Well my friends, here we are. 15th December 2019 and we have just voted in the Conservative Party for the next five years. I thought I would take some time just to reflect on the past 72 hours, everything that's happened and everything that will happen.
In case you've been living under a rock, the UK held a General Election on Thursday, and at about 7am on Friday morning a Tory majority of 80 seats was announced, and millions of us around the country had our hearts collectively shattered. You all know how into politics I am - it was piqued during the lead-up to the 2016 EU referendum and I make no secret of the fact that I am a pro-Europe, pro-Labour activist and I have a big, big socialist heart - and none of us saw this coming.
You see, a lot of my campaigning takes place on Twitter and I think I - along with many people I know - locked myself into an echo chamber of sorts, where I convinced myself that we represented the majority of the country and there was no way the Tories would take home a win this time around. I'd truly convinced myself that we had made a difference on an enormous scale. I spent Friday in mourning, you could say, in utter despair that it's come to this and this is what we've sentenced ourselves to for the next five years. People wanted change, but it won't happen with this government. Or it will, but not for the right reasons and not in the right way.
Everyone has their different opinions, yes, but the figures don't lie. We have had this government since 2010. Nine years we've suffered austerity and cuts to public services. 130,000 needless deaths have happened due to austerity put in place by this government. There has been a 165% increase in rough sleepers and homeless citizens since 2010. There is a record 4.1million children living in poverty. There's been cuts to mental health, with a 30% loss in mental health beds. We have lost 20,000 police officers, and gained 2000 foodbanks. A&E waiting times are at their highest ever, with patients sleeping in corridors waiting for treatment.
We live in a post-truth era, where elections and campaigns are fought with lies, misinformation and deliberate misleading of voters but unfortunately the numbers above don't lie, and I could go on but I think you get the idea now. Conservative voters from Thursday are on record saying they voted Tory for change but the statistics above are all direct results from a Tory government. The Tories will not fix the mess they made, but they will first drag us out of the EU and then make it worse.
It is very easy, especially when you are an active campaigner, to think that you don't make a difference. It's easy to think you are just getting ignored and you are shouting into a void and arguing with a brick wall - but now is not the time to give up. We must reflect on what went wrong and change things. The Labour Party had a beautiful manifesto, a vision of a country I desperately wanted to live in, and whether it takes five or fifteen years that country can be ours - we just can't give up on it now. If anything, this is the time to get louder.
So I will be continuing my pro-EU activism, I will begin campaigning for the electoral reform that we desperately need, I will start donating to foodbanks, buying food for the homeless man I see every day outside Sainsbury's, and using this blog to talk more about politics and the changes I will be making in my life to try my best to ease this shock for the people who needed Labour. You see - there's a good chance I will be fine. I come from a middle-class family and a well-off area of the country. I am white and non-religious and my privilege allows me to not have to worry too much about the result of this election. But while my life won't necessarily change all that much, the lives of the 14.3million people in poverty, the lives of the Muslim communities, the LGBTQ+A, the lives of single mums, of ethnic minorities - they are the lives that will change due to this election result and that's who I'm fighting for, that's who I'm worried most about.
I really hope you will join me. I hope you will use your disappointment and your anger, take it and channel it into helping the people the government will inevitably refuse to. We mustn't be disheartened - this is the beginning of something truly great.
I hope you're with me. 🌹
Em xx