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General Election 2017: what’s at stake?

24 April, 2017

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Meeting Room 2
Liverpool Central Library

Saturday 3 June, 2.30-4.30pm

While Theresa May’s decision to call a General Election for 8 June appeared to come out of the blue, many saw the result as a foregone conclusion. Critics – from all sides – accused May of opportunism, exploiting Labour’s perceived weakness to pre-empt potential problems selling a future Brexit deal. Meanwhile, May’s supporters defended her decision on the grounds that an electoral mandate would “guarantee certainty and stability” as Britain reconfigures its relationship with the EU.

As polling day draws closer and the predicted Tory landslide seems less certain, new questions are emerging that seem to trouble our collective sense of who we are as a society and where we are headed. At a moment of great political upheaval and uncertainty, a General Election might be expected to provoke a long overdue national debate about Britain’s future long-term direction. In reality, Britain’s political parties appear to be struggling to represent the interests of their own constituents let alone articulate competing visions of a future ‘good society’. Meanwhile as British voters appear to be abandoning traditional political allegiances, might the post-2017 landscape become fertile ground for a fundamental shift in British politics.

So what are the political issues at stake in this election? And what does the election and the mood of the electorate tell us about politics today and the kind of politics that may be emerging? Join the Liverpool Salon to talk about “General Election 2017” and what may follow.

Speakers

Kevin Bean lectures in Irish politics at the University of Liverpool, Institute of Irish Studies and has researched and written on a variety of poltical issues, including contemporary forms of nationalism and new social movements in Europe; and New Labour and the politics of the Northern Ireland peace process.

Philip Cunliffe is Senior Lecturer in Politics and International Relations at the University of Kent, which he joined in 2009. He has written widely on a variety of political issues ranging from Balkan politics to Brexit, with a particular focus on international efforts to manage violent conflict since the end of the Cold War.