A new dawn for Britain? It’s about time
The Labour Party has taken advantage of a Conservative polling collapse of groundbreaking proportions- but the people of the UK need this to mean change
Change. It’s a word that made up a large and all-round basic part of the Labour Party campaign for this election. 14 years of Tory rule had left the people of the UK desperate for change, and Labour benefitted from this as did- to a lesser extent- the Liberal Democrats.
Keir Starmer made this simple pledge to the public and, with the dust settling on the morning after the night before, it looks to have worked. Across the country, people have rejected the Tories in huge numbers, with Labour gaining a majority the size of which we’ve not seen in decades. The huge number kept growing through the morning, and plenty of big-name tories suffered the consequences of their party failing to resonate.
In his victory speech, Starmer mentioned this word change again. He outlined how it’s what the people of this country wanted, and now he’s been given a mandate to actually do it.
He said: “The people spoke and they’re ready for change, to end the politics of performance “The change begins right here. Because this is your democracy, your community, and your future. You have voted. It is now time for us to deliver.”
To say this has been a route of the Tories would be the understatement of the century. Labour passed the required 326 seats for a majority with dozens of seats still yet to declare results. This is one of the biggest margins of victory the UK has seen in an election in well over a century, and Labour’s campaigners and newly elected MP’s will be enjoying this- and so they should.
However, they’ll be straight into their new jobs at the deep end. The people have trusted Labour with key social issues and it is now up to this new government to go into the lives of the public and actually try to make them better- ideally reversing a lot of the hardship many endured over the last 14 years.
The night was memorable for The Green Party also. Predicted to add just one seat to their existing total in the exit poll, Greens won three seats and ended the election on four seats- including a big win in Bristol. This is the same number of seats as Nigel Farage’s Reform Party- yet the attention given to the new Clacton MP and his party would suggest to someone uninformed that Greens were light years behind them. Reform had their sights set higher, but nevertheless they have a presence in parliament for the first time ever.
On a final note, I want to bring you around to a line in a Billy Bragg song. In ‘Never Cross A Picket Line’ Bragg sings ‘The Tories Are Gone But There’s No Improvement, Where Is The Might Of The Labour Movement?’
Now this might mean that Bragg longs for a will that is still existent within the party, but the top echelons of Labour are a far cry from that of days gone by. Yet the point made could be a serious lesson for Starmer and Co. There needs to be improvement, and we need a party that will get stuck into government and not blame their predecessors. This Labour government needs to have a strong stance on international matters, and it needs to protect the rights of all who live under it, regardless of background.
