On the 4th of July, the United Kingdom held a general election. We had been expecting it later in the year, but Rishi Sunak (spoiler alert) now or ex Prime Minister, surprised us on the 22nd of May, as he stood outside Downing Street, drenched in the pouring rain, and announced that we would be going to the polls in 6 weeks. We all knew long before the election was called that the opposition party, Labour, would win. The Conservatives, after 14 long years in government, 5 Prime Ministers, one of whom was also the shortest serving PM, Liz Truss, with their devastating handling of the COVID pandemic, didn’t stand a chance. The only thing of note was how epic the Conservative loss would be. As it stands they only have 121 of the 650 seats available, that’s a loss of 252 seats (MP’s) from 2019! And although I love to celebrate a Conservative defeat, in this case, they have opened the doors to the even more racist Reform UK, led by none other than Nigel Farage. This new iteration of the Brexit Party managed to gain 4 seats and received 14 percent of the total votes, and fascist-in-chief Farage finally managed to win himself a seat in the UK Parliament, on his eighth attempt, in Clacton-on-Sea. So we all know which part of Essex to avoid like the plague (which incidentally you might catch if you swim in some of its infested beaches!!). Maybe Nigel should go for a daily dip!

A Labour victory of course means nothing. Sir Kid Starver, who approved the switching off of water and electricity to a besieged population is Gaza, most of whom were women and children, shouldn’t inspire confidence in anyone other than lawyers from the International Criminal Court. No one, including himself, really knows what he stands for. He won the Labour leadership by pandering to the left and then immediately stabbed them in the back. He went on to reverse all ten of his pledges, including scrapping tuition fees, ending the two child benefit limit, increasing income tax for the richest 5 percent and the nationalisation of public services. Essentially he is a Tory wearing a red tie.

One of the most interesting talking points from this election should be the fact that Labour have won a huge majority in the house when in reality they have lost their overall share of the vote. This is because the UK (still) uses “first past the post” voting system rather than the more democratic proportional representation (PR). There are 650 seats in the UK Parliament each representing a constituency. Voters get a single choice from a list of candidates. In some places these votes were very close. For example Leanne Mohammed, an Independent candidate standing in Ilford North, lost by 528 votes to the incumbent, Labour’s Wes Streeting slashing his share of the vote by over 20% from the 2019 election. In Sir Kids Starvers own constituency he only managed to get 18,884 votes compared to 36,641 in 2019, highlighting how unpopular he is. Independent candidates, along with those from smaller parties did exceptionally well given they have nowhere near the level of funding Labour and Conservatives have and only had 6 weeks to organise and mobilise. So, although Labour managed to get only 34% of the overall votes nationally, that translated into 412 MPs which in turn is 63% of seats in Parliament. That’s not representative nor democratic. In 2019, when Labour suffered one of its biggest “defeats” under Jeremy Corbyn, the overall party received over 10 million votes. On July the 4th, when Labour won by an alleged landslide, its share of the national vote was down to 9,712,011! The Voter turnout was reportedly 60%, declining from 67.3% in 2019, making it the lowest since 2001.

More and more voters are turning away from the main parties, as this election has shown. Unfortunately the first-past-the-post voting system doesn’t reflect the reality of the vast majority of voters and favours the two main parties. It discourages people from voting as many people believe its a two horse race so their vote doesn’t count, and in many ways it doesn’t. It scares people into voting for parties they don’t necessarily align with, in order to keep out the greater of two evils! Under PR the result of this election would look enormously different. Labour would crucially not have an outright majority with 221 seats. The Conservatives would have 156 seats, the Liberal Democrats would have 78 seats, the Greens would have 45. Plaid Cymru, six or seven seats; and the SNP 13 seats. Reform UK (the far right, racist party) would have around 91 seats with the remaining seats going to Independents. I know its scary to think that the far right would benefit under PR, but if we truly believe in democracy we can’t be afraid of its more fringe and extremist voices. In fact, maybe it would encourage more of us to participate rather than yo-yo between the Conservative and Labour every few years, particularly as there is absolutely no tangible difference between the two.

