One might opine, “A funny thing happened on the way to the Brexit.”
Essentially, UK Prime Minister Theresa May, taking countenance of strong polls favoring the Conservatives and wanting to strengthen her majority with a personal electoral victory when entering the Brexit negotiations, called a snap election for June 8.
It was a slightly mitigated disaster—but close to the classic “snatching defeat from the jaws of victory” sobriquet.
The Conservatives dropped from a slim but workable majority of 331 (326 required for majority) to 318 seats. They still held the largest block in Parliament and actually garnered more votes than in the previous election. The Labor Party, led by Jeremy Corbyn, often dismissed as a loony-tunes individual whose political views included leaving NATO, ending the UK nuclear deterrent, as well as withdrawing from the EU, nevertheless rose to 262 seats (from 232).
Exactly how May managed to orchestrate this defeat will be mulled over by legions of graduate students writing dissertations, but while victory has a thousand fathers (and mothers), defeat is an orphan. And, to mix metaphors, the donkey’s tail of defeat is pinned on May.
Although she has rallied the Conservatives, including by firing her closest aides engaged in election tactics and bringing some critics back into Cabinet, other senior Tory figures that lost seats are more than a bit disgruntled. May will need armor plating on her back against ever-sharper knives.
Nevertheless, at this juncture, May appears to have reached an arrangement with the Democratic Unionist Party (DUP) whose 10 seats will accord May a very narrow majority.
