Hasn’t the last five years felt like a long time?
In the run up to the December 2019 General Election four and a half years ago, I remember using social media to say “do your own research, and go vote for whatever you believe in”. There was, and still is, some reason in that - youth turnout in politics is still so lamentably low, and it’s partly why we see political change that does nothing to help young people. So do please vote on Thursday.
But perhaps I was overly naïve in the run-up to that election, because things are a lot different now. In 2019, I was disenfranchised with the political system, cynical of all politicians looking to support their own political careers. After the wave of Jeremy Corbyn’s unexpected result in 2017, why was it to be too different this time? And would it have had that much of a consequence?
The last five years have laid bare everything I could - and maybe should - have learnt before. There are no positive words to describe what Boris Johnson, Liz Truss, Rishi Sunak and co. have done to this country in that time. Those Tory politicians elected in 2019, many of whom for the first time, justified my previous cynicism with self-serving, shameless policies and attitudes to what should be the highest public office.
When the election was called, I thought about trying to chart all the scandals and wholly-intentional mistakes that the Tory government have made in this last five years. But there have been too many. Way too many. And that should tell you a lot. Perhaps even enough to compromise and do anything to get them out on Thursday.
In January 2020, former PM and egotistical twat Boris Johnson finally “got Brexit done”. This was after he’d prorogued parliament a few months earlier, trying to get a deal through without their say. After protracted negotiations with the EU and satisfying the hard-line right-wingers in his party, some of whom belong in the 16th century (looking at you, Jacob Rees-Mogg), the UK left the EU. Quite possibly the first time in which a country’s population has voted to **** itself over economically. But alas, it was done.
From March 2020 to May 2021, the Tory government were faced with the COVID-19 pandemic. Unprecedented though it was, the level of distrust they sowed here probably started their slow decline in popularity. Where to start? Boris Johnson delayed lockdown too late, killing many. Years of NHS underfunding were laid bare as hospitals struggled to cope with high patient levels, leaving some people to make the most painful sacrifices within their own families. The then Health Secretary, Matt Hancock, did not buy sufficient personal protective equipment for those nurses, doctors and carers on the frontline who all risked their lives - all while he was having an affair with an aide. Instead, the Tories sold manufacturing contracts to their friends, former Peer Michelle Mone being a grateful recipient. It really did look like a tough life in front of that yacht in Greece.
With the UK passing 100,000 deaths, Johnson also reportedly said “let the bodies pile high”. How compassionate. That sounds like a Prime Minister I’d want.
Most outrageously throughout this period, ministers and their advisors flagrantly flaunted lockdown rules they had imposed on the rest of the country. Boris Johnson, Matt Hancock and our most recent PM Rishi Sunak were pictured partying in Downing Street under the guise of work. Johnson became the first British Prime Minister to have broken the law while in office. Remind you of anyone?
Meanwhile special advisor Dominic Cummings drove 300 miles while infected with COVID-19, then took a day out to test his eyesight. He was kidding no one. Johnson repeatedly maintained in parliament he didn’t attend the parties, so when he paid a fine for his involvement he knowingly misled parliament and should have been out of office.
There was still time for it to come out that Johnson knew about Tory MP Chris Pincher’s sexual assaults, before Tory MP’s finally got rid of him.
A new chapte… 50,000 Tory members subsequently elected Liz Truss, who crashed the economy in a short month. Her tenure was famously shorter than a lettuce. Her decision - which she has since defended with blind narcissism - triggered the cost of living crisis many are still suffering from.
Tory MPs again panicked, and replaced her with previously losing candidate Rishi Sunak. That’s 3 Prime Ministers without an election. Democracy at its finest.
Still time for one more gaffe. Sunak decided that to solve immigration problems (that apparently are to blame for the state of the country, not the last 14 years of Tory rule), he would send them on flights to Rwanda. As it turned out, this was blocked by courts, so his desperation in pandering to racist right-wing voters was a waste of a lot more money.
So here we are. Even through the election campaign, Sunak has managed to appear so out of touch by lamenting the fact he didn’t have Sky TV as a kid, and left a D-Day memorial early to conduct an ITV interview.
The alternative, and expected government, is now Labour under Keir Starmer. To many people, that is boring and uninspiring. After the chaos though, is boring so bad? I’m not voting for a celebrity, I’m voting for someone to run the country. Forgive me, but after the past five years, any change away from Conservative rule is positive. Apart from the sh**-stained (or should I say milkshake-stained) grifter further right, obviously.
Labour and Starmer are a little bland, and I know that is a view shared by many young people who would read this blog. Their stance on Israel and Palestine leaves a bitter taste, and I find the anti-immigration rhetoric they spout in public abhorrent to say the least.
Even so, we cannot let perfection be the enemy of the good. Zoom out a bit and we see 14 years of Tory austerity, with public sector cuts and rising cost of living affecting us all, while the government does what it wants and gives money to its mates.
I suspect that a lot of Labour’s campaigning and stances pre-election is pragmatism. They are stuck between appealing to progressive young people and socially-conservative older people. You might well say they shouldn’t care about the older people - maybe, but tides are turning for the worse in this country and I think we have to compromise a bit to get an overall better outcome. Lots of politics is too binary - it’s seemingly right or wrong. Unfortunately our first-past-the-post system is the same.
It’s important to note that votes haven’t yet been cast, so although Labour have a huge poll lead, nothing is done. It still needs us as a collective to use our voices on Thursday. Politics impacts all aspects of our lives, I think we will all come to realise that at some point in our lives. I’ve certainly learnt a big chunk of that in these fateful five years.
As soon as they are in power, we need to hold a Labour government to account. They don’t currently break the bounds of the current system like a left-wing party should, but we can only best judge them on their actions in power. We can directly compare to what we’ve just seen. Give it a few months to settle, and I will shift my narrative - I hope people hold me to my word. That will be the time for progressive reform, through impactful policies that can transform the country.
So no, they’re not a perfect choice. But fundamentally we will have a government that is actually trying to govern the country for the first time in five years. and that is a platform to one, rebuild the country and two, create positive change in society. It’s a glimmer of hope after years of pain.
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