On April 18, Theresa May called a general election in the UK, dissolving parliament three years before its term ended. Elections are scheduled for June 8. Back in April, Conservatives led Labour by 21% in opinion polls and looked headed for a landslide win. Since then:
Labour (red) has been gaining momentum as the Conservatives (blue) and Liberal Democrats (orange) have trended down. Support for the far-right UK Independence Party (purple), has collapsed.
Corbyn has been needling May for her refusal to debate him:
The election was called by May to solidify her party’s hold on Parliament ahead of what are going to be tense negotiations over Brexit. But other issues have begun to come to the fore, including welfare policies, housing and now terrorism. Today, Corbyn gave a remarkable speech on terrorism, resuming the political campaign after a three day suspension following the Manchester bombing:
The Labour leader said there must be more money for law enforcement, as he suggested Britain’s intervention in wars abroad had fuelled the risk of terrorism at home.
“Many experts, including professionals in our intelligence and security services, have pointed to the connections between wars our government has supported or fought in other countries and terrorism here at home,” he said.
However, Corbyn pitched his intervention carefully, saying he was clear that terrorists were entirely to blame for their own actions but that governments must also examine the effectiveness of their policy decisions.
“No rationale based on the actions of any government can remotely excuse, or even adequately explain, outrages like this week’s massacre,” he said, speaking in Westminster.
“But we must be brave enough to admit the war on terror is simply not working. We need a smarter way to reduce the threat from countries that nurture terrorists and generate terrorism.” — Guardian
This week, the US confirmed that an airstrike in March had killed over 100 civilians, today reports suggest 33 children were killed in another coalition airstrike.
Corbyn’s is not a new position, in 2003 he warned about joining the Iraq war:
Hmmmm maybe people should listen to this guy more pic.twitter.com/DTu2S1LNxX— Hussain (@Chemzes) May 25, 2017
Since the Manchester terror attack, there’s been an ongoing debate about whether UK police and intelligence agencies did enough to investigate the bomber. Community members reported the bomber to authorities multiple times. He was also banned from a mosque for his pro-ISIS views.
— Cross-posted to NotMeUs.org | @subirgrewal