Well, at last we have an end to the uncertainty. The general election has been held and the result is an unequivocal victory for Boris Johnson's Conservative Party; a House of Commons majority of 80 is the largest they've had since 1987 and gives them a mandate to get on with governing the country, something that they've been largely prevented from doing ever since the days of Margaret Thatcher. The people ignored the scaremongering of Tony Blair, Michael Heseltine, John Major and others, the bias of the BBC and other media, the assaults on the character of Boris Johnson and his private life, and the fanatical cries of the "Peoples' Vote" lobby. The people ignored the noise, saw the way through and voted accordingly.
The electorate had had enough of Brexit and wanted it finished. A majority, probably a very significant majority, accepted the result of the 2016 referendum, which ever way they'd voted, and expected that result to be honoured. That a majority of their representatives in parliament did not do so roused them to feelings of anger; when the Labour party refused to come up with a clear policy on the subject and reneged on previous promises, it was too much for traditional supporters and they turned their backs. That the Corbyn - McDonnell leadership, supported by Keir Starmer, Emily Thornberry, Diane Abbot, Rebecca Long-Bailey and many more, proposed an approach that would have ensured the country never really left the EU and made a raft of promises that would have been financially and economically disastrous, if even possible, was laughed at. Corbyn himself was simply not liked or believed.
Jeremy Corbyn's Marxists have been utterly trounced, rejected not only by the electorate but also by a good few Labour candidates and other supporters. The brand of politics promoted by Corbyn and his puppeteer, John McDonnell, has brought the Labour party their worst result since the 1930's, even worse than that handed out to Michael Foot in 1983. Traditional Labour voters turned to the Liberal un-Democrats, in Scotland to the Scottish Nationalists, to the Brexit Party and even to the Conservatives themselves. Seats which had not returned a Conservative Member of Parliament for 70, 80, even 100 years turned Blue; one or 2 that had never been represented by a Conservative are now.
Shockingly, Corbyn has not yet resigned and appears to be determined to carry on as leader of his party for several more months while he and his cabal look for ways of ensuring that his eventual successor will also be wedded to an insane Marxist approach. This can only be good news for the Conservatives who would almost certainly retain power, not only in 2024, but for many years to come
Inevitably, Corbyn and his supporters are looking to blame anything but themselves for their disastrous performance. It was Brexit, it was the media, it was a highly personal campaign against Corbyn, anything but their manifesto policies and promises. John McDonnell proposed Rebecca Long-Bailey, Jess Phillips, Angela Rayner and others as potential future leaders of the party - really ? If these really are the future of the Labour party, the Conservatives will be in clover for many years to come.
The Liberal un-Democrats have made no progress and their leader, the girlish Jo Swinson, has lost her own seat to the rampaging Scottish Nationalists. In an election in which they were surely the main alternative for socialist voters, they lost seats although they did gain more votes than in 2017. Those votes were largely at the cost of Labour candidates in Tory strongholds, so were of little worth and will probably revert to their previous owners in the future. The Liberals are now into collective navel-gazing, wondering what to do next; in truth, they are a mish-mash of non-entities and are unlikely to be a force in British politics for some time to come.
In Scotland, the Scottish Nationalists benefited from a collapse in the Labour vote, something which allowed them to take seats from the Conservatives as well. Inevitably, Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Nationalists who actually has no seat in the United Kingdom parliament, has used the result for her own purposes and has ignored the underlying issues. She says that she has "won" the election in Scotland and that this is a vote for a second independence referendum, claiming that the issue in Scotland was simply whether or not this should happen; all other considerations are set aside. The result of the "once in a generation" referendum in 2014 is ignored, even though 55% then voted against independence. Sturgeon also glosses over the fact that she does not even have a majority in the Scottish parliament and faces elections for that body by the Spring of 2021, when a failure to gain a majority would seriously hamper her objective. However, the fanatical Sturgeon has no interest other than to bring about an independent Scotland and says whatever she believes will convince people to vote for it. Thus far, Boris Johnson has made it very clear that he will not sanction any new moves towards holding another referendum, so a political clash seems inevitable.
In the end, we can now be thankful that we have a new government with a strong majority. We will leave the European Union by the end of January 2020 and the government has the platform for taking a firm stand on discussions over future trade and other arrangements. We have a government that will not bankrupt our country but which will promote enterprise, lower taxes, and higher spending financed principally from higher growth rather than unsustainable borrowing. With any luck, we have now entered a period of political stability, free from the egotism of John Bercow, the ineptitude of Theresa May and the lunacy of Corbyn's Marxists. We will no longer have to listen to the shrill voices of Ann Soubry and her ilk, nor to the oily tones of Chukka Umunna and his.
This is not to say it will all be plain sailing. There will be bad days but hopefully not many. Whatever happens, the next 5 years will almost certainly be far better than the last 10, 20 or even 30. Bring it on !
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