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Comment by samwillis | Hacker News Reader

I think whoever is elected as the next Conservative leader needs to call a general election immediately. There is no mandate for a government formed by yet another Tory leader.

The world is such a different place to 2019, there is no way they can argue that they are a continuation of the previous mandate.

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Do I understand correctly that you're saying the people who control the gov't right now should choose to call an early election that they're almost certainly going to lose? That seems unlikely.

Morally correct and politically intelligent are directly opposed here.

They morally should put it back to the people as they've failed at it internally twice, but nobody seriously expects them to intentionally do it.

They could accidentally find themselves cornered into it if they can't pick a new leader

Historically in Westminster systems that hasn't actually been that unusual when the majority party has lost as much public trust as this one seems to have. At a certain point, presiding over an unpopular rump can be more damaging in the long term than letting go and regrouping.

That doesn't seem to be the way current conservative parties operate though.

Will they? No. But when the current government would surely lose an election is exactly when an election ought to be held, assuming the government is meant to reflect the will of the people.

Yep, looting the country for private gain as much as possible before they get kicked out seems a more logical course of action.

Some would suggest that has already happened and they would have got away with it if it wasnt for those pesky international financial markets trying to limit their exposure to the impacts.

"Mandate" is a convenient fiction for political commentators. We should talk only of power. They are in power and will remain so until they choose to exit or 2025.

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