British general elections

It is still to early to know the outcome of the British elections. It will be inappropriate to try to guess the results, a couple of hours before the closing of the polling stations. Better wait for the headlines and the details tomorrow morning. Whatever comes out of the voting, it will have a major impact on the UK and, in some ways, in the rest of Europe. These are no ordinary elections. And many, particularly the younger people, got to understand it.

The question of trust

If there is a thing I took away from the political debate the BBC organised last evening, it is the question of trust. Basically, the programme was about placing the leaders of the four main British parties before an assembly of citizens. We were told these people represented a good sample of the diversity of opinions one can find in the British society. I don’t know the criteria the BBC followed to select them. However, I have no special reason to doubt the organisers’ word and good judgement.

Each leader was given 30 minutes to listen and reply to questions coming from the audience. That’s time enough to win an assembly of voters. It can also become an eternity if one is not able to connect with them and be convincing.

In my opinion, and excluding the special case of the leader of the Scottish National Party – Nicola Sturgeon has a very specific political agenda, very focused on getting a new vote on Scotland’s quest for independence from the UK – the other three leaders could realise they are not trusted by large segments of the population. Their pledges do not sound as sincere.  They can count, of course, on their faithful followers. But they can’t widen the pool.

My conclusion was that they should ask themselves why it is they are not perceived by a good number of the voters as credible. If I were in their shoes, that would be the question I would try to answer now, before moving on with the campaign.

The extreme right and its tactics

The extreme right is like a hodgepodge of ideas. That explains part of its current strength.

 I have looked at their political programmes, statements and slogans. They bring together racist views and ultranationalist feelings with proposals they stole from the left or even from the far left. That is their way of casting the net wide and catching different categories of voters, from the very traditionalist type, the old style bourgeois, to the working class people, that are impressed by the radical promises the extreme right makes in terms of lower taxes, jobs for the citizens, tariffs at the borders, and so on, including the hate posture against international trade and supranational institutions.

They have an agenda that is far from being coherent. But they do not care about consistency and logical sets of proposals. They care about being as populist as they can.

It is not a protest posture, contrary to what many say. It is a deliberate assemblage of impossibilities to attract as many voters as they can. And if they can add to that a smart leader, a sweet talker, and tough discourse, they increase their chances of being supported.

That’s what we have seen today in some EU countries.

#Brexit, what a crazy idea

Brexit. Leave. Leave might be a question of opinion. Fine! But it has become obvious it is a sinister, and above all, stupid opinion.

It's all Theresa May's fault!

In the UK, key Conservative opinion makers are now in a campaign to place all the blame on Prime Minister Theresa May.

Uncertainty, even confusion, and growing resentment define the current British political climate. Like the proverbial meteorology of those Isles, the climate around Brexit is foggy and unpleasant.

And they are openly saying, it is May’s fault! They add then: it comes from her lack of true enthusiasm for the exit ideals. Those Conservatives – and they are quite influential in the mainstream right-wing media, not just in the tabloid sheets – want to divert people’s attention from the inescapable issue, meaning, that the UK needs to agree on an exit deal with the EU. And that inevitable deal is the one that has been on the table since November 2018.

They also want to present some crazies – Jacob Rees-Mogg, Boris Johnson, David Davis, Dominic Raab, Ian Duncan Smith, among others – as true patriots, people that can take over from Theresa May and move the UK to the centre of the world.

Really? Well, with their Victorian way of looking at Britain and Europe, they might be able to bring the country back to the XIX Century. And make it imperial again!

No good news from the Polish front

Poland has moved to the very conservative side of its political spectrum. The populist and pretty nationalist Law and Justice won today´s elections. They have a comfortable majority. They will make good use of it to promote a traditional approach to politics and to social values.

This is no good news for the repair work that needs to be done in order to strengthen the EU. The Law and Justice leaders are not great supporters of a stronger EU. They will be adding new challenges to those who believe, in Brussels and throughout Europe, that greater harmonization of policies is the way forward.

The European social-democrats are getting me confused

Is the European democratic socialism in crisis?

That was today´s question in a small group that met to discuss what next for the social-democrat movements in Europe. And I have to add that the debate was not very conclusive. To start with, it is getting more and more difficult to make a difference between the left wingers and their opposite parties of the centre right. Then, there are those who place greater emphasis on behavioural matters, such as the gay and lesbian issues, and others that keep the focus on the economy, job creation and equality matters. But you find people from both the right and the left saying the same things about these issues. And one gets confused then.