Merry Christmas one and all

Once again this blog has hit a fallow patch. Are they happening more often? Have I finally run out of things to say? Is my well of inspiration running dry? I think perhaps I am too close to myself to see clearly. What I can say for certain is that I am running on empty. Christmas is fun, and busy, and full. But I am now the generation who takes responsibility for looking after those both older and younger than myself, so it's not so much a break as an exercise in logistical precision, with one slip leading to food poisoning all round, or being on the receiving end of a look of hurt betrayal from a beloved relation as you realise there was one present you forgot to buy.

I am now reaching the stage of the Christmas holiday where I'm wondering if it's time to go back to work yet. Not, I hasten to add, because I prefer work to spending time with my bears, but because life is frankly considerably easier when there is a routine to stick to and I don't have to think about what's happening when and how and where all the time. I don't have to plan, or travel or entertain, or pack, or wrap. On the other hand... LittleBear's football season restarts on 11th January, so there go my weekends again... Can I have some more Christmas holiday please?

Only four people, and all those presents

Thoughts

"The country has spoken"

No doubt we will hear that over and over again from our Prime Minister. And it has, though in a rather strangulated whisper thanks to the distortions of our political system.

A gain of 1.2% of the vote share, to a total of 43.6%*, has given the Conservative party a sizeable majority.

Pro-Remain/pro-second-referendum parties had a total vote share of 49%.

Is the country's voice really that clear?

I would say that it isn't, but also that it doesn't matter. There is a large majority in the House of Commons to push through Conservative policies, and there's nothing I can do to change that.

On the other hand, do we have any idea what the Prime Minister actually thinks or believes? He has a long and varied history of lying, and has carefully made sure he made few concrete promises during this election campaign. I genuinely have no idea if he has any beliefs, or ideologies, that extend beyond himself. I fear the unknown of a Johnson leadership, as much as I fear the known of Conservative policies of cutting public spending, cutting taxes for the wealthy and selling our public services to the highest bidder.

I held BigBear and LittleBear in bed this morning as I felt sick and tired and I promised them both that we could still try to make the world around us a better place. Whoever is in power, I can still choose, every day, to try to help those less fortunate than myself. I can try to make positive changes in my life that protect the environment, that ease suffering, that bring light to other people's lives. I cannot change the policies of the government; I cannot increase funding for schools or libraries or hospitals or the police or legal aid or social housing or welfare.

I feel sad, angry and depressed that we have a Prime Minister who is a known liar, racist and homophobe.

I feel sad, angry and depressed that we have elected politicians who have expressed some truly horrible views on race and religion.

I feel sad, angry and depressed at the racism and populism I now see around me on a regular basis.

I feel sad, angry and depressed that we are now destined to leave the EU under whatever terms the Conservatives now choose, with no brakes upon their ambition.

But I will fight to be true to my own values of compassion, empathy, support and love. I will be the person I want the world to have.

It's the only thing I can do.



* The small percentage change in vote share has increased the number of Conservative seats from 298 to 364.
1.2% gain in votes is a 12% gain in seats.
43.6% of the vote has translated to 56% of the seats.

A poem

As I drove across town in the lashing rain to cast a proxy vote for a friend, a line of a poem came back to me. It was a poem by Rudyard Kipling, entitled "A Dead Statesman", from a series called "Epitaphs of the War" - a series of epitaphs he conjured up as though written by those who died during the First World War.

I could not dig: I dared not rob: 

Therefore I lied to please the mob. 

Now all my lies are proved untrue 

And I must face the men I slew. 

What tale shall serve me here among 

Mine angry and defrauded young?

 Our "statesmen" (if only we had some) are not dead, and nor are millions of our young, but the sentiment feels pretty apposite to me.

Remind me again...

A week ago, I started writing daily posts on Facebook, highlighting the ways in which society has been negatively affected by the policies of the Conservative party. I was going to keep going until election day, but honestly? I am too angry to keep doing this. I am filled with rage and sadness at the ways in which the poor, the vulnerable, the weak and the needy have been punished. I know I will not be voting Conservative, and I know why. I've done my small bit on social media to share some of those reasons, and now I'm going to aggregate those reasons and share them here as well.

