Theresa May’s Election Decision Vindicated
When British Prime Minister Theresa May made her decision a week ago to call a snap general election it not only stunned the people but was labelled a gamble by many political commentators even though it was clearly the correct decision. Their reasoning was that voters would resent being sent to the polls three years early and having a third national vote in three years, it would be viewed a cynical political move to exploit the weakness of the Labor opposition and obtain a larger majority in the House of Commons based on current polling and consolidate her own power in the Conservative Party.
Well, the first sets of polls have been released following last week’s decision and the level of support for the Conservative Party and May’s personal approval rating are now at new heights. The ComRes Poll for the Sunday Mirror (a left wing tabloid) puts the Conservatives at 50% primary vote vs Labour at 25% (Britain uses first-past-the-post voting). Theresa May is even further ahead as preferred Prime Minister at 62%. The poll also finds most Labour voters have already conceded defeat with 45% of them saying that they cannot win while Jeremy Corbyn is the leader.
The YouGov poll for the Sunday Times (a Murdoch broadsheet) has the Conservatives ahead 48% to 25% Labor. It further states that 48% of British voters back her decision for a snap general election and half of those people believe a large Conservative majority is what the nation needs. It is clear from these multiple polls that the British people are taking this election seriously as they know the next two years they need a strong government which is able to get a good Brexit deal. They want Brexit to be a success, after all they did vote for it last year and aren’t about to junk their decision.
Despite all the talk after the Brexit referendum result which forced David Cameron to resign as Prime Minister that Britain was headed for unstable times, under May’s leadership nothing could be further from the truth. It is true that many of us on the right were sceptical when she was elected Conservative leader given that she was Remainer (albeit a soft one) and that there were better choices from the party’s Eurosceptic wing such as Boris Johnson and the last remaining challenger Andrea Leadsom.
Despite the hope of the Bremainers that the Conservatives would just ignore the Brexit result which had occurred in other European Union referendums, when she took over May declared that Brexit means Brexit. We now know she meant it, and despite all of the court challenges and the forced parliamentary vote she finally triggered Article 50 this year (along with the Bremoaners). She now wants her own mandate not because she is power hungry but because she wants the best Brexit deal for the British people and be in the strongest negotiating position with the EU technocrats.
She still has a long way to go to matching the glorious record of Britain’s other Conservative Female Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher, but on other policy issues she has proved herself to be driven by common sense. She wants to leave the European Convention on Human Rights which has frustrated the government’s attempts to deport foreign criminals and terrorists. She has criticised the spread of safe spaces on universities and the effect it has on free speech and while Home Secretary oversaw the removal of the word ‘insult’ from Section 5 of the Public Order Act which was crippling free speech in Britain.
Her government is overseeing the reform of Britain’s education system allowing for more private free schools and grammar schools to improve the education system through greater competition which also helps the poorest students. She is proceeding with a company tax cut which would make Britain’s tax rate one of the most competitive in the first world economies. May is not perfect as we have previously stated, she still does not dare take on some of Britain’s most scared public institutions which cost the taxpayers billions every year: the NHS and BBC, but she is certainly taking Britain in a better and freer direction than a lot of other western countries.
It is also worth noting that through her strong leadership in making sure that Brexit did eventuate she has overseen the reaffirming of conservative values in the Conservative Party. UKIP was the party that for many years the Conservatives had been losing votes to on their right flank but the threat from them appears to have been neutralized. This was because UKIP’s primary goal was leaving the European Union and so its purpose is now viewed by many voters as having been achieved and hence they are going back to the Conservatives. Former UKIP leader Nigel Farage believed his work was done which is why he retired.
The Conservatives have now realised with the British people voting for Brexit that conservative values were, contrary to what the media tells them, are an election winner. It is worth noting that the Conservatives, under the leftward direction of Cameron, only obtained government in 2010 through a Coalition with the Liberal Democrats and just scrapped together a majority in 2015. But in 2017 under a conservative manifesto they are marching towards a thumping election win.
May has pleasantly surprised those on the right who feared she may just be a continuation of the bland leadership David Cameron offered. Barring a catastrophic political scandal May will deservedly win a convincing election victory on June 8th. If she continues to provide the same determination during the Brexit negotiations as she did with getting Article 50 triggered she could very well go down as one of Britain’s most well-known Prime Ministers.
