On Getting Rid of the Tories
You’re not voting in a normal General Election. The landscape has changed completely and is rapidly changing further before your eyes. Just as you are living through a rapid climate deterioration – the consequences of which you dare not even imagine – so too the political realities you have been used to all your life are just disintegrating.
In this context the mantra of doing whatever you need to – the ‘holding your nose’ and voting X theory of elections to ‘Get Rid of the Tories’ – doesn’t make sense any more.
The Tories, a hollowed-out shell of a party are going to be exterminated, the SNP are heading for heavy losses, Reform UK could be the opposition, all is at sea. Looking at the flotsam and jetsom of this deep disarray means it doesn’t make any sense as a political goal to ‘Get Rid of the Tories’ if what you are receiving as an incoming government is more of the same. Yes there’s the delicious schadenfreude of watching individual ministers evicted in humiliation but as a political goal it is rendered meaningless.
David Egerton writes (‘Labour is telling Britain it is now a conservative party – and we should believe it’): “…the idea that Labour remains a progressive social democratic party hiding in plain sight is still in the air. While it is granted this is not obvious from its programme, it is held that deep down it is the party of change, of welfare, of state intervention; the party of labour rather than of capital, the party of international law, not war. It is held that in power, either circumstances or opportunity will make it more radical. That hope animates many.”
Yet…
“Labour is telling the world otherwise, and we should believe it. While the Tories promise tax and welfare cuts, it offers minor increases in tax and spend, premised on cuts in other areas. Labour says it will not increase benefits, or remove the two-child cap; it will only make improvements to education and healthcare that are trivial in the context of the challenges faced, adding only marginal numbers of appointments and teachers.”
“It tells us it is now the party of wealth creation and growth, not redistribution or equality (that is, people at the bottom will only get more if the size of the cake increases, and they will keep the same share of the cake as before). It sees no Israeli war crimes in Palestine. It will marginally retilt capital-labour relations, which one hopes will reduce inequality somewhat, but it does not differentiate between good and bad types of business – all business is good. Brexit is accepted.”
“Labour was once, from its founding and into the early 1990s, and briefly between 2015 and 2020, something very different. In 1945, in 1964 and in 1974 there was a contest between capitalism and social democracy, between two different sorts of parties. Labour believed you couldn’t leave economic transformation to the private sector. It acted to decrease inequality between people and regions, which involved much more than growth. It wanted state pensions yielding 50% of final salary, plentiful public housing, free university education and much else besides, achieving much of its programme. It also believed in promoting a more truthful account of the economy and society than that provided by the dominant ideology.”
“Labour no longer believes any of this. It believes in the sagacity of private capital, and thinks it will unleash growth through financial orthodoxy and deregulation – exactly the policy not only of the past 14 years, but the past 40. Labour very obviously no longer believes in the programmes of 1945, 1964 or 1974. Like New Labour, it believes in the power of capitalism, whether entrepreneurs or financiers. Labour no longer believes as it once did that it had a more truthful account of the country than the Tories: it believes and tells Tory stories about the nature of public spending or foreign policy. It may be the cost, Labour people may say, of operating in a Tory world, but it may be an indication too that Labour has become like the Tory party.”
Vote Labour and you are voting for a re-packaged version of the Conservatives. You will not be ‘getting rid of the Tories’ you will be voting for a glossier, less toxic version of them but with the same core values, outlook and economics.
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Spot on!
The election of a Labour government with a huge majority could be a blessing in disguise for the Yes movement. It will probably not be long before disillusionment sets in, given the need for unpopular choices and the left of the Labour movement start clamouring for more radical action that Sir K fails to deliver on. I imagine that Labour will end up as unpopular as the Tories and by then the 20% of so Scots that support Indy but plan to vote for ultra unionist labour will realise there’s just no point. So the following election could see an indy resurgence. However in the same period the SNP will have to completely remodel themselves and the indy message – their impending drubbing will probably convince them of the need to act.
But see Professor James Mitchell on the manifold blessings of low expectations, getting your disillusionment in early and finally blossoming into a force for transformative change in your second term.
