We are approaching what is probably the most important election of our lifetimes, so it saddens me immensely when I hear voters say they don't want to hear about election issues, or that they have no interest in politics, whilst political decisions affect every aspect of their lives from birth to death and all the bits in between.
Part of the cause of that lack of interest or apathy or whatever it is, I feel, is down to the behaviour of a large number of politicians of all parties over several decades, who have shown that there is no real difference between them, who have all jumped onto the Westminster gravy train and exploited the system for themselves. Whether that was the expenses scandal, or flipping homes to benefit from offsets, or heavily subsidised catering and drinks in the Houses of Parliament, or lucrative consultancy positions with businesses seeking to influence government, or a comfy seat on a corporate board on standing down from politics, or even an elevation into the upper chamber with a life peerage: all of these have made politicians toxic in the eyes of many voters.
What we have now are several parties which appear to still be operating on that same basis, and one (Labour) which has a change of leader and which is actually proposing a different path for the country. There is still work to do to make changes within the "political class", but I think this is the first chance we as voters have had since 1945 to really call our elected representatives to account and make significant improvements to life for ordinary people.
If you look at the proposals being put forward by both of the two major parties, one set is driven by austerity and privatisation, the other is driven by people and investment. On Brexit, which seems to be the whole reason for us having yet another election anyhow, you will have a team of David Davis, Liam Fox and Boris Johnson for a Tory govt., or the superbly qualified Sir Kier Starmer QC, Emily Thornberry and Barry Gardiner for a Labour govt. It is not, as the PM keeps stating, going to be "me or Corbyn" doing those talks. I think that last year's Referendum result was a wake-up call for many people who have just ticked along, coping as we tend to do, getting by with some grumbles and our usual British stoicism.
The divisions caused by the close Referendum result, the realisation by younger people that their future has been changed irrevocably, and the fear that somehow we have released from a bottle a genie with malicious intent, seems to have activated the electorate in a way not seen by most of us before. That the cuts to our public services have been brutal is undeniable, that those cuts have impacted on how the safety and security of the country is managed is also undeniable, and that we have endured terror attacks in London and Manchester should be enough to shake us out of any complacency we feel about having a Tory govt. The cuts to police and security services over the last seven years have, in the words of retired and serving police officers, led to a position where they are no longer able to effectively do the job we expect of them and keep us safe. Those cuts are down to the decisions taken by the Tory govt, the Tory PM, and the Tory Home Secretary. It would have been very easy for people to be frightened into more of the same: the media expound constantly that the Tories are the party for strength and security, but voters are no longer being taken in by that rhetoric. The cuts since 2010, that have led to where we are now, were done by a Tory govt. and people know it, and are not happy with this situation.
I have been a political activist all my life. I worked for two different trades unions and saw how working people were treated by a whole raft of different companies, large and small. I served on an Employment Appeal Tribunal for a while, sat on a trades council for a longer period, and worked with various groups and on various campaigns both as a member of the Labour Party and outside it. I left Labour under Kinnock as I didn't agree with the direction the party was going under him and Mandelson, and didn't feel able to rejoin under Blair's New Labour as the party inched further to the right under its neo-liberal policies such as PFI, although to give the Blair govt. credit they did actually do some good work in respect of families and children especially, but totally lost public credibility with the Iraq War.
From the late 1980's I was not party politically active until two years ago, when Jeremy Corbyn announced he was running for the party leadership and I rejoined Labour. I remembered his campaigning in London when I lived and worked there, his stance against apartheid and fighting against miscarriages of justice. He has never, in all his 30+ years as an MP, changed from being the highly principled and very honest man he was back then, and I have no reason to think he will change now.
But, you might say, he is just one man... and yes that's true, but he also has tremendous support within the party and (although the press would have you think otherwise) amongst Labour MPs. Also, in 2015 there were a number of newly elected Labour MPs who came from ordinary working backgrounds rather than being more privileged. They are people who had "proper jobs" before standing for election, not those who worked as special advisors (spads) to MPs, so they are more grounded, they relate to the lives and experiences of voters, and will help to bring about the changes we need to see.
All of this - despite the tragedies of recent weeks - has given me hope that we will see a change for the better. That people who have seen the cuts bite into public services, schools, police, health, etc. over the last seven years, have finally reached the point where they are saying, "ENOUGH!" and I hope they will vote for change, vote against more of the same Tory austerity, and will vote for a Labour government to put things right.
