EMERGING TREND IN UK POLITICS

K P PASWAN

Boris Johnson has resigned from the post of PM and either Liz Truss, British Foreign Secretary or Rishi Sunak, former Treasury Secretary is likely to replace Johnson.

Modern UK is no longer a major military power. Commonwealth of Nations which once glorified Great Britain as great colonial power has lost its relevance. Except parliamentary democracy and a popular monarchy, UK does not inspire world politics. Post Brexit Britain is facing the heat of Islamic radicalism and some of the most dreaded terrorists were brought up in UK. Ukraine crisis has left UK in wilderness as it happened to be a trusted friend of US but not respected by major powers of Europe like France and Germany. UK is a member of NATO but this organization has lost its strategic importance. There is a changing dynamic between France and Russia. So, UK has modified its politics as per changed international relations. UK continues to represent US interest in European politics. By diplomacy UK is trying to introduce new idea in Afghanistan and war-torn Middle East. It has changed its China policy in favour of US and is trying its best to stop China from bullying the neighborliness countries.

There is economic slowdown for some unknown reasons. However, it is presumed that crisis in Ukraine has also impacted British economy. But strong reason is the measures taken to control the brutal virus. UK has to spend billions of Dollars to purchase vaccines and lock down like restrictions slowed down the manufactured activities. But it is a fact that UK suffered owing to latest variants of Omicron.

There is a large number of immigrants Muslims in UK A They enjoy the status of refugees without contributing to growth of economy, on the contrary there are a large number of Indians with impressive contribution to national economy. These are mostly from former colonies. It is seen that barring exceptions majority of them are not contributing to the growth of British economy but they want their rigid religious scriptures to be introduced in UK. Labor party once a powerful opposition of radicals have suddenly turned to vocal support of these radicals.

UK, unlike US is not an oil producing state and has to import oil and gas from the oil rich middle east. Recent crisis has led to purchase of Russian oil and gas at discounted price on grand scale. UK was also convulsed by Coronavirus. Its economy was adversely impacted and still the pandemic is not over.  After Brexit  UK was given certain concessions by EU so that UK may not feel the sense of isolation but Germany continue to rule the EU and UK has right of fishing with France. Post Brexit UK is supposed to have robust political and economic tie with India which has not been materialized, the reason is that UK has been a traditional supporter of Pakistan but there is a definite shift of political landscape so far as Pakistan is concerned. Another headache for UK is Turkey. Erdogan the president of Turkey has successfully lifted Turkey from poverty stricken nation. Erdogan has given up western style of secularism but the Sharia has not replaced the western system of jurisprudence. Certain actions of Erdogan like its close proximity with Iran and Russia has infuriated US and UK is supposed to support US policy against the former Ottoman empire. Erdogan fears that US would try to carve out separate homeland for the Kurds and sympathy of UK towards Kurds can be seen.

Emerging trend of politics in UK needs through study. UK is the parents of parliamentary democracy in the world. Even in US find the imprint of UK political system In the entire world we find political system based on parliamentary democracy. Monarchy which still prevail in certain countries has to submit to the will of common people otherwise monarchy cannot survive.

Coming to UK, after WW2  UK was and still is an industrialized country, Once UK nearly colonized half of the world and besides spreading Christianity, education system of the colonized country led to better understanding of political system There are only two political parties, once Liberal Party was also a political party of importance. Labor Party is generally influenced by socialist ideology.. Conservative on the other hand is still believe in traditional political ideology which is neither left or right. With collapse of colonialism UK had to accommodate a large number of immigrants from the members of Commonwealth of nations, which is conglomerate of former colonies. Immigrants enjoy equal voting rights. Unfortunately free speech has led to emergence of radicals which exalt in glorifying terror and religion. These radicals mostly consist of Muslims immigrated from different Islamic nations

For political reasons UK is supporting Islams and most of the mosques follow Wahhabi system of religious ideology After formation of new government in UK we may witness UK in a new political roles,.