The Impending UK elections: A Letter from the Indian Diaspora: Dr Cyriac Maprayil

By Dr Cyriac Maprayil

The advantage of a democratic system is that its structure has all the necessary checks and balances vis-à-vis the government through the parliament, the judiciary, the free and independent press etc.

Political parties if broad based enough can serve as adequate and essential platform to bring together citizens of varied and diverse perspectives and persuasions to articulate their action plan to take the country forward once a government is formed.

In an educated and enlightened society the party system obviously provides a viable and responsible opposition to the party in power at a given time. Although wealth-based class divisions has almost disappeared in Britain the gap between the rich and poor is still painfully big enough to be visible.

Ever since I came over to the UK in the late 1960s, only the Conservative and the Labour parties were taking turns to form governments. I clearly remember the Wilson, Callaghen and Blair-led Labour governments as well as the Heath, Thatcher and Cameron led Conservative governments.

During the Prime Minister ship of David Cameron with the Brexit referendum began the era of political and economic hardship and instability in the UK.

Because of the Tory party’s inability to come up with the right person to handle the situation we witnessed several short-lived Prime Ministers starting with Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and presently Rishi Sunak who in his political wisdom and respect,so to say, for the Mother of Parliaments decided that it is about time to reconnect with the electorate to take a fresh mandate to form a new administration regardless of which party gets the mandate

Dr Cyriac Maprayil is a writer and historian whose work focuses on international political relations and South Asian affairs. He is the author of a number of books, including Nehru and The Commonwealth. He is a fellow of the Royal Historical Society and a regular contributor to the online newspaper Indians Abroad.

The views expressed in the above column is solely that of the author and does not necessarily reflect the views of this website or its editor.