May 7th – An Apology

On 7^th May 2015 I will mark a cross next to the Labour Party on my ballot paper.  But I won’t actually be voting for Labour.  You see, Labour have made it quite clear that they do not want my vote.  Living with a long-term, incurable illness, I have to claim tax credits to top up my income.  And Labour’s Work and Pensions spokesperson Rachel Reeves has stated quite categorically that “Labour is not the party for benefit claimants”. 

In an ideal world that would be more than 5 million benefit recipients off to vote for the Greens, Plaid Cymru and the SNP.  Sadly, since many benefit recipients don’t vote, it is more likely to translate into yet more disengagement from the political system.

This disengagement – egged on by siren voices such as Russell Brand – lumps all politicians together.  Of course the likes of Rachel Reeves make this belief all the more plausible.  Let’s face it, Labour are little more than pale-blue Tories, signed up to the worse of the Tory cuts and determined to maintain austerity for years to come.

But are they?  There are actually some very important differences between the parties.  On the environment, for example, Labour and the LibDems are committed to creating a carbon-free Britain by 2050 (although Labour seem to think that fracking might have a contribution to make).  The Tories, by contrast want to end the subsidies on renewable energy in order to subsidise fracking and to give tax breaks to the oil multinationals.  UKIP would go even further, reopening the mines and the coal-fired power stations.  On health, too, Labour want to reverse the tory reforms, while the LibDems want to make a serious attempt at addressing the UK’s high rates of mental illness.  On welfare, the Tories refuse to say where they will find £12bn of savings – other than it will not come from pensions.  Most likely they will savage housing benefit, forcing millions of disabled and unemployed people into homelessness.

My view is that it is the right of British politics that is currently in the ascendancy, and that our broken first-past-the-post electoral system may easily come to their aid if those of us on the left allow apathy to win over reason.  It is only a year since UKIP came top in the European elections.  And while they are unlikely to win seats in the general election, they have already forced the Tories to swing to the right in an attempt to stop their vote switching to UKIP.

There are similarities with 1979 – although then the UKIP tendency was within the Tory party.  In 1979 a highly discredited Labour party was widely regarded as no different to the Tories.  Many on the left were also contemptuous of Margaret Thatcher, believing that her policies were so extreme and disruptive that the people would rise up and kick her out of office were she to be given the chance to implement them.  Moreover, a period in opposition would allow Labour to regroup and emerge with a genuinely radical programme to transform the UK economy and create a fairer, more egalitarian society.

But Thatcher’s star was rising and the UK was shifting to the right.  Thatcher was certainly unpopular.  But the Labour left, under the hapless leadership of Michael Foot were even more unpopular.  And Thatcher – in office – was able to reap the huge rewards from North Sea Oil.  As we know to our cost, unlike the other oil exporting states which set up long-term sovereign wealth funds to benefit future generations, Thatcher squandered Britain’s one-off oil boom on maintaining high levels of unemployment, selling off the public assets (especially the housing stock) and allowing the baby boomers to retire at 50!  The oil revenues even allowed her to fight and win the Falklands War which has guaranteed Thatcherite governments ever since.

Cameron will not have oil revenues.  But that isn’t going to prevent him from re-inflating the housing bubble and selling off what remains of the public assets.  He will try to frack his way to prosperity (although fracking is only profitable if oil prices are persistently above $100 per barrel).  He will also most probably take Britain out of the EU – an act that, whatever its effects on the UK economy, will almost certainly result in the breakup of the United Kingdom.

So, for all of their failings there are real differences between the parties.  And, since the political drift is to the right, even a vote for party of the centre is better than a protest vote, spoiling the ballot paper or simply staying at home.  From where I am sat – in one of the closest Labour-Tory marginal seats in the country, my first need is to vote against a Tory party that I believe will be catastrophic for Britain.  Only one party can beat the Tories in this seat and that, sadly, is a Labour party the heads of whose leaders I would take great delight in soundly knocking together.

I wish there were some other way.  I wish we had a democratic electoral system so that people could feel free to vote for the party they want to see in government, rather than having to vote against the cretin who would get in if they did.  But we are where we are.  So, on the morning of May 7^th, with neither enthusiasm nor optimism, I will put a clothes peg on my nose and do the least bad thing the system allows and lend my vote to Mr Miliband.