Artifacts: Game of votes

Vanessa Moore

It was like a real life episode of Game of Thrones. Five contenders but only one title. The winner stood to take all – the title of Prime Minister and the power to rule over the United Kingdom. Following the shock result of Britain’s hotly contested national election, the aftermath of the battle to rule the House of Commons appeared ominously like a spin-off episode of the smash hit medieval-inspired series.
And like all good TV, nationalism, speeches and betrayal fanned the outcome of the contest. David Cameron, the victor, triumphantly announcing the win of his Conservative army; his adversaries, Labour’s David Milliband, Liberal Democrat Nick Clegg and UK Independence Party leader Nigel Farage left bleeding by the wayside in a political bloodbath, the latter losing his seat and the two former both resigning in defeat. Yet north of the Wall, Nicola Sturgeon, queen of a victorious SNP rallied the roar of Scottish nationalism to sweep the board.
Safe in his Iron Throne of Westminster, has King Cameron sacrificed two unions for another five years in power?
The victory may prove to be a shallow one. Now Scotland is bellicose and Europe is fretful. Conflicting varieties of nationalism threaten to pull the nation apart, and the Kingdom may not be much of a “United” one any more. The flames of nationalism are being well and truly stoked on all sides with the Welsh likewise calling for greater independence, and although defeated, Farage will stay on to lead the UKIP following galvanising support for its call to leave the European Union. To attract away its voters and quiet his party’s own Euroskeptic backbenchers, Cameron is promising a referendum on EU membership by 2017. The political pragmatist he is, the Tory leader wants to remain in the EU, but he must first extract exemptions from Brussels.
The Tories only have a tiny majority in Parliament and Cameron’s two major dilemmas are linked: A ‘Brexit’ from the EU would antagonise the Scottish nationalists and accelerate their independence bid. According to The Independent, the election “leaves the prospect of the U.K. still being in one piece at the next general election in 2020 in some doubt.”
The BBC likewise reported that in the European parliament, leaders of the German and Belgian Greens, Rebecca Harms and Philippe Lamberts, described the prospect of the UK quitting the EU as “hara-kiri”. “The UK is sleepwalking its way out of the EU”, they said last Friday. “This would have dramatic and negative consequences for the UK and its component nations, as well as for the rest of Europe. We can only hope David Cameron finally wakes up to this risk”.
And it is a risk. A risk exacerbated all the more by the UK’s current electoral system.
The Conservatives’ surprise win highlighted how much things have changed in British politics. When all the polls predicted that another coalition was the order of the day and everyone thought that perhaps our antiquated winner takes all system had evolved, there’s now a new unpredictability afoot. What has changed though is the idea of only two big parties fighting over the prize.
Although ‘first past the post’ still dictates the form, new players and smaller parties now make up the content. The SNP won 56 of Scotland’s 59 seats although it got just under 5 percent of the geographical vote, while the UKIP – with 4 million votes – came in third nationally in terms of rankings but only won one seat since its support is spread geographically across the country rather than in any single constituency. That inconsistency has left many frustrated; yet on this occasion the system skewing the balance to preserve the status quo may be a blessing in disguise for the sake of tolerance and multiculturalism.
What’s for certain though is the TV-worthy drama of the struggle of the two unions will continue well into next season. And it’s all still up for grabs. Can King Cameron unite the warring kingdoms or will it be a game of rival thrones? Winter might not be coming for a while yet, but I will say this: Whether it’s Europe or Scotland, Pandora’s independence ballot box has been well and truly opened.