Second term ? Remember Johnson had a majority in 2019 of 80 seats which seemed invincible at the time.
Indeed. I don’t believe in unicorns either.
Edgerton’s book “The Rise and Fall of the British Nation: A Twentieth-Century History” is a must-read
Very good articulated article. Clearly stating the future of UK politics and it appears there ain’t a lot can be done about it except in Scotland. Think very carefully about what you want folks. Labour party is now LabCon party. If they are in power – Scots have a lot to lose! Starker says the UK can’t afford to look after our kids. Will be stretched to include ‘We can’t afford any of the benefits the Scots enjoy? ie Child payment? Prescriptions? Free University Education? (and more). As the man says – Think very carefully, the Labour Party is no longer the party we once trusted.
Spot on, as you UKers say.
So what should a voter do on Thursday – based in constituency in England.A “Red Wall” seat that fell to the Blue Tories at last election.
Vote for a party or candidate committed to progressive reform and rejoining the EU would be a good plan, given that Labour is going to have a landslide victory anyway. A Green or an Independent may be the best option.
Graeme – it really depends on constituency and even your local MP and your priorities.
For example if I lived my priority would be keeping Reform out so even if this meant voting Tory (a first).
In red wall I would probably vote Labour to eject Tory as getting rid of Tories would be priority.
Fortunately in Scotland we don’t have these scenarios so I will be voting SNP partly because I think SNP represent Scotland better at Westminster and partly to stop Labour winning. From my experience Scottish Labour MP’s loyalty is primarily to UK Labour Party than Scotland. Anas Sarwar typifies this approach in his cynical, smirking attitude and empty promises.
Depends what you want, Gordon. Vote for the candidate who most closely aligns with your aspirations and interests. If you’d rather none of the available candidates represents you in the UK parliament, then vote for ‘none of the above’.
Agreed. That’s what I intend to do. Let them all be aware that whatever the outcome, they have lost this vote they might otherwise have had.
Entirely accurate.
Well, I won’t be voting for Labour’s candidate in my constituency. He doesn’t even live here; he’s been parachuted in from Edinburgh at the expense of the local lad who was hoping to stand. Also, voting the Labour’s candidate here would risk letting the SNP’s candidate steal in. Tactically, I might have to vote Tory again; nae danger of the Tories forming the next government, after all, so no real harm done.
Your ten seconds of fame. Congratulations.
I know, BSA; it’s ridiculous. We get our sovereignty back every five years or so, just long enough to mark a cross on a piece of paper. And we think that’s democracy!
Indeed ! Vote Tory ! That’ll show them !
I voted Labour in the end. The latest polls suggested that Labour’s candidate had overtaken the Conservative’s as the most likely to stop the SNP’s candidate winning. Fingers crossed!
Hooray! The SNP’s candidate didn’t win here. Result!
yes SNP might get a drubbing but it is obvious that Labour is a LapCon party. Anyway let’s see what Lab can do for Scotland, there are 2 years to the Holyrood elections. Enough time to regroup and see if Scotland is any better off.
As I have pledged to Greenpeace’s Climate Vote, and there is only one party on local offer, the Scottish Greens, that are putting climate change as a priority, I will be voting for their candidate (despite deep concerns over the Scottish Greens). Perhaps the only benefit will be to give moral authority to a tiny Green bloc in the House of Commons, and to campaigns to reform the electoral system. The real work of politics must be done outwith this (flawed) electoral process and (ill) representative system. As outgoing Green MP Caroline Lucas says, some questions will not even be asked if there is no Green in the room. This will not be enough to address our deepening global polycrisis (anyone notice the extreme weather events in Germany over Euro 24?).
Dateman – I’m voting Tory to keep out SNP.
I always wondered who you were – now I know – Alastair Jack!
Soon to be Lord Jack.
Alister Jack won’t be standing in the election to see who’s going to be my representative in the UK parliament. He’s standing down. John Cooper fi Stranraer has been nominated to stand instead of him. Voting for John’s the only realistic option for keeping the Nationalists out (though I’m fully expecting the Nats to win – as is, apparently, Alister Jack).
