Friday, June 9, 2017

Electoral Floundering in Britain

It looks like Britain's conservative party lost its majority in the election PM Theresa May called to expand her majority and strengthen her hand in Brexit talks with the EU. The Tories will still be the largest party and will probably form the government, but instead of helping May this result hands a big win to Jeremy Corbin and his left-leaning Labour Party.

I think putting this result side-by-side with the Brexit vote sums up pretty well where electorates in at least Britain and the US are these days: not strongly favoring any particular party or faction, just dissatisfied with the status quo and looking for some kind of answer.

UPDATE

Here's a slightly different way to see this election:
Something beats nothing. And in the end, May was nothing.
People – many people, that is, not a majority but enough to turn elections – are looking for a vision. They are not impressed by managerial competence or fidelity to old ideas. They want to hear that somebody is going to change things in a way that helps them. By defiantly promising only more of the same, May messed up big-time.

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