What we should be celebrating in this election cycle is the amazing efforts of grassroots activists who have made Labour pay for their support of Israel’s genocide. (you didn’t think I wouldn’t talk about that?) Many of Labours big names, including Kid Starver himself, lost a huge amount of support. We manged to elect five actual left wing MP’s (I know there are still a few good eggs in Labour, but this election was about not supporting genocide and therefore not voting Labour!). Jeremy Corbyn, Shockat Adam, Iqbal Mohamed, Adnan Hussain and Ayoub Khan. These independents took on the juggernaut of electoral machinery, and won. They didn’t have the backing of millionaires or special interest powers and states, or any of the media coverage the main parties and Reform UK had, and still they ran and they won. That is epic. In six weeks they managed to overturn strong majorities, just imagine what a well organised and decently funded radical left block can achieve in the future if we continue to build on this momentum. Leanne Mohammed, Muhammed Islam, Jody McIntyre, Amjal Masroor and James Giles all came an incredibly close second in their constituencies. Again that’s phenomenal. In the coming days and weeks we will hear a lot about the white nationalists Reform, and how they have have destroyed the Conservative vote, but less so about the tremendous gains on the left. If anything it will be described in pejorative terms as “islamist” or with disparaging comments from liberal elites who know so much more about everything than everyone else. The Independents have as many seats as Reform and have done so without resorting to dog whistle politics. They have voted with their conscience and not bigotry. They have won hearts and minds and not simply appealed to the lowest common denominator.

The current state of the UK shouldn’t inspire confidence in anyone. For 10 months now we have been peacefully protesting, in our millions, to end the genocide in Gaza. And yet each week we are met by increasing levels of state sanctioned violence. Will this change under a Labour government? We continue to sell arms to despots, from Modi in India, King Salman in Saudi and Netanyahu (formally known as Benzion Mileikowsky!) in Israel, all of whom have hideous human rights records. Will this change under a Labour government? Our art institutions are maligned with money from big oil companies. They are not only destroying the lives of people in the UK they are complicit in the destruction of homes and livelihood across the globe, including animals, oceans and forests. Will Labour change any of this? Libraries are closing across the country, our schools are failing and no longer have qualified teachers, no one can see a GP, appointments are almost exclusively on the telephone and healthcare is increasingly being privatised. Will Labour change this? People are being underpaid and overworked. Many can’t afford the essentials of living such as heat in the winter. Baby formula is security protected in supermarkets, and rather than ask why parents are having to steal food, we demonise the poor because they can’t afford to feed their children. What will Labour, originally a left leaning socialist party, do about this? Just three companies dominate 90% of print media in this country the BBC is the mouth piece of the government although it is supposed to be impartial, and our politicians pander to billionaire press barons rather than serve the public. We’ve seen Kid Starver demonise the Bangladeshi community and blame immigration to appeal to The Sun “readers” (I’m not sure how you classify people who buy that particular paper). Now he is elected, will he suddenly do a U-Turn? Corporations have more wealth than small countries, and yet they are not taxed anywhere near as much as they should be. Politicians are paid from multiple sources, undercutting their integrity. They are bought and sold to the highest bidder and serve the interests of companies and countries and not the British people. Twelve of the 15 ministerial positions have been given to Labour MP’s who have been funded by pro-Israeli lobbies including Kid Starver himself. Whose interest will this Labour government be serving? People are now expected to work until 67. The average male life expectancy in the UK is 78. Do we work to live or live to work, and how are those are only two choices?

If we really want to see change in this beautiful land of ours, we need to be prepared to be radical. Swapping our privately educated, millionaire leaders every four years wont result in any meaningful change. No movement in the history of the world has seen those in charge concede any of their power wilfully or peacefully. We need to state our terms and be prepared to fight for them. We need to be ready to be uncomfortable. The election might be over, but our fightback has only just begun. We can’t let those who oppress us dictate the terms of our struggle. We have to reclaim not only our institutions and our rights but also our language. It’s not an exaggeration to say that the state of our democracy depends on it.