Daily Times

Britain is heading to the polls this summer. Yet the outcome is more or less guaranteed. Meaning that Theresa May will keep her place at No 10, if the current 20-point lead currently enjoyed by the Conservatives is anything to go by.

And there is nothing at this juncture to suggest otherwise. Indeed, Parliament has given its backing to triggering the contentious Article 50 (of the Lisbon Treaty). May always maintained that elections would go ahead according to schedule in 2020. That is, until she didn’t.

This begs the question: why snap polls now?

The simple answer is that the prime minister wishes to circumvent 2020, in order to avoid upheaval as ‘hard’ Brexit negotiations reach their most critical stage. Thus in this illusionary game of democracy in motion — the electorate will be relegated to little more than a sideshow.

Indeed, the May has even said as much. Announcing the June 8 polling date, she noted that while country was coming together at this historic moment — Westminster was not. So, there we have it. This election is not so much about securing the popular vote, as it is about parliamentary rubber stamping of the May premiership.

The biggest losers in all this are the British public.

From the moment that the official Brexit vote was in — the political leadership did nothing to quash the emerging narrative: that all who voted Leave were a bunch of racist xenophobes. With the exception, that is, of Jeremy Corbyn; a man of true Socialist vision who has the misfortune to be leading a party largely comprised of Blaritie clingers-on. It’s life, Jezza, but not as we know it.

In his first interview in the post-Brexit world, Corbyn was the only political leader at pains to point out that not just the ‘will’ of the people be respected — but that the underlying reasons for their disenfranchisement be understood. He was referring to those working-class communities of the industrialised north that had been decimated by Margaret Thatcher, first, and then by her illegal heir, Tony Blair. At that time, Corbyn — who himself voted Remain — emerged as Britain’s only statesman.

And so he remains today, too.

Of course, all this could have been avoided last June. David Cameron could have pulled up his big boy pants and seen Brexit through to its logical conclusion. Or if he found that his big boy pants were suddenly falling down — he should have done the decent thing and called a snap election there and then. But ever the new statesman, he didn’t want to risk being the chap who not only came so very close to losing Scotland — but also costing the Tories the next election after calling an In-Out referendum of his own making. So, he chose the path most travelled. Meaning that if you want a hard job done well — give it to a woman.*