[dropcap]T[/dropcap]his week’s general election in the UK has been nothing if not surprising. It’s true that the Conservative party won and Labour lost, as predicted by the polls. But everything did not go as planned.
1. The election was called by Theresa May to strengthen her hand in the Brexit negotiations, but as her party lost 13 seats, her position is severely weakened. Labour on the other hand, lost the election but did so much better than anyone expected that it almost feels like a victory. Jeremy Corbyn (leader of the Labour party) himself declared that “politics has changed” and “isn’t going back into the box where it was before” (Jeremy Corbyn’s victory speech as he returned as MP in Islington North).
2. The British people gasped in unison when the first exit poll after the polling booths closed predicted a hung parliament. A hung parliament means no party has won enough seats in a general election to have a majority in the House of Commons. The general consensus was that the Conservatives would have a parliamentary majority. The last time this occurred in the UK was in the 2010 general election: a coalition government was then formed on 12 May 2010 between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats.
3. People in the ultra-rich London borough of Kensington and Chelsea voted for Labour. Canterbury, a constituency that has since 1918 consistently elected candidates of the Conservative Party, also swung to Labour. Was it because they couldn’t stand Theresa May’s version of Brexit?
4. It is said that the number of young voters at this election was very high, perhaps in reaction to Brexit which some believe will cut them off from their European neighbours, leaving them with less job opportunities. The seats with the highest proportions of 18 to 24-year-olds had above average swings to Labour. However, there won’t be any reliable figures for young turnout until next week so we’ll have
5. Normally after an election, the newly-elected government ministers talk to the media about what they’re going to do and how great it’s going to be for the next five years. Government ministers have been very quiet. None of them have said they support Theresa May. She’s in a very unstable position.
6. Brexit might not mean Brexit after all. Or at least Theresa May’s hard version might have to be watered down to a softer version now that the parliamentary opposition is so much stronger.
Theresa May’s plan to strengthen her position as Prime Minister has had the opposite effect, weakening both her and her party. The upshot is that British politics in the 21st century is a very complicated picture, not just north or south, right or left. And it’s dangerous to assume otherwise…
