By Daviemoo
“The Tories are bad” is the “I condemn hamas” of my daily political talks these days. Yes, the Tories are bad, yes i hate them, yes I want to see them gone. I feel like I have to spend half my time clarifying that yes, it is, through the miracle of thought, possible to dislike both the vile Tories, whose policies have led us to utter ruination- and the iteration of Labour who stands opposed.
The continual castigation of critical examination of labour on action, policy and position is frankly fucking exhausting, and I’ve had enough of it.
My issues with Labour are usually written off as a dislike of Starmer personally, or a love for the previous labour leader. Neither is true- though it is true I don’t like Starmer, I see this as an irrelevance. It’s possible for me to dislike someone personally but think their politics or policies are of use. This is not my sentiment. There is a bizarre refrain I often hear when i talk about my qualms with labour’s positions on social issues, that I’m not allowed to vote with my morals because the stakes are so dire; an ironic sentiment given people take my dislike of labour’s current iteration as some imagined personal slight against them as Bad People Who Are Doing Bad Things And Are Bad.
I do not see labour voters as awful people who are doing terrible things- rather I see them as uneasily ignoring the weight of what their vote is condoning, and imploring them to understand that if they truly don’t like what’s on offer from the party but are voting for them to change their direction, they have their work cut out for them- and that’s fine, but to ask yourself if you’re really ready for that fight?
A vote for a party who has moderated to the right of where it was, is a party who seeks your vote in it’s current iteration. Voting for it is a conscious ascent of that move and a condoning of it. Parties do not appear, suddenly, in power like a mushroom pops up after rain. Labour has spent determined years moving to the position it now occupies, a position certainly on the left of the extreme Tories, but in a space i do not like or support- not because of the tedious insults of Starmer or an abiding loyalty, but because their policies concern me. Rachel Reeves’ fiscal policy is reminiscent of the same “cut spend to fix things” nonsense that typified Cameron, and yet also manages to touch on Liz Truss’ appeal to “growing the size of the pie” and yet never once explaining exactly what will be done with the larger pie. Someone proposing that as chancellor they will grow the economy is the same as a firefighter explaining that they will, indeed, put out fires. Yes, of course you’re going to do that, it’s what your job entails- what are you doing to do with that growth- that’s an answer nobody ever gives a satisfactory answer to. What does Reeves plan to do to grow the economy by cutting money from expenditure into the country to shore up on and modernise its aged out infrastructure? We’ve already been suffering under austerity for years. Continuing that in any way will prolong a stagnation of public spending which curtails development into new revenue streams the country can use to bolster the economy- this is literally the logic of savvy business people: sometimes you gotta spend money to make money…
When it comes to Streeting and his NHS plans, my concern is as simple as this:
The NHS is struggling. Alleviating that burden by passing the work to an external entities is a capitulation to an NHS in struggle that can only be fixed with this infiltration: when the NHS’ load is lifted, it loses the ability to further bargain for better pay deals or contracts for workers, because they are less relevant because the work is being done by external parties. And all these parties need do do is fall just short of target to continue their vampiric relevance and avoid punishment- too many still wait to be seen to lose their service, not enough exist to legitimise taking them off supply. Additionally, further legitimisation of private work in healthcare will attract doctors, nurses, ODPs, therapists- workers who could, and should, be working for an NHS that treats them properly.
Private companies do not deal with the root issues- poor working conditions for medical staff, underfunding in key areas and creaking archaic structure, and the reluctance of modernity in education which allows us to train our youth into the jobs currently running short of staff. Without a large scale tandem approach to plug the shortage in staffing, attracting the young into these roles and helping them educate into them, and attractive working conditions, the NHS will die- Streeting’s plans are just another route to that grisly end. In fact his is not the worst- the Tories plans are to cover their eyes and Richard Tice’s plans would allow disaster capitalism to utterly flourish as the NHS noisily gives its death rattle. But rest assured reader, Streeting’s plans aren’t good.
