The main object of elections is to provide not a vote but a choice between real alternatives. The May election stance, even faced with an economic and political extremist on the left, had moved so far towards Corbyn’s policies that there was little clear blue water to be seen! Her own supporters and even Brexit were compromised in pursuit of working class voters who May fatally assumed were socialist because they had previously voted Labour – a typical mistake of the middle class southern Tory.
Faced with anti enterprise taxes, confiscatory capital gains tax (tax paid even if no gains) the Tory’s deliberate drain of the poorest regions through business rates, the refusal to reform the nationalised “Health” Service (and so turning to confiscation of homes after death for the arbitrarily ill) and 20% VAT for rich and poor alike but a guaranteed £13bn per annum in corrupt overseas aid – it is no surprise that the stuffing was knocked out of the anti socialist, anti corporatist and anti EU voters (of all parties!)
Corbyn wanted mass nationalisation of energy and rail – but the Tory’s failed regulatory system and a threat to “control prices” in response hardly provided an alternative.
Corbyn wanted more workers rights – but May’s manifesto promised to keep all workers’ rights currently guaranteed by EU law, put worker representation on company boards and give a statutory right to a year’s unpaid leave to care for a relative.
Corbyn wanted to tax the rich and property owners – but May had already applied effective wealth taxes through excessive stamp duty and capital gains tax. Like other Tory tax rises the funds are needed to compensate for the £11bn a year loss through the disgraceful lowering of corporation tax – benefiting the large corporations already adept at tax avoidance.
Corbyn embraced the man made global warming religion and would raise energy prices even higher – but the Tories are responsible for massive rises in energy bills (carbon tax, renewables levy, closing power stations and the resultant subsidies for diesel standby)
Corbyn wants to maximise open borders and seems to have no concept of the terrorist infiltration of the United Kingdom (although one of his Birmingham MPs Khalid Mahmood has rightly said that “our borders are like a sieve”). And it was May’s Conservative Government who cut back on the UK’s border force and lifted terrorist control orders.
Corbyn would have imprisoned the terrorised British people for “Islamophobia” – the only time in history that the justified fear of being attacked by those who have already killed thousands could have been a criminal offence. And yet May herself had kowtowed to these prejudices with the extraordinary statements:
“It is wrong to describe this (London terrorist attack) as Islamic terrorism…It is a perversion of a great faith.” and “Many Britons benefit a great deal from Sharia Law”
May further failed to tackle Muslim terrorism by blocking Michael Gove’s demand to extend the definition of extremism beyond violence – especially in schools. So inciting to religious violence did not come under suspected terrorism!
Too late in the day and after recent bombings and killings May eventually said “enough is enough” and: ”There is clearly a role for government in tackling extremism where it involves behaviour that is or ought to be criminal …..and stand up to the extremists who want to undermine our values and impose their twisted beliefs onto the rest of us.”
Although the Government still has no concept of the basic teachings of Islam – that Muslims must not befriend unbelievers, must attack Christians and Jews and must reject parliamentary democracy (because it is man made law and not Allah’s law as passed down by Mohammed). If there is a possible reformed Islam it is not evident in the Mosques and schools overseen by the British Government.
Corbyn is accused of appeasing, indeed sharing platforms with the IRA – but the British Government allowed murderers into Government in Northern Ireland and allowed the Dublin Government a major role in deciding what happens in a part of the United Kingdom.
Corbyn wants to abolish the nuclear deterrent and questions the need to go to war – and yet the Conservatives have overseen massive cuts in defence spending.
While Corbyn attacks capitalism and enterprise the Tories have also burdened true entrepreneurs with red tape, social legislation and even proposed new taxation reporting burdens and grotesque national insurance rises on the self employed. The latter was eventually dropped – but the trust of the hard working, genuinely democratic, self employed (with no collectives to represent them) has been shattered, not just by Labour but by Conservatives who would normally seek their vote.
The 2017 General Election showed how a principled political leader with a clear philosophy representing his core vote can gather unexpected support (that was Corbyn) while a vacillating, compromising, “all things to all men” manifesto which seeks the support of opposition voters whose motives are not understood will fail both to garner new votes and to retain traditional voters (that was May).
DEMOCRATIC MARKETS
Theresa May, like Corbyn, has repeatedly attacked “free markets” and proposed more State intervention and price controls – the last refuge of those who have permitted not markets but market distortions, monopolies and State interventions.
Democratic markets are the source of public accountability, prosperity and its distribution through competition and lower prices. But the Tories seem to have forgotten even the basics. Those who attack markets are really attacking what those markets reveal – the enormous costs of politicians’ interventions!
BREXIT
Finally the ostensible reason for the whole election – to give the May Government a resounding majority to implement Brexit – was lost in the fog of general political compromise. Remoaners were given new hope. The definition of Brexit is daily blurred.
I am shocked by otherwise sane Brexiteers proposing the “Norway solution” for the UK’s exit from the EU. That “solution” slavishly follows the well crafted trap of the so called Single Market which is the very core of the EU. The so-called “Single” Market is a contradiction of free trade, a major justification of the power of the European court, a principal source of EU revenue and nothing to do with markets. The Single Market is the major pillar in the construction of the Single European State.
If we do not leave the Single Market we cannot leave the EU. We need a clean and clear break followed by sensible negotiations for mutual benefit – thus becoming like the other 160 + self governing nations of the world!
