British last week’s parliamentary elections was a real shock to the conservatives; what prime minister Theresa May was expecting to produce a promotion for her party’s position through having dozens of more seats turned to be a big disappointment, as she could not secure a simple majority. Many of the heavy weight officials and prominent figures in the Conservative party lost their parliamentary seats; some of them are ministers.
Surely, the conservatives are not in their best times; the elections came as a huge success to their adversaries in the labor party under Jeremy Corbin. 52% of the voters said yes to the Labor party policies vis a vis housing, taxation, and university fees. Corbin wants to give opportunity for all university students to receive free education as is the case in France and Germany. University education under the conservatives is limited to students coming from wealthy families.
Not being able to secure a majority in the elections; the Tories are forced to have a coalition with other parties to form the cabinet and this puts them in tough situation, especially if the other party has a different agenda related to many domestic and foreign issues.
Another major difference between the two rivalries is that the labor party accuses the conservatives of importing terrorism and thus putting Britain under the mercy of takfiri groups due to their miscalculations and interventions in Syria and Iraq.
A third difference has to do with the conservative role of total subservient under the US policies.
Meanwhile, the labor party made a surprise and unexpected success thus ushering in a new chapter in British politics to exercise lots of influence and pressure over the anticipated government through the parliament where they yielded a historic success gaining more seats than they have expected.
Another problem for the conservatives has to do with the negotiations between London and the European Union over Brexit. The slim majority that Tories would have through a coalition does not entitle them to be at full ease and would necessarily narrow their maneuver margin to secede from the union. The intended coalition is with the northern Irish unionist party, one of the ultra right parties. The majority of Britons refuse any coalition with this party. This has emboldened European officials to question London’s readiness to this step. Meanwhile, German finance minister has announced that London is welcome to stay in the union if it is not ready to part.
Whether Theresa May would succeed or not is not the question now, as every one is sure that the country has moved into a new phase where the conservatives do not yield the ultimate power and thus have to learn the art of sharing and caring with others to steer the wheel of politics in Britain.
Source: Al-Manar Website
