UK elections

Writing for Bloomberg about the Conservatives' disastrous snap election in the U.K.

Michael Welch
Global Research
For this writer, one of the more astonishing aspects of last Thursday’s live coverage of the election in the United Kingdom was the lack of reference to the violent attacks, deemed terrorist and ISIS inspired, over the last three months.

From time to time I asked my financial advisor when she thinks the Trump Crash will come. She doesn't see one coming any time soon. I hope she's right. Do you know who Jim Rogers is? I used to see him on TV all the time when I watched financial news programs. Usually termed a "legendary investor," he was one of the founders of the Quantum Fund. He was just interviewed by Business Insider's Henry Blodget.

The pollsters only got it partly wrong this time, though the most spectacular prediction cock-up was that on what would happen to British Labour prior to the exit polls.  Scotland crept up with a Tory surge, netting 12 seats, and there were scattering and skirmishing victories over the Scottish National Party, which suffered a considerable bruising.

Three days before the British election, The Independent’s headline title read: “Majority of British voters agree with Corbyn’s claim UK foreign policy increases the risk of terrorism”

Watching the BBC’s coverage of the election, you could be excused for taking away two main impressions of last night’s results. First, that Theresa May had a terrible, self-sabotaging campaign; and second that, while Jeremy Corbyn may be celebrating, he decisively lost the election.

There are 650 seats in the Lower House of Parliament, meaning a party needs to win 326 to form a majority government. When Theresa May-- believing her own and the Establishment's anti-Corbyn hype-- called a snap election on April 18, her party controlled 330 seats to just 232 for Labour. The SNP held 56 seats (out of a total of 59 seats in Scotland) and the Liberal Dems held 9.

Tomorrow is election day in the U.K. And John Nichols thinks you should be as excited as Bernie is about Jeremy Corbyn's anti-austerity campaign. Bernie even went over there to campaign for him, probably hoping Trump would deliver the coup de grâce for the Conservative Party by endorsing Theresa May.

So in the Libyan fable, it is told,
That once an eagle, stricken with a dart,
Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft,
“With our own feathers, not by others’ hands,
Are we now smitten.”1

The hallmark of any administration worth its corruptly curing salt is making hay while the sun shines its searing rays.  Not long after the slashing and running down was taking place in London, moving from London Bridge to Borough Market, the tweets of blame and fire were already coming through.