On immigration, I feel like many UK residents don’t understand that legal net migration creates jobs just by happening- the more people here, the more jobs to service our cafes, hospitals, cinemas, more cause to build, to spend… immigration helps the economy, and yet no amount of LOOK AT THE FUCKING FIGURES convince people that the problem is a badly run system that exacerbates its’ own issues so the government has a shadowy figure to blame. We don’t know specifics yet but labour recently speculated on sending refugees to a nice, safe country, not Rwanda, as if the problem is the locale and flora or fauna and not the abdication of our moral duty to protect people who seek aid on our shores- especially if they flee from countries who fell apart because of our regional meddling. I recently saw Julia Hartley-Brewer state that “ethnic cleansing doesn’t sound nice but maybe Palestinians should be encouraged to go elsewhere”. If it was here, Julia, I’m sure you’d be the first to pop a vein publicly but i doubt someone as painfully, achingly, embarrassingly hypocritical about every position she holds could see the irony in her statement. Labour could understand what experts like Colin Yeo have said for years which is that regional migrant processing centres and international agreements would allow us to process refugees whilst ensuring safety, which would then allow us to firm up on detaining boat landings- there’s no reason to cross that way unless you won’t succeed at application, so clearly nobody but the more scurrilous will do it. Additionally- put migration in the hands of locals. When visa sponsorship is needed for a job, let it fall to local governance to give assent or not. A faster, more devolved say in what jobs are filled where and with whom.
Additionally labour’s fray joining efforts to placate anti queer people whilst still appealing to LGBT+ people an allies has been an education, to say the least. To watch queer people reluctantly sigh and vote for a party who says “we don’t hate you but we’re happy to let the extremists chat about your rights, body, call you a paedophile and entertain a gentle erosion of your rights instead of just tearing them up tomorrow”, or watch allies rationalise their support for this has been absolutely soul crushing. It’s an abject lesson that some peoples’ rights are ok to discuss but not others. Imagine how many progressive allies would brook a discussion about the legitimacy of Andrew Tate’s views on women? I’d hope none, but at this point I’ve been shocked at what supposed allies will accept.
But to raise these issues and to state things are wrong brings only ire.
Labour support right now seems to come pre packaged, cracked from stiff plastic to reveal a well worn script I’ve heard over and over: I see you don’t agree with me- I guess you’re a bad guy who likes the Tories.
I hate the Tories viscerally. Some of them make me fear for my own pacifism. But to think that labour is a neat, perfect solution is cripplingly short sighted.
I used to be able to cope with this, believing the words of Labour supporters who told me they understood and they’d be right with me on day one of the new administration, fighting to make labour better. But I’ve realised that politics itself dissuades this.
As I said above, labour have spent years making clear their platform: a return to the type of governance that lets you get on with it and seeks not to really interfere, no big changes, steady the ship. This is the platform they’re promising they’ll enact when they win the next election.
To not do this means they are a bad government. To vote for a platform you don’t like, hoping they won’t do it is absolutely illogical. I’ve no doubt some surface changes can be pushed through but if a party offers a specific platform, not doing that means they’re not good… It’s why even Tory loyalists hate them, because they’ve failed to even do what their own supporters want. Why would labour getting in on a platform they don’t do be a winning strategy? They’d simply haemorrhage the votes they obtained offering these promises, and then be mandated to do them lest they lose down the line.
My issues have now grown beyond the simplistic banter of which party sucks more- the political lifestream of the UK is polluted.
I’m told daily that if i don’t; vote labour i help the Tories, that I have no choice (quoting from today) and that if I don’t vote labour, like it or not, like them or not, like their policies or not, the Tories win and then extremism.
And this is the system you want me to agree to partake in? A system where my choice is someone i hate whose platform i don’t believe will help us or extremists?
That is quite literally the worst argument for anything I’ve ever seen.
I’m told it’s grown up to accept this: no it isn’t. It’s pathetic to think “misery no matter what” is a good choice for us, for our youth, our children, for people moving here with hope in their eyes.
