April 19, 2017, by Andrew

Theresa May-or-may-not be sticking around for Brexit. But why should you care?

*Disclaimer: I am no political expert, nor journalist extraordinaire. I am but a humble purveyor of newspapers and writer of blogs.

Hopefully you’ve heard by now that Mrs May plans to hold a general election this year, on the 8^th of June. After a year of hate-fuelled build up to Brexit, and a year of remorse-ridden depression following the verdict (or perhaps, more poignantly, the supposed time scale required to execute said verdict [think peeling a plaster off slowly]), we’re all pretty sick of hearing about the EU, the ‘borders’ and the ‘plummeting pound’. It might be easy, therefore, to turn a blind eye to this upcoming election and to reside in blissful ignorance instead – after all, June 8^th is probably after your final exam; why should you care what happens when you’re catching rays in Zante or living it up in Thailand?

Well, here’s the thing. Whether you voted for or against Brexit, and irrespective of whether you’ve since changed your mind on that decision, having an unelected prime minister actioning our exit-plan is widely regarded as a bit of a faux-pas; a limp handshake if you will. Theresa May hopes, of course, to be elected into her own job, which might strengthen negotiation and bargaining power in Brexit talks and may positively impact the stability and value of the Great British Pound. Or it might not. Maybe Labour can pull a surprise victory out the bag, by unifying at last and getting ‘Joe Workingman’ back on the red team once more (albeit perhaps solely through fear of more austerity cuts from the Tories – we didn’t want those maintenance grants anyways *weeps*) who may reinstate lost funding for the NHS. Is the best person for the job, the one with the biggest gob? If so, Mr Farage might be suited to steering the Brexit battleship to Brussels. Perhaps the Lib Dems can … well perhaps Tim Farron can turn water into wine and then maybe win a seat or two.

The Tories have slashed disability benefits, the Lib Dems helped inflate student debt by a factor of 3, and the Labour leader can still barely keep a leash on his own MPs. In my totally unqualified opinion, everyone else’s qualified opinions and predictions are largely just confusing and/or biased. Read, listen and watch what’s going on, gather your info from multiple sources, and formulate your own original opinion because one way or another, for better or worse, you will be affected by its outcome.

The election cannot go ahead until the motion has been passed by the house of commons. Interestingly, despite anger from his own bench over fears of losing their existing seats, labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has expressed his support for the move. If it does indeed go ahead, you’ve got 7 weeks to formulate who you want to vote for/pull a name out of a hat. But I urge you, if you are eligible; vote. Time and time again, young people are underrepresented in national votes and we’re often the ones who suffer for it. So if you haven’t already, you can register to vote online here https://www.gov.uk/register-to-vote

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