Jeremy Corbyn has proven himself to be a hero. A huge chunk of his party protested his leadership, yet he won it… twice. We’ve had everyone telling us he is unelectable for years, but in the face of a snap election this man brought so many people together and showed us exactly what he is made of. Yet here we are with Theresa May still in power and teaming up with a political party that are, to be frank, terrifying. Have Labour really achieved anything? Yes. Yes they have.
The positives
Jeremy Corbyn was just 2,227 votes away from being Prime Minister – The Independent
and
Jeremy Corbyn has increased Labour’s share of the vote by more than any other of the party’s election leaders since 1945 – The Independent
Despite the persistently shameful and disgusting smears on Jeremy Corbyn he was still just a step away from becoming our Prime Minister, showing that we’re not as easily brainwashed as the print press would like to think! We’ve seen a horrific campaign against Corbyn all around, including from The Sun, The Times, The Metro, The Evening Standard, and even The Guardian up until recently. It didn’t work. Instead we were all inspired by Jeremy’s courage as he stood strong against the tidal wave of bullshit, we were influenced by his refusal to engage in mudslinging even when the Tories threw personal insults at him and his close friends and colleagues, and we were proud as we watched him remain true to his word throughout his campaign and in turn true to ours. He was a leader we campaigned hard for, and it all paid off. Labour is now in a fantastic position.
The young voters showed what they were made of
Two under 30’s here. We campaigned tirelessly throughout the snap campaign. Taking time off work, juggling being full time parents, endless late nights and early mornings – we fought hard. And so did many, all over the country. They came out and they voted. They knocked stupid statements like the one above onto their backside, and they will continue to do so. Imagine the 16 year olds watching this election in awe, seeing the difference their voices can make. This is the generation we can count on.
“I admit it – I was wrong about Corbyn” – Ayesha Hazarika, The Guardian
Labour MP’s who were critical of Corbyn are apologising and urging their fellow party members to unite and back him fully. It may feel like it’s too little, too late, but we have time to take down the Tories and now they will all be working together. Of course it should have been this way from the start, and it’s hard to not be bitter at the people who didn’t believe in him. However, it takes a strong person to admit they were so drastically wrong, so let’s follow Jeremy’s lead and forgive the people who have admitted they made a huge mistake.
Labour showed strength by leading a positive campaign
While the Conservatives smeared and insulted Labour, Corbyn and their supporters at any given opportunity, Labour’s campaign was extremely positive and focused on a brighter future rather than resorting to petite, desperate politics. Corbyn did not respond to the slurs and he stayed fair and true throughout. As John McDonnell said, “Hope always wins over fear. Kindness and generosity always wins over selfless greed. Solidarity will succeed.”
Record number of female MPs win seats in 2017 general election – The Guardian
208 women were elected to the House of Commons, beating the previous record of 196 in 2015. However there is still a long way to go to achieve equality. The Fawcett Society, the UK’s leading charity campaigning for gender equality and women’s rights, said: “If the UK only improves by this much at each election, we will not see equal representation in Parliament until 2062. The Labour Party managed to slightly increase its proportion of women MPs to 45% from 44% before the election, as it increased its overall seat numbers. The Conservative Party saw no increase, with women’s representation stuck at 21%”
We pissed off Rupert Murdoch – Indy 100
Oh, what we would all have done to be a fly on that wall.
Canterbury tale: single mum becomes town’s first ever Labour MP – The Guardian
And we saw other rich areas, like Chelsea and Kensington, vote Labour too. This is fabulous and extremely shocking – it is commonly thought that the rich vote for the Conservatives because they get more out of it for themselves. Clearly, we can start to move on from this belief and work together. Don’t go blaming the poor who voted Tory for shooting themselves in the foot, either – this isn’t the time for blame, it’s the time for change, and we all have a responsibility to work towards that change. When you are one of the country’s most vulnerable it can be extremely hard to focus on anything other than the struggle of getting through each day, and independent research is exhausting and educating yourself just simply is not a priority. The main stream media is every where and it has done a great job of brainwashing many. Remember how we fought so hard to make the young feel that they had a voice? The result was fantastic, and now we have to do the same for the poor, too. When you are constantly treated as though you are nothing but a drain on society then you start to believe it, and it easy to forget that you are a fully functioning part of the big picture. This needs to be tackled.
