General Election campaigning is in full swing in the UK at the moment. There are leaflets through postboxes, knocks on the door at inopportune moments and endless TV and radio coverage. Every political party, big and small, craves the best coverage and does stunts (mild ones like meeting a northern fishmonger, not actual stunts like mountain skiing down a big hill) and releases more and more new policy ideas to try to dominate our social media feeds and TV screens.
The Labour Party has by far the most impressive manifesto this year, the Greens are always solid and the SNP and Plaid Cymru, the national parties for Scotland and Wales respectively, have strong policies and promises. The Lib Dems are not to be trusted, whatever they promise, and their new leader Jo Swinson is losing in popularity every time she is seen in public (that’s true). The Brexit Party, desperate to win northern seats from Labour, is holding back on its typical policy free for all, so instead of “Actually yeah, let’s just sell off the NHS then you can pay to be seen” it is focusing on making Brexit happen.
So that leaves the Conservatives, who have been in power for nine years and are still somehow campaigning on the basis of how much they would improve the country if they were in charge.
They are in charge! Even Donald Trump had the sense to change his campaign from “Make America great again” once he’d been in charge of America for several years.
Not the Tories, who are campaigning on how awful things are. And I would agree. The NHS is being worked to the bone and senior doctors and nurses are saying that the institution just will not survive another five years (the typical election term) of underfunding. Many of us who rely on the NHS to live, and all of us who love people in that situation, are watching keenly to see what the Tories would do with the NHS if they retain power but so far it seems to be full of lies. They promised to build 40 new hospitals. It turns out they meant they’d refurbish six.
I’m chronically ill. The NHS has saved my life three times in the past 18 months, during flare-ups. A Tory win terrifies me. The NHS is already not coping, due to prolonged underfunding. It won’t last much longer.
— Margo (@MargoJMilne) November 26, 2019
But this is a party that can be trusted, we are assured! With a leader we can trust! Even though he was sacked from at least one job for lying in the articles he wrote. Little has changed since then, as we see daily as he promises things and withdraws his promises just as easily.
He says what needs to be said in the moment, reconsidering later with no shame.
It’s not just the NHS that is at risk if the Conservative Party wins this election, especially if they win with a majority that means they would not have to co-operate with other parliamentary parties.
This has been called the Brexit election. Labour is promising a second referendum, the Lib Dems (for what it’s worth) want to revoke Article 50 unilaterally, and the Tories want to storm ahead and just leave the whole bloody continent behind us. Sod what it does to Northern Ireland. Sod what it does to industry and jobs. Sod what it does to the economy.
It has also been called the climate crisis election. While you would expect great policies here from the Greens (and they don’t disappoint), other parties have some important policies in their manifestos too. The Conservatives’ are underwhelming.
And there are other issues still. Social security benefits have been cut dramatically over the last nine years and people are dying, starving and penniless. In the 21st century in a major economy, this is unforgiveable but the Tories are showing no signs of improving this situation.
The rights of disabled people to live independently have also been seriously undermined, leaving people feeling more dependent than ever, while having less and less to depend on.
threat to independent living for disabled people and decimation of social care from what it is now.
— big pawed bear (@BigPawedBear) November 26, 2019
The Tories say they will build affordable homes but they have broken their promises on this in the last few years. They say they will recruit more doctors and nurses but have broken their promises on this, too.
I fear a Tory win more than anything, and I am not alone. My friend Jen said, “It’s going to happen. The media spin against [Jeremy Corbyn] is on hyperdrive. I am a glass half full girl and keep seeing the young voter registrations as the great hope…. or some Lib Dem/lab coalition. BUT… then I remember the morning after the Brexit vote”.
Voters have until midnight tonight to register to vote. And the more young people who vote, the more the Tory majority can typically be minimised. Otherwise, we have to remember that there are a few weeks left, and that is certainly a long time in politics.
Image credit: Socialist Appeal