DUP site crashes after UK general election

The Democratic Union Party's website has crashed as people woke this morning to google the group that may play kingmaker after the Tories fell short of a majority in the UK general election.

At the time of writing, 647 of the 650 seats have been declared and Conservative leader Theresa May has failed to win the 326 seats needed to form a bill to have its programme of proposed new laws passed in the Queen's Speech. Her party achieved only 316.

Tim Farron's Liberal Democrats have ruled out forming a coalition again, presumably because the party got its fingers burnt the last time. The Lib Dems gained three seats, holding a total of 12. Labour gained 31 seats, taking its tally to 261.

That leaves the DUP, which has 10 seats and has forged alliances with Conservative governments before, as May's only likely coalition partner.

The DUP is the largest unionist political party in Northern Ireland and was founded by Ian Paisley. It has previously opposed same-sex marriage and abortion.

Sadly, no more information can be derived about the party from its own site, which reads: "The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later."

Perhaps May's own party and coterie of advisers and spads crashed it as they desperately search for ways of sucking up to them after such a disastrous result. ®