So many people I know are devastated by the UK election results :(
•*•*• 14th December 2019 •*•*•
Let me start by saying that absolutely no political party or politician feels trustworthy or honest. None are anywhere near perfect and it felt to a lot of people like figuring out which was the “lesser of two evils” - Boris Johnson, a proven liar and protector of the wealthy, while sacrificing the working class, and Jeremy Corbyn, an equally dodgy man with questionable associations with senior members of Sinn Féin (Irish political party linked to IRA’s bombing campaign) and anti-Semitic members within his party (Labour).
The Conservatives (Johnson’s centre-right political party) have been in power since 2010. National debt has doubled, though it also doubled under the last Labour government. The Conservatives, with the assistance of the Liberal Democrats, brought in austerity. Austerity is severe cost-cutting measures, in response to the global recession - budget cuts for the NHS, emergency services, social care, schools, libraries, etc. In 2015, they promised to build 200,000 starter homes. They haven’t built any. There’s fear over privatisation of the NHS, something that saves lives on a daily basis - something that many will truly suffer without because a large percentage of us, like many Americans, can’t afford private healthcare. They promise Brexit, but their planned deal is awful - not to mention that it’s not the Brexit people voted for, so there should have been a referendum on this deal or remain, with no way for the deal to change after it’s voted on.
It seems like many working class people have been brainwashed into thinking that the Tories (Conservatives) will help them, when things have only got worse. There has been an increase in poverty and knife crime. I’m not saying all of this wouldn’t have happened under any other party, but the Conservatives have had 10 years to improve things and haven’t, so why would another 5 years in power change that?
A lot of others who voted Conservative seem to have very little concern for how less privileged people will be affected. I’ve talked to a fair number and almost all were quite selfish in their thinking. It boiled down to “what’s best for me and my family, it’s not my job to care about others”. Voting for the leader of a COUNTRY and you don’t care about how your vote impacts the rest of said country? With that and some working class citizens still voting them in, “like turkeys voting in Christmas”, this feels like our Trump moment.
As I wrote at the beginning, I don’t think there was a good choice, but I think a change in leadership would have at least given us a better chance of positive change. If Corbyn had accepted how disliked he was and stepped down, letting someone else take his role, we may instead have been looking at a Labour government today. I didn’t even vote Labour, but it seemed less terrifying than this.
