The surprise result of the United Kingdom’s general election, which will return Prime Minister David Cameron and the Conservative Party to power for another five years, suggests that Britain’s voters prefer the devil they know to the devil they don’t. That may also apply, one hopes, to European Union membership.
BRUSSELS – The surprise result of the United Kingdom’s general election, which will return Prime Minister David Cameron and the Conservative Party to power for another five years, suggests that Britain’s voters prefer the devil they know to the devil they don’t. That may also apply, one hopes, to European Union membership, too. Indeed, with Cameron’s big win, the specter of a British exit from the European Union has begun to recede, though it remains unvanquished.
The question mark over the UK’s future within the EU had been widely seen throughout continental Europe as key to this election, yet it received barely any attention as a campaign issue. It posed too many awkward issues for the UK’s mainstream political parties, which pushed it aside to focus on domestic economic and social problems.
The main message of the election result is that British voters do not welcome the fragmentation of the political system and the rise of smaller parties leading to a new era of coalition governments. Though the debate about shifting to some form of proportional representation is not over, the result does suggest that the British electorate appreciates the stability of its traditional “first past the post” system, which favors the Conservative and Labour parties.
BRUSSELS – The surprise result of the United Kingdom’s general election, which will return Prime Minister David Cameron and the Conservative Party to power for another five years, suggests that Britain’s voters prefer the devil they know to the devil they don’t. That may also apply, one hopes, to European Union membership, too. Indeed, with Cameron’s big win, the specter of a British exit from the European Union has begun to recede, though it remains unvanquished.
The question mark over the UK’s future within the EU had been widely seen throughout continental Europe as key to this election, yet it received barely any attention as a campaign issue. It posed too many awkward issues for the UK’s mainstream political parties, which pushed it aside to focus on domestic economic and social problems.
The main message of the election result is that British voters do not welcome the fragmentation of the political system and the rise of smaller parties leading to a new era of coalition governments. Though the debate about shifting to some form of proportional representation is not over, the result does suggest that the British electorate appreciates the stability of its traditional “first past the post” system, which favors the Conservative and Labour parties.