Understand, the 2017 election is Labour’s last shot to alter Britain’s path towards my generation's past. There are no more 2nd chances for the NHS, for affordable housing. If the Tories win, everything will be lost in a raging sea of Tory Brexit.
Anyone on the left in the party who thinks they will be able to dictate terms of surrender to the right in the party if Labour loses the election on June 8th is a deluded fool.
By most media accounts, it is taken for granted that Corbyn will lose in June and by a wide margin. Most presume, the Tories can win this election by simply dragging a mute Theresa May about the country to show her off to uncritical Tory stalwarts as if she were the relics & bones of some medieval saint known for the miracle of the trickle down economy.
I am gobsmacked that people who haven’t seen a real wage increases in over a decade and who now shoulder record levels of credit card debt, think the Tories are competent stewards of the economy. I am also gobsmacked that in the recent local elections voter turnout averaged 33%. With democracy you use it or lose it and by the looks of the apathy Britain just displayed, we are on the road to losing it.
The problem with Labour is it doesn’t proselytise anymore in the working class districts, like they did in my youth and middle age. People also have confused consumerism with democracy and therefore they think that if they can pick and choose the wide assortment of pound off articles on the ASDA shelves, that civilisation is intact.
Considering the almost universal disdain for Labour by the news media during this General Election; you would think that they were responsible for the last seven years of austerity.
Like in 2015, this campaign ignites excitement inside the tent. But outside the tent, people walk by it, unconvinced that Labour has the right stuff for government.
Knock on the doors and mention Corbyn, and it is like watching kids chew treacle with tiny stones in it.
Labour does have what it takes to form good government. But the problem is that they have been fighting a civil war for so long now; voters just see them as the dysfunctional family up the street that has over the top shouting matches on their unkempt front lawn every weekend, after a box of lager has been drunk.
If Labour loses this election they won’t survive it intact. And, for at least a generation they will be hated for their weakness, for their selfishness, for their naval gazing, for delivering the people into the jaws of an all consuming austerity.
For Labour to lose hundreds of seats in the local elections just proves we are not getting the narrative out. We are letting others tell our stories. One thing I know being a pensioner of modest means is that people distrust politicians because they know for the most part they are at the top of the food chain in both victory or defeat, they will always be first at the supper table. But then again, I am just an old man, so what do I know….
Make no mistake, Theresa May has grand plans for Britain but they don’t include your prosperity, your happiness or granting your children the right to affordable education housing and decent wages.
You have a responsibility to yourself, to your family and to your country to vote in this election. To not vote is to resign yourself to the tyranny of Tory induced austerity that sees the one percent of this country grow wealthier from the sweat of your labour.
To not vote for Labour and Jeremy Corbyn’s vision for a Britain where everyone matters not just the 1% is to ensure my past becomes your future.