And this is my issue. I grew up reading books about how brave we were, how industrious, that we wouldn’t take things lying down. And yet every day I look out of my window at a country prostrated before a system that rapes our choices from us in our eyesight, a country that tells us choose the least bad option, the option that makes you gag the least and either be happy or be quiet.
I’m told that complaining about the “better” option is damaging, dangerous, makes me a bad guy.
I can’t tell you how many times I’ve told religious people that aversion to questioning their beliefs is deeply troubling. Same with politics.
I often get harassed by “longtime labour voters” lecturing me for my fair weather support as if the entire point of politics is for parties to try and win our vote through policy, promise and action. I think it’s ludicrous to weld your entire political ideology to the whim of a party who changes over time. I’ve developed my own understanding of what I want and want to see, and that doesn’t evaporate when a party decides it’s more productive to appeal to its antipathy.
Frankly I think it’s pathetic to look at a nation of people who allow their politics to dictated to them by the party’s direction and line.
So many people will tell me they want better, more progressive politics but are doing nothing, not one thing to fight for it, and are in fact voting with a party who has moved away from it. Labour will not look at a huge majority which voted for their platform and decide to not do it- they will take it as assent that they should do it. Because that is how politics works: you offer it, people vote for it, you do it. Yes, we- you- stand a chance of changing labour by degrees. But if you want better politics, the time to ask for it is not after meekly handing them a victory with a frown on your face. It’s before- it’s by demanding what you want as the price for your vote. You are worth it- and yet me telling people this- that you’re worth fighting for, your vote is worth fighting for, changing for, offering things for- is met with hatred! From the very people I’m telling are worth more.
I often say I could be wrong, because I refuse to be an egotist who is convinced they know everything- i could be wrong. But i don’t believe I am, and I’m fighting for what I want to see from politics. I tell my local MP how I feel, i protest, I sign everything I can, i take part in direct action. And for the temerity of standing in my conviction, labour voters tell me I am betraying them. As many of them vote for a platform they dislike. It’s Stockholm syndrome and I wish i knew the cure, knew how to make people see that what is on offer from any of the parties who stand a chance of winning is rubbish. That we’re a country beaten down by COVID, brexit, recession, Tories- and we don’t deserve more punishment. We deserve better than that. And for my efforts I am told I’m childish.
Labour voters never explain why their case is the better one- why i should stand with them even in the face of my concerns ,or alleviate them. My withdrawal form their circle is proof that I’m a bad guy and they don’t need to appeal to me, even as their party lays down with the dog who gave us the fleas of fourteen years of Tory governance which has led us to abject chaos.
I am tired of it. I don’t want to fight with people. I don’t, despite my combativeness. I just want us to all be treated with respect, with dignity, to have politics that doesn’t make us compromise or ignore, make us look at our trans friends, the women in our lives, the gay men we love, the people of colour we care for and uneasily confirm that we’re voting for the people who need their vote to win but who offer them nothing. I don’t want to watch more remain voters rationalise how it’s actually smart to vote for a party confirming they’ll do nothing to fix the issues of the EU beyond legislative pruning. I don’t want any of it. I hate where we are and I am tired.
We do not deserve this brand of politics which endorses pain for us all no matter what, nor do we deserve to be told it is adult, it is preferential, it is acceptable- it is the right path to capitulate and watch as the people whose dedication to conservatism has made our country so broken are appealed to yet again, given what they want again, even as it’s painful to us all to experience. What a cycle we are trapped in, what a poor state of affairs where we’re gearing up for another five years, another decade, another lifetime til we see the pale spectre of the politics we want appear in the distance. But of course. It’s for the next generation to do, it’s for someone else to do, at some other time. We want it- but not if we have to do it. Is this truly the brave British I’ve been hearing about my whole life? They do say don’t meet your heroes. I’ve met the brave British. There’s nothing brave about us, if we accept lacklustre politics that gives in to the worst of us to win.
Politically Enraged 