British Prime Minister Theresa May, apparently feeling the pressure from the loss her party suffered last Thursday, on Monday said: “I got us into this mess, I’ll get us out of it.” The Conservative Party which she leads, prior to Thursday’s election, held a majority in the House of Commons. Having surprisingly lost 13 seats, and by extension its majority, the plurality of votes and seats make it impossible to govern independent of other parties.
Confident, based on opinion polls earlier this year showing the party with a 20 per cent favourability edge over others, Mrs. May, like predecessor David Cameron, gambled and called another snap elections. Her’s was the assumption that the conservatives would have achieved a bigger mandate from the electorate, which was felt to be important to negotiating Britain’s exit (Brexit) from the European Union (EU).
The election, called three years early, has not only cost the Conservative its parliamentary majority, but is bringing with it the intensification of calls, within and outside the party, for Mrs. May to step down. Additional to resisting such call, reality also informed the need to court alliance with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP). Strange bedfellows, the two are ideologically on some major issues, the alliance becomes necessary to ensure a working majority in the 650-seat Parliament and to get the Party’s agenda through. With the conservatives 313 and DUP ten seats, May is in a fight for her political survival.
It would be remembered while Prime Minister Cameron held the opinion that the British majority, like him, will reject Brexit, his bet last year June to take the decision to the electorate proved him wrong. He stepped down after the loss, which paved the way for Mrs May’s election by the party’s leadership as prime minister. While last Thursday’s election allows for many stories and analyses, including misjudging the electorate, polls are flash points in given time and not 100 per cent fool proof and serving as lessons for politicians everywhere, what is more important to our society is the Brexit negotiations, how it will proceed, and what will be its outcome. Conservatives since the polls last year are hoping to wrangle a better deal to access the EU’s markets from outside and this could foretell a new world order.
The possibility of a domino effect cannot also be ignored. Frankly, globalisation has not created a level playing field for some societies and segments within societies. This reality coupled with the push for the creation of free trade to be accompanied by fair trade has a chance to succeed under EU’s principles and articles. One of the positives to small states such as ours is the institution’s focus on upholding human rights in the production of goods and services. Issues such as respecting workers’ rights and eschewing Child and Forced Labour are conditional criterion to trade in the EU markets. Guyana, who through the Caribbean Community/The Dominican Republic and EU, as part of the Economic Partnership Agreement, stands to benefit not only from preferential treatment in entering the markets but also meeting human rights requirement in the business of trade.
There are other areas of interest to the society, given the protection the EU offers through upholding required international standards, by the way of laws and enforcement. These include the fight against money laundering and the financing of terrorism. Stringent guidelines and requirements for association are positive indicators to bring about fair trade among participants, with impacting potential for the entire global market. Globalisation has been with us from time immemorial but the world is becoming more complex. Practices in businesses and governments unmindful of the value of human resources and the environment in the process of trade, efforts by EU to bring about fairness and protection with the overall aim to benefit entire society cannot be ignored. Thus, for global watchers to Britain’s evolving internal politics, particularly vulnerable groups and small societies, the preservation of the EU is important given its enshrined protections from exploitation and abuses. How Mrs May will navigate her mess to get Britain through negotiations, due to start in the next few days, will be closely watched.