UK PM calls snap election for June
Theresa May outside 10 Downing Street announces early election
(CNS): British Prime Minister Theresa May has announced plans for a general election in the UK on 8 June. The Conservative Party leader took up the country’s top job after David Cameron resigned following the ‘Brexit’ referendum and could have stayed as PM until 2020, despite not being the party leader during the 2015 general elections. But she said Britain needed certainty, stability and strong leadership following the referendum.
“The country is coming together but Westminster is not,” she said, as she made the announcement Tuesday.
The Cayman Islands, as an overseas territory, could therefore find itself dealing with an entirely new administration in Britain just two weeks after its own election, though the probability of the Tory Party losing is slim.
While there are divisions in the Conservative party over the EU departure, the divisions within the opposition are much greater, given Labour Leader Jeremy Corbyn’s lack of support from his own party. Nevertheless, Corbyn welcomed the news and said his party wanted the election, calling it a chance to get a government that puts “the majority first”.
There will be a vote in the House of Commons tomorrow to approve the election plan and May needs the backing of two thirds of MPs to move the election to 8 June this year, three years early.
Explaining her change of heart on an early election, May said the only way to guarantee certainty and security was to hold the national ballot, as she accused other political parties of “game playing” that could put the delicate talks with the EU over Brexit, triggered just a few weeks ago, at risk, causing “damaging uncertainty and instability to the country”.
“So we need a general election and we need one now,” May said, speaking outside Number 10 Downing Street. “We have at this moment a one-off chance to get this done while the European Union agrees its negotiating position and before the detailed talks begin,” she added.
Category: UK, World News
4:45 Comment from the BBC –
A raft of Sunday polls in the UK put the Conservatives somewhere between 11 and a massive 21 points ahead of Labour, the largest gap between the parties in the past nine years. Surveys also suggest that the British public is confident in Ms May’s ability to negotiate a good deal from the EU.
That doesn’t read like much a gamble to me.
Interesting how Dwayne Seymour is ridiculed for his “work permit freeze” proposal, yet the world is expected to respect and remain positive about the impending Brexit – which is essentially a “work permit freeze” on anabolic steroids.
Hypocrisy much? Yes. Very, very much.
(Not like that ever stopped certain people from talking out of both sides of their manure-lined mouths.)
However, don’t take my word for it – click on to the relevant CNS article and read the comments for yourself. If you manage to square those circles and make sense of it all then please – enlighten the rest of us.
* Note: White, western privileges of fluid logic not accepted. Logic and consistency of perspective are mandatory.
** Ad hominem attacks shall be rightly regarded as ‘nolo contendere’.
Your comparison is inexact. More a case of extending who is covered by the current UK work permit system than freezing the issue of work permits. In fact there is little evidence that there will be any impact on the numbers entering the UK in the short (5-10 years) term, though there may be a change both in numbers and in skills mix in the long term.
The UK Government is also not dependent on the revenue generated by issuing work permits in the way that the GIC is dependent. A prolonged freeze on the issue of WPs in Cayman could cause financial problems for them, as it would have a significant impact on cash flow.
In general, the only feasible way to get away from the dependence on WP fees (as in, to raise an equivalent amount of tax) and to thus reduce the numbers of WPs issued, is to introduce some form of direct taxation, such as income tax, which would have the effect of transferring a larger proportion of the burden of taxation (in time, I suspect, close to 100%) onto individual Caymanians. Good luck with that proposal.
Zzzzz…
Kindly allow us Caymanians the luxury of laughing in the face of doomsday messages like yours – similarly to how the UK is currently doing in the wake of their Brexit vote.
Sounds fair, no?
– Whodatis
So no relevant counter to my comment then? From that, I gather that you hadn’t actually considered how CIG was going to pay its staff with greatly reduced income, or how it was going to raise income without WP fees.
Sounds fair, eh?
Less residents means lower strain on government resources and less required revenue.
Whatever the case, kindly return to my post above.
We’re gonna be just fine, come what may.
Take that bogeyman elsewhere – nah working here my friend.
– Who
“We’re going to be fine” doesn’t pay the bills, my friend. Just consider the extreme position of no Work Permits – take away the part of the population that has no entitlement to use any of those government resources, but pays a large chunk of the cost of those same resources and keep the part of the population that does have a call on those resources, but doesn’t pay as much towards maintaining those resources. You still have the same demand, but less money to pay for them. Consider also that the total size of the economy would shrink to c. 40% of what it is now – simply because there are not enough “Caymanians” to fill even half the jobs in the current economy. Without workers, the companies will leave, further reducing CIG income.
No “doomsday” message, just an exercise in logic
My friend, by now you should have realised that the greater, western countries, from whom we have always taken our models and templates of economy, have torn up the rulebook.
We have protectionist, globalisation-reversing President Trump and the same rhetoric but even more literal union existing, Brexit-headed UK on the other side.
Therefore, please – cease with what can only be regarded as outdated arguments to support whatever case you are trying to make.
The sky will not fall.
Lastly, I will not shed a tear if certain aspects of our industries end up shrinking and our population decreases.
After all, much of the benefits were never intended for Caymanians anyway.
Some of us are tired of hosting this charity experiment.
So go – jump out of the nest little birds – prove yourselves on the global stage and quit whining.
– Who
Translation: “Are you racist, xenophobic, unemployed, unskilled, lazy, and government-dependent – mix and match as it fits – Brexit supporters absolutely certain this is what you really want??”
– Who
🙂
I live in the UK and I have been a member of the Labour party since 1966 but I will vote Conservative on June 8th.
Jeremy Corbyn is not fit to lead a skiffle group, never mind a country but then, Ed Miliband was almost as bad. It all started to go wrong for Labour when the unions kept his brother from becoming leader.
Until the party goes back to the old way of MPs electing the leader, we will continue to be led by second rate left wingers sponsored by the unions.
I voted to leave the EU and apart from UKIP – a party of strange nutters – the Tories are the only party fully committed to Brexit.
I hope Mrs May gets a huge majority and then, Yvette Cooper becomes the next Labour leader.
I have a sneaking suspicion that this may not turn out as May wishes…
1:48 I’m guessing you don’t live in the UK because feelings there say it’s a very smart move.
I don’t but I can read (BBC if you care to bother) which argues all sides of the coin and that its a gamble which could go either way.
Ha, another clown who believes what the biased BBC say.
LOL, someone who actually believes what the BBC says? You for sure do not live in the UK! Check out Sky News next time, they paint a completely different picture.
Would this be the Sky News owned by Rupert Murdoch and friends? The Rupert Murdoch who strongly supported Brexit and used his various news outlets to push the ” leave ” agenda?
If you think any news agency owned by Murdoch is more independent than the BBC, you are a fool.
8:56 Having freelanced for Sky in the early 90s I can say without hesitation that they are less biased than the BBC. While I was working for them Sky aired verified stories from Yugoslavia that the BBC ignored. Sky also had crews on the ground while the BBC was happy to run Serbian propaganda because it fitted their rather perverse left-wing agenda. Murdoch may be a complete ass but he respects editorial independence.
Maybe you define ” editorial independence” differently than I do. Apart from the fact that Murdoch has faced numerous allegations over the years of directly influencing editorial decisions, the real interference comes from the staff he selects for his organisations in the first place.
If you select senior management and staff who mirror your own political opinions, it’s no surprise if your organisation ends up reflecting those opinions, rather than the whole spectrum of opinion – Fox News being a good example.
That is what Cameron thought as well : )