The UK General Election 2019 - Britain Does Deserve Better

Despite overwhelming political fatigue in the UK, the arrival of (yet another) general election means that we must once again consider our choices and head to the polls. This is perhaps the most important election of our recent history. But we must not view this as simply the "Brexit Election". The stakes are far higher than that.

The Tories have already warmed up their campaign with the “Get Brexit Done” mantra that seems to garner public support for a quick and clean exit from the European Union that can allow us to get back to business-as-usual. Frankly, three years on from the referendum I think most of us would accept any kind of Brexit resolution provided it meant we never had to hear about it again.

Unfortunately, the “Get Brexit Done” mentality is based on a lie. No matter what Boris Johnson’s eventual exit might look like, leaving is only the first step. The following excerpt from a Times report says it best: “Before us stretch long months of detailed and tortuous negotiations on our future trade relationship with the EU. Many simply do not realise this next chapter exists.” Our future relationship with the EU is not defined by a simple leave/remain, deal/no deal dichotomy, and it is naïve of us as a nation to have ever assumed any different. Whether we like it or not, any form of Brexit will continue to affect every aspect of political life in the UK for a long time coming.

As with many of Johnson’s pithy assertions, there is no evidence behind the claim that we can clap our hands together, say the magic word, and “get Brexit done”. As we all turn away from the news reports of yet more complicated, boring, and increasingly absurd political theatre, it is worth remembering that this massive blight on our national consciousness was caused largely by the same party that are now desperately trying to sweep its consequences under the rug. Prior to 2016, British attitudes towards the EU were decidedly muted, with few people seeing EU membership as one of the most important issues facing our country. Following David Cameron’s sabre rattling, and the meteoric rise of Nigel Farage and (you’ve guessed it) Boris Johnson, suddenly the whole country was frothing at the mouth fighting over that elusive £350 million a week that we were promised would go to the NHS (and then promptly told it wouldn’t).

What began as a sideshow to distract from the catastrophic impact of austerity on the UK quickly turned into a nationwide melt-down, and eventually into a farce that will damage our global reputation for decades to come. But the causes of the referendum, and arguably some of the attitudes that influenced its outcome, are far more important to be aware of than the results of the Brexit talks themselves. To demonstrate how we got to a point where our country is ready to tear itself apart, we should consider some of the following statistics that define the last 9 years of Tory leadership:

• The use of food banks has reached an all-time high, more than doubling since 2013.
• The number of children in ‘relative poverty’ has risen by 600,000 since 2012 (following the Welfare Reform Act, marking one of the high points of Cameron’s austerity manoeuvres).
• About 60% of those in poverty are in fact also working, with nearly 3 million children of working parents being classified as such.
• The average number of homeless people in England on any given night has risen from 120,000 in 2010 to 153,000 in 2017, with a 165% increase in rough sleeping and a 260% increase in those with unsuitable temporary accommodation in the same period.
• Growth in annual NHS expenditure has dropped from a post-1950 average of 4% to just 0.5% per year since 2010, at the same time that drastic cuts to social services have increased strain on the service.
• The poorest tenth of the UK population are by far the hardest hit by austerity measures, seeing a 38 per cent decrease in their net income over the period 2010-15. As a result, the UK remains the 6^th most unequal country in Europe, with the average household wealth of the richest Britons reaching 315 times that of the poorest.
• Recorded police reports of hate crime have risen 123% since 2007/8 (and while this data may be partially explained by a change of recording procedures, the fact that these figures align with a self-reported increase of racial prejudice within the UK suggests an altogether less welcoming environment for minority groups in the country).
• Despite almost a decade of austerity, the UK national debt remains as high as it was in 2008 (and a no deal Brexit looks set to send the national debt to the highest its been in half a century).

The reality of austerity-driven Britain is, as summed up by UN Special Rapporteur on Poverty Philip Alston, one where the public’s social safety net has been "deliberately removed and replaced with a harsh and uncaring ethos". Add to this the finding that Brexit itself is estimated to have cost the UK £66 billion so far, and that one of Brexit’s most ardent supporters, and our current Prime Minister, is plagued by claims that his financial backers stand to make money from a no-deal Brexit, and the reality of the chaos of the last nine years is suddenly much easier to understand.

Boris Johnson does not care about you or me. Neither does his party. The “strong and stable” Conservatives have systematically gutted the services of this country since day one. When public opinion began to turn against these divisive policies, they turned to scapegoating the “Eurocrats” of Brussels as the villains rather than face up to their own actions. When the public called David Cameron’s bluff and voted to leave the EU, the country imploded. £66 billion, three Prime Ministers, chaos in Parliament, and a whole load of international embarrassment later here we stand, with another election in just a few weeks’ time.

This election will decide who will govern the UK for the next five years. Those five years are of utmost importance to our national development and security. Of particular importance is the fact that those five years will take up half of the time that the IPCC says we have left to make drastic change to our environmental activities in order to halt climate change below 1.5C of warming, which would avert the most dramatic effects of the climate crisis. That’s important, because having the wrong government in place over that period will drastically reduce our chances of doing what needs to be done to avert global catastrophe. Boris Johnson has almost always voted against measures that reduce climate change (and incidentally has also voted regularly against bills that would promote human rights and equality, and appears decidedly ambivalent on reducing tax avoidance). The Conservatives at large have also announced no new funding for renewable energy projects until at least the mid-2020s, and cut solar subsidies whilst continuing to push for new fracking projects. This is not the leadership we need to take us into the decade of climate do-or-die.

A decade of Tory leadership has left us poorer, more divided, with access to fewer services, and sick to death of hearing any more about politics. We cannot afford to let this continue.

Over the last nine years, the Tories have presided over a country in catastrophic freefall. They have time and time again demonstrated that they are incapable of, or unwilling to, govern in a way that puts the needs of the British population first. If we’re being kind, this is incompetence on a scale that goes largely unmatched in British history. If we consider the worst, it is a callousness and indifference to the lived experience of British citizens that is unforgivable. You are about to hear a whole lot more bluster and bullshit from our lying, morally bankrupt, self-interested Prime Minister. As we go to the polls this Christmas time, remember the seemingly unironic and uncharacteristically honest campaign slogan chosen by the incumbent party who got us into this mess:

“Britain deserves better”.

Register to vote and make you voice heard on December 12^th. Clearly, I’m biased here, but do your research, find the party and local candidate that most closely aligns with your views, and make your voice heard. It’s more important now than ever.