The Tories have stormed in as the majority party in the UK.
This came as a surprise to many people. There was talk of a coalition or a hung parliament. Instead we have a full blown Conservative government, the first since 1992. Although some of the British press are excited about this, there are a number of questions.
The first is the lack of support, especially in Scotland and the North: this is not a party for the UK it is a party for rural and southern England. Indeed out of the 45 million voters in the UK the Conservatives only had 11 million vote for them. Not a resounding vote of confidence. Secondly there are the splits within the Conservative party self. Someone within the party would happily see the UK out of Europe and with much harsher policies on welfare and immigration. These contrast with those who want a more centrist approach. But thirdly and most seriously there is the issue of austerity. This government has pledged itself to slash spending like no other. And it won't work.
Even people with a basic understanding of macro economics will understand that if you take significant amounts of money out of the UK economy's circular flow then the economy shrinks. And if this happens then there is less money coming in through taxes and therefore less money to pay off debt. They laid off this for the last two years, spending more than planned but now they want to go at it full blown. As pointed out by Nobel-Prize winning economist, Paul Krugman Austerity will not reduce the deficit or national debt. All it will do will be to fulfil Conservative party ideology to cut welfare and to shrink the public sector. It is not a viable approach to a healthy economy.
So without the restraint of the Liberal Democrats the Conservatives will apply Austerity without restraint. They will cut back on spending like no other government ever has and it will send the economy into a nosedive. There will be a long and deep recession, ultimately destroying any of their economic credibility. They will destroy their own reputation much like the Conservative party did in the 1900s.
So is David Cameron the new John Major? Guess we'll see.