There is a story I had heard and read several times as a kid..... An ambitious king thought of capturing a resource rich province belonging to a neighboring kingdom! That kingdom was known to be peaceful, so he thought he would have an easy victory. However, he faced unexpected resistance from that kingdom, lost, got driven out and ended up losing not just that battle, but control of some of his provinces too! As he and his weary army were hiding in a forest on the way back to their capital, he saw an interesting sight. A monkey had its hands full of some peas that it had snatched from the king's cook. This monkey was safely on a tree, about to enjoy the peas, when it saw some more peas on a plate on the ground. So, with its hands full of peas, it came down and made an attempt to steal those peas too. The cook saw this, threw a stone at the monkey and in its attempt to escape safely, the monkey lost all the peas it had! The king compared this to his own situation and said "Sometimes it is better to be content with where you are and what you have!"
What is the significance of this story today? Well, the political situation in the UK reminds one of the monkey and the king! Lets look at what happened so far :
1. The then PM (David Cameron) chose to make a grandiose promise during elections - he said he would hold a referendum on UK leaving the European Union! Was it needed at that stage? No! No one was asking for it!
2. Cameron won and thought it would be a fun idea to actually work on his promise of a referendum! Was anyone still asking for it? No!
3. The referendum was held and the side that said 'Leave EU' won....narrowly! Cameron lost face and had to leave. The next PM was someone who originally supported staying in the EU - Theresa May! Were there other better leaders available? Yes! Were they considered? No!
4. Now in April, May announced snap-polls to strengthen her hand in the negotiations to leave the EU! Were these polls needed! Actually..No!
5. The poll results are announced today - and, Theresa May's party has not secured a majority! Infact her party is now worse-off than it was before the elections!
So, like the king and the monkey, the PM's in the UK did what was un-necessary and lost whatever they had. The next few days will be interesting as people are calling for Theresa May to resign and if that happens the UK's plan to leave the EU (Brexit) will be jeopardized further. It won't be surprising if , given these results someone calls for another referendum on leaving the EU. And this time, the referendum result may be - Let's stay. What is the EU then gives UK the middle finger, or worse, agrees to take the UK in but only after UK makes some concessions to the EU!
Well, it looks like David Cameron and Theresa May are all set to go down in British history as politicians who tried to do the unnecessary for the unwilling and paid the price for it! Here's looking forward to exciting times.
What is the significance of this story today? Well, the political situation in the UK reminds one of the monkey and the king! Lets look at what happened so far :
1. The then PM (David Cameron) chose to make a grandiose promise during elections - he said he would hold a referendum on UK leaving the European Union! Was it needed at that stage? No! No one was asking for it!
2. Cameron won and thought it would be a fun idea to actually work on his promise of a referendum! Was anyone still asking for it? No!
3. The referendum was held and the side that said 'Leave EU' won....narrowly! Cameron lost face and had to leave. The next PM was someone who originally supported staying in the EU - Theresa May! Were there other better leaders available? Yes! Were they considered? No!
4. Now in April, May announced snap-polls to strengthen her hand in the negotiations to leave the EU! Were these polls needed! Actually..No!
5. The poll results are announced today - and, Theresa May's party has not secured a majority! Infact her party is now worse-off than it was before the elections!
So, like the king and the monkey, the PM's in the UK did what was un-necessary and lost whatever they had. The next few days will be interesting as people are calling for Theresa May to resign and if that happens the UK's plan to leave the EU (Brexit) will be jeopardized further. It won't be surprising if , given these results someone calls for another referendum on leaving the EU. And this time, the referendum result may be - Let's stay. What is the EU then gives UK the middle finger, or worse, agrees to take the UK in but only after UK makes some concessions to the EU!
Well, it looks like David Cameron and Theresa May are all set to go down in British history as politicians who tried to do the unnecessary for the unwilling and paid the price for it! Here's looking forward to exciting times.
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