LIVE24SEVEN // Feature V I EWS – WI TH SANDR A PAUL Unbelievable! Sandra Paul analyses an extraordinary General Election
As I write today, it is the day after the General Election and I’ve woken in an alternate reality. I’m serious. A few weeks ago, the Prime Minister Theresa May, called a General Election at a time when she didn’t need to but her overall lead in the polls was at an all time high.
The leader of the Labour Party was a car- crash of a leader (in mine and many other’s opinion) and I wrote then about my disappointment in him, since we needed a strong opposition to hold the Conservative Government to account.
What a turnaround a few weeks has shown.
The alternate reality I’ve woken up to has revealed no overall majority for the Conservatives and a hung Parliament.
Unbelievable. I called it wrong.
Theresa May said she needed a larger majority to command greater authority in Brussels whilst negotiating a Brexit deal. Instead, she goes into negotiations like a wounded dog. There can be no doubt that she has shot herself in the foot.
The young actually turned out in large numbers to vote. And their vote went to Jeremy Corbyn who wooed them with promises of the abolition of tuition fees. Weeks before, none of the polls had suggested that Corbyn would do anything bar fall on his face. It really has been a rerun of the referendum in that no one called it correctly. We underestimated the voters.
There is no doubt that the country cannot stand a leadership contest in the
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next few weeks and months and yet how can she remain in command when she has led us down this bruising road?
Her speech on the doorstep of No 10, immediately after seeing the Queen showed not a hint of personal failure. All I saw was an arrogance that I hadn’t noticed previously. I had assumed her stilted behaviour in front of the cameras came from a shyness or lack of showmanship. This morning, I saw no contrition and I would have appreciated a more empathetic, listening, appeasing tone. She suffered a massive blow but it is our country that loses ultimately.
“This will allow us to come together as a country,” she said, having lost the majority. Are you kidding me?
This country has been on a rollercoaster since last June’s referendum. That campaign was poisonous enough with many friends and families turning against each other, realising they didn’t share the same ideas about nation and governance.
We have returned to two party politics, showing yet again, how polarized the country is. The Labour leader (although mocked for many months by the media and indeed New Labour), has shown that by promising an end to austerity - paid for by increasing tax for 5% of the population and a return to heavy borrowing – he is listening to millions who are fed up with continued Conservative promises to cut the national debt.
Kensington, in West London - one of the most expensive, exclusive postcodes in the country - voted by only 20 votes for Labour, for the first time since voting began. Another sign the world is going mad.
Labour gained 29 seats. Diane Abbot, my personal bête noir, increased her constituency votes by 11,000. How? Over the past few months she had shown herself to be an incompetent shadow Home Secretary babbling away in broadcast interviews. Didn’t her constituents see through this? Obviously not. Or they hate the Conservatives far more.
I know that by the time you read this, we may have a new Prime Minister and we may be having another referendum or vote about something. I wish they would give it a rest. I’m heartily sick of all this politicking and I’m sure the rest of you are too.
Sandra Paul
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