Friday 9 June 2017

And now, June 9th! Consequences of June 8th.

What a difference a day, or indeed in this case a night, makes.

I went to bed last night feeling rather gloomy. The papers I had read online in the cafe during the evening all suggested that the Conservatives were in line for a landslide victory. The much talked about young voters were regarded as unreliable. Few of them would turn out to vote was the general consensus. And here we are this morning with a hung parliament and calls for Theresa May to resign.

From various Scandinavian political series we have watched on TV, we are aware that coalitions are an accepted form of government in some countries but they don't often happen in the UK. And the last one was not a great success, doing huge damage to the Liberal Democrats in the process. Poor old Nick Clegg has lost his seat this time around. Were it not for his having brought a lot of his troubles on himself by getting into bed with the Tories, I could almost feel sorry for him. Basically he is not a bad bloke. He must be wondering now how differently things might have turned out if he had made another decision back in 2010. So it goes.

I also find myself wondering how differently things might have turned out this time if the Parliamentary Labour Party had given their party leader their wholehearted support. And, for that matter, if the media had been somewhat less biased in their reporting. However, it is idealistic to expect the media to be truly unbiased or to avoid the sensational. Simple reporting of facts does not sell newspapers and so a "twist" is required.

I was rather gratified to read that UKIP had won no seats - unless they sneak in among the last few to be declared - and more than pleased to see that Caroline Lucas had retained her seat, even though she is the only Green MP. There is still a part of me that wonders how the Greens would have got on if they had had the same level of media coverage as UKIP. The latter always seemed to me to receive an inordinate amount of attention, especially in the early days when they appeared to be something of a joke, one step up from the Monster Raving Loony Party. Okay, so that is a bit of an exaggeration but it cannot be denied that they had a lot of free publicity which resulted in a larger fanbase than they might otherwise have had. But the Greens were too sensible and not sensational enough to receive the same. Once again, so it goes!

And so, as I read that Theresa May has struck a deal with the DUP, we wait to see what the true fallout from yesterday's election will finally be.

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