The 2017 UK election: some afterthoughts

Hi guys, I'm back from my break in Riga (had a lovely time, what a wonderful city) and I only just got the results literally hours before I flew off to Riga. In fact, by the time I had landed there, they were still doing some of the recounts, so I have had quite a while to process the results of this snap election. I have been asked to give my reaction to this election since the results had shocked many people (in a good or bad way, depending on where you stand on the political spectrum) including myself, I had believed the opinnion polls and thought that this would had been a very easy win for May, but look at the mess she had gotten herself into now.  So let's jump right in with some Q&As about this election, I've included some brilliant videos by Jonathan Pie to help you make sense of this monumental fuck up mess.

Q: Who did you vote for? 

A: Well, I now live in a Labour safe seat so the results were a forgone conclusion. I chose to turn my vote into a protest vote and voted for the Liberal Democrats. Labour have always been way too far to the left for my liking, in principle I may share much more in common with the Conservatives when it comes to running the economy but I really don't like a lot of the individuals in the Conservative Party right now (May, Gove, Johnson, urgh - need I go on?) so the Liberal Democrats are always a good compromise, especially since I do agree with them on the need for a soft Brexit so as to minimize the shock to the British economy. Tim Farron isn't as brilliant as Nick Clegg, but he has impressed me far more than May or Corbyn. The Liberal Democrats came in third in my ward, behind the Conservatives - it was won by Labour, but that was no surprise at all. This is why the 'first past the post system' sucks. #proportionalrepresentation

Q: Where are you on the political divide?

A: In any case, I have little incentive to be on the left of the political spectrum. If May wants to slash public spending on education, then go ahead: I have no kids to educate and I've no plans to get another degree. If she wants to slash welfare benefits then guess what? I'm a multi-millionaire businessman who wants to pay less taxes anyway and being from Singapore, I believe a bit of Singaporean-style tough love would get a lot of unemployed people back into work. Widening gap between the rich and the poor? Well, guess what? I'm on the rich side of that divide, so I really don't mind or care either way. I'm your typical voter who has every incentive to vote Conservative, but I don't because the party is currently full of such odious, nasty characters whom I simply detest and do not want to see them in office. I liked David Cameron and Nick Clegg very much but they have both given up on politics now. Most of the main parties are pretty consistent on the issues that do matter to me when it comes to social issues (gay rights in particular), so I always default to the Liberal Democrats as it places me firmly in the middle of the political divide. I want a sensible pro-business government that will slash public spending and promote liberal values; but I also want to actually like and trust the people in power, I don't want a bunch of evil wankers whom I detest in power - is that too much to ask for?

Q: Are you shocked by the results? 

A: Well yes, somewhat. We knew it was going to be close but not so close that May would lose her majority. I had believed the polls, but of course, given that the polls have gotten it wrong on so many previous occasions from Trump to Brexit, there was just sense of, "okay, let's never believe the polls ever again." We knew that Labour could do well if young people did come out to vote and guess what? They didn't for the EU referendum but they did this time round - which is really frustrating for me as we lost the EU referendum by such a narrow margin and if only more young people came out to vote then. Then there's also people like myself who are neither young nor old but are older working adults in that age gap of between 35 to 50 - it is then down to the politicians to win our votes since we are more likely than the younger voters to turn up at the polling station on polling day to cast our votes. I think this does tell us quite a lot about the role of the media and the nature of British politics - the right wing press has practically slandered Corbyn in the run up to the elections but that simply wasn't enough to pull wool over enough voters in the age of the internet.

Q: Why didn't you believe in Corbyn then? Do you like him now?

A: I had said so in the past that I didn't have faith in Corbyn and I stand by that - I was proven wrong of course by the results of the election but it still hasn't fundamentally changed my opinion about Corbyn for the same reasons. We live in the social media age and three examples of social media savvy politicians whom I adore are Macron, Trudeau and Obama. Now they are the kind of politicians that young people would connect with easily - Corbyn seems to be a harder sell. He's older, he looks more like a tired grandfather than a vibrant young leader like Macron. I don't even know where to start with his image - even in the 1980s, he already dressed terribly; no not like a punk rocker or a goth trying to send a rebellious message through fashion, but more like a blind man who got his clothes from the charity shop. The only way that kind of image could appeal to the voters is to force them to look at his policies because he has no style to speak of, no charm and is seemingly oblivious to the problem. Perhaps that's part of his appeal, if he is aligning himself as an anti-establishment, anti-big business, anti-'the system' type of politician. The salesman in me still believes that he could do so much better if he were to employ better image consultants and improve his PR image. If that makes me shallow, then yes I'm guilty as charged - I just don't believe you can trust voters to vote only at policies.

Q: What will happen next - will May remain as PM? 

A: Nobody knows, many want her to go but you can't change the fact that the Conservatives did win more seats than any other party even if they have lost that working majority. Labour cannot form a government as they just don't have enough seats. The Liberal Democrats have refused to go into coalition with the Tories as it went badly wrong for them the last time they did that, so the Tories are now trying to turn to the DUP from Northern Ireland to give them that majority - but wait, the story isn't over yet. The peace process in Northern Ireland is still a very sensitive issue so if the DUP (a nasty bunch if you ask me, they are odious and evil) go into a coalition with the Tories, then that threatens to throw the peace process in Northern Ireland into jeopardy as the Westminster government is no longer a neutral peace broker in the process if they are in bed with the DUP. So the situation is a total mess and we won't have a functioning government for a while, with the Brexit negotiations starting imminently, well there is talk of having another election - but what if that simply delivers the same result of yet another hung parliament? What then? We're back to square one after wasting even more time and money. My guess is that May is going to force a highly unpopular deal with the DUP through, though I hope it won't come to that as it would be a highly unpopular coalition that is going to be ineffective every step of the way. So much for strong and stable, she has well and truly fucked up this time.#Mayhem

Q: How does this affect you? 

