Daily Archives: June 4, 2017

Who will win the UK General Election on 8 June?

Of course we do not know. The opinion polls apparently suggest the Conservatives, but who trusts opinion polls? What is certain is that votes will be cast differently according to what part of the UK people live in.

In Northern Ireland, Catholics will, as usual, vote Catholic (pro-Ireland and pro-EU), Protestants will, as usual, vote Protestant (pro-UK and pro-Brexit).

In Scotland, pro-EU Scottish Nationalism may well have peeked. This means that Labour and the Conservatives may gain back some votes.

In Wales, only a few will vote Nationalist and only in the Welsh-speaking areas. Elsewhere Labour and the Conservatives will win votes.

In England, the Conservatives are trusted to negotiate a good Brexit deal and to tighten security in the face of the terrorist threat that has largely been brought to this country by the anti-Muslim policies of successive governments. After all, the latter were a few years ago quite happy to encourage Muslims to leave this country and as ‘moderate terrorists’ fight against the democratically-elected governments of Syria and Libya, which were so hated by the British Establishment. However, as a Party renowned for social injustice, ruining the police force and the prison service (done under the then Home Secretary Theresa May), and threatening the mere existence of the social system, the grossly underfunded health service, and wasting even more billions on Offence (cynically called Defence) in their new Cold War, can we really vote for them?

The Labour Party is led by a 1970s hippy-style, ex-Marxist idealist, who never quite grew up, and divided between many supporters of its leader and 200 purely Blairite (left-wing Conservative) and so treasonous Members of Parliament. As the Party of Social Justice, everybody likes the Labour promises of money for everything, as against mean Conservative cuts, but how will its promises be paid for? Labour has a long-established reputation for regularly bankrupting the country with fantasy economics. And can Labour be trusted to deliver Brexit and security?

Alternatively, there are various protest parties, such as the Liberal Democrats (an effete, politically correct, pro-EU group for the very middle-class and upper middle-class), UKIP (the anti-EU protest party, which most now consider is finished in the post-Brexit world) and the Greens. It is possible that all of these groups will be wiped out in what is in reality a straightforward two-horse race.

Some people, in disgust, will no doubt spoil their vote. Three Orthodox have told me that they will vote for Vladimir Putin…….