Why I’m Voting Labour

The United Kingdom is holding a general election on 12th December 2019. The choice that we make, and which party or parties are elected, will affect the quality of our lives, and the role of our country in the world, for decades to come. This election is huge.

This is a philosophy blog, and regular readers will know that I only occasionally delve into the world of politics. So, the fact that I’m writing this post about UK politics can only mean there’s something going on which is incredibly important to me.

For the last nine years in the UK we’ve had Conservative-led governments who have all but neglected the majority of our citizens. Under the banner of ‘Austerity’, sweeping cuts have been made to public services, crime is on the rise, and increasingly people are living in poverty or being forced into homelessness.

We have also drifted into a state of affairs where our human rights to both privacy and freedom of speech have been compromised. Large multinational corporations have come to control what we see and hear, everything we do is monitored by the ‘Big Brother’ State, and more and more people are becoming isolated and depressed. According to the charity Samaritans, suicide rates are on the increase.

Living in the UK right now is bleak. In 2008, I was diagnosed with a mental health condition and have been in hospital several times as a result of this. In many ways the care I have received has been good, although it has been gradually getting worse as the effects of austerity have deepened. Here are three examples of how bad things have become:

On one occasion my care coordinator had to buy plasters from a shop to use with patients because the hospital had run out of them
My care coordinator has been off work with stress because the workload he has been put under became unbearable
When I have visited A&E the atmosphere has been more like something out of an apocalyptic nightmare than a hospital

The idea that healthcare is about love, compassion, and healing, has become almost completely eclipsed by the motives of greed and power. For example, I believe the philosophy that mental health conditions are best treated with pills is very deceptive, as I explained in depth in this post. The influence of large pharmaceutical companies infiltrating the National Health Service has caused the spread of this myth, and it needs to stop. The Labour party have pledged to make prescriptions free for all, and I believe they would put people before profit when it comes to health.

There is one man, a politician here in the UK, who has consistently spoken out in favour of humane and compassionate politics for decades. That man is Jeremy Corbyn and he is leader of the Labour Party. The Labour Party is currently the second biggest party in the UK and the official opposition to the government.

Corbyn’s policies are a breath of fresh air. Here are just a few:

Renationalise some public services (including water and rail)
Raise taxes for the wealthiest few
Raise the minimum wage significantly
End privatisation of the National Health Service
Free full-fibre broadband for every home and business
A large budget to end homelessness

With every policy announcement that Labour make, I am more and more convinced that with this general election we have the potential to change UK society for the better and be pulled back from the brink of Conservative-caused catastrophe.

Obviously, one of the biggest issues facing the UK at the moment is whether or not we remain in the European Union. This issue has divided our country as in 2016 there was a referendum on membership where the result was almost 50/50 (‘leave’ won by a very narrow margin). Since then there has been Brexit chaos as the Conservative government have tried to negotiate a deal with EU, but have been unable to convince Parliament that their proposed deals would do anything other than harm the majority of UK citizens.

Jeremy Corbyn’s policy on Brexit is to negotiate a credible ‘leave’ deal — one that protects jobs, rights, and the environment — and then put this to the public, alongside an option to remain in the EU, in a second referendum. This would mitigate a great deal of uncertainty, and would hopefully have the effect of uniting the country behind whichever option we choose in the referendum.

No politician is perfect. No political party is perfect. No blog post about politics is perfect! But the issues at the heart of this general election are undeniably important, and if you’re reading this and have a vote in the UK I implore you to consider voting Labour. Trust your heart in terms of what is good, right, and just. Trust the politics of compassion, fairness, and peace, rather than greed and profit. Please, on 12th December, vote Labour for a better Britain.