I've reached the point of wondering just what else the Tories can do to show themselves up as incompetent, self-seeking and, given that they all seem to be multi-millionaires, out of touch with the rest of the population - and how far can they go before people stop voting for them? In the past few weeks, we've been able to see for ourselves that Theresa May betrayed the Windrush generation, deported 7,000 students 'by accident' and, when caught out, put the blame on her buddy Amber Rudd. And still the good people of England go on voting Tory. More than that, according to one man who sent a text to Jeremy Vine on radio 2 today, some voters are very concerned at how liberal (I don't think he meant Liberal) the Tories have become. Presumably, these voters want the Tories to head to the right of UKIP. Where will that take them? Back to the 1930s? or even the 1800s?
I have to admit the Tories have done a great hatchet job on Labour in recent months. In about 25 years of membership of the Labour party, I never came across racism of any kind at local or party level. Not a single suggestion of anti-semitism. In fact, quite a lot of Jewish people in the area where I live are Labour members - or were till recently...And to this day, I've never seen a single piece of written evidence of anti-semitism in the Labour party. Just allegations in the Tory press and from the Tory benches in Westminster.
But I think Labour in the UK have two big problems, and neither of them is the Conservative party. Allow me to quote Hugh Kerr, an experienced politician on Facebook today:
'Woke up to hear Chuka Um(u)nna one of the Blairites working against Corbyn saying the elections were terrible for Labour and they needed to change (ie their leader!). I then checked the results and it said Labour won 2063 seats to the Tories 1293! This on a low turnout which favours the Tories. Some defeat!'
Labour's first big problem is Labour. The party doesn't present a united front. Hasn't done since Gordon Brown and co lost the election of 2010. I look at Jeremy Corbyn and think: yep, good constituency MP and a man of principle but he hasn't got a leadership bone in his body. And I suspect that's what's needed right now: somebody to tell the Blairites' constituency parties to prove they have local support by holding re-selection meetings. That same person should also send the Blairites off to re-read the party manifesto (if they ever read it to begin with) and come up with some ideas of how to tackle the Tories in Westminster - preferably without either abstaining or voting with them. The Blairites' time has come and gone. Labour needs to move on - not back.
Labour's second big problem is the media. The press and TV are almost entirely against them. They seize on comments like Umunna's. Labour is routinely misrepresented by the BBC, ITV and Sky news. Only Channel 4 news can be relied on to tell the Labour side of things. All but 2 newspapers are anti-Labour - and one of them (the Guardian) is a bit suspect. The media have also gone after what they see as easy targets: John McDonnell (not helped by him chucking a Little Red Book across to his Tory opponent) and Diane Abbott (not helped by her being unprepared for interviews). And, heaven help us, the media are getting away with this misrepresentation - just as they were in Scotland before social media gave us an outlet and Holyrood got a bit more savvy at rebuffing the nonsense the Tories were coming up with. If you want a laugh, look at the responses on twitter and Facebook to the Tories' and the press's attempts to make out baby boxes are dangerous.
So what happens next? As far as I can see, the UK goes on - and on and on - having Conservative governments. The 'gig' economy takes over, so the population gets poorer and poorer. The UK leaves the EU and becomes another state of the USA. Any last guarantees of security at work are taken from us. Wages keep on falling. We hand worse and worse living and working conditions on to our children. We lose the right to vote, since the Tories now want us to prove we're entitled to vote by producing photo ID - we saw a wee bit of that in the elections yesterday.
If you live in Scotland, you at least have an option: you can become what our unionist pals call a 'separatist.' I'm happy to declare myself a member of that group.
I think I know what we're heading for in Scotland: once we have independence, we can have any parties we like. If you want a Labour party or a Conservative party, you can set one up. I think I'll still be a Green but there's a good chance the SNP will morph into some sort of centrist party. I'm not sure where the LibDems will fit in but then I never did. It will be up to every party to sell itself to the voters. And we won't vote through the medium of the press and TV.
If you think I'm wrong, please get in touch.
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