The not-so-positives
So, who are the DUP? – Open Democracy
To have such beautiful positivity as Labour soared through the election to then have it totally wiped out by the Conservatives jumping into bed with a evangelical party with a very shady past was heart wrenching.
“Theresa May’s new partners in government have strong historical links with Loyalist paramilitary groups. Specifically, the terrorist group Ulster Resistancewas founded by a collection of people who went on to be prominent DUP politicians. Peter Robinson, for example, who was DUP leader and Northern Ireland’s first minister until last year, was an active member of Ulster Resistance. One of the things the group did was collaborate with other terrorist organisations such as the Ulster Volunteer Force to smuggle arms into the UK, including RPG rocket launchers.”
People are rightly horrified by this turn of events. The sheer hypocrisy of the Conservatives is sickening… they are teaming up with a political party that is very strongly linked to terrorism, after they so relentlessly attempted to tear down support for Jeremy Corbyn by accusing him of terrorist links for having open peace talks with the IRA. Well, we all stood against that rubbish and we knew how wrong it was, but many Tory members seemed to struggle to understand the truth and used it as their key debate topic against Labour. Now what do they have to say? Any of them with even a tiny bit of integrity should be turning against ‘mummy’ right now.
The DUP are also anti-women’s rights and anti-LGBT. They do not believe in evolution or climate change. Couple this with the fact Theresa May wants to rip apart human rights and we are rightly angry and scared. It feels totally unjust – we did not vote for the DUP and their backwards stance is totally against the vast majority of our views – we are FOR equal rights, and their warped perspective makes us ill. However, the Conservatives got enough votes to put them in the position to make this choice, and it is the Conservatives that have chosen this party to lead with them. That is what we need to remember. Would Jeremy Corbyn have made this choice? Not in a million years. Theresa May and her nasty party are not to be trusted. People will have to finally admit this. Surely?
Was this democratic?
We didn’t vote for the Tories and the DUP and it seems extremely unfair that we have to just put up with it. People are asking if it is time to move to a new voting system, such as proportional representation. This seems a valid question when we consider that the DUP received a total of 292,316 votes and got 10 seats whereas the Greens received a total of 524,604 votes and obtained just 1 seat.
Theresa May just cannot admit she’s wrong
When so many of her loyal MPs lost their seats after months of hard work and servitude, she didn’t even bother to acknowledge them in her first speech. This was met with public outcry that she hadn’t apologised for their loss. So, she slinked back for a short speech saying sorry – but like any apology that we hear from May it sounded more like Harry Enfield’s Kevin shouting SORRY at his parents when he clearly thinks it’s everybody else’s fault. She made so, so many mistakes throughout the entire election – she was so bad that every marginal seat she visited voted Labour! Yet she just won’t admit it. There’s no apology for letting her party down, and letting her country down. We are just greeted with excuse and excuse. You’d think this might open some eyes up to her lies and incompetence, and hopefully it will, but instead will we just see more preposterous actions like vowing to rip apart human rights rather than rectify her mistakes?
End of print – but the beginning of censorship?
The Canary reported that “A BBC editor declares the end of the tabloid media, which is now going into meltdown” and this is fantastic. We have seen huge rise in the statistics of views on the fantastic online news sources such as The Canary, Evolve Politics and Another Angry Voice, and there’s no denying that these independent resources have had a huge hand to play in fighting the smear campaign led by the mainstream media. However, Theresa May pledged to ‘create a new internet that would be controlled and regulated by government’ and we are going to have a fight against censorship on our hands.
“Some people say that it is not for government to regulate when it comes to technology and the internet. We disagree.”
Theresa May
The BBC are blaming Labour voters
Yesterday the BBC interviewed people on the streets of the UK about their voting choice and they responded to Labour voters by saying “But your vote has created the country’s instability, hasn’t it?” and it’s catching – Tory supporters are now preaching that Labour supporters have caused this. So it is clear that the press are still against Labour, the public are still trying to blame Labour in anyway possible, and we still have a fight on our hands.
Conclusion
Jeremy Corbyn has made history with the best campaign Labour has ever seen. He has proven so many haters wrong and has done his supporters proud. He has inspired a country and given society back their faith in their neighbours. People really do care, people really can make a difference and people really are good. But the fight is not over. He has laid the foundations, and what fabulous foundations they are. Now we need to ensure that the wounded and weak Conservatives are kicked out as soon as we can possibly get rid of them, and we need to work together to ensure this happens.
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