"Members of my family in manufacturing industry tell me that uncertainty over what the future holds is affecting their employer's businesses, with one talking about "letting a couple of people go", 10% of workforce. Whether that is local or nationwide I don't know. If national the Brexit Party could benefit."

SITD,

Funny old thing these claims...here we are...with BREXIT uncertainty heavy in the air and in spite of that we are at record employment AND investment levels in the UK.

AK did you read the article I linked to? 70% of students vote at home anyway.

ianl, Labour has used every argument under the sun to delay Brexit. While at the same time trying to keep Labour Brexit voting voters happy by 'respecting the referendum'. They won't vote for any deal a Tory comes back with and give him or her victory. Influential Labour members don't want Brexit at all, with the exception of Corbyn himself. They have worn him down to the point where they claim Labour would get a better deal (as part of the customs union) and then have a referendum on it, while campaigning to remain. As if the EU would give them a better deal under those circumstances. They've stymied a better deal by voting to take 'no deal' off the table. So they used the excuse that Boris might still take us out on the 31st as an excuse not to agree to an eection. That excuse is now invalid. They've used up so many excuses that it was obvious they were kicking the can down the road. Inviting the accusation that a) they are scared of losing and b) they never had any intention of acting on the referendum.

Perhaps I'm wrong and things have changed, but there used to be a difference between the date classes ended and the date the university term ends. Undergraduates left when classes ended (sometimes earlier). There is yet another date when the universities physically close down for Christmas-New Year.
Guess how many undergraduates will be around in order to vote? How many will be doing Christmas jobs at home by the 12th?

In uncertain answer to my own question (apologies for the date typo, should have been May 2022), my guess is that UK Labour has decided that no-deal Brexit is finally off the table so it can risk having an electoral go.

That is likely wrong, or at least incomplete.

On university students Guido has the answers

https://order-order.com/2019/10/29/student-vote-irrelevant/

Iani
Here's what I think, and I'm just as much in the dark as ever.

As the election will be before Brexit Parliament will be dissolved on 6th November meaning the deal won't be debated or ratified before the election. The remainder parties will be hoping for a, at minimum, a hung parliament and perhaps a majority of remainder parties if the Tories and Farage don't come to an agreement and I don't think they will. The Scots Nats think it's win-win for them. Apart from fishing communities Scotland has done quite well from EU membership relative to real or imagined wrongs from the Thatcher years and the neglect of absentee landlords. Most Scots have cousins in more than one commonwealth country and the USA. Again rightly or wrong ly there's a lingering resentment against London over that. The SNP will also hope the Ruth Davidson appeal will have faded and the Tory vote will fall as a result. I'm not sure what the DUP hope to gain.

Boris, being a student of Churchill and supremely sre of himself, doesn't want a 1945 election post Brexit.

Members of my family in manufacturing industry tell me that uncertainty over what the future holds is affecting their employer's businesses, with one talking about "letting a couple of people go", 10% of workforce. Whether that is local or nationwide I don't know. If national the Brexit Party could benefit.

AK, I've done a very quick and non-scientific survey of university websites, and all that I've seen seem to suggest they finish on the day after the election. Surely students wouldn't bunk off home before the end of term?

ianl - the next scheduled election isn't until the first Thursday in May, 5 years after the last one - which was June 2017. I'm not entirely sure why remain MPs agreed, other than they realise that the EU might eventually say 'no more extensions', which might trigger a WTO Brexit.

The remainers want to gain enough power to cancel Brexit altogether. They can't risk waiting until 2022. The Lib Dems and the SNP think that they can do better than at the last election, both selling the idea of cancelling Brexit altogether. In many ways they have nothing to lose (other than MPs who defected from Labour and the Tories). They will run with how shambolic the Tories have handled Brexit - even though they have been a big part of the problem.

Many Tories want to win more power right now as they haven't the numbers to get anything done, let alone Brexit. There were too many remoaner MPs at the last election who sabotaged the negotiations and who are now too dangerous to keep as MPs. I'm not happy that Boris has let some of them back in although the most prominent like Nicholas Soames, are leaving politics anyway. The hope is that the party can replace the worst remoaners with at least loyal Tories. They know that Theresa didn't lose MPs at the last election because of Brexit, she lost because she was wooden and created a rubbish manifesto that kicked the most loyal Tories in the teeth. However Boris is not universally liked for both his infidelity and his some time goofy persona. The former does point to his lack of reliability but the latter is not his true worth. His writing has always been better than his live performances. A lot less waffle and silly stuff to show off his exensive but often pointless knowledge. Though he was wrong to liken fully veiled Muslim women to terrorists. Pillar boxes fine, but terrorists was too close to real offense. However he has the enthusiasm and the confidence to give good speeches and the public do warm to him when he's on form. He wasn't outstanding during the Tory election for leader but since then he's been much more coherent. He needs to write and rehearse set answers to the likely questions he'll be asked during the election debates. He needs facts and figures so he can talk about them and not just waffle. He needs to get someone to cost breakdown Labour's manifesto and hammer their failures in power. Less Greek heroes and more stuff from the 20th century onwards. Many people are genuinely concerned about Commie Corbyn.

Labour's reason for agreeing is less obvious and many back benchers are terrified that they'll lose big time or even that they'll win. They know that communism doesn't work and that a term of Corbyn, puppeted by McDonnel would be economic suicide. It could ruin both the country and the Labour Party. The remoaners however half hope that Labour would offer a new referendum (on Brexit and Scottish independence). They think that Brexit is worse than Corbyn. Except they fear that Corbyn might take us out so that he can do what he likes with the economy. Some think that Corbyn can improve on the last election but he was up against Theresa and her abysmal ability to do crushing speeches. It's not like Labour did that well. On Brexit, Labour's support is poor. Most can see that they've kicked the can down the road but not dismissed it either. Irritating both kinds of supporters. The EU elections showed that a lot of people want Brexit done, with the exception of the big cities, where Labour tend to do well. The Brexit Party might garner votes from leave voting Labour. Fence sitting will hurt Labour the other way too. The Lib Dems will look the better option, especially to New Labour supporters. So in all probability Labour should lose a lot of ground but until Corbyn is defeated, Labour can't return to what it was under Blair.