All we are going to hear about for the next six weeks is the General Election, which the short-trousered loser Rishi Sunak is about to call for Thursday 4 July. We’ve heard the news today that inflation is now running at 2.3%, which is still higher than the Bank of England target, and Sunak’s spin team have concluded it’s time to cut and run because that’s the only good news there is going to be this year. I could be wrong, of course, but I’m not.
The next six weeks are going to be hell for people who are not obsessed with politics, which is to say pretty well everyone and I include myself in the category marked everyone. It will be long, boring and absolutely vicious.
There could be another reason Sunak wants to cut and run and that is because he is thinking about his children’s education. It is still, in my view, a very big if that he will lose and Labour will win. Maybe that’s my natural caution and pessimism at work, but from my recent engagement with various Labour Party folk, that’s their feeling too. With Sunak, the issue is more personal. If he loses, he will surely want his children settled in their new Los Angeles home and enrolled for the new school term.
As for this blog, while I cannot pretend it will not be a politics-free zone – and I shall address that issue shortly, so stand by your beds – it will not be politics 24/7. Hopefully, I can think beyond politics and ‘entertain’ you with non-political stuff. For all that, there are some aspects I cannot compromise on.
I shall vote Labour. I have always voted Labour in every election since I was first able to vote in 1979. Since that time, I have see two Labour prime ministers and seven Conservatives. Incredibly, five of the Tory seven have been prime minister in the last eight years. You do not need me to tell you the effects of 14 years of Conservative government. Everything is broken and nothing works. When they came to office in 2010, there were barely any food banks, only short NHS waiting lists. Now four million children are in poverty and NHS is on its knees, as are most public services. We now have the highest tax burden since World War Two, yet where has the money gone? The last Labour government, from 1997 to 2010, got a lot of things done. Here’s a list:
These are simply facts but we have to acknowledge a simple truth. Tony Blair’s incoming government inherited an economy in decent shape from John Major’s tired Conservatives and it’s important to say that chancellor Kenneth Clarke, an old style Tory, unlike today’s hard right shysters, was largely responsible. Today’s economy is in a far more brittle condition and Keir Starmer will not be able to repair Sunak’s mess at a stroke. My point is that Starmer deserves that chance, as does his changed Labour Party.
My probably unwanted advice is to vote Labour where they are already in post and where they are the most likely party to beat the Tories. In places where Labour is unlikely to win, then vote Liberal Democrat. A vote for the eccentrics and cranks of the Greens, who cannot win an election, is both a wasted vote nationally and would benefit only the Conservatives.
I shall dwell mainly on other things. The music shuffle, travel stories and essays and generally non-political stuff. I hope you can find something that be at least twice removed from the political pantomime that will be going on all over the country.
Finally, I think this election will be existential for Britain. If Labour does not win, I don’t see how it could ever win again. When their manifesto is issued, I am quite sure there will be a big offer to Britain, one that will seek to repair and unite the country and set us back on the path to greater opportunity and better living standards for all. And it will be a straight choice between hope, offered by Labour, and more hopelessness offered by the Conservatives.
Please stick with me. I’m as desperate for 5th July, the day after the election, as you are. If things go the ‘wrong’ way, I’ll be even more desperate. Still, no more politics, comrades. You know it makes sense.
