The election's real losers are the liberal elite

Rory Broomfield says that since the General Election we've seen astonishing scenes where the Labour Party have claimed victory while the largest party, the Conservatives, have seemingly viewed the result as a defeat. It's clear though who are the real losers here: the liberal elite. 

I can picture the scene: former Prime Minister, Tony Blair, sat in his kitchen crying over his cornflakes as the results of the General Election were being confirmed last Friday morning. Why? Because both he and those that still wish for the UK to remain in the EU single market were the true losers of last week's General Election.

The winners of the General Election were, of course, the Conservatives. Despite having a reduced parliamentary party, they are still the largest party in the House of Commons with 317 seats and that of the Speaker. This is, of course, in contrast to the Labour Party which only achieved 262 seats.

This narrative that the Conservatives actually won admittedly does fly in the face of how the media has portrayed the situation. Of course, the Conservative Party did not gain as many seats as they had hoped; of course, the Labour Party gained a lot more than they feared losing. However, at no point could the claim made by Corbyn's crew that the Labour Party were 'ready to form a government' ever be true.

All that gusto that Labour won was just hot air. Frankly, the true definition of fake news.

Nonetheless, Corbyn's election performance was better than expected and has, for now, secured his position as Labour leader.

The result though was a massive blow to Tony Blair and others that support the Blairite agenda. It means that, as confirmed by John McDonnell after the election, the Labour Party will continue with its policy of ending the free movement of people through leaving the EU's single market.

As such, the House of Commons now has over 80% support for a Brexit that would take the UK out of the EU single market and jurisdiction of the European Court of Justice. As David Davis and the newly appointed Brexit Minister, Steve Baker, have maintained: the Government is still intent in following the White Paper on Brexit through – a plan that seeks to produce a "clean Brexit".

This must also grate with those like George Osborne, Lord Heseltine and Sir John Major. They have all been out being interviewed by the BBC and other media channels about their views on the election result. And, as every interview passed, their desperation to stop the inevitable and somehow redefine reality seemed to strengthen.

All such moves smack of desperation. This is a side of the Conservative Party that has lost the argument on the EU. Nonetheless, Lord Heseltine describing Brexit as a 'cancer' to the Conservative Party on the Andrew Marr programme, completely ignoring the extent of unity that exists within both its membership and parliamentary party, and George Osborne calling Theresa May "a dead woman walking", just shows how embittered they have become.

But it does make me wonder one thing: should we call these people the liberal elite at all? Surely, given last year's referendum result, the General Election result and the trashing of their agenda, the title of liberal losers should be more appropriate?

I will leave it for others, and history, to decide.