The votes are in and the UK seems to finally have a new lease on life. Boris Johnson and the Conservative Party have a landslide victory in yesterday's UK election. Bojo's gamble has paid off wonderfully.Since Bojo took his canine friend into the voting booth with him, I hope whomever oversees these thing is on the lookout for paw prints on one of the ballots.
While some votes are still to be counted from some remote locations, the Tories have picked up 80 seats in Parliament giving them a huge majority of 365 seats based on the latest exit polls. Only 328 were needed for a majority.
Jeremy Corbyn and Labour ended up with 203 seats, a major loss from the 262 they had before.
What this means is that Brexit is finally going to become reality, 3 years after the British people voted for it. Bojo understands quite well that if he fails to deliver, the Tories will be voted back out again. For the Conservatives, this is the best performance since party icon Margaret Thatcher’s last victory in 1987.
Part of the reason is that a large number of the British working class turned against the radical left as personified by Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour Party. Many of them voted to leave the EU. They were sick and tired of the never ending delays and stalls designed to make their votes null and void by the political elites among both the Tories and Labour.
Another reason is that Scotland, long a big source of Labour votes has now been almost entirely captured by the far Left socialist Scottish National Party (SNP). The SNP's chief cause is and has always been socialism and an independent Scotland. The SNP is also very anti-Brexit and wants to remain in the EU. As their leader Nicola Sturgeon said after the UK election, the results are not going to be binding on Scotland. Expect that to be one of the problems PM Johnson will have to deal with.
She and her fellow SNP members are of course ignoring two potent facts; first that the EU has a number of countries ahead of an independent Scotland for consideration for membership and second, that the EU accepting Scotland is not a done deal. Scotland now gets far more from the UK in financial aid than it pays in taxes and a divorce always involves certain expenses. The EU accepting an independent Scotland is by no means a sure thing since they're already dealing with a number of members who receive lots of financial aid as it is, and the North Sea oil is just about tapped out. So we'll see how that shakes out, aye Jimmy?
Another thing Bojo will have to deal with is trade treaties. The EU, led by French President Macron and Germany's Angela Merkel are already saying that a non-EU Britain will be an "economic competitor at our door." Meanwhile, French President Emmanuel Macron (who you'd think would have other problems to worry about just now) said that London would become an "unfair competitor". Bojo's idea is to complete both Brexit and the new trade treaties with the EU by the end of January.
Unlike Teresa May, his predecessor, he's not going to agree to paying 'alimony' of millions of pounds to the EU or to allow himself to be bullied into accepting the UK's compliance with laws it has no voice in making. In the event the EU insists on that, he might very well decide on a no-deal Brexit and worry about the treaties later.
Where before the EU presented a take it or leave it deal to the UK, things have changed and they now are far more interested in what the 27 EU leaders called for "as close as possible a future relationship with the UK." Nor will their be any more nonsense about an Ireland 'back up.'
Many of the EU members need trade with the UK more than the UK needs trade with them.
Outside the UN new opportunities are also going to arise. Where before, trade with Asia and the US was subject to EU terms and conditions, now the UK can make it's own deals. Given how well President Trump and Boris Johnson already get along and the UK's relationship with Australia, Canada and other members of the Commonwealth, that's going to open up a lot of new opportunities.
And an important aside, the UK will no longer be subject to the EU's positions and rules on accepting and keeping 'migrants' and so-called 'asylum seekers.' Teresa May was willing to accept this. Boris Johnson won't, and he made a point of that during the campaign. It's another reason he got elected.
What Boris Johnson and the Conservatives now represent is the promise of a new day for Britain. Like President Trump, he will be maligned and opposed by the Left. But then, so was Margaret Thatcher. If Bojo is as strong and determined as she was, the UK will be very fortunate. And for America,it means a new start on that special relationship.
