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She won ugly

Doesn’t she wish now that she had never called that election? The exit polls indicate Theresa May did not win a majority in Westminster, and in a near-catastrophic scenario the nation faces a hung parliament. The pound sold off sharply before beginning to recover again as we speak in early Asia morning. I have three observations to offer at this point:

One, the prime minister will without a doubt be left with a weaker mandate going forward. All cabinet reshuffles hinted at will not paper over that fact and her responsibility. According to the current exit polls, she is deemed to be 12 seats short of a majority and will need the support of the likes of LibDems that are on course to win 14 seats. May’s position in the Brexit negotiations will also be impacted and has now forfeited any advantage previously held.
Also, this loss will be deemed her loss. She took the gamble, and she will have to pay for it, even if only down the line. Despite her posturing to maintain a perceived strong leadership she never shed the status of being a compromise candidate after the Brexit vote last year, and her place never seemed entirely secure. The chatter about her replacement has already started, but the party will have a hard time producing a new figure, not tainted by the disputed Tory rule thus far.
Two, Labour has shifted hard to the left, or should we say any party moderate’s hope of seeing his movement rescued from the clutches of Jeremy Corbin has been dealt a fatal blow. The party is now firmly controlled by him. The momentum Corbin built in the past few weeks as well as the result make inconceivable any calls for him to step aside.
He won, may have won ugly too if you will, but his is the role of being the bigger thorn in the Tory’s side now. It could have been worse. Imagine Corbin had made the impossible possible and become prime minister… The identity of the nation, at least in the context of Brexit, would have been thrown into utter turmoil. Well, I guess the chaos is large enough as is.
Three, if it is any consolation for the Tories, the Conservatives in Scotland saw their fortunes revived, and after that landslide in the previous election the Scottish Nationalists have been put into their place. So, if you want to talk about some sort of balancing in the UK political landscape, Scotland seems to be showing us the way in 2017.
Hope is all there’s left for May & Co. Exit polls are one thing, the real result another. As the Daily Mail just reported, the first real results seem to contradict the exit poll of only 30,000 people. There is always hope, but whatever the final outcome fact remains she won ugly…
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