A small number of careerist politicians are talking about what they’re going to do “after Labour loses the election” – practically all of them are, according to Robert Peston. What does that tell us? It tells us which people the media talk to ie, a small number of careerist politicians, and what they want everyone to think…
Meanwhile, across the country, a huge movement is stirring. I don’t mean the Corbyn movement – That’s no secret, and it’s not a new thing. Bernie Sanders is speaking in Brighton in June, and people are rushing to get tickets. People know they need a change, they need to win power back from the billionaires and speculators who have our government under their thumbs. What is new is the number of people who now have an idea how to achieve that change. It’s not just that the corruption Sanders objected to in the US is also rife in the UK, but also that our electoral system is somewhat easier to work out than the US one.
Most people by now will have heard the Occupy cry – “we are the 99%”. The vast majority of people in this country are far more sensible, and far less aggressive, than the newspapers would have you believe. We don’t like corruption and selfishness, we don’t like greed and, we outnumber the billionaires and speculators by at least a hundred to one. We see that their only strength is that we’ve been slow to recognise our power. All it takes is for enough of us to realise we are the majority.
A recent study suggested that the average person normally only thinks about politics for a few minutes a week. That means things like “party allegiance” are not big in people’s everyday lives, and are not unbreakable. Growing numbers are getting together and saying, “never mind who wants who to get in, how do we get a corrupt government out?” and once you look at the problem in that way, it’s not difficult to do. The Tories got far less than 50% of the vote last time around – have a Tory government ever had a clear majority? We could easily get rid of them.
This coming together of people is not a conspiracy, it’s not a professional political movement, and it doesn’t have much to do with established political parties. But it could just be the movement that changes everything. The eyes of this movement are on marginal seats like Hastings and Rye. Last time around, it was a surge in UKIP voters that joined a minority Green and Lib Dem vote to let the Tories in. UKIP have got what they wanted now, so their vote will be lower this time. Some people, prompted by the press, are just saying “oh well, all the UKIP folks will vote Tory now.” Others are saying “don’t let the press talk you into defeat,” and yet others are saying things like this:
In short, and from our point of view in Hastings and Rye…
The great thing about this movement is that supporting it is so easy. You don’t have to go and camp anywhere, you don’t have to design leaflets, stand on picket lines, or get yourself onto any committees – all you have to do is talk to your friends in the pub, your colleagues, your family, your neighbours, and decide together what you are going to do on 8th June.
Kay Green 