Election

When I walked into the office yesterday, the first thing that anyone said to me was: “Has the UK managed to organise an election yet?” It comes to something when even Belgians (six months after an election, and still no federal government) are finding British politics amusingly dysfunctional.

But now everything has changed and the UK Parliament has very nearly agreed to hold a general election… Just before Christmas.

Inevitably, the pundits are out in force but I really don’t think that anyone can predict what will happen next. Both of the main parties have rendered themselves unelectable. Labour are, deservedly, tanking in the polls and, as far as Brexit is concerned, the Tories have managed to both disappoint Leavers and alienate Remainers — it’s difficult to see where they expect to find any votes at all.

This all suggests that the misleadingly named First Past the Post electoral system that Britain insists on retaining is liable to deliver an utterly random result. But probably not so random that Lib Dems win a majority and finally bring an end to this whole Brexit mess.

So, as this laughing stock of a Parliament dissolves itself I am left with the dilemma of whether to stock up on popcorn or just try to ignore this next chapter of the English farce called Brexit.