Boasting about voting Tory to keep out the nasty Nationalists!
Do you think this is the Daily Mail or Express?
John Cooper used to work for the Daily Mail.
“Will nobody think of the Patriarchy?!?”
Update: the latest poll suggests that Labour’s candidate in the election to decide who will represent me in the UK parliament has leapfrogged both the Tory’s and the SNP’s candidates. Looks like I might have to vote for him to avoid being represented by a f*cking nationalist, despite the fact that the fat socialist’s been parachuted in from Edinburgh.
That’s it. Voted for Labour’s candidate in the election to choose who’ll represent me and the generality o my neibors in the next UK bletherhoose. Fingers crossed!
Well if you really think a party of corrupt genocidal liars and crooks are the lesser evil, that’s up to you. I couldn’t vote for any of them
Strange… none of the candidates who were putting themselves forwards to represent me and my neibors in the UK parliament came across as a corrupt genocidal liar and/or crook.
Well it’s a matter of perception. They may be very nice well-meaning people themselves but that is the character of the parties they join.
Labour and Conservatives are openly backing the genocide in Palestine. The LibDems keep quiet. The SNP and Greens at least oppose it but in do as they are told by the self-serving World Economic Forum – which has no ethics at all. If candidates cannot or will not genuinely stand up for those that elect them they cannot expect me to vote for them.
If you vote for them that’s up to you, but don’t expect me to
‘If candidates cannot or will not genuinely stand up for those that elect them they cannot expect me to vote for them.’
Well, those that elect them obviously do believe that they’re the best/least worse person to represent them in the assembly to which they’ve been elected.
You did right not to vote for any of the candidates in your constituency if you found that at none of them shared your views and there was no tactical advantage to be gained from voting for one or another.
I have decided to spoil my ballot on Thursday. It seems to be the only option for me as there is now no party I can vote for.
I live in Wester Ross, in what was Ian Blackford’s constituency. I voted for him, and he did as good a job as he could as my MP. Sadly it wasn’t enough, but I don’t blame him for it. The constituency has been abolished altogether, and we are now electorally just part of Inverness. For ‘local’ government too, we suffer from being part of the Highland Council area where the only voices that count are urban ones. So our distinctive rural voice has been quietly eliminated. But with a population density of 2 people per sq Km nobody’s really bothered about our few votes or views.
All the parties seem agreed that the Highlands are the ‘wild west’ – a place to escape to and do as you please. And that might mean driving around for hundreds of miles in a big diesel vehicle and destroying our economy and communities; or sailing around in planet destroying casino cruise ships; it might mean investing in people and planet destroying 5G masts in places where nobody lives; or filling the land with massive, utterly destructive industrial electricity infrastructure; or ‘rewilding’ – which is really just a land grab by the usual suspects who can then site their dirty activities – decommissioning oil rigs, gold mining, military training and so on – away from the public gaze.
The Westminster parliament has no real claim to legitimate sovereignty over us, so why we might even wish to be represented there is a mystery. In any case it makes no difference how we vote, because Scotland’s MPs are a permanent minority, to be ignored, mocked, and treated with utter contempt whichever party they represent. Westminster’s only interest is in undermining and destroying devolution and taking back full control over our lives. It is a colonial administration, with all that implies. Democracy is an Orwellian farce in Scotland.
Some of the parties have sent out leaflets, but none can possibly afford to visit and knock on doors here in this vast, scattered constituency, larger than some entire countries. None – apart from the Liberal Democrats, who have an astonishing amount of money to spend. They are of course the Unionists only hope here, and tell us that only they can defeat the SNP – assuming of course that is what we all want to do. They started their campaign months ago with fake ‘newspapers’, regular adverts in local papers, and the candidate even toured our community councils to speak to them. Who paid for all this? They tell us Charles Kennedy was a great MP and that this is reason enough to vote for them. But they say nothing about the disgraceful way the party treated Charles, or that, nice chap though he was, he was a Friend of Israel and would never respond to any enquiries about Palestine. The LibDems tell us that all sorts of devolved matters will somehow miraculously be sorted by their candidate if elected – but it is of course nonsense. Their candidate has admitted that he has previously donated to both the Tories and the Labour parties in his desperation to ‘keep out the SNP’. As always, Unionists always play on the fact that the Highlands get a terrible deal from the centralising, urban, lowland focussed SNP. But while that’s true, it isn’t enough to make me believe we would be ‘better together’ with the vicious, genocidal, corrupt, neo-fascist US puppet government in London.
