UK poll as telling as SA’s will be

As we prepare for our watershed elections on Wednesday, the people of the United Kingdom have just found out they will be headed to the polls at the beginning of July in a ballot which could have as far-reaching repercussions as ours.

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Conservative Prime Minister Rishi Sunak sprung the poll date of 4 July on the nation this week… although everyone has been expecting the general election and campaigning has been under way for some time.

Polls are pointing to the possibility that the Tories – who have been in power since 2010 – could be ousted by Labour.

Sunak, who has never fought a general election as leader, presides over a country badly damaged by the Tory-engineered Brexit fiasco, a crumbling health service, poor performance from privatised utility and rail companies and a country with the lowest growth in Europe.

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Labour has promised to up spending on the National Health Service, investing in both infrastructure and improving salaries, as well as renationalising the inefficient rail system and recruiting more teachers and paying them better.

The UK is a country of two faces: rich and poor. London – where the politicians live – is rich and the rest of the country is not. Will voters remember that on 4 July?