The great disruption
STEVE RICHARDS
The surprise is that we were surprised. The result of the UK general election is still generating shock waves and will do so for months, perhaps years, to come. Yet the outcome is part of a pattern and not an aberration. We should have seen it coming. Ever since the 2008 financial crash UK politics has been wild and unruly. In 2010, what seemed like a freakish peacetime coalition was formed. In 2015, David Cameron won an overall majority, entirely unexpectedly. A year later he resigned as prime minister, a fall of unprecedented speed. In the summer of 2016, the two major UK parties held leadership contests simultaneously, another unique occurrence. Both battles were deranged: the Labour contest lasted months and at the end, re-elected the same leader; the Conservative battle was over in days, with so many candidates imploding that a new prime minister walked into No 10 untested by any real campaign.