There can be ‘ too much democracy’

Jeremy Corbyn,

leader of the Labour Party: “People have said they’ve had quite enough of austerity politics; they’ve had quite enough of cuts to public expenditure, underfunding our health service, under- funding our schools and our education service, and not giving our young people the chance they deserve in our society, and I’m very, very proud of the campaign that my party has run.”

Theresa May,

prime minister and leader of the Conservative Party, interview in The Sun: “What I think is important is that we have the certainty of a government that can take forward a plan into those Brexit negotiations. ... We’re the only party that is in a position to form a government that can do that.”

National Review

editorial: “Mayism ... will, fortunately, evaporate quickly when she goes. And go she must. Her speech after visiting the Palace to be reappointed prime minister was an exercise in dignified unrealism. She promises stable government, yet she cannot deliver it.”

Paul Blest,

Paste magazine: “The struggle for the left is in- ternational now. We’re all facing the same dehumanizing austerity, the same impending climate catastrophe. To see ideological siblings in the United Kingdom ... rally for a result that was plainly unthinkable when the campaign started is ... one of the most inspiring and remarkable things to happen.” Bloomberg View,

editorial: “Such is the humiliation of this setback that May might soon choose — or be forced — to resign. This offers no relief. The task of finding a new leader would only add to the chaos, and there's no obvious successor capable of uniting the party. ... Another vote, perish the thought, may be the only way to dispel the descending paralysis.”

James Kirchick,

Los Angeles Times: “Britain’s election last week reminds us that there is, in fact, such a thing as too much democracy. That some things should not be put up to popular vote — membership in the European Union, for instance — is a lesson you’d think they’d have learned in Britain. The tussle over Brexit has led to political and economic instability for months. And it will now be prolonged by the surprising results.”