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deanlfc · 7 years

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My, how the tables have turned!

Now it's not usually like me to comment on political matters through the medium of blogging. As far as I'm concerned I don't know nearly enough about politics to comment on such a complicated subject publicly. Football. That's me, I'm the football guy. I don't know much about anything else in the world, but football is the one thing I'm confident I know a lot about and I'm not afraid to voice my opinion on it.

I've been trying to stave off this blog for a while. When Jeremy Corbyn was attacked by his own party, I said to myself, "no Dean, you don't know as much as you think you do about this. Even if the party should be behind their leader regardless, should recognise his mandate and are only doing this because they fear his values." When Theresa May called a snap election, I said to myself, "no Dean, you don't know enough about this. Even though she said repeatedly over the past 9 months that this wouldn't happen. No, this isn't your field." When the media relentlessly attack Corbyn as a terrorist sympathiser and a pie in the sky idealist, I thought, "no Dean, you don't know half as much as you think you do on this subject. Even though peace talks have to start somewhere and these right wing papers are clearly desperate to sling mud because they're shit scared of this left wing hero." But today is results day...and I have been tipped over the edge.

Let's start this story 11 months and a few weeks ago. We all woke up on Friday 23rd June 2016 to the news that 52% of the British public had chosen to leave the European Union. The country was practically plunged into political chaos. David Cameron was stood outside Downing Street at 7:30 a.m giving his resignation speech and there was massive calls for the leader of the opposition to do the same, and I hadn't even put my bills on yet! While a race for number 10 kicked off within the Conservative party, Jeremy Corbyn resisted calls for his head. While Michael Gove convinced Boris Johnson not stand so he could take his place, Jeremy Corbyn stood firm. While Andrea Leadsom tried hard to discredit every other candidate, only serving to demonise herself within the party, Jeremy Corbyn refused to bow. While Theresa May was restructuring her cabinet and coining shitty phrases like "Brexit means Brexit" (whatever the fuck that even means), Jeremy Corbyn was unshakeable. People were even putting themselves forward for the man's job while he was in the position. Angela Eagle launched a leadership campaign which nobody of note turned up to.

Eventually a leadership election was called. What a huge wake-up call that was for the Labour party. Owen Smith was the man who would stand against the enigmatic current leader. Corbyn was right to shout about his mandate. He won the leadership vote with a landslide 61.8%, not only keeping his mandate but increasing it. Unlike the Tory leadership campaign however, there was no mudslinging. Yes both leaders put cases for their own leadership forward and how it differed from their opponents. But neither demonised the other (cough, cough Andre Leadsom, cough). When Corbyn won, Owen Smith didn't demand a recount or sulk in a corner of the house of commons. He stood down from his seat in Pontypridd with grace and wished Corbyn well. I could be chatting shit here and, if you're reading this and you know I am, then please do tell me so.

So Corbyn went on with his 61.8% mandate. Nobody within the Labour party could now question him. He had his doubters but he was immoveable. The media continued portray him as a man on borrowed time though. In his first shadow cabinet meeting after his re-election, he was made to look awkward and uneasy among his cabinet members. When you know half of them don't want you there, it's easy to see why that would be. But he carried on anyway because he believed in his values and that he could do right for the country.

Fast forward 8 months to the end of April this year. Jeremy Corbyn is still being laughed at by the press and they continually attempt to paint him as a poor leader, despite no evidence of this. Theresa May in the meantime has flip flopped on major issues without mention in the press but somehow has a 22 point lead on most opinion polls. She had said many times that she would NOT call a snap election. But her ego was getting the better of her. It was clearly irking her that she was having to stand in the House of Commons week after week and defend the fact that she was a remainer, and that she wasn't even elected by the public to be Prime Minister. "How could she possibly go to Brussels and get us a good deal?" the opposition would cry. She broke on 18th April 2017.

She did her usual. She spoke sternly, like this had been the plan all along. She wheeled out her "strong and stable leadership" line for the first time, although this, another u-turn on a major decision, was starting to prove people that she was anything but. Behind the scenes though, she knew Labour was weak in the eyes of the public. Murdoch and the lads had done their job. They'd made Corbyn look piss poor to the tune of a 22 point deficit in the opinion polls. She knew now was the time to strike. After 8 months trying to show what she could do in the job and thinking she could fool people by talking about Brexit at any given opportunity, she knew now was the time to make her move. All she had to do was keep doing exactly that; banging on about Brexit and scaring the public into thinking Corbyn would be bullied in Brussels.

It started off well for Theresa May. She was going steadily along. She wasn't putting a foot wrong. Corbyn likewise. He was just as steady. The media still vilified him but there was nothing new there. Then the manifesto's came out and things started to fall apart for the Prime Minster.

