We have been discussing the idea that Corbyn may very well become PM by default next month, voting Lib Dems will almost definitely result in a Labour/SNP Government with Corbyn as PM and another independence vote for SNP. In fact voting for any party may well lead to a Corbyn as Prime Minister. It is a prospect that truly worries me.
I have voted for Labour all of my life, I am a party member and have always been since the age of eighteen, I come from generations and generations that have always voted Labour. It would have been unthinkable to vote for anyone else up until now.
I am now faced with the prospect of putting Corbyn and Momentum in charge of the country with all the pledges they have made that scare the living daylights out of me.
I am a moderate middle ground Labour voter, but I find myself politically homeless today, and this is probably the biggest and most important election of our time, and I feel impotent and unrepresented.
The pledges that concern me the most are:
- Proven Antisemitism in the party. Only a few days ago we learnt that Dan Carden has been chanting racist songs ('hey Jews') on a packed coach coming back from Cheltenham. This has been backed up by other witnesses. To date he has still not stood down. I find this outrageous. This is only one of many examples, and British Jews feel very fearful of the Labour Party walking into No.10.
- Nationalisation programme of Utilities costing trillions of pounds. I do not want our public money wasted in this way! I don't care that we have private companies providing services. The last thing we need is more debt. The most chilling aspect for me is the fact that the LP will simply 'take over' the companies not even paying the shareholders the market rate. They will be a forced sell so to speak. This is something you would see in Zimbabwe, not the UK in the 2019. It is an utter waste of money, and will see the country plunged into debt levels of the 1970s (as quoted by the Guardian this week)
www.theguardian.com/politics/2019/nov/07/tories-and-labour-warned-over-ambitious-spending-promises-infrastructure-investment
- Four day week, and workers 'choosing their hours'. My company will fold over night if this is introduced, we simply could not afford to continue. As will many small to medium size businesses (the large corporations will just relocate) If you combine this with the planned tax hikes, and the extended maternity the pressure on business will be huge and unsustainable. We will lose our house on a personal level.
If your grandmother, you or some other relative is in hospital/out of the country and her house is empty for more than six months, the LP will simply and legally just take the house. It is the stripping back of people's assets and taking over things that really worries me.
- Closing private schools. Our local schools are already struggling here, both with numbers and a lack of funding. DD already has 36 children in her class, and we only have a four and a half day week. We simply can not cope with 630,000 extra children coming into the state sector by forced closure of private schools. I have emailed my MP who has confirmed this will be going ahead, as far as he knows. This policy is madness, our system is already severely struggling. How can they not know this?
My children will be directly impacted and their education compromised, as we have three prep schools in our area, and all of our local schools are heavily oversubscribed. Those that say that the LP have no intention of doing this are deluding themselves. They definitely intend to!
Even by taking the charitable status away as a first step, we will see many private school closures, as many are struggling to stay open as it is, and many parents finding it hard to pay the fees already. These children will all end up in our already stretched and packed classrooms.
I support the NHS policies one hundred per cent, and I hope they will do something to help the address the plight of those that are disabled. Although I haven't seen any pledges to confirm that, as they intend to keep UC!
Extended maternity leave if it was not in combination with all the other anti business pledges may be welcome, but not if it means that companies will have to close.
The nursery places for two plus is unworkable. They can't even manage to offer the nursery hours currently to those that are three years plus. Much less adding many tens of thousands more. They have not thought it through!
I can not see any other policies that will make a difference. Insulating already sweltering care homes is a colossal waste of money and shows me policy makers have never actually stepped inside one.
All in all, I want my old labour party back, not this extreme version. I want to vote for public services, school investment and more than anything else extra police officers. We have a serious crime problem. I don't want to create another massive debt crisis/recession in the process, and would love to see a more moderate labour party. But that isn't happening anytime soon, and certainly not before the election.
I am now politically homeless.