Like many, I have taken a real interest in British politics over the last few weeks. I have never thought of myself to be a person that is politically savvy. I’ve been old enough to vote in three general elections and the EU referendum although I’ve only ever voted in three of these occassions. I wrote a post about my feelings on Brexit last year as a remainer. I voted to remain and I accept the decision was not in my favour. I’m not hateful or bitter about the decision and all I can hope for now is a fair Brexit whenever that actually happens.
I also made it pretty clear that I was voting Labour in the recent election. I have no problems sharing my voting choice or political position, in fact, if anything this election has really made me think a lot about who I am as a person, what my principles are and what I want to be known to stand for. I accept that as a Labour voter, we lost the general election. I know, I stayed up all night watching the results come in and I celebrated each Labour seat taken. I had predicted a hung parliament around a week or so before the election took place so I kind of knew what to expect.
What I didn’t expect was a demand and supply agreement with the DUP and I am pretty sure most Conservative voters also didn’t vote for the result. I’ve also read a lot in the run up and aftermath of how, again, some voters are attacking those that voted differently, just like they did with Brexit. I am just sitting her quietly on a Sunday afternoon with my family, thinking about the future and the changes that might take place over the next few months positive that political reform is on the brink. We have cried out for a change in British politics over the last year. There have also been a lot of personal attacks from both sides of the fence which are unacceptable and inexcusable.
- Saying Labour Voters don’t work and scrounge of the system.
I saw family members share this across my social media and it really angered me. Mainly because we are Labour voters and we earn a living. I have also rejected benefits because I think the system is flawed. My partner works full time, and I work from home for sometimes many more hours than I would in an office job. A particular meme that went along the lines of “Labour voters turnout will be high until 5pm when the Tory voters come out of work.” How dare you make that assumption. There are Labour voters in university, in apprenticeships, in paid employment with zero hour contracts and you have the audacity to generalise them as non working benefit scum? I know of many Conservative voters who are not in paid employment and voted Tory for their own reasons. That is completely fine, voting for your chosen party is a personal choice but these sweeping generalisations are not funny and are unfair.It goes along with saying Labour voters are just spending all the tax payers money and with the cuts the Tories have put in to out of work benefits, that simply isn’t true.
- The whole IRA terrorist sympathiser and therefore every Labour voter is a terrorist sympathiser too.
Yep, I saw this one being passed around too a lot. Terrorism is inexcusable but the only person or group to blame, are the terrorists. The only thing politicians can do is attempt to keep peace. They can do this by funding the police. I have to admit, I’m a bit young to have felt the full force of what happened in Northern Ireland during the seventies and eighties. However, what really frustrates me is after all the smear campagin attempts through the tabloids (seriously, who reads these and believe them to be true?) which blasted this in people’s faces every single day and then we have a government formed with the DUP. I really don’t get it.3. This election is all about Brexit.
No.
Every single general election is about who will be prime minister and form a government for the next five years. The EU referendum was about Brexit, the snap election was about who will lead. It angers me when politicians assume the electorate are stupid and that is exactly what happened. Whilst I agree that a general election was unshakably the right thing to do, it was done for the wrong reasons. Part of me can’t help but feel a little sorry for Theresa May because I feel like she has a lot of bad eggs advising her on what she should be doing which has lead to so many U-Turn decisions. I want to celebrate a female Prime Minister but mostly, I want to celebrate the best person for the job and in this case I don’t think she was the right candidate. It frustrates me that she was a firm remain voter for Brexit and has decided that the public want a hard Brexit. We are a country divided right now and whilst the majority may have been with the Leave campaign, there were still a lot of people that voted remain. With such a small majority I don’t understand why that lead to the decision of a hard Brexit. Fair enough, good negotiations are needed with balanced, reasonable and functional arguments put forward. As far as I’m concerned there were just Leave or Remain on the EU ballot paper, not “And if so…would you like a hard or soft Brexit?”It makes leaving the EU sound like cooking an egg. Frankly, leaving the EU is a bit scrambled at the moment if you ask me.
I don’t know what the future holds but I am confident we will see another general election before it’s time. However, I think we should celebrate a few wonderful things about the last eight weeks or so.
- Turnout was high. Some constituencies saw record numbers which is fantastic. However you vote, the fact that you turned up and had your say was amazing.
- Young people are getting interested in politics. I was so proud of the arguments both my sisters had for voting the way they did. I wish politics came into school at a younger age because we do live in a democracy and every voice is important. I hope this turns politics back into everyone’s game rather than the 35+ electorate.
- We finally found out the naughtiest thing Teresa May has ever done which has actually been a highlight for every single voter.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mvtHW95PXdg
