Stop patronising the youth - GE2017

Let's talk about the youth. Undoubtedly they (and do I include myself in that, a 34 year old?) came out in force to support the Labour leader. Let's make that clear. The leader. Not some unelectable hopeful. He is a leader. He is the reason many people, young and old, came out to vote. For everything he represents. Yes it was an exciting manifesto, but that was a reflection of Jeremy Corbyn.

The reason we talk about media bias is often not even about the content. It's the tone. Corbyn just inspired hundreds of thousands of young people to vote, and what's the explanation? Freebies, in the form of tuition fees, scrapping car parking fees, free nursery hours, and so on. NO. How dare you be so patronising: praising the campaign on one hand, then going on to grossly misunderstand the cause.

Social media exploded this election open. We searched for the truth and we found it, and we shared it. We got angry, and we engaged with friends, who engaged with their friends. We forced our information on others and got kicked from groups for doing so. Feeds were awash with politics like never before. Even my Nottingham Forest Supporters Page was rammed. "Not Forest Related - but make sure you vote Labour." The amount of 'fuck yous' was depressing, but once that door was open, we flooded in. I doubt the negative commentators were turned, maybe some, but it's the silent ones, who never say anything, who maybe saw one sourced link or meme and it got them to think.

We saw injustices and wanted to fight against it. We spread the word about how new labour and now the Tories, worse than ever, have been systematically asset-stripping this country. We don't want our pipelines owned by Qater. We don't want Virgin Care. We don't want to pay £30 to skip the queue. We woke up to what kind of world and country we were heading towards: an insular, capitalist, money making, money keeping, money hoarding machine.

And we didn't like it.

Tuition fee promise or no tuition fee promise, we'd have been there all the same, marking the the cross by Labour.

Something else too. We don't want to be at war. We never asked for it. It was thrust upon us by our foreign policy. As much as you can blame religious fanaticism, you cannot underestimate what dropping a few bombs or being complicit in it will do. And worse, leaving broken areas as breeding grounds for hate. The messes we have left behind smack of incompetence, and that's being kind - if we can't do it right, don't do it all. Or just don't do it period. We don't want to think ill of our own country. We don't wan tto consider that we are complicit in arming those who seek to harm us in turn. But some facts are hard to ignore. Things have to change.

We didn't vote because tuition fees may be abolished, as amazing for equality as that could be. We voted for a new kind of politics, so stop patronising us.

Countering Tory logic

Just noting some counterlogic I've attempted in debate(s) with pro-Tories, (for myself more than anyone else's benefit). It's difficult for either side when there is such a basic ideological divide, and when, both left and right, you have been exposed to pro-left or pro-right media and pretty much nothing else.

“Say goodbye to Gilbraltar, the Falklands, Northern Ireland and Scotland.”

 - Couldn’t find this in the manifesto. At this point the Scots could go whether Labour or the Tories are in, and considering that many of SNP’s core beliefs mirror the Labour manifesto, I would say the chance of retaining the UK as it is, is higher with Labour being in. The Scots are pissed off about austerity measures being imposed on them from Westminster – THIS will be the main reason they choose to leave, given the chance again, should they do so.

“The top wealthy moving their money out of the U.K. Small Buisnesses collapsing when their tax rises. Corporations moving their head offices away from London to Poland due to being hit with huge tax rises, which Germany would love as they want to end Londons supremasy on this”

- The idea that corporations or the mega-rich will just leave the country if taxes are raised is a constant fearmongering tactic in the hard-right propaganda rags against progressive taxation. The rate of corporation tax is not the sole determining factor in where a corporation locates itself, or they’d all be in the Bahamas at 0%. Oh wait, that’s where the tax dodgers are.

- Anyone who thinks it would be easy and costless for a major corporation like Rolls Royce or Unilever to just shut down production in the UK and shift it overseas isn’t seeing the bigger picture.

- Constantly cutting corporation tax rates will only result in a "race to the bottom" scenario.

- Corporations have a responsibility to contribute towards stuff like the infrastructure that they and their customers use, the existence of the legal system and the emergency services, the in-work benefits that are paid to their employees, and the education of their workforce.

