As you probably know, the U.K.'s Prime Minister Rishi Sunak has called for an early general election. It'll be held on the Fourth of July. (Oh that can't be good, symbolically speaking.)
Politico-Europe asks, "Why now?" Well, "why not." Perhaps the goddess Fortuna will, after all, bless the young and the restless. Strike now, while inflation is cool, the Rwanda immigration "scheme" is looking good in Parliament, the Brits are cheerfully anticipating a June soccer tournament, and God knows Britain's July weather has to be better than fall's.
Sunak could have waited, of course. But he's knows that waiting would only invite more Conservative Party mayhem, ruthless backstabbing and, most likely, the return of really bad national news of one sort or another. (By the way, why was Sunak wearing a Good Fellas suit when he popped the electoral surprise?)
I'm a fan of understatement, no news there. Thus I'm compelled to feature it whenever I see it oddly roaring across the page. Politico's? "It could be a risky strategy β the Tories are 20 points behind the opposition Labour Party in the polls." Yep, a bit risky, that.
But all this is mere background to what Americans should take note of.
Sunak called for a general election to be held less than two months away. Our general electioneering goes on for four years, not counting assorted pols' preening for the top job much longer. Sure, a whole lot of British politicking also goes on for years, but in the U.S. of A. somebody, usually somebodies, is stumping in Iowa an hour after a president is sworn in.
Mind you, I'm not complaining. Foreclosing on America's never-ending election season would spell doom for sites like this one, not that I don't smell doom every day. I'm only saying that Mother England, quite sensibly, never succumbed to our ceaseless, madcap tub-thumping.