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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
(Score: 2) by isostatic on Tuesday April 25 2017, @09:31AM
It is, and it's really good when electing a single person. Not quite STV, but it has benefits that STV or AV or instant run-off doesn't have (and it has drawbacks - namely a second round)
Its a way to keep extremeists out of power, something we used to take seriously in Europe. You could have prefered Filon, the centre-right candidate, but as he didn't get the support, you'd rather have Macron, the centre-left candidate than Le Pen, the far-right candidate. This way the centre doesn't need to coaless around a single candidate to keep the extremists on both sides out. At least in theory.
In 2002 Front National, headed by another Le Pen (Marine's father), reached the final round, against Chirac. It was expected to be the usual sensible split, and many voted for smaller parties like the Greens. This meant that only Chirac got through to the second round, and Le Pen also got through. The country united behind Chirac, and he won something like 80:20.
In 2017 it almost failed completely, the two extreme candidates - Mélenchon and Le Pen, could have gone into the final round. That didn't happen, although based on the last 12 months I'm half expecting Le Pen to win the final vote.