Friday 7 May 2010

A national hangover

How was the election for you? I gave up somewhere around 5 a.m. or so. I'm in an extremely bad mood and likely to remain so for the next five years: it looks like the Tories are going to form a minority government, tempered slightly by the knowledge that they can be defeated in Parliament at any point.

Gallingly, the Tories won The Dark Place by 691 votes. I'm scrutinising passers-by, wondering whether they're amongst this bunch of traitors. This city is a monument to the depredations of Conservatism, and now they've been invited back to deliver the coup de grace. Rob Marris cared for, and fought for, my university. A Tory MP won't give a damn.

What's astonishing about Paul Singh Uppal, the victorious Tory candidate here, is how little information is available about him. The Tory webpage is incredibly patronising: apparently we should vote for him because he supports Wolverhampton Wanderers (it doesn't say for how long, and he fought a seat in Birmingham last time) and he doesn't like crime! No policies, no career details (another page says he 'runs his own business' which doesn't help): he clearly has a lot to be ashamed of and I'd like to know what. I've sent him a list of questions - let's see if there's any reply. He makes a passing reference to being a fresher at Warwick university, but there's nothing substantial. He thinks the answer to a massive public sector deficit (caused by bailing out the bankers who've just paid for the Tory victory) should be: tax cuts for businesses despite repeatedly calling for more money to be spent on public services!

He also hates racial equality legislation and can't use apostrophes properly:
 The Race Relations Circus 
…the McCarthyistic mouth foaming utterances of the race relations industry, which through accusation alone can slay political careers and stifle well intentioned and principled debate. I say this because I have seen with my very own eyes the modus operandi of this circus, employing individuals to perpetuate this climate of political correctness. In reality this industry/business does dreadful damage to Britain’s race relations. It seems more concerned with securing it’s own funding streams and non jobs for it’s membership of zealots. The cost of this is all is so much more than financial, as we lose decent people and gag those who point to the emperor’s new clothes. 

Last night was a series of hammer blows as reactionary, frightening Tories defeated good and bad Labour and Liberal candidates alike. My beloved Plaid Cymru fared poorly, as did the SNP and the Lib Dems.

There are some bright spots: if the Tories can't win an outright majority in the midst of the worst depression for decades and the most unpopular prime minister ever, then they're in deep trouble. Mark thinks this is the last Tory administration - I'm not convinced but it's an intriguing prospect.

The Green victory in Brighton was a bonus too, though I wish she'd beaten a Tory instead of a Labour candidate. Actually, my emotional reaction to Labour defeats was a surprise. I despise the government so much that I thought a degree of sang-froid would be the order of the day. Instead, wave after wave of depression hit me. Not because I'll miss the New Labour faction which lobotomized the left, but because I know what will reward all these new Tory voters: more poverty for the poor, privatisation, deregulation, cuts in public services and a country which will become a playground for the unproductive rich, the tax-evaders who funded the Tory campaign and endless assaults on the BBC in the cause of Murdoch. Fewer medics, longer queues, worse schools for ordinary people, universities like mine attacked or even closed.

The Lib Dems might restrain the worst impulse of the Tories, but let's be clear: we're in for a miserable time, and our rulers will not care, because their purpose in life is to consolidate their own power and reinforce inequality to reward 'winners' in our disgusting and selfish economic system.

The other bright spot was the puncturing of the media bubble: the newspapers all chose candidates and plugged them relentlessly, and it made no difference at all. The Tories had the Murdoch press (The Sun, News of the World, The Times, The Sunday Times), the Financial Times, the Telegraph, the Sunday Telegraph, the Daily Mail, the Mail on Sunday, the Express and the Sunday Express. The Lib Dems had the Observer and the Guardian, while Labour had The Mirror and the Sunday Mirror. Despite all this, the Lib Dems gained 1% of the vote (and actually lost seats, thanks to our rotten system) and the Tories only gained 3-4%. So it's time for the media to shut up and stop being so self-aggrandising.

Apart from exhaustion, I'm utterly numb with despair. There's a progressive majority in this country, but we're going to get a reactionary government which openly despises the poor, the working-classes and progressive values. We're in for years of social darwinism, xenophobia and bigotry.

No comments: