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UK PM Calls for Election, Backed by Parliament

posted by n1 on Monday April 24 2017, @12:43PM   
from the opportunists dept.

butthurt writes:

Various news outlets are reporting that the UK's prime minister, Theresa May, has called for a general election to be held on 8 June. The Conservative Party Web site has a transcript of her public statement, which can also be heard in a video.

The call for a snap election has now been backed by parliament.

May surprised allies and opponents [...] when she announced her plan to bring forward an election that was not due until 2020, saying she needed to avoid a clash of priorities in the sensitive final stages of the two-year Brexit talks.

After addressing a rowdy session of the House of Commons, May won the support of 522 lawmakers in the 650-seat parliament for an election on June 8. Only 13 voted against.

With May seen winning a new five-year mandate and boosting her majority in parliament by perhaps 100 seats, the pound held close to six-and-a-half month highs on hopes she may be able to clinch a smoother, more phased departure from the EU and minimise damage to the UK economy.

[...] The former interior minister, who became prime minister without an election when her predecessor David Cameron quit after last year's referendum vote for Brexit, enjoys a runaway lead over the main opposition Labour Party in opinion polls.

This is a notable change from the position taken over the last few months where May had said after the EU referendum, a "period of stability" was needed. "There isn’t going to be one. It isn’t going to happen. There is not going to be a general election," said the prime minister's spokesman less than a month ago.

Coverage (many of these are editorials):

• The Sun
• New Statesman
• New Statesman
• The Independent
• The Independent
• The Guardian
• The Telegraph
• The New York Times
• The Irish Times
• BBC News
• Daily Mail

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Original Submission

• Re:Extra election to create stability. (Score: 4, Interesting) by zocalo on Monday April 24 2017, @02:54PM

  by zocalo (302) on Monday April 24 2017, @02:54PM (#498870)

  Have to agree with the gamble. Timing wise, it makes a lot of sense: the provisional schedule of formalizing Brexit in early 2019 and having general election roughly a year later during 2020 doesn't really allow for things to settle down before the election. Having the election now, while Labour is in disarray, makes it seem likely that the Conservatives will end up with a greater majority of MPs, no doubt based on as many candidates as possible selected for a neutral/pro-Brexit stance rather than out-and-out Remain, which will make it much easier to push Brexit matters through Parliament. It also bumps the next scheduled general election out to 2022, by which time the Conservatives are no doubt hoping that they'll have Brexit more or less working and can ride that to another 5 years in power.
  
  However, if there's one thing several recent elections have shown, it's that you can no longer rely on the expected outcome to actually be the final result. There's still a strong Remain sentiment (48% voted Remain, who have basically had their views sidelined ever since), some of the realities of Brexit are starting to sink in - not least that the drop in Sterling has made the average person on the street poorer while the rise in stocks has made the "Elites" richer than ever - plenty of people still hate the Conservatives, and there are additional complexities like the Scottish views on remaining in the EU vs. leaving the UK, the divisions in the Labour party, and the mess in Northern Ireland. I wouldn't be so sure that the Conservatives are going to get quite the overwhelming majority that they are no doubt hoping for and, while unlikely, could in fact end up on the receiving end of another electoral upset. I'm certainly not going to be putting too much stock in any of the polls this time around.

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  UNIX? They're not even circumcised! Savages!

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