When Labour Lose The Election

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It’s the 9th of June and Labour have lost. Despite optimism in the polls as Labour support seemed to swell in the weeks leading up to the election, and a newfound audience in politicised young people, it was a Tory landslide.

The front page of the Daily Mail is a collection of beaming right wing faces, Theresa May making a speech about how the people chose the ‘strong and stable’ option, and how the UK has united behind them.  The proud British people have voted en masse for further cuts and austerity, for the party that with each passing year makes damn sure that we live and die in the towns and classes we were born in. Labour has been decimated. Jeremy Corbyn has finally resigned, jeered and heckled all the way by The Sun, The Daily Mail, The Telegraph and The Express. Hated by the people he fought so hard to save. He goes home to Islington, steps inside his house and closes the door to the laughing photographers. The end.

Now what?

All the hope and joy that crackles audibly in the air at every single rally held by Corbyn will dissipate, and the newly politicised youth, people like myself, my younger brothers, my friends, will once more become disillusioned, because what the hell is the point? We gave it our all, fought so hard to make something better, greater than ourselves as individuals, and it achieved nothing but ridicule and scorn from the media. We can’t change anything, even with social media and Momentum and rallies and marches and stupid useless articles like this, because nobody is listening to us. Nobody gives a shit. Young people will give up caring, or move abroad, or simply shut up and get on with life. And then further cuts will come.

The Tories project this false image of competency and noble pragmatism, and make out that the cuts, the poverty and the socio-economic stagnation is all a necessary evil. Necessary evil. They’re half right.

If you want a means to measure the character of the Tories, know this: they passionately want to bring back fox hunting. Not a pivotal issue by itself perhaps, but along with their party’s overwhelming belief that gays shouldn’t be allowed to adopt, indicative of the utter lack of compassion or empathy of the average right wing politician. It’s well documented that serial killers begin by torturing and killing wild animals or pets when they are young, before moving on to humans. Why is drowning your cat in the bath considered a precursor to psychosis, while swigging brandy and cheering as your pack of dogs tears a terrified fox to pieces is considered not only a respectable Tory pastime, but one worth actively campaigning for?

In the type of mind that can somehow justify such a cruel and pointless act, do you truly believe there lies compassion for the poor or vulnerable, or are we all just foxes, one day to become further victims of Tory game playing? To those born rich, money does not function the same as it does for you and I. To us, it’s access to the necessities of life. And to the super rich? There’s an old quote from everyone’s favourite maniacal despot, Donald Trump:

“Money was never a big motivation for me, except as a way to keep score. The real excitement is playing the game.”

To the super rich, to those Bullingdon Boys, the modern day aristocracy who have been groomed and prepped to rule for their entire lives, money is a game. To the average voter, to me, to you, having or not having money means the ability to shop at Lidl, to buy new socks and underwear from Primark, to get a haircut once every eight weeks, to buy paracetamol, to put a tenner’s worth of petrol in the car every week, to save up for five months for a week-long vacation, to wait until Christmas or birthdays because you can’t afford new clothes even though they’ve worn through, to have heart palpitations when an unexpected bill drops in and takes a chunk out of your paycheck and your entire monthly budget is crippled.

Fucking keeping score? Playing the game?

Money is a game, politics is a game and life is a game for the Tories, and in their grand, noble game, we are the losers.

It’s the 18th of May. The election has not yet been decided, and Labour still has a chance. Get out there and vote for a better future.

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