Politix

Since I can’t vote here, I don’t follow politics as closely as I might. There was an election last week called by Tory Prime Minister Theresa May, who expected to be the beneficiary of a landslide, given the perceived weaknesses of Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. It didn’t quite work out that way. Not only did she not increase her party’s majority, she lost so many seats that the Tories cannot govern without going into coalition.

Sadly, the other conservative party with enough seats to create a coalition government is Northern Ireland’s Democratic Unionist Party, which has held Northern Ireland back on gay marriage, abortion, evolution... The DUP is controlled by evangelicals who believe the earth is a few thousand years old. And it has a lot of friends in Protestant paramilitary organisations.

Many people in Great Britain are blissfully unaware of the DUP. The day after the election, the DUP’s website crashed as people boned up on the new government partner. The result has been blistering coverage of the DUP in the (take no prisoners) British press. The antipathy toward the DUP is such that Theresa May may not be able to form a government. People here are taking some satisfaction from having Great Britain wake up to the neanderthals who are in charge over here (through a partnership government with Sinn Fein, representing the other tribe).
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