No free school meals. No triple lock for pensions. More cuts to public services. The return of fox hunting. More importantly, NO costing of anything within her manifesto. Was she insane? This screamed arrogance. The Tories were basically saying "vote us in and only then will we tell you how we plan to pay for everything (SPOILER ALERT: It's austerity.)" Then there was the Dementia tax. The Tories put forward that pensioners would have to pay for their own social care if they had assets worth over £100,000 and that included their house. It was a fucking scandal. Policy after policy made her seem more inhuman. Dementia tax - cruel. Scrapping free school meals - cruel. Slashing winter fuel allowance for pensioners - cruel. She had clearly targeted the most vulnerable in society and had done so with no shame. She was starting to show her true colours.

Labour on the other hand had come up with exactly the opposite. Jeremy Corbyn and his team had put together a manifesto which, on the face of it, had stood up for the working man. They planned to scrap tuition fees and zero hours contracts. They wanted to introduce a £10 minimum wage and instant union rights for all workers. In my opinion though, the greatest testament to Corbyns leadership which was reflected in his manifesto was Labours plan to keep Trident. Corbyn has been against Trident all of his professional life. He has campaigned for multi-lateral disarmament throughout his political career. But he kept it in because it was a party policy. OK, he has said that he will still campaign for multi-lateral disarmament. But, in my eyes at least, this typifies the man. He kept it, even though he doesn't believe in it, for the good of the party. It's a great show of socialist leadership. Looking at the manifesto's, it was 1-0 to Labour. Again, I don't enough about this shit so I'm probably chatting wham. If I am, then please let me know.

Then the debates started and things went from bad to worse for Mrs May. She wouldn't show up. At first neither leader of the big two parties showed up. They left it to the minor parties to fight it out. Only the leaders of UKIP, Plaid Cymru, SNP and the Greens would fight this one out. You didn't miss much if you didn't watch it. The highlight was UKIP leader Paul Nuttall referring to Plaid Cymru's Leanne Wood as Natalie, not once but twice. It was turning into car crash T.V. Questions were asked of leaders who seemed unlikely to have any influence over the big decisions after 8th June.

On Monday 29th May came the second leadership debate and this was one was VIP only. It was exclusive to Labour and Conservative, and this time both major party leaders did turn up. Jeremy Corbyn defended his policies and came across as believable. You could tell he believed in his manifesto and it reflected his core values. He faced tough questions regarding his affairs with the IRA and Hamas in the past, but maintained that peace talks had to start somewhere. When up against Jeremy Paxman, he was strong and stood up to the miserly old journalist. Paxman interrupted Corbyn 56 times in 10 minutes during the interview. Keep that in mind. Theresa May was not as convincing. She brought every question back to Brexit and continually skirted around issues. In her interview with Paxman she was interrupted only 6 times. Fair media treatment? Hardly.

Just two days later came the another debate. This time all the parties were represented by their respective leaders - all apart from Conservative that is. Theresa May had obviously either shit out of turning up or didn't see the need to when she sent her Home Secretary, Amber Rudd. Paul Nuttall was painted as a racist. Star of the show was Green Party joint leader Caroline Lucas. She was passionate about issues raised and was not afraid to criticise and condemn on the big issues. Corbyn again presented and defended his policies stoically. Amber Rudd was OK, but she wasn't Theresa May. Her remark of "judge us on our record" was met with outright laughter by the audience. Her christening of the other parties as a "coalition of chaos" would come back to haunt her.

Two days following this came the final debate consisting of the leaders from the two major parties. Theresa May again played 6 degrees of Brexit. Her partys' biggest scandal to date, the handling of disability and PIP assessments, was put to her head on by a weeping audience member. She declared it unacceptable, but you get a feeling nothing will change. People being assessed for disability allowance and PIP payments will continue to be treated inhumanely and have professionals from irrelevant fields assessing their conditions. Corbyn faced questions regarding his proposed increase in corporation tax and scrapping of zero hours contracts, like they were awful things. Again he put on a great show.

These debates were played out to the backdrop of two major terrorist attacks. The Manchester Arena bombing on 23rd May killed 22 people and temporarily brought the campaign to a halt. Three days later, Jeremy Corbyn took a huge risk in using the atrocity to criticise Britains foreign policy. It could have backfired and, for a few hours at least, his politicising of the incident was condemned by the opposition. But the public agreed. They knew he was right and pretty soon the government were defending their foreign policy.

When 8 people were killed on London Bridge 5 days before the election, Theresa May was really in trouble. How were these people being allowed to travel to the middle east and admit to being Jihadis on T.V, yet still roam our streets? How had the Prime Minister thought it acceptable to cut the numbers of Police officers on our streets during her time as Home Secretary, when our threat level had been severe for so long? Why had she publicised the downgrading of the threat level after the Manchester attack? Brexit, an issue that many thought would be front and centre of this election, was taking a back seat to national security.

