This is it
I’m terrified. If Boris Johnson gets a majority after today, it’ll take most of the rest of my working life to undo the social and economic damage.
I didn’t much like the old Tory party, but the new one is worse. Led by a liar, purged of its moderates, it’s certainly not Conservative, but is instead hell-bent on the kind of nativist populism that always ends badly for those under it. Which, at the moment, includes me.
The only hope is another hung parliament. And remember, under a fair voting system, neither the Tories or Labour would ever be able to govern without restraint by and co-operation from other parties. The idea that any party represents a majority of public opinion is a myth, and an artefact of a system already rigged to support the big parties.
Well, party, now. Labour can’t win outright any more.
It’s a shame that Labour enjoyed their distorted majorities too much to fix the electoral system while it was in their favour: they could have ensured that the Tories never ruled alone again, but chose untrammelled power for themselves instead.
If they Tories win, they’ll spend the next few years trying to further rig the system, as promised on page 48 of their manifesto:
- by rearranging constituencies to ensure that they continue to get the most seats despite only getting a third of the votes cast;
- through voter identification schemes that privilege those with driving licences, passports, and stable lives, who are most likely to vote Tory;
- by reducing human rights protections;
- by removing the power of the juciary to constrain illegal acts by the executive (like when they were prevented from abusing prerogative power to suspend Parliament earlier this year).
There is still hope that they won’t. I don’t know how much, but some.