tariff barriers within the single market. Therefore, in the 'soft’ Brexit scenario, we assume that the UK and the European Union will continue to have access to the single market and so Brexit will not lead to any change in tariff barriers, preventing a loss in net welfare. However, I believe that because immigration controls were a major issue in the UK referendum, a ‘hard’ Brexit looks more likely and so the effects on the UK economy are likely to be maximised.
__________________________________________________________________________________________
Should Theresa May resign as Prime Minister in the wake of the 2017 General Election? C HARLIE P RIFTI
On the 13th July 2016, Theresa May took over as Prime Minister from David Cameron after he resigned and she was voted to lead the party. Despite being in support of the Remain campaign Theresa May is fighting for a ‘hard’ Brexit in which Britain would leave the single market regaining the control of its borders and would not having to follow EU regulations. However, it does mean that Britain will lose the current free trade agreement it has with the EU member states. When Theresa May was running as a candidate to become the next Prime Minister in 2016 she promised that “there would be no general election until 2020”. Since then she has called a general election from a
position where she had a majority going into the Brexit negotiations, which began to take place just weeks after the election. However, she has lost that majority meaning the negotiations will be considerably more difficult. Many believe that the election should not have taken place before the Brexit negotiations and as Theresa May said herself in an interview the reason why she didn't appear on a TV debate is because she was focusing on a clear Brexit plan while also claiming that Corbyn should be doing this as well. Why did she even call the election in the first place? If she needed to spend all her time working on Brexit she shouldn’t have wasted time campaigning when she already had a majority. Theresa May was complacent and naïve in her campaigning and she appeared to believe that the Labour Party with Corbyn at the helm would self-destruct. She thought that she could sit back and would easily win an overall majority. She found out how wrong she was once the Conservative Party lost 13 seats, meaning the Conservatives only have 318 seats, which is short of the overall majority that she needed. Furthermore, the Grenfell Tower tragedy showed the apparent lack of compassion she has. Despite showing remorse for the victims of the fire and coming close to tears when visited by the survivors, she showed a lack of emotion in the public eye making her position ever weaker. Corbyn however, has been seen engaging with the victims and their families and is constantly strengthening his position. All of these reasons lead you to believe that she has not fulfilled her duties as Prime Minister and therefore should resign. However, Theresa May has proven she is a strong charismatic leader and has shown that she is prepared and ready to stand up and to tackle extremism in Britain. She is looking out for the British public’s safety and she
17
Made with FlippingBook Annual report