Happy Genny Lecs to all who celebrate! It is the morning of the General Election and like many, I sincerely cannot wait to see the back of the Tories. For 14 years the Conservative Party has chronically underfunded vital public services, sky rocketed homelessness and child poverty, broken their own laws while people couldn’t even attend their loved one’s funerals, created downright inhumane immigration policies including the Rwanda plan and the Bibby Stockholm barge, caused and exacerbated one of the worst cost of living and energy crises in modern history… I could go on for a VERY long time.
While the end of an evil, greedy, effectively authoritarian Tory rule is long overdue, we must now look to the future. The Tories are toast – with a very slim chance of them hanging onto power, it is almost guaranteed that Keir Starmer’s Labour will win this election. Hooray! Right?? Well, if you are a leftist, a progressive or anyone who enjoys the NHS, opposes child poverty, or think that trans people deserve to exist in peace, I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but it seems that we are in for the Tories 2.0.
After 14 years of pure political calamity, Starmer couldn’t have had it easier. The role of prime minister was quite literally being handed to him on a silver platter. Yet for some unbeknownst reason, at every possible moment he has shunned the leftists of the Labour Party and its leftist voters, to instead, desperately appeal to Tory voters by spewing the same nonsense of his predecessors. Here is a quick history lesson: the Labour Party was formed in the early 1900s by Keir Hardie, deriving from trade unionist and socialist parties. With the 2017 campaign being ‘for the many not the few’, historically the Labour party has been the party of the people. So, when our current Keir claims to be ‘the party of change’, he is not exaggerating.
Keir Starmer’s Labour refuses to lift the cruel two-child benefits cap that would lift approximately 250,000 children out of poverty, and a further 850,000 children out of less severe poverty. Further, Labour promises to rebuild key public services such as the NHS, the police and criminal justice system and the education sector, with solutions such as ‘training thousands of new doctors, nurses and midwives’, employing ‘13,000 more police officers’, and providing ‘6,500 more teachers’. While they sound like pretty dreamy policies, they don’t tackle the root causes of the issues facing these sectors, which is chiefly underfunding and poor pay offered for those in the most important roles in our society. Historically (and contrary to the foundations and fundamental beliefs of the Labour Party), Keir Starmer opposes striking and industrial action, so if Labour aren’t offering any improved benefits for these vital jobs and also won’t back those on strike for better pay and working conditions, these figures are just another meaningless promise that will not be fulfilled, exacerbating the crumbling of our public services.
Being a top barrister, you would expect Keir Starmer to understand violations of international criminal law. However, Starmer’s reaction to the ongoing genocide in Gaza shows that either he does not understand the Geneva Convention and when a country violates it, or he simply does not care. Starmer claimed that ‘Israel has a right to defend herself’, which may have been true if they did not use collective punishment, forced famine and the targeting of civilians, journalists, medics, and schools, all of which break international law. Further, new Labour will not introduce a weapons trade embargo with Israel, making the Party complicit in genocide.
And finally, as a last-minute attempt to garner votes from the worst possible people in society, Keir Starmer has launched his attack on trans women. Meeting with famous TERF, J.K Rowling, to discuss new Labour’s plans to decrease the rights and quality of life of trans women, Starmer has set the precedent that if you are a billionaire bigot, you can influence policy making. Starmer has said trans women will be banned from ‘women-only spaces’, which is interesting considering there is no mention of what trans men can and can’t do, suggesting that he in fact does not care about trans issues and is only engaging in culture and identity politics wars because it is easy to take a jab at marginalised groups, so long as it gets votes.
I fundamentally oppose the practice of tactical voting on the basis of it being undemocratic. Why should I give my vote to a spineless, career politician, who has completely upheaved the historic ideals of a party for his own gain, while ignoring the wants and demands of the majority of party supporters? The first-past-the-post system is inherently flawed and prevents us from having proportional representation. Don’t get me wrong, I absolutely see the appeal of tactical voting, particularly in Tory ‘safe seats’, such as Northwest Essex, but we deserve better. Your vote should be based on who you align with ideologically, not ‘well I don’t want the bad guys in anymore’.
While ideological voting might not result in your desired party winning, it can help. Take the Green Party for example. When it was founded in 1990, it was a small party that was not taken seriously, flash forward to 2024, they are on track to have their biggest win yet, with Carla Denyer projected to win the Bristol Central seat. Political change does not happen overnight, it happens through consistent support and voting ideologically! The Green Party will only become more popular, and one can only hope that we will see more Green MPs in the future. Further, voting ideologically for parties like the Greens or the Lib Dems will send a message to Labour that they aren’t as popular as they think, meaning they will have to compromise with other parties and the wants of the people.
And finally, if you haven’t already voted or sent off your postal vote, please, please don’t vote Tory. Or worse, Reform.
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