A: Well, I have just returned from Riga and the news of the election results broke hours before I got on my flight and I really should have changed my Euros before that - but like so many, I really did not expect the results the way they were. The exchange rate fell by about 1.7% which would technically speaking have made my holiday a bit more expensive, but prices were so cheap in Riga anyway that I didn't really mind or care either way. For example, you can get a set lunch for for between 3 to 5 euros in downtown Riga and it was of a decent quality. Wanna get an ice cream? Prices start from 0.16 euros and even my favourite which was a "Super Viva" piña colada sorbet was still just 0.89 euros. I got a coffee at the museum and it was just 0.50 euros. I bought a box of beautifully ripe strawberries and it was just 1.50 euros. I soon forgot that I was paying 1.7% more for my holiday as everything was so ridiculously cheap there - kinda like what I was in Romania! Conversely, if I were to head to a more expensive holiday destination like Norway, Switzerland or Japan, having a currency that was 1.7% or so stronger wouldn't have helped that much anyway. As for as the pound stays stable and the British economy stays robust, then us British folks will mostly be fine.

Q: Where did May go wrong then? 

A: May went into this election asking for a mandate to go ahead with a hard Brexit - she clearly didn't get it and many say that this is the end of any hopes for a hard Brexit. Even if she does get her unholy alliance with the DUP, they don't want a hard border in Northern Ireland with the Republic of Ireland, so many compromises will have to be made when it comes to Brexit. What happened was that May had gambled on a presumption that the EU referendum results meant that if she simply gave the public what they wanted, she could be assured of an easy victory - but the Brexit result was never that straight forward. Many people voted for Brexit without understanding what Brexit meant - it was a 'throwing the toys out of the pram' protest vote moment for many poorer, working class people who have seen their living standards stagnate or even decline in the last few years and since the prime minister along with many politicians and business leaders wanted to remain, they did the opposite just to try to get their voices heard. That was the same reason many Americans voted for Trump. By that token, May totally misunderstood the reasons why people voted for Brexit and of course, she had also woefully underestimated the opposition, she shouldn't have listened to the polls claiming that she was heading for a landslide victory. She is a woman who is clearly out of touch with what is going on in the country - Corbyn on the other hand managed to connect with a lot more working class voters especially younger votes in the 18 - 25 group, but whether or not he has the solution to their problems is another story altogether.

Q: Is May finished then? Will the UK have a new PM soon?

A: Quite frankly, I don't know. It is possible that she could get ousted by her own party if she loses the confidence of the party members - but this begs another question, who could replace her? Who will want to accept the poisoned chalice and take over from May at this time, leading a minority government or an uneasy coalition into tough Brexit talks with EU officials who are ready to shit all over anyone from the UK who turns up at those negotiations? May took the poisoned chalice from Cameron when he buggered off after losing the EU referendum and now look what happened to her - she paid a high price for greedily grabbing the poisoned chalice for a chance to be prime minister. Anyone who accepts this poisoned chalice from her will inherit a long list of problems to solve, May's to-do list isn't going to go away if she says, "that's it, fuck this, I'm done, you take over. I'm bloody rich anyway and 60, I don't need this." Boris Johnson has been lurking in the wings for a long time, but he is only 52 - he isn't that old as politicians go and he may decide that this is the wrong time to make a bid for power and oust May. Technically speaking, he could and it has been done before (Thatcher was unceremoniously ousted by Major back in 1990 against her will). If Johnson takes over and then fucks up as well (he has no magic wand to wave to fix everything), then he'll only be setting things up for a massive Corbyn victory. There really isn't anyone else in the Tory party to take over from May.

Q: What lessons can we learn from this then? 

A: Gosh where do I begin? Take all polls with a huge pinch of salt or better still, disregard them. Never underestimate the complexities of the motivations of people who vote one way in a referendum, never underestimate the power of the 'protest vote'. Never give up on trying to engage young people to vote because they did turn up this time and made a huge difference. Never go into an election assuming that just because you're in a safe seat, the result is a foregone conclusion: Kensington & Chelsea have voted for a Labour MP by a tiny margin of 20 votes. That is unthinkable and I'm sure there are plenty of people there who are kicking themselves for not getting out and voting that day. And I suppose many people are looking at this and thinking that this is a victory for democracy, it is a mess of course but such is democracy: it goes to show that when you do engage the public in politics they can make their voice heard and that's far better than the political apathy. I'm not sure what will happen next, but strangely enough, people are feeling hopeful rather than worried. Should they be hopeful rather than worried? Who knows? I don't know what to think anymore, I'm just glad that my fate is in my own hands because I work in finance and have a good job, I'm not like one of those poor people who are working in dead end jobs, dependent on hand outs from the government to make ends meet. So by that token, what happens next doesn't have that much of an impact on me and thank goodness for that!

So that's it from me on this issue. I hope I have managed to give you a bit more insight into the political situation in the UK at the moment. If you have any questions or comments, please leave a comment below. Many thanks for reading.