An autumn election?

WERE you surprised by the number of people who said they did not know which way to vote in the recent election? Perhaps you were one of them. As with the Referendum there were promises and counter promises and arrogant presumptions about the electorate on both sides - generating uncertainty about who to believe.

The goal of most people is to improve their material conditions. Commonly this can only come through hard work, ingenuity and an enterprising soul. The purpose of government is to create the conditions that give hope whether to nurses, teachers, technologists, entrepreneurs or students.

Two party state: the old versus the young

The last thing we needed was a decisionneutralising parliament. The Prime Minister said that this election was about Brexit but nobody listened. Jeremy Corbyn’s intergenerational coup has changed politics by hitching a ride on the young’s loss of faith in capitalism but the millennials know nothing of the failure of socialism in the 1970s.

Failure of socialism generates poverty because it destroys jobs and the incentive to create them. Would you risk your house on a business venture knowing that if you did succeed the fiscal system would severely penalise you?

Risk versus reward Mr Corbyn. Seventies Britain was a two-party state: management versus workers. Their failure to negotiate destroyed manufacturing long before Mrs Thatcher came along.

A hung parliament now means nothing gets done and the EU keeps reminding us the clock is ticking. How swiftly political advantage can swing from one side to the other and oh how they enjoy their schadenfreude.

I hope we eventually achieve a government that can create the right conditions to enable motivated, enterprising people to achieve their goals – along with social compassion for those who can’t.

Wasn’t this the hope Mrs May offered without the theatrical Marxism of Mr Corbyn. Left of centre Conservatism promised ‘social democracy and justice fit for the modern world. It isn’t looking too promising right now – threatening another gamble on another election. Thank you Mrs May.

The young need futures and this includes houses but nobody seems able or willing to tackle this problem. It’s pointless building more houses if only rich people buy them to rent out at extortionate rates. Parental help for the ‘haves’ inflates prices and further diminishes the hopes of the ‘have nots’.

Most of working Europe rents but renting is more humanely controlled on the mainland than here in ‘rip-off’ Britain.

Having watched the film I, Daniel Blake I can only applaud Mr Corbyn if he can deliver his promises (should he get the chance) without bankrupting the country. Tory austerity measures affects the poor not the rich but it seems austerity measures have done little so far to reduce the national debt. Incidentally where does the biggest segment of student debt come from; tuition fees or landlords exploiting the availability of dreary houses in university suburbs?

Questions, questions.

How will you vote in the autumn election? Do you decide along ideological principles devoid of pragmatism or for the party most likely to provide a prosperous future?

Will the Prime Minister miraculously emerge as the pragmatist able to neutralise the need for another election and achieve an acceptable Brexit for the many?

If there is a product differential between the parties it is surely that one is driven by ideology and the other by pragmatism. You need to decide which is likely to deliver the best outcome for everyone – in deed and not rhetoric.

What do you think? Email your thoughts to letters@wokinghampaper.co.uk