Las elecciones anticipadas de Theresa May en cinco artículos… según Philippe Legrain

Theresa May can now secure her mandate on Europe, Janan Ganesh | Financial Times | 18 de abril de 2017

"For the next seven weeks, Mrs May will try and fail to interest the media in her domestic reforms. This is a Europe campaign by another name, the first single-issue election since Edward Heath asked voters to choose between his premiership and trade union power in 1974. And it should be: the terms of Britain’s exit from the EU are more material to the nation’s future than any education policy or fiscal loosening".

Another Brexit campaign that dodges the hard questions, Rafael Behr | The Guardian | 26 de abril de 2017

"May cannot guarantee a stable Brexit because the process is inherently uncertain. But the fact of imminent negotiations critical to the national interest is unavoidable. A solid bloc of targeted voters will find the idea of the Labour leader representing the UK in those talks laughable or – if the Tories can persuade them it might actually happen – terrifying. Corbyn’s function in Conservative strategy is to radiate danger, contaminating all forms of opposition to May. The choice is to be framed in terms that leave only one safe box on the ballot paper. By this device, the prime minister hopes to buy a big majority with a minimum of expense in policy commitment. Her manifesto will be slim and vague".

May has given Britain the election it desperately needed, Chris Deerin | Cap X | 18 de abril de 2017

"Let’s return to that point of democratic hygiene. This is not the Cameron government under new leadership. Mrs May has junked large parts of the manifesto that secured her predecessor an overall majority and which we have a constitutional right to expect to be delivered. In tone, temperament and action, she has gone about her business as if she has already won a general election rather than lucked into the top job. On the economy and public spending, industry and education, immigration and more, she has taken a markedly different line to her predecessor. At times, it has felt a bit like a coup, and deeply unBritish".

Theresa May Rolls the Electoral Dice, Philippe Legrain | Project Syndicate| 19 de abril de 2017

"If May fails to win a big majority, her authority within the Conservative Party will be weakened. But even if she fails to win a majority, Brexit would not be stopped, unless every anti-Brexit Member of Parliament were to back a temporary government and vote to hold a second national referendum. With this outcome being extremely unlikely, the most one can hope for is that the election will soften the blow from Brexit".

If Labour crashes, don’t expect the hard left to bow out, Nick Cohen | The Guardian |22 de abril de 2017

"I have no doubt that the Conservatives will take victory as a mandate to move ever further rightwards, but the truth remains that, rather than leading a new movement whose hour has come, the prime minister is rushing to the polls like a sneak thief running through an open door. She would never have risked an early election if Labour had competent leaders who had not alienated millions of voters."

Philippe Legrain es investigador visitante del Instituto Europeo de la London School of Economics y fundador de OPEN (Open Political Economy Network), un think tank internacional.