The Tories have put out a leaflet which has nothing to say except repeat the same as the LibDems. It looks like they are just going through the motions for the sake of it.
The Labour Party seem to have no awareness or interest at all in the Highlands. Their leaflet is so completely useless that their claim that they will put Scotland at the heart of their policies is an obvious and dispiriting lie. They have absolutely nothing to offer except the fascist image of a leader flanked by Union flags and promoting some nonsense about military might and ‘Great British Energy’.
The SNP at least can point to some good things they have done. Because of them, Scotland is a much better place to live than anywhere else in the UK. And they have at least opposed the horrific genocide in Palestine. And they have been under sustained, vicious attack from the ‘British’ media and its owners. But – perhaps for this reason – they are too timid and afraid of corporate greed and international criminals, going cap in hand to Westminster and the oligarchs who fund Westminster, and like Oliver Twist, pleading submissively for more. And giving away our sovereignty to the WEF and WHO is an act of betrayal.
The Scottish Green Party actually threw me out. Like New Labour under Tony Blair or Keir Starmer, it has abandoned its principles and now it too is bought and sold for corporate gold. And there is no room for dissent or debate in the ranks any more. There is nothing ‘green’ about ‘Freeports’, or HPMAs, or ‘vaccine passports’, or the (now compulsory) ‘transgender’ agenda.
The ‘Reform’ Party leaflet is all about attacking refugees and ending our human rights because the ECHR is – to them – ‘undemocratic’. It is so utterly awful, the only positive thing that can be said about it is that if England votes for them, it surely can only bring independence closer.
The whole election exercise is an Orwellian sham. Even if you seriously think being represented at Westminster is worthwhile, whoever you vote for, the same unelected oligarchs stay in control. It is what Putin has called ‘managed democracy’.
Voting for the lesser evil is still evil.
We need Scottish self-determination more than ever. But not the SNP’s fake version, bought and sold for US gold. Where is the party that will deliver a decentralised Scotland that empowers and delivers for the different regions and communities? How about a constitution that learns from our Irish and Scandinavian neighbours – or perhaps Switzerland? It seems to have served them reasonably well since 1350.
If only the Natural Law Party could make a comeback; they’d clean up I reckon.
The latest episode of the Listening Post’s third story is about Led By Donkeys (UK). I don’t know if their social media campaigns and advertising stunts have had much traction in this general election campaign. Apparently their pre-PM bio of Rishi Sunak has been very popular.
https://www.aljazeera.com/program/the-listening-post/2024/6/29/israel-hezbollah-drone-videos-and-shady-reports
Is there a point of political decline beyond which satire or investigative journalism struggles to work? Where focus on individuals merely obscures what is wrong with the system? Or can careful or fortunate examples reveal some pattern reflecting the bigger picture? Actually, I think their 10-minute Sunak video is quite good drawing connections, but then the current Labour Party has many of these connections too.
My vote goes to Count Binface. Terrible that the Binface Party aren’t runnning in my ward.
You should have offered yourself as a candidate.
However centrist Labour have become, they’re still to the left of the SNP on key issues like publicly owned energy, business rates reform and workers’ rights. The SNP play leftist with reserved powers, but when it comes to powers they do actually have in Holyrood (like council tax and ScotWind) they’ve sailed to the right even of the Tories
Freedom News, the journalism arm of the London-based anarchist collective, has published their own take, and plan to cover the election results live on their YouTube channel tomorrow.
“It means that, as usual, our political work doesn’t end on Thursday. Our work is community-based. It’s about helping people through difficulties by creating structures of mutual aid and solidarity where we can.”
https://freedomnews.org.uk/2024/07/01/elections-come-and-go-our-work-continues/