Theresa’s election calamity

Oh dear, the British election! In April, Prime Minister Theresa May, with a small but comfortable majority and three years before an election was needed, saw she was 20% ahead in the polls. The Labour leader, a 68-year-old socialist, Jeremy Corbyn, was considered a liability. She called for an election on June 8.

She said this was to ensure “strong and stable” government. This phrase came to haunt her since she proved weak and unstable throughout her calamitous election campaign.

May is a ruthless ditherer. She came to power after Britain voted to leave the EU. She had wanted to remain but chose to lead the government in leaving. The perfect solution is for Britain to leave the political union but remain part of the free trade area. May wanted to leave both, which was stupid.

The Conservative (Tory) Party in England has lost its principles and is controlled by professional party managers with no ideas, except to avoid controversy. They read opinion surveys as advertising agencies read marketing surveys. Candidates for constituencies are chosen on bland presentation skills. Winston Churchill would never be selected as a Tory candidate today.

The result is politicians who look like mannequins and speak like robots. I regret that some parties in SA, notably the DA, are going the same way. Helen Zille is not a politically correct robot, so some DA managers want her out.

Labour elected a human as its leader. Corbyn wants to reinstate the dreadful socialist policies that caused suffering to Britain in the ’60s and ’70s. But he’s a nice man, courteous and approachable – the opposite of May who comes across as a badly wired robot.

You need 326 seats for a majority in Britain. May has 318. She must form a coalition with some party. Her only choice is the DUP (Democratic Unionist Party) of Northern Ireland, with 10 seats.

The DUP is a hard-line Protestant party, bent on Northern Ireland remaining part of Britain. It was founded in 1971 by one of the most controversial figures in British political history, Ian Paisley. He dominated Northern Irish politics for decades by flouting current political wisdom and taking up the most extreme positions.

Maybe good will come of this mess. Perhaps May will be kicked out and sensible Tories will negotiate to remain in Europe’s free trade zone.