The Conservative party: For the rich, selfish and naïve.

If you are stinking rich and you don’t give a shit about anybody else, then the Tories is the perfect party for you. In short, they are a bunch of pompous, entitled, unempathic bastards, who I would suggest reflect a large proportion of the people who generally vote for them. You would have to be very well off and/or a self-obsessed moron to think voting for Boris Johnson would be the smart thing to do. As a disclaimer, if you are expecting to read something measured, balanced, with lashings of cold hard facts (although they do appear later on), look away now, as this piece will be unashamedly biased.

For the last few weeks I have tried to get into the minds of people, particularly the working class in an effort to discover why those who have very little would vote Tory. My basic advice at this stage would be to read some information regarding what each party is proposing. However, this is relatively simple to summarise, the Conservatives are offering zero and the Labour Party is attempting to make life better for as many people as possible. So put down the Sun or The Daily Mail spouting some bollocks or other about Corbyn being anti-Semitic and investigate what each party actually wants to achieve. What you should discover is unless you are a millionaire or billionaire, or possibly someone who is dealing with unresolved self hatred, voting Tory is not going to help your cause.

You may be angry about Brexit, your family could be lifelong Tory voters, you might even believe all that the Daily Mail has to offer, such as; Corbyn is a terrorist sympathiser, an IRA member, an Anti-Semite, a Russian spy, a traitor or an evil road hogging cyclist. However, non of this rubbish is going to help you to make a rational decision on the 12th of December. All that this will ultimately uncover is that you have been duped by a multi billion pound propaganda machine, that will throw as much money at this election as required to maintain the status quo. You could erroneously be thinking that a Boris Johnson led Conservative Party is ideally suited to “Get Brexit Done” as their pithy slogan implies. My question would be, what have they being doing for the past 3 and a half years? After all, they are currently in government.

Jeremy on his mean machine

It’s abundantly obvious what the Tories have done, they have systematically run the country down by using the discredited theory of austerity to supposedly ‘balance the books’. Cunningly the middle class have been coerced into blaming the working class, as shown by their reaction to Brexit and their collective arrogance towards people who chose to leave. Meanwhile, Johnson and Farage have conned the working class into thinking the primary problem is those ‘bloody immigrants’ and that leaving the EU will solve all of their problems. The real culprits of course are the very people who have created this web of illusion and ultimately distraction. This consists of a powerful amalgam of corporate interests plus a right wing government with little concern regarding the wellbeing of its inhabitants.

The Tories has presided over nasty vindictive policies for almost a decade, chiefly designed to penalise the most vulnerable and powerless in society. I have provided a little taster regarding the effects of some of these policies. To start with, there is a general misconception that right wing parties are better for the economy, this is a shameless lie unless of course you are rich. Since 2010 the Conservatives have increased the national debt from £850bn to £2.27tn and counting. Across the country four million kids live in poverty, the number of rough sleepers has increased nationwide by 165% since 2010, while food bank use in the last 5 years is up 73%. Furthermore, the pound is worth approximately 15% less against both the Euro and the US dollar. Economic experts? Maybe not.

On observing employment or the lack of, the OECD calculates that there are about 3 million hidden unemployed people, which works out to be 13.2%. Shockingly, 10 million workers are in insecure employment such as; zero hours contracts, underemployment or false self-employment. Additionally, it’s estimated that 80% of the 5.3 million self-employed workers now live below the poverty line, with workers in general still £13 worse off than 2007. The Conservatives have also been guilty of utilising cruel benefit sanctions and millions have been left with no funds through the Universal Credit system.

In the public domain, government and council departments have been slashed by 25-30%, with half the councils close to bankruptcy. There are 20,600 less police officers, 7,000 fewer prison officers, plus 11,000 firefighters nationwide have been cut. The NHS has 43,000 unfilled nursing posts, which has been compounded by the abolishment of student nursing bursaries. There are also 10,000 fewer medical professionals and a loss of 5 million bed spaces per year. The NHS has persistently been the target of increased privatisation and this is expected to spiral following Brexit, as US corporations will be invited to pick over the carcass.

Sadly, I could ramble on for another ten paragraphs regarding callous Tory policies, but hopefully by now you get the point. The Conservatives are offering nothing that would benefit the vast majority of people, in fairness they have had 9 years to do something vaguely positive. I suppose in all honesty they have fulfilled plenty of their objectives for example, systematically destroying peoples lives up and down the country, at the same time as enriching those privileged few. With a victory this week, the Tories will steer more assuredly towards the far right, as the inappropriately named moderates have largely been cast aside. In affect, all the Tory government will provide under Johnson is further disdain, contempt and hatred of the working class.

Cabinet Ministers Liz Truss and Priti Patel described British workers as “the worst idlers in the world“. Dominic Raab has suggested that British employment legislation is a “straitjacket” for the economy. Good old Boris Johnson has previously advocated for charges within the NHS, while Dominic Raab and Michael Gove have both expressed their desire to privatise it. The Conservative’s unimaginative motto is “get Brexit done”, a win on Thursday and the misery will continue unabated, with basic human rights and environmental protections high on their hit list. So, if you happen to be working class and are thinking of voting for the Conservatives, it’s time to stop this masochistic behaviour and do yourself a favour by choosing Labour.