Special to the St. Cloud Times
Memorial Day has passed and July 4th is near, when we honor the 13 colonies, independence from England and the values of the Declaration of Independence. We reflect on our history and contemplate our future.
And sometimes I wonder what life would be like had we not won the war. Would we have gained independence later? Or would we live in the modern British system?
Most Americans feel warmly toward the British. We share a common history and language and culture. And a great share of Americans has at least a cursory knowledge of the Parliamentary system and follow it on the news.
We occasionally get confused in thinking the British Parliament is like our Congress. In the British system, the majority party or coalition in Parliament also has control of most executive functions. As a constitutional monarchy, the government has the power to execute the functions of government as granted by the monarch (King Charles III.)
We recently heard that the prime minister, Rishi Sunak, has raised eyebrows by calling an early election, even though his party, The Conservative Party or “The Tories”, is not popular with the voters. All the polls report that the Tories will lose to the Labour Party. (I will use the British spelling Labour with the ‘u’ to refer to the party.) Specifically, Sunak asked King Charles for permission to dissolve the government and hold an election for a new government.
The timing is not all that different from the maximum time a government can serve without going to the polls, which is five years. That date would have been December 17 this year.
Instead, the date of their election is set to be July 4. Which means some of us will have one eye on the fireworks and the other on the cellphone watching for British election returns.
I have two questions. First what would happen here, if we could have snap elections? The problem is a President is limited to two terms, so this would be in effect throwing away a couple of years from a maximum of eight. Congress might decide to have early elections if it found it could not function as is.
Come to think of it, that does sound like an idea to explore! But, of course, we are not set up that way.
Second, if the Tories are so far behind, why would Sunak call for them to come sooner? He has been in office less than 2 years and was brought into office by his own people. He came after a series of failed prime ministers, including Theresa May, Boris Johnson and Liz Truss.
One reason could be good news. Inflation is at 2.3 % (their goal was 2 %) and seems to be dropping. Tax cuts recently took hold. Perhaps Sunak figures things cannot get better than now to go to the polls.
Secondly, he may think he is taking Labour by surprise. Tories have passed some new laws that may help them in the polls; the majority they hold gives them some advantages, and a recent poll showed a small, 3% swing in the margin towards the Tories. He is now pitching a national service plan for British youth to either serve in the military or participate in some civil voluntary service.
Perhaps the best part of this is that the entire election will take about 7 weeks, while our election will drag on another 5 months.
I hope to see you this summer at parades and festivals. Let’s celebrate our freedoms and history first, but check the returns after the fireworks.
This is the opinion of Times Writers Group member Barbara Banaian, a professional pianist who lives in the St. Cloud area. Her column is published once a month.
Discover more from PressNewsAgency
Subscribe to get the latest posts sent to your email.