 for the best part of a decade - but the Labour party might (they have previously, but things are a bit messy still post Indy ref in 2014).

RE: the crazy announcement video - the weather's been really nice for the last couple of weeks, and it was pretty dry in London until after they made the decision to brief, organising an inside briefing is complicated and there's not as much space (and a general election announcement is tradionally made outside). Crucially it only started raining again as Rishi walked outside. That said, the demonstration outside the gates at downing street has been going on for literally months, and using recorded music when there's media around is a very, very common thing, so even without the rain it was an odd choice to be outside given what a rubbish speaker Rishi is at the best of times.

For more context, the song "Things Can Only Get Better" was the campaigning song for the Labour party in the 1997 election, which they won with an unprecidented landslide. This election looks like it will swamp that.

(either way, we're still screwed in Scotland, but probably slightly less screwed with Labour than the Tories)

[calimac]

Why does Sunak pronounce "saw" (past tense of see) as "sawr"? What kind of accent is that?

[rmc28]

The very weather makes its opinions known ...

[siliconshaman]

I'm kinda hoping Lord Binface at least picks up a seat... if only because that'll make broadcasts of Parliament somewhat more entertaining.

[fox]

(I haven't watched the video) Did the next word begin with a vowel? Epenthetic [r] is very common in a variety of British accents and very distracting in my experience to North Americans who haven't become accustomed to it. Apologies if I've got any of this wrong (if it wasn't epenthesis, if you are not North American or are in fact British yourself, etc.).

[jesuswasbatman]

May or June has been the usual time since the 1980s.

Rumours are being spread that Sunak called the election because the Conservative MPs said that it was either that or step down as leader.

[steorra]

Probably an intrusive R before a word that starts with a vowel - common in many non-rhotic English varieties (ones that lose Rs in the last part of a syllable).

[redbird]

I saw an article, I think in the Guardian, speculating that Sunak was trying to minimize the risk of US politics and political news interfering with the Tory campaign.

[calimac]

Yes. He did it twice in one sentence, both times in the phrase "I sawr a country."

[fox]

Yep, that's the intrusive R linked by the other commenter below, an example of epenthesis - he almost certainly isn't doing it consciously and I'd bet a fair percentage of UK listeners don't really even notice it.

[the_siobhan]

My ex lived in England for a large part of their childhood they they do that. One of my favourite stories about their accent is them asking an employee at a hardware store if the store carried sawhorses, and the poor man looked at them in confusion and said, "What's a sore-hose?"

Ex kept trying to pronounce it, "saaaaaawww hooorrrrrse". I could not help because I was too busy doubled-over and laughing until I cried.

[conuly]

Thank you!

[conuly]

You know, I wasn't expecting sudden random linguistics in this post, but I'm not sure why not.

[jo]

(we have a thing called the fixed term parliment act, which sort of limits when they can call general elections, but there's more leeway than one might expect)

Actually no, the FTPA was repealed in 2022 by the Dissolution and Calling of Parliament Act, which revived the Crown prerogative to dissolve parliament. Meaning it's now like it was -- up to the PM to decide when to request the dissolution of parliament and an election. However, the Act also provides for Parliament's automatic dissolution once five years have elapsed from its first meeting after an election, so Sunak had to call one by the end of Jan 2025, otherwise an election would have been triggered automatically.

[moon_custafer]

The Rs leave the ends of the words they're attached to and go slipping into other words instead.

[fox]

Translating between English and English is a couple of trips, I tell you what.

signed,
I could still hear the difference between my accent and the local accent after I'd been living there a year, but somehow the locals who couldn't understand my visiting family could understand me perfectly [big shrug emoji]

[greenwoodside]

Always expect random linguistics!! I guess. Given the context, linguistics might be what English people do when they're happy instead of more normal expressions of pleasure, such as smiling, hugging, or creating signage reading '**** you, you Tory *****, you're going down'.

On the subject, we also have intrusive ys and ws.

[solarbird]

I thought it was an Aussie-specific thing, historically. Then SURPRISE it's not!