Homelessness

At the end of 2018, there were 62,000 homeless families living in temporary accommodation in England alone. These families included 124,000 children¹.

There are 80% more children living in temporary accommodation than there were in 2010.

These figures do not include families or children who are "sofa-surfing" instead of relying on their Local Authority. The Children's Commissioner's Office estimates another 92,000 children are living in "sofa-surfing" families².

Remind me again why you're voting Conservative?

Policing

Police numbers have fallen by 20,600 between March 2010 and March 2019, representing a 14% drop in number of police officers. Taking into account a rising population, this is a cut of 19% in the number of police officers per head of population³.

Knife crime (excluding Greater Manchester, who didn't submit figures in time) has increased from 30,620 reported incidents per year in March 2011 to 44,076 per year in March 2019, an increase of 44%⁴.

Remind me again why you're voting Conservative?

Justice

Since 2010...

162 magistrates’ courts have closed, out of 323,
90 county courts have closed, out of 240,
18 dedicated tribunal buildings have closed, out of 83,
17 family courts have closed, out of 185,
8 crown courts have closed, out of 92.⁵

Legal aid spending has been cut by 37% between 2010 and 2018, with the Ministry of Justice suffering more cuts than any other government department. Access to justice? What access to justice?⁶

Remind me again why you're voting Conservative?

NHS

In 2005, a policy book entitled "Direct Democracy: An Agenda For A New Model Party" was published, co-authored by (among others) Michael Gove, Daniel Hannan, Greg Clark, David Gauke, Jeremy Hunt and Kwasi Kwarteng. All Conservative MPs or MEPs, in case you hadn't spotted it. Among the many statements advocating moving from our current system of a National Health Service towards a private, insurance-based system, is this one:

“Our ambition should be to break down the barriers between private and public provision, in effect denationalising the provision of health care in Britain.⁷"

Remind me again why you're voting Conservative?

Food banks

In the last five years, food bank use in the Trussell Trust network has increased by 73%, so that in the past year alone, nearly 1.6 million three-day emergency food parcels were supplied to people in crisis.

More than half a million of these parcels went to children⁸.

Remind me again why you're voting Conservative?

Disability benefit

Approximately 1,600 working-age disabled people have died every year over the past five years within six months of having their claim for disability benefits rejected⁹.

Remind me again why you're voting Conservative?

Education

Since the 2015/16 academic year, my son's school has seen a real terms funding cut of £200 per pupil.¹⁰

Remind me again why you're voting Conservative?


You may think that this isn't you. Maybe you don't vote Conservative. Maybe you do vote Conservative, but you do so for their policies on other matters. But if you do vote Conservative this is you. This is what you've chosen. This is what you've endorsed. This is what you are happy to allow to happen in your name. This is a price you think is worth paying. These lives. These people. These children.  And I do hold you responsible. Maybe you wanted lower taxation, or tighter immigration controls. Maybe you wanted less state intervention in business. Maybe you wanted looser banking regulations. Maybe you wanted a referendum on our membership of the EU. I don't know what you wanted, but this is what you got. This is what you chose for all of us. You own this. This is you.

Remind me again why you're voting Conservative?

¹ https://www.gov.uk/government/statistical-data-sets/live-tables-on-homelessness

² https://www.childrenscommissioner.gov.uk/wp-content/uploads/2019/08/cco-bleak-houses-report-august-2019.pdf

³ https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/police-workforce-england-and-wales-31-march-2019

⁴ https://www.ons.gov.uk/peoplepopulationandcommunity/crimeandjustice/bulletins/crimeinenglandandwales/yearendingjune2019

⁵ https://researchbriefings.parliament.uk/ResearchBriefing/Summary/CDP-2019-0156

⁶ www.theguardian.com/law/2018/dec/26/legal-aid-how-has-it-changed-in-70-years

⁷ p78 of whatwouldvirchowdo.files.wordpress.com/2015/09/direct_democracy___an_agenda_for_a_new_model_party.pdf

⁸ https://www.trusselltrust.org/2019/04/25/record-1-6m-food-bank-parcels/

⁹ https://www.parliament.uk/business/publications/written-questions-answers-statements/written-question/Commons/2019-01-17/209778

¹⁰ https://commonslibrary.parliament.uk/social-policy/education/schools/constituency-data-schools-funding/