British Snap Election
Hello, I don't know whether non-brits know about this, but our current prime minister,
Theresa May has called a snap election, which some people say is because of
Brexit.
The main two parties are
Labour
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This is seen as the left wing party and it's leader, Jeremy Corbyn is certainly left wing too. This man never lies and is generally what a real politician should be. Many people don't like him because of the claims he makes but recently the Labour party has become very popular!
If people would like to read up on the history of Jeremy Corbyn in the past 10 years, I found this on Reddit which summarises things:
Sorry I couldn't put it into a spoiler for some reason
Quote:Ok this is long but a lot has happened...
Basically the Labour party is traditionally socialist.
The party was in opposition to Thatcher through the 1980s but kept losing. When Thatcher lost the leadership and the Conservatives went into relative chaos labour thought they could win the next election. They did not. They were screwed by a right-wing press.
Cue Labour shifting to the right to win votes and Rupert Murdoch's media empire. The press is now on their side. They win the next election in 1997 in a landslide under Tony Blair. But the party is now pretty much neo-liberal and not socialist. Private finance and competition allowed into the NHS, private railways, private energy sector, private finance in schools, all potential "New labour policies"
Now Labour have moved to become very much like the Conservatives, but with a little more social conscience. Most importantly they keep a deregulated financial sector.
Cue the 2008 crash. All of a sudden everyone is up in arms.
The country is is debt, but we don't own anything important. Hospitals are effectively mortgaged to the hilt (pfi). Power stations are in private hands, water is in private hands. The country has no assets. We look skint. Following a Conservative lead on finances has failed. 30 years of neo-liberal economics are now hitting home.
2010 election "victory" for the Conservatives. (actually a coalition.). Neither of the main parties actually won and the Conservatives give a smaller 3rd party token concessions to form a government. Now we get austerity. Spending on public services plummets. The economy stagnates. Tax revenues fall. The deficit remains. We are given more austerity. Lower wages. More people on welfare spending rises. The deficit remains. The national debt doubles in 5 years.
2015 election
The country now looks really shit. Both parties have fucked up.
Labour try what they did in 1997. Neo-liberal policies, not much different from the Conservatives. Under Ed Milliband
Scotland (having kept their power and water in public hands, free tuition, etc) want to vote socialist. They know it works. Labour loses Scotland to the Scottish National Party.
With a record low level of the vote as so many voted for outside parties the conservatives win overall control. (with ~37% of the vote)
Ed Milliband resigns, Labour have a leadership election.
Now since 1997 the top of the party have been Neo-Liberal. Aiming for the centrist vote. Most of the MPs have been selected during this time and they are largely expecting the party to be similar to under Tony Blair. In fact Tony Blair centralised the selection process to ensure candidates selected at this time were not selected by local party members but the central party office themselves. They are what we call "Blairites".
But as they are meant to be a left wing party. They feel the need to put up a left-wing outsider for the leadership. Candidates are nominated by MPs. Jeremy Corbyn is back bench MP who has held his seat from the pre-Blair days. He wouldn't have made the cut, but in order to "widen the debate" and appear left wing. Some MPs "lend him their vote" so he makes the cut.
Shock, the members of the public who make up the party membership are still left wing. As are the unions who fund it. Momentum builds up behind Corbyn. New people join the party to vote for him. He wins the leadership by a large margin.
Thus Jeremy Corbyn isn't liked by his MPs, they didn't want him. He's to the left of them.
Labour now are terrified they can't win an election with a right-wing press and a left-wing leader.
Every opportunity they have they try and make him resign. He doesn't.
Brexit vote happens. Labour use it as an excuse to vote for "no confidence in Corbyn". (It was bullshit, but they were going to use anything they could)
Corbyn does not get nominated. There is a legal battle to ensure he is allowed on the ballot in the leadership election this time as an incumbent who did not resign. He wins this legal battle. He is allowed on the ballot.
Even more people join the party to vote for him. The party put up associate membership fees to discourage people doing this. They still join and vote for him. He wins the leadership by a landslide. His MPs have to admit defeat but they are now at 25% in the polls. They are seen as in disarray. The MPs themselves are unpopular with party membership.
All the slurs Labour have flung at their own leader to get him to lose have stuck in the right-wing press.
2017 election called: Labour are still at 25% in the polls. Conservatives are 50%
Election impartiality rules kick in for sections of the press. Labour release a socialist manifesto. People like it. Without the Labour MPs attacking their leader, he gains some popularity back (not all there is still a huge amount of mud to sling left from the leadership fights).
Labour are currently 34-40% in the polls to the Conservatives 39-45%. The gap is between 1% and 12% largely dependent on who turns out to vote.
Millions of the under 35s registered to vote in the lead up to this election. After being out voted on Brexit due to turnout, this might be the election the young finally swing it against the baby boomers.
If Labour get a hung parliament they'll have pulled of a miracle from when the campaign started.
Theresa May will have expected a majority of 100 or more when she triggered the election. Losing seats would be the biggest political upset since Churchill lost the election after the war. (again to a socialist Labour government, then under Clement Atlee.)
Conservative/Tory Party
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The leader of this party is Theresa May, our current prime-minister. She has made up many lies, including saying that she was not going to create a snap election. The conservatives are not as popular this year because of their manifesto, which basically said that if you are an
elderly person, you must pay for your own care if you have combined savings and property worth more than £100,000. Many people aren't happy with this policy and people have named it "Dementia tax"
In my opinion, I am not a large fan of the conservative party as they haven't done much since 2010 apart from screwing up our country even more (E.g privatisation of the NHS)
(Sorry if all my points aren't correct, I am only a 14 year old kid. Being 14 also means that my political opinion doesn't mean anything)
But anyways! What is your opinion on the British Snap Election and which party do you prefer? (I know there is other parties so if you'd like to state your opinion on those that'd be great!)
- Quest
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