Media coverage of Jeremy Corbyn and the Labour party continued to be nothing short of scandalous. When Diane Abbot became confused in an interview with Nick Ferrari on LBC regarding how a Labour government planned to pay for 30,000 extra police officers, she was rightly crucified for an embarrassing gaffe. When Michael Gove did same thing surrounding a similar issue, it was barely reported. When Jeremy Corbyn couldn't remember the figure the Labour party had decided to spend on childcare costs for working parents, he was ridiculed to his face by presenter Emma Barnett. When Sir Michael Fallon was given a supposed Corbyn quote criticising Britains foreign policy on Channel 4 news by Krishnan Guru-Murthy and proceeded to tear it apart, only to be told it was actually a Boris Johnson quote - the Tory incumbent Foreign Secretary no less - it was not mentioned again after 24 hours. Jeremy Corbyn has been labelled a terrorist sympathiser and apologist by a red rag (which shall remain nameless but I'm sure everyone will get onto who I'm referring to) and the Daily Mail, for his dealings with Hamas, the IRA and members of Al Muhajiroun turning up to a public rally he was speaking at in 2002. Theresa May has received minor criticism in the media for her arms dealings with Saudi Arabia, a know ISIS supporting state. If it wasn't so serious it would be laughable. As it is, it's just a fucking joke.

Nobody truly believed a Labour victory to be realistic. It was such a massive difference to make up in the opinion polls. 22 points- it was unprecedented. So when the exit poll predicted a hung parliament, nobody could quite believe it. The Labour party had actually done it. They had taken Tory seats and could be on the verge of something incredible. When you look back though, it's easy to see why this has happened. Between Jeremy Corbyn becoming leader in 2015 and the present day, Labour has grown by 300,000 members. On polling day, 75% of 18-25 year olds turned out to vote. Theresa May was holding press conferences at specially held events with VIP guests and specifically picked members of the public. Jeremy Corbyn was turning up at concerts and rallies that resembled music festivals unannounced. Not only had he generated a huge amount of momentum, he had convinced the next generation of voters that politics was relevant to your future and you could make a difference.

The result was a hung parliament but the Tories still held a majority of seats. Needing just 8 seats to take power, Theresa May did something which would embarrass her party and demolish her credibility. She struck a deal with the DUP.

For those who don't know much about the Democratic Unionist Party, let me fill you in. The DUP are the largest party in Northern Ireland, holding 10 parliamentary seats. In a nutshell they are against equal rights for LGBT, gay marriage, a woman's right to abortion and have been Euro-sceptic since God was a kid. They campaigned against any peace talks in Northern Ireland up until the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. They were UKIP before UKIP. On top of that, and this is the worst thing of all about the Prime Ministers deal with the devil, the DUP have known links to terrorist acts. The DUP founders - Ian Paisley and Peter Robinson - would go on to also found the Ulster Resistance, a parliamentary loyalist association. They were renowned for stealing £300,000 from the Bank of Northern Ireland to fund arms deals. Members were frequently arrested for carrying guns, grenades and RPG's.

Theresa May's agreement with the DUP should be the final nail in her coffin. Her shameless attack on Corbyn last week as a terrorist sympathiser who could not ensure the security of the country, now looks hypocritical at best. This deal proves she is ready to sell her soul to keep hold of power. Her credibility within her own party is shot to pieces. It shows how truly out of touch she is on every level. Even this morning, in her speech to announce the deal, she failed to acknowledge the turnout of young voters and just how close the election was. Either she hasn't got a clue what's going on on the streets of Great Britain or she clearly doesn't give a fuck about you or me, and she will carry on doing what she is doing regardless of public opinion. Her arrogance throughout this campaign was characterised by her initially calling the election and not showing up to debates. In fact she didn't debate at all. She fielded questions from a studio audience and Jeremy Paxman, before swiftly pissing off when Jeremy Corbyn came onto the stage. She did not feel the need to defend her inhumane policies, instead choosing to bring every question fielded to her back to Brexit. By the way, Brexit meant fuck all by the end of this election in the light of two horrendous terror attacks. She again refused to address an issue staring her in the face after these attacks in the form of policing numbers. Her position is surely untenable. After all, who wants to live under a Prime Minister who is so out of touch with the electorate and has taken her party further to the right than it has ever been?

In contrast, Jeremy Corbyn has had a complete 180 degree turn in his popularity. This time last year, he was vilified by the media and his own party. A public coup was in operation to remove him from leadership. But he stood strong. He backed himself. He believed in his values. He didn't force them on his party, although he has taken it further to the left than it has been. Yes, there were issues along the way. But his humanistic values have shone through. He has shown the best of socialism and that it can work in modern day politics. He has inspired a generation of millenials who had previously saw voting as a waste of time on a subject they knew nothing about, to get out there and make a difference. Jeremy Corbyn has changed the political landscape for the better in this country, in my opinion.

Then again, I could be wrong...

#politics #general election #labour #conservative #theresa may #jeremy corbyn

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