On your marks. Get set. Vote
The election seems to have an air of inevitability to it- and Labour’s victory will at least see a shake-up of government
July 4 is almost here, and with it one of the most hotly anticipated elections in recent years. A Labour victory feels as though it is around the corner, but plenty of people will be happier to see the end of the Conservatives rather than see Keir Starmer move into number 10.
Election fever has gripped the nation, and although this may be a bit of hyperbole, there are plenty of eyes on July 4. This could be true even if it only applies to those who get a real kick out of politics. The timer is ticking down on this Conservative Government, and many people in this country label it as a sort of Independence Day.
Having spent the second half of my life under a Conservative government, I admit that a Labour PM would be a real change in many ways. The policies of this particular Labour government will sometimes feel that there’s been no real change.
The Gordon Brown government handed the keys over to a Tory/Lib Dem coalition, and the grasp of the Conservatives got tighter through the 2010s. A selection of Prime Ministers occupied number 10 for only two more years than the entire Margaret Thatcher premiership.
David Cameron, Theresa May, Boris Johnson, Liz Truss and Rishi Sunak have each promised so much and delivered so little. Cameron’s decision to trigger a Brexit referendum back in 2016 set the nation on a path that has seen the Tories unable to get it back on track and has turned on aiming at Labour for its issues despite the fact it’s been 14 years since Labour was last in power.
The election campaign for the Conservatives this time around seems to be putting a lot of effort into saying how Labour will roll the red carpet out for people immigrating to the UK. This is off the back of the ongoing, technically illegal plan to fly those waiting to immigrate to this country to Rwanda. Not a single one of these flights has taken off, and their cruel plan has fallen apart.
Labour’s immigration policy will change from that of the Conservatives. Keir Starmer said in an interview that they would scrap the Rwanda policy, including the immigration flights.
There is an air of desperation in the Tory election campaigning. One such advert suggests that Keir Starmer is aiming to seize power ‘for a generation’ by giving 16-year-olds the right to vote. A government on the ropes will kick out in this way, and what Labour do with this opportunity once they get over the line on polling results day needs to be far away from what the Conservatives have left this country with.
This strange attitude to campaigning took another turn when perhaps the strangest piece of election literature I’ve ever received dropped through my letterbox. It is a letter that the Conservatives have sent out, with my name on it, suggesting it was written by me in the year 2044. They say that I voted for Reform in 2024 and as a result, I helped get Labour in. Research showed that this was a tactic used by the Tories in seats Reform viewed as a target- we’ll see how successful this was on Friday.
The election is a big deal for this country, but whether or not significant changes will be afoot will not be clear until at least a few months into the work of a new government. The attitude of the country does seem unified in one thing, however.
Whether it's Reform looking to chip away at Tory seats, or Labour aiming to capitalise on people’s loss of faith in the government- a desire to see the Conservatives voted out has been reflected in polls and stats across the country. July 5 could see the UK waking up to a Labour government for the first time in almost 15 years, will it be the change this country deserves? We all certainly hope so.
