Vote to be free and reject politics of hate
This Thursday, Britain votes in an election that will change history. The choice is simple: either vote Tory or end up with a Labour-led coalition. And the question hanging over the heads of the voters is nothing less than this: “what kind of country do we want to live in?” Is it a country that believes in democracy? Is it a country where it’s not just the elites that make the most important decisions but where the citizens have the final say? If so, the party to back are the Conservatives, who will respect the result of the Brexit referendum and take us out of the EU.
Boris Johnson has a withdrawal deal on the table agreed to by Europe. His Australian style immigration system would shift to a regime of temporary visas for unskilled labour, while encouraging exceptional and skilled people to move here – a concrete example of how public opinion can be reflected in public policy. Labour, by contrast, voted for endless delay and now promises a bogus renegotiation followed by a second referendum, the only point of which is to overturn the first. Jeremy Corbyn says he won’t campaign either way. A man who has strong opinions on everything from nationalising broadband to reviewing the Allotments Act can’t make up his mind on Brexit. He might privately be a eurosceptic, but he is serving the cause of the anti-democratic Remain elite.
Do we want to be a rich, dynamic, capitalist economy or a bankrupt socialist one? Freedom – freedom to work hard, take risks, make money and spend it how you choose – is what has pushed the post-Cold War world to new heights of prosperity and progress. Mr Johnson believes in this to his core: he understands that Britain must keep tax and regulation as light as possible. Mr Corbyn, by contrast, is motivated by deep-seated socialist envy. His nationalisations, tax raids and absurd spending are only the beginning – the first step towards creating a Marxist economy in which the Government is in control. We’ve seen where this leads many times before. In Venezuela, the shelves are empty and the health crisis so acute that patients bring their own medical supplies to the hospital.
Do we want to be a secure country? Mr Johnson is the most radically pro-law and order Tory leader for a generation – and he is absolutely right that it won’t just take more police officers to keep us safe but also sentencing reform. He will finally put an end to Labour’s automatic early release. Mr Corbyn, on the other hand, is emblematic of the human rights establishment that for decades has weakened our justice system, just as his position on defence has so often been anti-British. Mr Corbyn has questioned Nato and the nuclear deterrent; he has had links to the IRA. He has described Hamas and Hizbollah as “friends”.
Which brings us to the question that it is hard to believe must even be asked: should our country have an anti-Semitic prime minister?
The Chief Rabbi has warned that Labour has left many British Jews “gripped by anxiety”, and the submission of the Jewish Labour Movement to an inquiry into Labour’s anti-Semitism – detailing countless examples of abuse – concludes that Mr Corbyn has “made the party a welcoming refuge for anti-Semites”. A vote for Labour, even an anti-Corbyn MP, would put an institutionally racist party in power. And a vote for any party other than the Conservatives amounts to the same, because Remain MPs will happily prop up Mr Corbyn if it gets them a second referendum. Or even a third: the SNP’s price for parliamentary support is yet another vote on Scottish independence.
None of this chaos is necessary. Britain in 2019 is a strong country on the verge of great things. Mr Johnson understands Brexit and its potential because he really is Mr Brexit: it was his columns for the Telegraph that exposed the madness of Brussels and his leadership of the Leave campaign that helped win the referendum. If Mr Johnson gets his majority and then gets Brexit right – if he promotes free trade and frees up the economy – then there are no limits to the potential of our people, especially with our democracy and institutions renewed by independence. The Conservative Party under its new leader understands that the first job of the state is to keep us safe, and while the Tories promises extra spending, their heart still lies with enterprise and voluntary effort – with liberty.
This is a democratic and free country; fiercely independent, kind and sceptical of ideology. It is governed by the unwritten laws of common sense. In that spirit, we strongly urge our readers to vote Conservative, and not to waste a vote on any other party. Here is an opportunity to say “yes” to Brexit and to reject totally Labour’s politics of hate.
‘Do we want to be a rich, dynamic, capitalist economy or a bankrupt socialist one?’
‘If Mr Johnson frees up the economy, then there are no limits to the potential of our people’