The UK Election Rumbles On
July 2nd, 2024
This is an update following on from my delayed last letter that was found hiding in embarrassment down the back of the sofa.
The gambling issue rumbles on and more will come to light but such is the strength of the gambling lobby that not as much will be revealed as should be. (Yes, it was Tony Blair’s Government that eased gambling restrictions in the UK.)
The election campaign trundles on, with the torpor being matched only by the astonishingly boring displays of the English football team at the Euro Championships. Meantime Glastonbury came and went at the weekend, turning out to be one of the least interesting (exciting) performances for years. The headline act for Saturday, Coldplay, turned out to be even more turgid than usual.
And so the snoozefest goes on. With two days to go to voting day, the country is seized with apathy and boredom. Even the weather has embraced the mood. The forecast has been for a heatwave of 24–28ºC (I know, but this is the UK), but it is 17ºC, grey, miserable and overcast, which fits in with the national mood. My sleepy little corner of the UK is even more soporific than usual, with the local LibDem candidate trying to oust the Conservative MP (margin at last election 21,000, 59 per cent of the votes on a turnout of 74 per cent). I have seen no canvassing or hustings, just a couple of people shoving leaflets in letterboxes. In the whole of the town I have seen two posters, one for Labour and one for LibDem.
All the opinion polls seem to show don’t-knows as being 40 per cent nationally, but when you see vox pops on the TV, the interviewees come across as mostly don’t cares. The nation is resigned to a Labour victory, knowing that there will be massive tax rises (the UK is already more heavily taxed than it has been for years) and an increase in immigration to unprecedented numbers to shore up the economy (not realising that this will flood the economy with low-paid workers, depress wages for the current workers and cause more people to stay on benefits as it is not worth their while to work).
Labour will implement their plans that aren’t in the public manifesto, but have been hinted at before the election was announced. They will reduce voting age to 16, in the hope that this will cement their position in power, and introduce legislation protecting trade unions. More civil rights legislation is on the cards, including more ‘wokist’ laws. They have said that they will pay NHS doctors virtually what they want.
It is also interesting to note that Labour wants closer ties with Europe, as many European countries are turning to the right and expressing disenchantment with the EU. If Europe had been like this in 2014, the UK would probably have stayed in the EU with the dissident nations looking to the UK for leadership.
Here in the UK, it is apparent that the key question to be answered is: does the electorate’s fear of what damage to the economy and social structure the Labour Party will do take second place to the desire for revenge against the Conservatives? There is a public desire to give the Conservatives a good kicking to repay them for their incompetence and sheer arrogance.
It will all be revealed on Thursday UK time.
