Why Is There an Early Election in the UK?

[00:00:00] So, last week, the Prime Minister in the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, called an early general election. So, I thought this would be a great time to make a series about the general election happening in the UK and mix it together with learning English because lots of my students are interested in politics.

[00:00:23] But, for some reason, we are taught as English teachers that politics is something that you shouldn't teach, talk about when teaching English, but it's something I do all the time because lots of people are curious and they want to learn more about politics in the UK. I have a master's degree in politics, I'm interested in politics, so I thought, why not mix the two?

[00:00:46] I will also leave a transcript of this episode in the description, so if you are a little bit confused about some of the language, I will try and explain some of the things that I mentioned, some of the more difficult words. But if you would like the transcripts where you can read along and it will be easier to understand things and follow things, then go in the description and you can find that transcript.

[00:01:08] I will highlight some of those more difficult words. A general election is also a really important time and an interesting time because you have the possibility to vote for a different government. And last week, the Prime Minister called an early election which surprised everyone. So I'm going to do a series where I'm going to start uploading some different videos about the election in the UK over the next five weeks.

[00:01:36] And then maybe I'll do a live stream. I'm not really too sure, but I want to maybe every week go through some different aspects of the election. So this week, I'm just going to introduce the election and talk about why he called an early election and talk about some of the possible reasons why he's done that because it's quite strange and people are a little bit curious.

[00:01:59] confused. So that's the first point I'll be doing today. More of an introduction. I'll also look at the political parties and the leaders of their parties and see what they stand for, what they believe in, what they say they will do if they become the leader of the country. I'll also do a review of the current government.

[00:02:18] They have been in power for over 14 years now. So they were elected in 2010 and we've had the same government since. So 14 years is quite a long time. Things have changed. We've had lots of different prime ministers from David Cameron. We've also had Theresa May. We've had Boris Johnson. We've had Liz Truss and we also have, now, Rishi Sunak, but I don't think he'll be the prime minister for long.

[00:02:45] So we, I will do a review of the government. I'll see if they've done a good job or a bad job and see what's improved in the UK and what hasn't improved. Maybe look at some big. Events that have happened along while they have been in power. Maybe we can have a whole episode on Brexit. Maybe, who knows?

[00:03:03] We'll see. I'll also look at who will be the likely winner. I'll look at the polling. Maybe if people are interested I can do a watch along with one of the debates. So we have live televised debates in the UK where some of the leaders debate each other. And maybe I can watch that video and me being in the little corner and pause it at some parts, and then I can kind of explain some of the more complicated and difficult language.

[00:03:30] So that's there's quite a few options. The election, it will be, take place over the next five weeks. I will be in Croatia for one of those weeks, so maybe I'll have to pre record some of those things. And then I'll also tell you which way I'm voting. I'm unsure at the moment. I really don't know who I'm going to vote for.

[00:03:46] So yeah, we'll see. So in the UK, we have terms for five years. A term is if a government is elected as the government into power, then they have five years until the next election. In the United States, this is four years. So they have had one in 2016. They had one in 2020. They will have one in 2024.

[00:04:09] They'll have one in 2028. In the UK it's five years. So that's general election we had. was December 2019, and that meant the latest next election would have been January 2025. However, the Prime Minister has called one early, and last week he said that he announced a general election in summer. And I think it's the early July, so it's in about five weeks.

[00:04:37] He called it last week, so it will be a six week campaign until the election. Now, this came as a bit of a surprise because. We had local elections recently, so in the UK we have different parts of regions in the UK and in these regions there are councils and these councils basically do the local politics.

[00:05:02] So we have a national government that is based in London and they do of the government for the entirety of England, Wales, Scotland, and Northern Ireland. And we also have local councils and local governments. And councils play a big role in local politics and kind of making sure society is working and functional at a local level.

[00:05:22] So they organise different events, they do the bin collections. Things that happen at a more local level. And in the local elections, the Conservative Party, which is the current party in government, did really bad. And this didn't surprise anyone because they are deeply unpopular at the moment. So they did really bad in these elections.

[00:05:43] And this didn't surprise anyone because of how unpopular. So we had some local elections a few weeks ago and also some mayors got elected. So for example, there is a mayor in Manchester, there is a mayor in Newcastle, things like this in different cities and they did pretty bad as well. So the government did really bad in these elections a few weeks ago.

[00:06:06] So it was really surprising that the prime minister said, even though we had these really bad results we're going to call a general election to see who is the government of the United Kingdom. That is quite weird thinking we just lost in this at a local level, across the country. So let's call an actual real general election and magically things are going to turn around like 180 degrees.

[00:06:32] Things were awful, but in six weeks time, everything is going to be great again. That's very unlikely. So it was really confusing why he did this. There are some potential reasons why he's called an early general election. One of them is not very serious, but it is a possibility. And that is that the prime minister hates his job and he's going to live in California as soon as he finishes.

[00:06:56] As soon as he stops becoming the prime minister. The Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, Rishi Sunak, is incredibly wealthy. He and his family are very, very rich. They are multi millionaires, hundreds of millions of pounds in the bank, and they don't need this type of stress in their life. They could be enjoying a very easy, relaxed lifestyle.

