I have today spent a session with my therapist (H) talking politics and by that I mean real up front and dirty politics.
On Thursday this country will hit a fork in the road the like of which it has never seen before and for many of us that fork will revolve around life or death issues. Our votes will either save our nation or it will mean the end of it as we know it. As I said to H, if the Tories (Conservatives) get back in I have no expectation of surviving the next five years.
I am not an old man, but I am getting on, I have incurable cancer and live an isolated life due to a lifelong battle with depression and acute social phobia. I am now reliant on my pension and DLA which pays for my therapy and a small vehicle which is a life line for someone with both cancer and social phobia. If the Tories win the General Election, I will at some point be transferred to PIP (Personal Independence Payments), for which I will doubtless be awarded zero points on assessment and the loss of the extra support will mean the end of therapy and my vehicle without which getting to hospital for cancer treatment will become extremely difficult. The Tories have also refused any promise to protect pensions and the triple lock which guarantees that the basic state pension will rise by a minimum of either 2.5%, the rate of inflation or average earnings growth, whichever is largest.
But enough about me for a moment. If the Tories get in, their plans to privatise our NHS and to bring in health insurance will be assured. They will continue to cut public services, schools, social care and they will bring in the ‘dementia’ tax. The costs of a University education will rise even higher then they are now and young people will continue to be denied housing due to escalating unrestrained housing costs. The DWP sanctions regime will become even more draconian and disabled people will see their support slashed even further. The privatisation of the state and state assets will carry on and our taxes will become nothing more than a slush fund for privateers and vulture capitalists. Britain will become the first nation to declare nuclear weapons as a first strike option. We will finally see the end of the human rights act. Thousands more will die and become just another statistic that the Tories will ignore in their Orwellian pursuit of genocide and an end to useless eaters.
That in one fork in the road ahead. The other fork will see all of the above addressed and restored, a National Investment Bank, a living wage rise to £10 by 2020, our rail system brought back into public ownership, the restoration of Nurses’ training bursaries, 100,000 council/association houses built per annum, energy price caps, the re-nationalisation of water companies, scrapping the bedroom tax, abolition of tuition fees, restoring public services and a very great deal more.
A Britain that will literally work for the people of Britain and not just the corporations and already exceedingly wealthy.
Because of the appalling reputation politicians have in this country, justifiably earned since Thatcher rose to power, it needs to be said that if Jeremy Corbyn and Labour do not hold to the promises they have made, then heaven help them. Personally I do not think they will renege on the promises for a country that works for the many and not just the few, but given the parlous state of Britain right now, Corbyn and Labour certainly have a tough job on their hands and the corporations, the right wing press, the Tories and the super wealthy will fight them and us every inch of the way. Given that Britain has the most right wing press in Europe, it is to be hoped that some efforts can be made to reign them in and to be held accountable for the propaganda and lies they so routinely deal in.
The fork in the road is either the road to ever greater division, poverty, hardship and death or the road to restoration, social justice, hope and a country that works for us, not against us.
I am old enough to remember better times and to have gained my step up from a poor working class background to a free place at university which changed my life forever. I want better times for every young person growing up now and the option to achieve their best in life.
As an elderly bloke I want to remain a contributor, I am notionally retired, but that does not mean I have nothing left to do or contribute. What I have no desire for is to wither away in destitution to meet a lonely death caused by want, denied any dignity in my advancing years.
All of this hinges on the 8th of June, a mere 24 hours away as I write. Choose well my friends, this is a nation that belongs to all of us, let’s, please, take it back for all our sakes. I shall be including you in my vote, please include me in yours. Love and peace and hope for a much better country than we’ve had for the last seven years.
KOG. 07 June 2017
https://www.theguardian.com/money/2017/apr/27/pensions-triple-lock-questions-answered
