As Rangers’ manager Ron Washington used to say following a tough loss: “That’s The Way Baseball Go”! Don’t be surprised if PM Theresa May has a similar reaction.
Two months ago, PM May looked like a winner when she called for elections. It does not look so smart today, as we see in the results: 48% of the vote but only 316 seats, or short of the majority that she was seeking. The left got 41% and 261 seats.
In other words, PM May, or whoever takes over, will have to form some kind of coalition government.
Before CNN or others in the U.S. start reporting that this is an example of the British people doing in 2017 what Americans are going to do to Trump in 2018, let’s consider a few facts:
1) The conservatives got 48% of the vote or 7 points more than the left. What exactly is the opposition’s message? I see a country rejecting the political class.
2) The Economist makes a good point:
The balance of forces in Parliament means that any number of outcomes is possible (see Britain section).But none of them will be the “strong and stable” government that Mrs. May said the country needed when she called the vote.The talk back then was of a Conservative majority of over 100 MPs.The best case for the Tories today is a wafer-thin majority under a prime minister whose authority may never recover.Labour’s only hope of forming a government would be through a gravity-defying deal with other parties. Another election—Britain’s fourth national poll in little more than two years—may be on the way.Whoever becomes prime minister will very soon have to grapple with three crises.First is the chronic instability that has taken hold of Britain’s politics, and which will be hard to suppress.This week’s poll reveals a divided country—between outward- and inward-looking voters, young and old, the cosmopolitan cities and the rest, nationalists and unionists.
The article then goes on to talk about the UK economy:
Whereas in 2016 the economy defied the Brexit referendum to grow at the fastest pace in the G7, in the first quarter of this year it was the slowest.Unemployment is at its lowest in decades, but with inflation at a three-year high and rising, real wages are falling.Tax revenues and growth will suffer as inward investment falls and net migration of skilled Europeans tails off.Voters are blissfully unaware of the coming crunch.Just when they have signalled at the ballot box that they have had enough of austerity, they are about to face even harder times.
Let me add another point.
Maybe the people of the UK want a government that will protect them from terrorists. How would you like to live in a country where little girls get blown up at a concert? Or you can’ take a Saturday night walk without someone using a car to kill you?
Perhaps they did not see that tough leader in PM May. In other words, I see more of a rejection of PM May than conservatives per se.
A stronger conservative leader could have won this election talking tougher against terror, illegal immigration and a sense of insecurity covering the nation. (A weak and colorless PM May got 48%!)
I don’t see an ideological mandate, but rather a people who want leadership.
P.S. You can listen to my show (Canto Talk), (YouTube) and follow me on Twitter.
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