(07-07-2024, 08:45 PM)DISRAELI Wrote: Let me re-iterate the end of the opening post, which was the actual predictive element.
Quote:This allows us to see Boris Johnson’s triumph in December 2019 as the British version of Trump’s triumph in 2016, and his dumping in 2022 as the British version of Trump’s defeat in 2020. This is an attractive theory because people see so many similarities, even in hairstyle.The actual result seems to vindicate the second half of the final sentence, so the first half might still be valid.
We arrive in 2024 with both countries seeming to show an increasingly strong right-wing mood. However, that’s not going to translate into an election victory in Britain because the official right-wing party is falling apart.
As far as I can gather, not being in close touch with political events, the pro-Brexit side of the party are the ones who are pulling out and forming a new “Reform” party. Maggie Thatcher used to label the more liberal and pro-Europe side of her party as “wet”, so in the political language of the time the Thatcherites themselves were known as “dry”. On the whole, I think, “wet” has been in charge at least since the turn of the century, so that is the element that is now going down in flames.
If a right-wing surge is now bringing Trump back to power, that won’t be reflected in Britain until the right has had a chance to re-form itself and coalesce.
I don't understand British political labels very well. That's probably compounded by differing American usages of the same terms. For example, my grandfather was usually called "Whig" as a nickname, but I don't think the term means the same thing here as it does there. As another example, "Tory" was a pejorative term here after the Revolution, and most of our Tories were expatriated to the Bahamas to avoid grisly deaths for them, but there I think "Tory" just means what we would call "Conservative" over here - but I can't be sure.
"Brexit" I sort of understand, but only sort of. It seems just a common-sense move to decouple from the EU and what it is becoming, so I don't quite fathom the differing opinions over it there... but then again, I don't live there, so the nuances are not a part of my day to day experience.
To compound my confusion, the Democrats here used to be known as "the working man's party", which I would equate with "Labour" I suppose, and the Republicans were known to cater to financial elites. In recent years, that has entirely flip-flopped, and now the Republicans are "the working man's party" while the Democrats have allied themselves with the elites... a complete 180 from what I grew up with.
The colors representing the parties has even flipped. When I was young, "blue" represented the Republicans and "red" (as in "the red menace" or the color of every communist flag around the world in those days) represented the Democrat Party. Around the year 2000, for reasons never explained, that color association flipped to what we have today, which took me years to get used to - if I ever did. Until 2000, "red", representing "danger", was associated with every Leftist movement world-wide, including the US Democrats... but now it's associated with the Right here.
So "Tory", "Labour":, etc. doesn't do much to explain to me just who is winning and who is losing in terms I can comprehend.
In light of that, can someone explain to me in terms I can understand - in other words, "dumb it down" - just what the results of the recent British visit to the polls were?
.