WORLDVIEW: Quentin Wray on UK election day – “Why I’ve been fighting everyone.”

Soon after arriving in the UK, I broke bread with Quentin Wray, a name that might ring a bell with you. A leading financial journalist in South Africa, Quentin relocated to this part of the world some years ago, spending his time between his country home and a long-term assignment in Nigeria..Now that his other commitments have eased up, he's agreed to contribute to Worldview. And, appropriately, his contribution takes a rather jaundiced view on politicians, with his focus on today's fiercely contested UK General Election suggesting SA's flawed politicos are hardly unique..Quentin writes: "Since Theresa May announced today's snap election in April, I've been fighting with people. I've fought with the Right about the fact that an empowering social welfare net and the NHS are worth fighting for. I've fought with the Left about the fact that there are limits to what the fiscus can absorb before the economy falls over. And I've fought with the Middle about Brexit and why you can't repeat referenda until you get the answer you want..___STEADY_PAYWALL___.Thanks to one of the many weirdnesses of the UK political system, I get to vote today because I'm a Commonwealth citizen and I'm voting even though it doesn't matter who I vote for. My constituency MP, the Conservative Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt, won a 29,000 vote margin and a 60% majority back in 2015 and is set for another easy romp home..But mine is an anomaly, and there are hundreds of seats up for grabs. In an era where debate has been superseded by fact-light memes, angry tweets and shouty social media updates, there can be no doubt that Labour have run the better campaign..Accordingly, Jeremy Corbyn is now an unlikely but real contender for Number 10, where two short months ago he was being written off as a political lost cause. In the process he has managed to gloss over the undeniable reality that his 122 pages of promises appears, to paraphrase my favourite Dilbert cartoon, to be based on not parking where the comet is assumed to strike oil..It will clearly be impossible for Corbyn to deliver on what he's promised if he wins – a problem not faced by May who doesn't seem to have promised anything new bar a few tired clichés and meaningless pay off lines..Going in to today I'm conflicted. My brain dreads the idea of a Labour government but my heart dreads the Tories. But I'm very glad Corbyn has run such an effective campaign. I don't think he'll win but I don't think he'll lose so badly that Labour becomes an irrelevance. And that's a good thing. Too many Tories were far too comfortable with the idea that the opposition was set to be gutted and left for dead..They don't seem to recognise the danger in a de facto one party state where the ruling party can effectively do what it wants. South African news sites are clearly not part of their media diet.".Nicely put Mr Wray. Who knows, perhaps the British will once again soon be chanting: Viva competitive politics, viva.

WORLDVIEW: Quentin Wray on UK election day – “Why I’ve been fighting everyone.”

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