We have to stop Boris Johnson and the Tories from getting a majority on Thursday, and tactical voting is key.

It’s not enough to just not vote Tory - we don’t  have a proportional system so it doesn’t work like that. Thanks to our crappy system we have to be smart and vote tactically - vote for the candidate most likely to keep a Tory out in your constituency, and persuade others to do the same.

Put in your postcode and check what you can do to Stop Boris

https://www.stopboris.com/

The thing that riles me most about the British superiority complex is that we are blind to the inequity in our own system. Every country uses propaganda, every country has bias and prejudice. As a Brit brought up in the 1980s I was part of the generation that was taught banking money was the measure of success, rode the waves of Cool Britannia and grew up into a system that lied to me time and again. Get a degree; job for life - nope. Buy a house; safe investment - sorry! Every country in the world respects Britain - haha! The last few years have been the most acute in exposing the lies I was taught as child. Trust your government to have your long term best interests at heart; the justice system is independent; our values are universal, equitable and progressive - all belied by the actions of the state in the last 20 years.

British media is not neutral, nor in many ways is it free. Without running into conspiracy theory territory; we don’t acknowledge who runs our country, and how decisions are made and swayed. We like to think of ourselves as progressive liberals, holding the torch for the values the rest of the world should be aiming for. In reality, we’re a confused and contradictory bunch, split more along urban-rural or generational lines than principled ones.

Boris Johnson’s comments in August 2018 about women who wear Muslim face coverings is the most extreme example of this I have seen so far. I have no doubt it won’t hold that record for long. His is a voice promoting fascism in the 21st century - not, as the British press would have you believe, Jeremy Corbyn’s.

Islam has become the Judaism of the 21st century. Before WWII, Jewish people were often depicted as one-dimensional stereotypes, making them scapegoats for huge social and economic problems that resulted ultimately in the most recognised, if not the largest, genocide in modern history. Islam in the 21st century is suffering a similar problem - commonplace stereotyping, public denigration of the whole community and its values. We are running dangerously close to the same attitudes as allowed us to walk blindly into National Socialism and fascism in the early 20th century: legislation designed to limit the behaviour of one group over any other, public figures making comments that inspire crimes against one group and illiberal attitudes passed off as legitimate or normal.