This election feels Quite Big. The last chance, if one happens to be an incurable optimist, to stop Brexit. A potential fourth Tory term with all that implies. A chance to reverse austerity. A chance to stop fiddling while the climate burns.
Firstly, though, a digression, if you will. A century ago this country rules the waves, controlling 25% of the globe. This was, to put it mildly, dine by means of much moral dodginess, but it was possible for this small island to rule the world because of the Industrial Revolution- we were the first country to specifically pursue improvements in science and engineering to make profits and grow our economy. This gave us an enormous tech lead and allowed us to be Boss Nation for quite a while.
But it was never going to last forever.
Having an enormous tech lead doesn’t remain an advantage forever. Other countries, like Germany and the USA, slowly caught up with us, learning from our exploratory mistakes. And we were slowly eclipsed by other, continental superpowers, whose home populations dwarfed that of our little island. And our empire, in the end, was always something of a bluff. Slowly, the trappings of power came to an end, and by the 1960s we were a middling power at best.
And middling powers are not like great powers. They don’t have the agency, or the sovereignty, to stand up to great powers in, say, trade deals which involve handing over public services such as health to private firms, or accepting lower food standards. It can also mean accepting larger levels of immigration, for those who are obsessed with such things.
But fear not; in 1973 that problem was solved as we joined a number of other European countries in similar positions in what would become the European Union. By joining together, we could be stronger than the sum of our parts and unite into a superpower. Individually, to use a highly geeky analogy, we were Constructicon nations. Together, we were Devastator.
Sadly, though, there are those who don’t care about British sovereignty and want to abandon our national sovereignty, surrendering it to Beijing and Washington. These people are Brexiteers. Stopping Brexit is our only chance to preserve our independence as a nation. Preferably by means of a Lib Dem overall majority and the revocation of Article 50. But we all know that ain’t gonna happen.
So what is to be done? Well, if voting Lib Dem makes tactical sense, do so. I’m in the happy situation of living in a constituency where the Lib Dem’s are challenging the Tories. If you are too, vote Lib Dem. But I accept that most of you have a straight choice between the Tories and Labour. I pity you.
I say this with some great agony, but in your position I’d hold my nose and vote Labour, and then wash my hands for a very long time. Corbyn is essentially a not-very-bright individual whose knee-jerk of every vaguely left wing fashion arises from faith rather than thought, and has led him to adopt many dodgy positions with many dodgy bedfellows in the past. His foreign policy is a nightmare; this is a man who supports Chavez and Castro, and excuses Putin. His domestic policies would be nice to have but, like those of the Tories, are uncosted. Worst of all, in playing around with a leader like him, Labour has shown itself to be unfit for purpose as an opposition, too incompetent and too busy navel gazing to hold this of all Governments to accounts. This Tory government is the most incompetent and malicious since that of Lord Liverpool, and Labour can’t be bothered.
But, in most seats, Labour is what we have. Any damage done by Labour can be reversed far more easily than that done by the Tories. So let’s vote for anyone but the Tories, even if we need to hold our noses.
That’s what I think. What do I expect? Well, I’m worried. We seem to have two different sets of polls, one predicting a Tory landslide and the other set dangling the possibility of a hung parliament, with YouGov in the middle. So let’s assume there’s hope, much as I fear that this hope just represents the commentary at fighting the last war, as they do at every election.
So this really, really matters. We all need to vote for whoever we have to in order to have the best chance of beating the Tories. So please, do your homework and make sure you vote for the challenger most likely to beat the Tories, even if that means you need to hold your nose.
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