Change say Labour. In fact they are saying little else. But as a buzzword I like it. It really is a great slogan to use for an election. Simple & effective. I have to say if I didn’t know what had been going on the for last 5 years I would be very happy with it. But the trouble is there’s one hell of a massive problem with it. Because that’s all it is. It’s an empty slogan, a hollow catchphrase, a soundbite with no meat on the bones.

When I think of Labour’s Manifestos in 2017 & 2019 they were transformative documents that not only was I excited to vote for but proud to campaign for as well. In the last 45 years our country has been an experiment for a Neo Liberal project that makes the rich even richer & the poor poorer. We have been told for most of the time in those 45 years that basically there’s no alternative that this is how it’s got to be to remain economically sound & competitive . Since I was a late teenager I have always rejected that narrative but I have always voted Labour because there wasn’t any realistic alternative. That meant even though I had to hold my nose voting for Blair in 1997 & 2001.

So I was one of those people who was excited when Jeremy Corbyn stood for leader in 2015 & ecstatic when he became leader. I won’t rewrite history I’m proud to say I joined the Labour Party and campaigned for them because at last there was a real alternative. There was at last hope that things could be different like I always believed. Importantly I also discovered to my delight that I wasn’t some old out of touch fossil Socialist lots of people thought the same as me.

So without going into the Corbyn era with the election of Keir Starmer as leader although I didn’t vote for him I was going to stay a member & fight for the continuation of transformative policies which Starmer pledged to keep. However it didn’t take long for these policies to be dropped one by one while at the same time expelling & suspending Socialists. I left because I couldn’t stomach it anymore. That sounds like it was an easy decision it wasn’t. It took me months to make up my mind but when I did the relief I felt was tremendous.

So back to the Labour Manifesto. It has over 20 photos of Starmer in it. I mean why? That seems to me to be someone who’s got a massive ego. When you start to read it you can see it’s professionally written but what is it actually saying? Unfortunately there’s not a lot of substance, it’s empty, hollow & boring. So boring I actually fell asleep reading it I kid you not. There’s nothing there to inspire or give hope for the future. Labour have tied themselves in knots to show they are financially prudent & won’t overspend. The big problem with that is it means they are promising to do very little.

One of the narratives that has been used a lot over the last 45 years is that we have maxed out our Credit Card as a nation. That there isn’t any money left & the old classic that the economy is like a household budget. None of this is true but it’s been used as a very effective device to con people. The British Economy is not at all comparable to a household budget & we haven’t ran out of money. We are after all the 6th richest country in the world. So yet again Labour are pandering to the right wing in saying we have to be financially & fiscally responsible.

If we go back to 1945 when Labour won it’s first majority Government it was the end of World War 2. The country really was in a mess after 6 years of fighting. But this didn’t stop Labour transforming the Country by creating the NHS, taking Gas, Electric, Coal, Rail & Water into Public Ownership. So now when we are told we can’t afford to do anything I simply don’t believe it. What Labour mean is they won’t because they don’t want to which is very different.

The sad truth is that Starmer has changed the Labour Party but not for the many. What he is doing is turning Labour into the Conservative Party Mark 2. It says it all when billionaire’s like Jim Radcliffe & John Caldwell say they are voting Labour & cosying up to Starmer. It says it all when Labour refuse to scrape the 2 Child Benefit cap but refuse to put any cap on Bankers Bonus. It says it all when all Labour can say is Israel have a right to defend themselves without any criticism of Israel committing Genocide in Gaza against the Palestinians. It says it all when Labour’s Green New Deal has been reduced from 28 billion to under 5 billion. This is a party that has lost its way & forgotten why it was created for. Starmer is that desperate for power he will say literally anything to help get it.

Another important point is that I think it’s really bad for Democracy when the 2 main parties are so similar to each other. Now what I really fear is after 5 years of a Starmer Government the public will be even more fed up of politics because 5 years of Labour is going to be basically the same as the last 14 years of the Tories. Where do we go then ? While I think that will be a great opportunity for the Greens & Left parties to realign what we have to be aware of this will also be a huge opportunity for far right parties to grow as well. It looks like Reform are going to do well this Election as it is & we simply can’t afford for the right’s hateful & divisive agenda to grow.

All I’ve ever wanted is to get a fairer & more equal society. That’s what I thought the aims of the Labour Party were too but those objectives have been binned. That’s why for this Election & for the first time I will be voting Green because they are offering hope instead of more of the same. I’m hoping they get a few MP’s elected. Also I’m supporting various Independent Socialist candidates like Jeremy Corbyn but there are many others. I’m really hoping a couple of those get elected too. With them in Parliament & us outside my hope is we can at least pressurise the Labour Government not to do some of the right wing things I think they’ll try to do.

Also in these next few years us on the left need to work together more so by the next Election we don’t have cases like we have this year of places where there is a Green candidate & 2 Independent Socialists. This only splits the vote & plays into Labour & Tory hands which must change. We also need to get PR more of an issue because I really think we have to get rid of this first past the post system which thrives on the duopoly we have now.

So when we get told by the main parties we can’t afford to do this or that I will simply point out that we can & what’s more the bigger point is there’s so much we simply can’t afford not to do. The future has got to be for us all not for just the super rich elite. Please vote on July 4th. Vote Green or Independent Socialist.