- Corporations aren’t going to abandon Britain just because Labour puts the Corporation Tax rate up to 26% (still the lowest in the G7).

- Anyone who thinks a billionaire who is so self-serving that they would just up sticks and leave the country over a slight change in tax rate is not already stashing their cash in tax havens (and therefore unaffected by such a change) is narrow minded

“Russia, North Korea seeing us as a great target due to our nuclear arms not being renewed. Such a stupid thing to be doing in such an unstable world. Security under this idiot will change Regardless of what he says.”

The Labour party is a democracy – the Trident deterrent will be renewed. North Korea are not the aggressors now  – they were decimated in the 50s and are now more concerned about protecting themselves rather than being aggressive. Nuclear war is not the threat that we face, it’s guerrilla tactics on the street. We need more police officers. We need to look at why it’s unstable and perhaps not be the ones destabilising it.

“People will end up having to sell their family homes due to the garden tax that this idiot thinks he is going to bring in.”

Labour have explicitly stated that there is not going to be a garden tax. There’ll be a CT review to make it fairer (I’d like more details too). But they have said they’ll not be introducing a separate Land Value Tax on residential property. Maybe if you have a commercial business there’ll be some impact.

“Borrow billions from the world bank To fund his wild array of manifesto promises which will yet again cause us to go back into the red for yet another Tory government in four years time to come along and cut services in order to repair the damage.”

The manifesto is costed – it would be funded by a raise in the top 5%. “Borrow billions from the world bank” is empty rhetoric in real-world terms. 97% of the economy is electronic cash, most of which is created out of nothing at the moment a private bank makes a loan. The electronic money is then destroyed when the loan is repaid. Lastly, Tory cuts haven’t repaired jack, it’s worse than ever.

“Also even under Labour the richer get richer and the poorer get poorer. As sad as it is this is the way of the world and very country is the same. It's just we have been more generous in giving tax payers money to people. It is also fact that giving benedits to,people does not help the children out of poverty as in many of our large inner cities where these problems are rife the many single parent families take the money for themselves and spend it on drink and drugs. The answer is to lower benefits and make people get a part time job to make up the short fall. By doing this people start to have a sense of pride in themselves and attitudes would change.”

True: the rich tend to hold on to their riches no matter the government – does that show that under Labour they can therefore afford to pay a bit more tax? Or that they are unaffected by tax rate changes as they hold their money in offshore accounts? Sure with lower tax under Tory they’d get a bit more money for investment, but you then have to trust that they invest and not simply take a larger slice of the pie for their CEOs. I think I’d rather bank it with the current Labour to invest in public services. I agree in some regards with the benefits and children in poverty, but we differ ideologically. I don’t let those who take advantage of the system cloud my vision for a greater overall society where the public services are all funded as much as they need to be. And I would do whatever I could to ensure the children don’t suffer, be it free school meals, no rich/poor divide with universities, greater investment in youth projects, and so on.

Do the Tories want power?

1. Didn't have to call a general election - did so anyway.
2. Said they wouldn't - did so anyway (flip-flop).
3. Brexit negotiations begin just a few days after. If these are so important then surely the last thing the government needed in the build up was turmoil.
4. What would be one of the most universally hated policies to bring back? Fox hunting.
5. Who gives the Tories most votes? The elderly? Hitting them as hard as they reasonably can.
6. Go on and on about negotiating Brexit - won't even debate one on one with Corbyn. Weak perception, or arrogant?
7. No calls to register to vote on their social media.
8. Attacking what was a logical, reasonable, and widely accepted view from Corbyn and Labour RE the Manchester attack and foreign policy influence.
9. Not costing their manifesto. Open for attack/easy target.
10. Positive comments about Corbyn filtering through from Tories and Tory-sympathisers.
11. Corbyn receiving a fairer share of media attention on the likes of the BBC and Sky, even showing him in a positive light for once.
12. Corbyn v May v Paxman - the perfect social media clip of that guy mouthing absolutely bollocks. Other cuts to the audience weren't as long. This guy wasn't cut when he began mouthing and shaking his head.
13. Leaks of images of May at 'rallies' devoid of attendees. Again perfect for social media. Many examples of these which when added up has a widespread effect.