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Americans talk about General Election 2017

We’ve been watching the 2017 general election and these are our impressions. The Conservatives have Theresa May as their leader and the Labour Party have Jeremy Corbyn. Theresa May decided to take a gamble and call a so-called “snap election”, which is an unscheduled election. Elections usually occur every five years, but the polls showed that May had a massive advantage. Jeremy Corbyn was very unpopular so she called this election to try to take advantage of that. However, it turned out very badly for her. She lost about 30 seats, which meant she lost the majority she inherited. She got too confident and campaigned very poorly; she was wooden, and disingenuous. We haven’t looked at the Tory manifesto, but it seem to be a catastrophe. The news outlets said her advisors set her up for failure by including unpopular initiatives in it. Jeremy Corbyn, on the other hand, even though we find most of his positions disagreeable, came off as very genuine, caring, principled, and honest.

In order to get a majority in Parliament you have to win 326 seats and the Conservatives were eight short in the final counting. That apparently means that we have a hung parliament. We had to look up what a hung parliament was; it’s when no single party reaches 326 seats. Thus the next Prime Minister hasn’t been determined, though Teresa May remains PM until otherwise determined by the machinery of negotiations between majority and minority parties. Americans experienced the Bush-Gore election in 2000 where we didn’t know for a few weeks who was going to be the next president. But it’s not normal to not know who the next president is the the day after the election.

Theresa May and the Conservatives have to decide whether they will form what’s called a coalition or a minirity government. In a coalition government they invite another party to join them in exchange for special privileges. In a minority government again the invite another party to join them but grant them voting privelages and seats in the cabinet. From the latest news May is talking to the DUP, which is Democratic Union Party in Northern Ireland. Northern Ireland is a Protestant stronghold, so they’re very Pro Great Britain, very pro UK/Brexit. Apparently they have struck a deal in which they’re going invite the DUP to join them in a minority government; it’s a very fragile government because every legislation could technically fail if the DUP don’t cooperate.

The 2017 General Election has been something of a spectacle because you have a Trump-like character in Jeremy Corbyn. Like with Trump, the majority of the press call Corbyn a buffoon, a clown, an unserious candidate. Also like Trump, he says outlandish things. People at work today came out as Labour sympathizers and Jeremy Corbyn fans and I thought, now they can never, ever criticize a Trump supporter because they appeal to the same arguments as Corbyn fans do. Is Corbyn the British Trump?

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