Friday May 8th, and the nation was awakening to a dream for some and a nightmare for others.Only two parties had done well in Thursday's general election. The Conservatives, who had been been the largest party in the previous coalition government, had enough seats to form a majority government without coalition. Lucky for them, as the only party in mainland Britain who would govern with them, the Liberal Democrats, had been massacred at the polls and reduced from fifty six seats to eight, losing many senior figures. The Scottish Nationalists were triumphant, as their election campaign, which focused not on independence, which Scots mainly do not want, but on an end to austerity economics, had captured fifty six out of fifty nine Scots seats.
Labour, however, had had its worst election result for years. Part of the problem was that the Scots Nationalists had suggested that they might back Labour in a coalition, but English voters rightly feared that the resulting coalition would contain a nationalist party that has neither interest in England nor liking for the English and so were deterred from supporting Labour, even though the Labour leader had rejected coalition with the Scots Nationalists.But the moribund Labour party in Scotland, which had previously dominated the politics of the country, was destroyed at the polls by the more vigorous and more left wing Scots Nationalists, so Labour was squeezed in England and Scotland.
The United Kingdom Independence Party managed one seat, despite having fifteen percent of the votes. Likewise the Greens picked up one, while Northern Irish parties, which differ from those in Britain, divided up almost as usual between nationalists and unionists. The Welsh Nationalists are unchanged in seat numbers.
But three party leaders have resigned: Ed Milliband of Labour, Nigel Farage of the United Kingdom Independence Party, and Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats, whose mistakes of political judgment were responsible for the party's woes, even though as deputy prime minister he was excellent.
Comments
The metaphor of a giant deck of cards is very apt, and so far I am unaware of anyone who has used it before you. So thanks for your contribution to British political language!
WOW! What a mess you all have on your hands in the UK. It's difficult for an American to understand, but your article does help. Seems like its a giant deck of cards that's reshuffled completely with each new election, and perhaps some cards fall away and get lost.
You point out that lack of education of the part of the electorate is a problem there, and we see that here, too, in a big way.
Thanks Mira. I am concerned over the quality of political debate in the country, and that's reflected in the poor quality media coverage.
Only two days ago I spoke to a woman who said that she blamed the Liberal Democrats for going into coalition with the Conservatives, as that meant that we could not deliver our promises, but without coalition we would not have been able to deliver any promises. As it is we were the smaller party in the coalition and managed to deliver some major promises. One vitally important one was raising the level at which people begin paying tax. This reform has helped hundreds of thousands of ordinary people keep more of their earnings.
Than you for your comment. I don't do many political articles and was nervous about their quality.
I watched this news on BBC and CNN but didn't get much out of their analyses. I found your article much more informative, and am glad I took the time to read it (and you the time to write it). Great piece.
Thank you for an excellent analysis of the current political situation in the UK! As someone born and raised in Scotland but living in the US it's often confusing if not downright impossible to keep track of what's really happening.