London Diary: Teresa May Embattled But Unbowed

By Wan A. Hulaimi LONDON, April 21 (Bernama) – British Prime Minister Theresa May, embattled but unbowed, is calling for a general election on June 8 in a bid for a stronger hand in the Brexit negotiations with the European Union. The move took the nation by surprise but was promptly backed by party stalwarts and the Labour opposition even if it so annoyed the Guardian newspaper that it called the move 'unnecessary' in its Opinion column. She is in a strong position, Labour is demoralised, the LibDems have been consigned to near wilderness and the upstarts that caused the Conservatives much angst, the UK Independence Party (UKIP), has its almost-charismatic former leader Nigel Farage dancing with Donald Trump as his own party at home is stuck like a needle in the groove of anti anything foreign, especially the European Union. Few people doubt that May will win in this election. However, is it really for a stronger Brexit hand? She says that she wants a clear mandate to go into long-drawn negotiations with the European Union. This may be true to some extent considering the pro-European snipers who are still active in her own party. One of them is Kenneth Clarke, a jazz-loving party grandee and a staunch European. A general election victory will clear the party of these doubting elements. However, a bigger prize for May will be the ousting of Jeremy Corbyn, the present leader of the Labour party. Pundits have no doubt that Labour will be so completely trounced in the sweep that May will be doing a favour to both to her own party and also the anti-Corbynists on his own side of the fence. May's victory will be the end of Corbynism without a doubt. Corbyn in turn, and much to the dismay of some of his own party members has welcomed the decision. With a mandate from the nation, May will also be able to stifle the persistent and irritating threats coming her way from the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) in the north. They are threatening to call another referendum for a break away from the United Kingdom as their answer to the rest of the country's Brexit decision. It became clear that the decision to call a general election was one made entirely in Downing Street. There was no inkling that the government was going in that direction, the more unexpected because Downing Street itself had been denying that that was their line of thinking. Even yesterday, when it was announced that the Prime Minister was going to make an important decision in the morning, there was no clue about what it was going to be. Perhaps the fact that the lectern placed in Downing Street before the Prime Minister's appearance bore no insignia of government was an indication. May emerged from a Cabinet meeting at Downing Street 11.06 am and announced that Brexit was a big task ahead. “We need a general election and we need one now,” she declared. By noontime, the news was splashed over the front page of the wide circulation Evening Standard, in London. May has a working majority of 17 in the present House of Commons. She feels the need to bolster her negotiating strength in the face of rumblings coming in from Europe, an uncertainty that is not assuaged by the diplomacy-by-bluster methods of her Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson, the man who had once hoped to use Brexit victory as a stepping stone to the Prime Minister's office. But even in the boldness and the certainty of this decision, she may yet find her plans overturned by the anti-Brexit voices that are still very strong in the law courts and in the media. These are cross-party pro-Europeans who feel that the UK is leaving the EU by the narrowest of margin in the referendum. Who will these people turn to in the general election? In the face of Labour's disarray and Corbyn's ineffective leadership and even his acceptance of May's decision, they may yet give a new lease of life to the LibDems who, in the early days of Cameron, were his coalition bed-mates. May is hoping for a clear sweep with labour vanquished for a long time, but if the pro-Europeans throw in their lot just for this occasion with the one mainstream party that is unequivocally pro-European, the outcome may once again be a hung parliament and May will have even greater things to contend with than she had hoped for by going to the nation. -- BERNAMA