The Tories are the party of the middle class and wealthy people in our society and really don’t care about anyone else. Under their governance food banks have thrived and poorer people are poorer. As long as they are in government, this trend will continue.
The Tories brought us Brexit through Cameron’s efforts to bring his Party together and to take the Ukip vote for his own.
So, all in all, the Tories are toxic to this country unless you are doing alright already.
Theresa May has had to deal with her more crazed Brexiteers for a couple of years and in doing so has further divided this country by trying to be very firm and very clear that ‘Brexit means Brexit’ and other such nonsense.
But now we stagger closer towards the ‘no deal’ cliff edge and for our still divided country time is running out.
Suddenly May comes up with a Brexit deal that apparently doesn’t do as much damage as could happen with a no-deal. Something which allows us to continue to trade with the EU and yet restricts immigration from EU – something dear to the hearts of the xenophobes.
We are still doing the dumbest thing in economic history – by leaving the EU – but suddenly we are not being as dumb about it as we could have been. We will suffer economically but it should not be as damaging. It is no where near as good as staying in but it could be a lot worse.
This deal will be put to Parliament and the MPs will have their say and much now will depend on how Labour and the SNP and DUP and Libdems vote – but mostly Labour because they have so many MPs.
On the face of it – if Parliament votes it down, then we face a serious hazard to our economic future as a country – that of ‘no-deal’ or just ongoing uncertainty into the near future.
For me Corbyn, as leader of the opposition, can no longer sit on the fence and leave the Tories to flounder and fail because he wants a General Election – as he has done so far. If he decides not to support May’s deal and we go on to suffer real harm as a nation because of his party political manoeuvres to get into number 10 then he shares to blame for the outcome.
The cynical Tories have done much harm for their own ideology and political gain but they have come up with something that might prevent the worst Brexit. Labour, under Corbyn, have tried to leave them to fail whilst sitting on the fence and committing to nothing – whilst simply claiming that they would negotiate a better deal but won’t say how.
This equally cynical party political manoeuvring can only last a little longer. They will have to support the least worst outcome – May’s plan – or risk greater damage by allowing it to fail and leaving us in danger of greater harm as a country.
Even if Corbyn gets his General Election and wins – he will still do Brexit and may not get a better deal. Worse still for us – he might be left deal with an even greater mess left by the Tories happy to claim it was no fault of his as the last of the Tories of this generation run away to their sheds and keep their heads down. Meanwhile our children are poorer for generations.
One way or another, Corbyn can no longer sit on the Brexit fence.
If he decides to do politics with Brexit and not make the most distasteful pragmatic compromise for the Country and support May’s plan – then we should hold him equally responsible for any subsequent harm done.
If he staggers into number 10 at the cost of the UK being much poorer – just for the sake of getting there, then he should be held as accountable for this as the toxic Tories – even as they run and hide.