JOIN USBritain stands on the verge of some fateful choices. No political leader in the coun-try seems capable of man-aging the turmoil within.
The campaign season for the British national elections has officially begun. This is one of the strangest elections in recent memory in the country as there is no sense of who might be the winner. The opinion polls are putting the two main national parties, the Conservatives and the Labour, neck and neck. No side has so far succeeded in making a winning argument. The polls are pointing to a hung parliament much to the consternation of David Cameron and Ed Miliband, the leaders of the Conservatives and the Labour, respectively.
Both main parties suffer from serious drawbacks. Cameron is like more than Miliband but his party is seen as one that will bring in more cuts in social sector spending. Miliband is not seen as an effective leader and fails to connect with the people.
The television debate among the leaders of the seven main parties did little to help either candidate. UK Independence Party (UKIP)’s Nigel Farage and the late additions – Natalie Bennett of the Greens, Nicola Sturgeon of the Scottish Nationalist Party (SNP) and Leanne Wood of Plaid Cymru (Welsh nationalists) got equal billing with the prime minister, deputy prime minister and leader of the Opposition. It is a status they and their predecessors have craved for decades and always been denied.
There were also a series of mini debates – the big one between the two candidates for prime minister, plus a battle on the right between Cameron and Farage; one on the left between Miliband, Bennett, Sturgeon in Scotland and Wood in Wales and one in the centre in which Nick Clegg of the Liberal Democrats tried to underscore that five more years with him in office would be better than allowing either the Tories or Labour to govern alone. This was the only debate of its kind. There will be a “challengers” special involving the SNP, UKIP, Plaid Cymru and the Greens and finally, on April 30, Cameron, Miliband and Clegg would each have separate half hours in a BBC special programme.
The two main parties are making a desperate bid to attract the voters. The Labour Party is promising to abolish the non-domicile rule that allows some wealthy UK residents to limit the tax paid on earnings outside the country.
Miliband has described the non-dom rules were “indefensible” in the 21st century, suggesting that this has made Britain “an offshore tax haven” and that the move could raise “hundreds of millions of pounds.” But this is a big turnaround for a party that till a month back was arguing that such a move would end up costing Britain money because people would leave the country.
The Conservatives are focusing to rebuild their credibility on Britain’s favourite National Health Service (NHS). After being on a back-foot to scaling back the NHS, the Tories are pledging that a future Conservative government would give the NHS in England “whatever” it needs to fill a predicted funding gap. The Labour has blamed the Conservatives for almost 600 fewer surgeries in England open at evenings and weekends than before 2010 and for creating queues outside practices and diverted people to A&E (accident and emergency).
Significant changes
But what this election is revealing about Britain is that the country has changed significantly over the last few years. The Conservatives are facing desertions in favour of UKIP while the Labour Party is getting decimated on its home turf in Scotland with the rise of the Scottish Nationalists. Cameron is busy urging UKIP supporters to “come home” to the Tories, saying the general election was not the time to register a protest vote.
The SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon is making life difficult for the Labour Party by suggesting that the SNP would help make Miliband prime minister if the Conservatives failed to win a majority in the general election. The more SNP says this, the more voters in England will turn away from the Labour. Miliband knows this and so he and his party has been trying to everything to maintain a distance from the SNP.
Tony Blair, who won general elections as Labour leader in 1997, 2001 and 2005, and stood down as British prime minister in 2007, has also entered the campaign fray this week when he warned that Cameron's pledge to hold a referendum on Britain’s EU membership would cause economic “chaos”. Blair suggested that leaving the EU would leave Britain “diminished in the world” and take the country “out of the leadership game” globally.
Labour has made its opposition to a referendum the key plank of its appeal to the business community. This is despite the fact that firms have warned that though a referendum will cause uncertainty, the EU needs structural reforms and that the status quo is not acceptable. This will be a key choice as the elections will define Britain’s relationship with the European Union one way or another.
Britain stands on the verge of some fateful choices. Yet, there is a remarkable sense of drift in politics. No political leader in the country seems up to the task of managing the turmoil within. The rise of regional and smaller parties is a testament to the uncharted waters into which British politics seems to have entered. It will be a while before there is some clarity. May 7 elections are unlikely to resolve the fundamental dilemmas facing the nation which established the biggest empire the world had ever known, one on which the sun literally never set.
(The writer is Professor of International Relations, Department of Defence Studies, King’s College London)