Theresa May recently called for a General Election, this caught many people by surprise as it seemed to be a U-turn. Given that the majority of her term has already been full of U-turns this should not have come as a surprise to anyone. In fact, if she had stuck to her carefully regimented plan of bowing to populist feeling she should have already changed course.
Labour not to blame
May has blamed the opposition to Brexit as her reason for calling a general election. She has cited that there is a lot of political opposition to the move and that she needs more support for the bill.
The European Union Notification of Withdrawal Bill that went through parliament on the 1st February 2017 and had a vote of 498 for and 114 against.
If Theresa May needs more of a majority we are starting to getting into her wanting to become a dictator. Given that just over half of the electorate voted for Brexit, surely parliament should have had a closer result?
There is also the feeling that May wants to put the boot into Labour and defeat them before the true implications of Brexit comes through and damages the perilously balanced UK economy. This may again seem like a great theory but she could have carried out this action earlier.
In fact, both of the reasons above could have been used earlier and the end of 2016 may have been a much better time for the Tories to have called the election.
It would have saved on the Gina Miller court battle. It would have saved May from repeatedly saying there will be no general election, it would have saved her from a lot of flak over yet another U-turn. To use Labour as the excuse for this general election call is subterfuge and Labour have willingly helped May with the process due to their own internecine war.
Electoral Fraud
The simple fact is this general election was called because of electoral fraud. The case has been rumbling on for a while now, mostly under the radar. It now looks like highly likely that 26 Tory MPs are about to be charged with electoral fraud, this would wipe out the Tory majority of 18 seats.
What then happens in the UK is a confidence vote is put before parliament.
If they lose this they then have to resign. This could lead to a general election but imagine facing a general election after your party had just lost a confidence vote on their ability to be in charge?
What is most likely to happen is that the Queen would call the opposition leader to the palace and offer him a chance to create a coalition government. This could have led to a huge change in UK politics with the possibility of a large coalition force. This would however not have suited many in the Labour party as it would have made Jeremy Corbyn the PM. This for some is worse than electoral suicide.
May saves her own skin
What we have now ended up with is a chance for Theresa May to save herself and more worryingly she has been aided and abetted by Labour. What could have been the seismic shakedown of UK politics has caused the members of both main parties to try and save their elite system, for the benefit of themselves but not their constituents.
