UK Politics

An election to change governments away from one that I feel has been greatly damaging to the nation and my life should be a happy occasion.

Yet, I look at the alternative in our two party system, the new government, Labour, that will undoubtedly get voted in (unless they somehow catastrophically implode within the next few weeks, getting caught sacrificing goats during an orgy at Stonehenge or something)... is basically just a slightly different shade of Tory.

That's not to say everyone in the party is, or that they're identical, but enough are, especially the ones in power, and while small things will change for the better, Labour, like the Tories, are too far gone to actually fix any of the underlying issues we face.

Are they going to reverse privatisation of the failing NHS, failing water suppliers, failing rail infrastructure, etc etc? Of course not. Are they going to stand up for unions, workers rights, and our rights to protest? Of course not.

Are they going to begin the long slow process of rejoining the EU, which was such a huge benefit to the UK and yet was taken away through brainwashing, misinformation, and good ol' right wing racism, a process that I will only see come to fruition within my lifetime if started right now? Of course not. They can't anger the right wing portion of their following that they've been slowly building since dropping the guise of being an even slightly to the left of centre political party.

They're certainly not going to go against big what big business and the rich want, because those are the groups keeping the ruling class of the nation - including the government - in power, and in the lap of luxury, both now and when they leave office and move on to a private paycheque full-time.

Notice how both parties harp on about "the economy", (as well as the media that tells us all what to think - owned by the rich), and do everything they can to make it happy and healthy, but do nothing at all to address the growing - now utterly gigantic - distribution of wealth gap between the rich and the majority of us, which stretches much further than simply poor wages - it affects what we have access to, what job and education opportunities we have, how healthy we are, who we're able to meet and spend time with....it affects everything, and it's all being ignored in favour of helping "the economy".

They tell us that a strong economy will bring us all prosperity, that somehow the billions in profits made by the rich will drip down into our teacups for us to lick up, but the reality is that the businesses they serve just find more ways and excuses to raise prices, reduce service quality, cut wages, and get more payouts.

The current government is the worst of the lot, to be sure, and I'm glad they're going soon. But I'm sad, because I know we won't get any real change in this election. Just a chance of colour scheme, and a shuffling around of minor priorities and allocations for services, which will make some people happy, as it will appear as if the new government are truly changing things...

But it's akin to rearranging the furniture in a house that's on fire. It might feel fresh and better for a few people for a short time, but the whole thing is still burning down in the background.

Probably because the heat from the fire will keep "the economy" nice and warm.

:-(