JEZZ HE DID
Labour majority
Shock factor: 10
This result genuinely deserves to be called seismic. Even the polls most favourable to Labour do not suggest that Jeremy Corbyn is headed for Number 10. That would be an even bigger upset of expectations than the Brexit vote and the election of Donald Trump. Many, many people – including me – would have been proved absolutely wrong about the Labour leader’s capacity to win an election. A raft of previous assumptions about British politics will be torn up overnight.
Civil servants spend the hours after a Labour victory hastily scrabbling together outlines for the implementation of the manifesto. One of the cabinet secretary’s first duties will be arranging a briefing for the new PM on the nuclear deterrent. Then Jeremy Heywood will have to find someone who can remember how you go about nationalising things. Though Labour has not fully defined its position on Brexit, it would try to pursue a softer version.
The immediate challenge will be handling extreme turbulence in the markets as a massive sell-off of shares is accompanied by a plunge in the value of sterling. For the surprise victors, it would be a time of joy at confounding all those, including most Labour MPs, who never believed they could do it.
Source: the Observer June 4th
