People yell at me whenever I try to understand international politics, but here I go again. Back in October, prime minister Boris Johnson’s Brexit plan got put on the temporary back burner and Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn agreed to a general election in six weeks’ time. I wrote, at the time, “it seems like Corbyn is finally willing to go ahead with the general election because he thinks there’s a good chance Labour could win a majority? Is that true? Because from where I sit, Corbyn is possibly the reason why Britain keeps running through these terrible Tory prime ministers – first David Cameron, then Theresa May and now BoJo. The Conservative Party is extremely unpopular and Brexit is extremely unpopular too. So why aren’t people voting for Labour when they get a chance?” Prophetic, huh. Even though it’s widely accepted on both sides that Boris Johnson is an utter buffoon, people still disliked Jeremy Corbyn and didn’t want him to be prime minister. And so now British peeps have this: a landslide Tory victory, and BoJo Unleashed.

Prime Minister Boris Johnson and his Conservative Party won a commanding majority in the British Parliament, a striking victory that redraws the lines in British politics and paves the way for the country’s exit from the European Union early next year. The Conservatives were projected to win 364 seats in the House of Commons, versus 203 for the Labour Party, according to the BBC, with almost all of Parliament’s seats decided. That would give the Conservatives about a 75-seat majority, their largest since that amassed by Margaret Thatcher in 1987.

As the results flowed in from individual districts, they pointed to a radical reconfiguration of Britain’s political map. The Conservative Party was winning dozens of Labour seats in the industrial north and Midlands, shattering the so-called red wall that has undergirded the Labour Party for generations.

For Mr. Johnson, whose brief tenure has been marked by serial defeats in Parliament, legal reversals and ceaseless upheaval, it was a resounding vindication. Defying predictions that he would be tossed out of his job, the prime minister is now assured of leading Britain through its most momentous transition since World War II.

[From The NY Times]

So, what does all this mean? Many things. It’s now certain that Corbyn will have to go as the head of Labour. He’s a walking clusterf–k, basically, and Labour needs a major overhaul and reboot. It also means that Scottish independence is more certain than ever – the Scots didn’t vote for Brexit, nor did they vote for the Tories. They want no part of any of this. Northern Ireland might want independence too, although Scotland will likely get independence before Northern Ireland. And most of all, this means that BoJo has an unimpeachable majority with which he can push through the harshest version of Brexit and he can just be as fascistic, jingoistic, xenophobic and racist as he wants. And the NHS is probably f–ked too.

Speaking as someone who survived the 2016 American election, all I can say to our British friends is: I’m so sorry and we’re here if you need to vent. I’m not going to promise you that it gets better, but I will promise you that you find the will to keep fighting.

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