David Firn :
Theresa May’s Conservative party has lost its overall majority while remaining the largest party in a hung parliament. Can the prime minister cling on to power? What does the result mean for Brexit talks, due to start later this month? Will business seek to fill the vacuum left in British politics and has Jeremy Corbyn consolidated the far left’s hold over the Labour party?
Theresa May gambled – and lost. It was her decision to call a snap general election. The prime minister sought the strongest possible mandate for negotiating the terms of Brexit. On the morning of a stunning rebuff from the British electorate, Mrs May must recognise that her authority is compromised, possibly fatally. A hung parliament and a period of prolonged political uncertainty beckons.
It may not yet be clear who has won, but there can be no doubt over who has lost, writes Robert Shrimsley. Theresa May did not need to call this election but having done so, she then fled from almost every aspect of the campaign and performed dismally in the parts she could not avoid.
After the 1992 general election, it took the Tories 23 years and four leaders to win another majority and it took Mrs May just 50 days to throw it away, says John McTernan. In mid-April it looked as though the Conservatives would cruise to an easy election victory. Early polls showed a ballooning lead over Labour. What went wrong?
Deadlock is Britain’s new normal
The stablest of democracies has become the western world’s box of surprises, says Janan Ganesh. It is also troublingly exposed. Ten days before the scheduled start of EU exit talks, Britain has no secure government and no negotiating position that commands a consensus in parliament, much less the electorate. To proceed in these circumstances would be bizarre but Mrs May, among her various misjudgments, filed Article 50 before the election. The two-year deadline to conclude the talks nears all the time. But, after SNP’s poor showing, at least a second referendum on Scottish independence will be shelved for a while.
If we were living in normal, as opposed to interesting, times, Theresa May would be preparing her resignation statement and her potential successors readying themselves for the contest to replace her, writes Tim Bale. But we are not living in normal times. Whether or not Brexit still means Brexit – and at the moment we’d be wise not to assume anything – it means the Conservatives can’t simply get shot of their leader in response to the electoral disaster into which she has led them. The party mustn’t panic. But it must decide.
Britain’s eternal indecision on Europe looms over its politics
Tony Barber says that seen from EU capitals, the UK resembles a ship rudderless and adrift thanks to feckless leadership and a population forever in two minds about its European identity.
A hung parliament has no direct impact on the two-year Article 50 period. Theresa May’s folly in calling a general election and then losing her overall majority means that the UK is now in an even weaker negotiating position than when it started, says David Allen Green. But law will invariably yield to politics: if there is desire for pausing or extending (or even revoking) the Article 50 procedure, then such politics will find a formal and legal workaround.
The lack of intelligent debate on the central challenges facing the UK was evident from the start, says Stephanie Flanders.
The UK was one of few economies that saw their growth forecast cut in the latest forecast from the OECD. That same report also showed it to be the only big developed economy significantly tightening fiscal policy over the next two years. Politically and economically, we stick out like a sore thumb.
Jeremy Corbyn confounds critics with ‘gobsmacking’ gain
And what of the other loser? Labour may have come second, but Jeremy Corbyn has confounded his critics by increasing the Labour party’s share of the House of Commons after the UK’s general election, writes Jim Pickard.
Labour won back many votes on its anti-austerity platform while also securing big swings in London, Scotland and the south in what was seen as a backlash by Remain voters against Brexit.
In terms of sheer improbability, the British electorate has just produced one of the blackest of political black swans for markets, writes John Authers. Theresa May’s failure to obtain a majority in an election she only called because she was so certain to win in a landslide was extraordinary.
There is a danger in viewing a hung parliament as a rare event that threatens to paralyse politics, writes Bronwen Maddox. It would be better to see it as a sign of the complexity of a modern democracy, one that many other countries regard as a sign of health.
Courtesy: Financial Times