[00:07:19] They don't need this stress. And being a prime minister or a president is incredibly stressful. And some people are starting to think that he doesn't really want this job. Well, when he could just have a very peaceful life in a country where it doesn't rain all the time, building on that idea. Is the fact that if there was a general election in January, then he would have to campaign over the winter.

[00:07:42] That means going out every single day and waking up very early, going to bed late, and being outside in the UK in December and January, especially around the festive Christmas period. That doesn't sound good, and doing it in summer would be a lot easier. So, also, if he gets kicked out of power in the early July, he's also got the rest of summer to enjoy.

[00:08:07] So, these are not real serious ideas, they're not very political ideas, or the political reasons behind it. But they may have influenced his thinking and who knows, maybe he does hate his job and he wants to just retire in California. A more realistic a more realistic reason why he has called the election early is that inflation has recently come down to around 2 or 3%.

[00:08:30] And that's the target that the Bank of England and also banks around the world sets. 2 percent is usually the inflation level, which is except it's 5%. It's the goal, really. And we've had very high inflation in the United Kingdom, maybe not compared to Turkey or Argentina or Venezuela, but relative to other European countries and also to the past in the UK.

[00:08:54] We've had inflation at around 11, 15 percent sometimes. So this is really high and people have got a lot poorer in the UK since the, since COVID. Not good. But recently inflation has come back down and we've had some headlines and some news Inflation is back to normal, that's what he says, but I think this is a bit short lived and I think he thinks it's short lived as well.

[00:09:19] So while it has come back down recently, I think there is a big possibility that this could go back up again and he is now campaigning, or the Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is now saying that he has stabilized the country. After a period of crises with the COVID pandemic, with the war in Ukraine and energy prices.

[00:09:41] He has brought the country back to a stable position. That's what he says. Anyway, that's what he says. And with reduced inflation, he can kind of claim this. And he thinks that the economy is in an okay state now and probably better than what it will be in January. So because it's in a relatively stable and strong position now, he thinks that the Kind of calling an election now and saying, look, the economy is back.

[00:10:10] Things are going to get better from now on is better than waiting until January, because he doesn't know what's going to, what the economy is going to be like then. He's probably predicting it's going to be a lot worse. So it may be better to call an election early and say, look, the economy is doing better now.

[00:10:27] Rather than waiting until January where it could be worse. And then he really doesn't have anything to stand on. He really doesn't have any strong points to argue about his time in power. Also, he's introduced a few stupid policies recently. One of them is to stop illegal immigration by having a deterrence.

[00:10:47] A deterrence is. It's something, maybe a policy or a punishment, which is introduced to try and prevent people from doing things. So for example, imagine the punishment for stealing was having your arm chopped off. It's a pretty strong deterrent. I wouldn't steal anything from a shop, but I wouldn't steal anything from a shop anyway, but I definitely wouldn't steal anything from a shop if the punishment was having my hands chopped off.

[00:11:15] That is a very strong deterrent. And to stop illegal immigration to the United Kingdom the prime minister and the government have introduced a policy which is supposed to act as a deterrent that if you are caught coming to the UK illegally, then we will put you onto a plane and we will send you to Rwanda in Africa.

[00:11:40] Crazy, right? These people, this is, first of all, this is stupid because The way that people come to the United Kingdom illegally is crossing from the French border to the United Kingdom across a sea. This is a stupid policy because it, how can that be a deterrent? How can that scare people from coming to the United Kingdom when they are literally willing to cross the sea from France to the UK?

[00:12:07] To the United Kingdom in a very small and unstable boat. If that, if risking your life, because lots of people die doing this it's not a safe route, it's not safe access to the United Kingdom. If people are willing to do that and the risk of them losing their life isn't strong enough of a deterrent, why would being sent to Rwanda on an aeroplane be a deterrent?

[00:12:31] And this policy it had lots of people, this policy had lots of backlash, meaning that lots of people spoke out against it meaning that lots of people criticised this policy publicly. So he introduced this policy. So lots of people talk negatively and had lots of criticism about this policy.

[00:12:53] And it was very unpopular among lots of people. I am not the only one who thinks it's a really stupid policy. And the first aeroplanes, the first flights out of the United Kingdom to Rwanda will be happening soon. And I think. I think this, I think he knows deep down that this is a stupid policy and it won't work and it will be very expensive and I think it will be very unpopular around the country.

[00:13:17] So I think before some of these things get worse, like the Rwanda flight policy and inflation, I think it's, I think, I think he thinks that it's better. to call an election early before these things get worse. So essentially he thinks the country is in a better position now than what it will be in six months time.

[00:13:37] Even though his party and the government are deeply unpopular and it's very likely, almost certain, they will lose the election, they think they have a better chance now than they will in January or in the future. So that's why he's called it early. So that was me introducing the general election in the UK.

[00:13:55] That's going to happen in about five weeks time. If you enjoyed the content and you're interested about this topic, about learning about politics in the UK, and also about this election, then leave a comment or a like, just so I know that this is worth making, thank you all for watching and I'll see you soon.