DISAPPOINTMENT FROM BRITAIN – AT 8:56 A.M. ET:  Prime Minister Theresa May called a snap national election in Britain last month, with the expectation that the Tories would demolish the Labour Party and gain a commanding majority in Commons.  Britain votes a week from today.

May took the chance based on polls showing as much as a 24-point majority for the Conservatives.

Sadly, that lead has collapsed, and that is bad news for our side.  Theresa May is a pro-American, pro free-enterprise leader, a softer version of Maggie Thatcher.  She's a good partner for President Trump.  Labour's leader, Jeremy Corbyn, is the most extreme leftist Labour leader in the party's history, profoundly anti-American, anti-Israel, and someone who blames the West for terrorism.  Not a nice guy.

From the Wall Street Journal: 

LONDON—For British Prime Minister Theresa May, what looked like a sure thing is starting to look more like a gamble.

When she called the election on April 18, some opinion polls were showing her Conservative Party leading the main opposition Labour Party by more than 20 percentage points. That would have expanded her working majority in the House of Commons from 17 seats to as many as 150.

Now, many of those polls show that lead has shrunk to single digits. On Thursday, just a week before voting begins, polling firm YouGov PLC said her advantage had dwindled to just 3 percentage points and in an analysis, it suggested her party could lose seats. That would deprive her of the solid majority she says is essential to success in looming Brexit talks with the European Union.

Failing to win big would be a blow for the prime minister, who led her party into this election hoping to exploit the apparent unpopularity of the Labour Party and particularly its leader Jeremy Corbyn, a veteran left winger beloved by young Labour activists but less popular than Mrs. May among most eligible voters.

“If it looks like it was in the bag and it was mishandled, then that’s not going to give her the same authority within the party,” said Anthony Wells, director of political and social research at YouGov.
Mrs. May’s failure to maintain her lead is the result of Conservative missteps and a better-than-expected public reception for Labour, analysts say.

COMMENT:  We should point out that the polls are all over the place, with all showing the Tories ahead...but by dramatically lesser numbers than when the race began.  They have run a terrible campaign, and Corbyn has tried, with so-so success, to clean up his image.

The Conservatives may well squeeze through a week from today, but probably as a diminished party that came up to bat and dribbled a little single.

June 1,  2017