Vote that would give us Christmas cheer
IT’S ON! And how appropriate that after dragging it out for almost as much time as it takes to fight a world war, this time it really “will all be over by Christmas”, as was the tragically optimistic claim in July 1914 when the First World War began. “It” being the election, of course, not Brexit which is the present that 17.4million British people wanted more than anything this year.
Boxed in by a skilful and evidently buoyant Boris Johnson, Labour’s Jeremy Corbyn finally woke up to what the rest of us have been seeing for months: his absurd position that having asked for a general election on countless occasions, his pathetically lame rejection of the opportunity time after time had run out of road.
In the process, we have said farewell to one of the most unrepresentative, dissembling, duplicitous and disgraceful parliaments in living memory. This bunch of (mostly) hapless back-slappers were handed a simple instruction three and a half years ago: negotiate the UK’S departure from the EU. It turned out this crowd would struggle to carry out the garbage, let alone a complicated political act.
They’ve regularly been derided as a Zombie parliament. If only! Unlike any
Zombie you’ve ever seen in the movies, the place was riddled with a platoon of arrogant, self-obsessed, preening lawyers who would study the most obscure legal texts to ensure Brexit was blocked at every possible turn.
Courtesy of a book about Theresa May’s tenure as Prime Minister, May At 10, by acclaimed biographer Anthony Seldon to be published this week, we now know Mrs May, then Home Secretary, wept when she learnt the result of the referendum.
She was not to be alone.
Most of us have been weeping pretty much ever since. Mrs May approached the EU on her knees, seeing Brexit as a disaster to be managed rather than a cry from the heart of so many ordinary citizens.
The subsequent years of betrayal and bickering have taken an unparalleled toll on the standing of politicians.
To go into an election where the approval rating of the three main party leaders is so abysmal is without precedent. In normal times, Boris Johnson’s plus two per cent rating would see him being written off, but when compared with Jeremy Corbyn’s minus 40 per cent and Lib Dem Jo Swinson’s minus 18 per cent, it puts him close to X Factor winner status!
Until the end, so many of them tried to
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‘Mrs May approached Brexit on her knees’
stop the impending general election, and with good reason. It will be career-ending for many high profile politicians – and they might need counselling to cope with no longer being on the radio and TV.
For many of you, I do understand, the next six weeks will be unbearable.
As you are putting up the decorations your festive joy is likely to be soured by the appearance of your local MP asking if he or she can count on your vote. Given how many have behaved, it might be more apt to ask if you can count on theirs!
But try to stick with it. You’ll hear from so many newsreaders, political reporters and politicians that this is the “most crucial election in modern times” and it is vital to do your damnedest to stay tuned in, particularly if the early skirmishes are anything to go by. Take Corbyn’s spurious claim that if Boris Johnson was victorious, he’d sell off parts of the NHS to Donald Trump. Never mind that the PM denies it and the President derides it, the “fake news” drags on.
Then, look at Corbyn’s opening election speech in which he decided to shame certain high-profile figures he named as being dodgy landlords or tax cheats.
Remember his first speech to a Labour conference in 2015 when he urged delegates to “treat people with respect”, promised there would be “no rudeness from me” and said it was time to “cut out the personal abuse”? So much for that, then.
The timing isn’t perfect, but Corbyn and Labour gaining power would be everyone’s Nightmare Before Christmas.