Britain's Bold Move

Great Britain recently did something rather earth-shaking:
despite some oftentimes weak and inept leadership displayed
by the last two Conservative prime ministers and some ongoing
disagreements between the moderate and the more conservative
factions in the Conservative party on many issues, most notably
whether to end Britain's membership in the European Union
(Brexit). They elected yet another Conservative PM, Boris
Johnson, while roundly rejecting the ever-leftward lurching
Britain's Labor Party and their candidate, Labor Party leader
Jeremy Corbyn. In doing so, the British people reaffirmed
their desire and demand to leave the EU, which they made
clear in a prior election on June 23, 2016. The Brexit was
set to occur on October 31, 2019, but it was pushed back
by Labor and Liberal Democrat Party (LDP) members
in Parliament. This act angered the British electorate
to the point that they voted to give the Conservatives an
larger --- much larger --- majority in Parliament. 368
seats for the Conservatives to Labor's 191. This is the
weakest position in which the Labor Party has found itself
since 1935, in having lost 60 seats in the latest British
election.

Several issues came into play with this event. The Brexit
supporters were given the opportunity to make their
message louder and clearer: WE WANT OUT OF THE EU!
NO IFS, ANDS, OR BUTS! Even voters not enthralled with
the prospect of leaving the EU were appalled at the arrogant
and elitist way in which the will of the people was snubbed
and thwarted. Conservative leader Boris Johnson promised
to "get Brexit done" and the electorate took him at his word.

Next, there was the frightening extremism of Jeremy Corbyn.
The soft-spoken labor party candidate carried a big ideological
stick, extolling the supposed virtues of his socialist ideas which
Britain had tried nearly fifty years ago, with the more senior
voters remembering them and the pain they caused --- raging
inflation, economic stagnation, skyrocketing unemployment,
frequent strikes, frequent power cuts, horrible customer service,
and the nationalization of the railroads and many other services.
Corbyn claimed that his policies were popular with the people;
when the people gave him a cold, hard dose of reality in response,
the Marxist resigned from both his party leadership post and
his seat in Parliament. Moreover, again in a contrasting opposite
juxtaposition, Corbyn stated that he had nothing against Jews
and that they were welcome in the Labor Party. But again, the
older voters remember differently; they remember a Jeremy
Corbyn who rubbed elbows with radical Islamic political
figures and other politically extreme and unsavory sorts which
included anti-Semites along with various dangerous kooks,
cranks, and nut jobs.

It must, however, be noted that the appeal of the British Conser-
vative Party is greater than that of its leader and new PM
Boris Johnson. As it was his obligation to ensure his election,
Johnson struck a bargain with the British people: Trust me
to make good on Brexit, and I'll govern from the center on
other matters. This has been the tried-and-true strategy of winning
over voters who may not have been at all willing to vote for
the Tories otherwise, promising to deliver on a particular thing
while hugging the center on most other things. But let us hope
that PM Johnson will mature and grow into the job, the tremendous
and daunting job of running a country of over 60 million people,
most of whom are either enraged or burned out by politics and
the politicians who have made too many pie crust promises
(Gee, that sounds familiar!) and now have put their trust in
Johnson who promised to be the one to deliver to them Britain's
exit from the EU and restore the measure of sovereignty which
Britain gave up when it joined the EU in the first place.

And doesn't it say something about a party that loses in a landslide
to a party that had recent back-to-back prime ministers who were
little more than empty suits, who were so incompetent as to be almost
clownish, yet the people would chance having a third such leader
from the party with more sensible ideas of governance rather than
vote for the party which would blindly charge ahead with a
radical agenda which would result in wrecking the economy and
erasing the liberties enjoyed by the people?


MEM