19 Excuses Not to Vote Labour and Why Theyâre All Bullshit
(1) âJeremy Corbyn is a terrorist sympathiser.â
Nope. Jeremy Corbyn is a politician who has met with people he opposes as part of diplomatic efforts to achieve peace. Other people whoâve shaken hands with terrorists include Prince Charles, Nelson Mandela and every Prime Minister of the last 50 years. Even Tony Blair has said he regrets boycotting Hamas when it won the Palestinian elections in 2006. If the media had any interest in doing so, they could dig up pictures of literally any politician shaking hands with someone undesirable.
(2) âJeremy Corbyn is antisemitic.â
Labour definitely has an antisemitism problem, but itâs still the least problematic party in terms of racism. Despite several fuck-ups and slowness to react on Corbynâs part, he has done more to tackle antisemitism than any other party leader. Itâs absurd to hold him responsible for the actions of every person in a party that has half a million members and itâs absurd to pretend that Labourâs problems are comparable to the well documented antisemitism, anti-blackness and Islamophobia of the Tory party. Being wary of Labour antisemitism is understandable - voting for someone worse is not.
(3) âJeremy Corbyn will bankrupt the country.â
The amount of income our government can generate is not fixed at a certain level. It is only limited by the willingness of politicians to tax rich people. Britainâs corporation tax is below the European average and you donât see multinational corporations refusing to do business in France or Germany. Over 163 economists have put their name to a letter supporting Labourâs economic policies.
(4) âWe canât afford all these public services.â
Most of the services that Corbyn wants to nationalise are services that were already in state hands before they were privatised under the Tories in the 80s and 90s. This was never unaffordable - those services were prioritised because Margaret Thatcher believed that private companies were more efficient than the public sector. Labour isnât trying to do something unprecedented here, itâs about correcting errors that were made by previous governments. All of these services are already nationalised in Ireland and many other countries.Â
(5) âPeople will lose their jobs if Corbyn forces companies to improve working conditions.â
Companies like Amazon already operate in countries where theyâre forced into providing better conditions than they do in the UK. Companies like Burger King provide their Danish employees with better conditions than their US employees - because local laws determine what they can get away with. Multinational companies wonât give up lucrative markets just because their profit margins are slightly lower.
(6) âWe will have a recession if a 32 hour working week is introduced.â
There are numerous European countries where the average working week is less than 32 hours. Labour state that a 32 hour working week would improve productivity, and itâs hard to argue otherwise when we know that workplace stress is a leading cause of absence. And in any case, why should life be all about work?
(7) âCorbyn is an extremistâ
There is nothing extreme in the Labour manifesto. Many policies in Labourâs platform are common across Europe. The manifesto is social democratic rather than socialist. In any case you have to remember, the NHS was treated as a communist idea when it was founded. Corbyn is portrayed as an extremist because many rich people want things to remain the way they are.
(8) âCorbyn is terrible at debates and speeches.â
Many people would disagree with you, but in any case this doesnât really matter, does it? Youâre not electing someone to become chair of the Oxford debating society. This isnât a dramatic performance, itâs about policies. Labourâs policies can prevent the deaths of thousands of people.
(9) âCorbyn is a Brexiteer.â
This is such a ridiculous conspiracy theory. Corbyn voted Remain and campaigned for Remain. His ambivalence towards the EU is actually shared by many other Remainers - you donât have to love the EU to see that leaving is a bad idea.
Corbyn has done more than anyone else to prevent No Deal Brexit. Whilst the Lib Dems and Change UK refused to work with him, he quietly sabotaged every Tory attempt at Brexit. His policy on Brexit is the right one - we canât just ignore the 2016 referendum but people must be given a genuine choice between a workable Brexit deal and remaining within the EU. The question has to go back to the electorate, with No Deal taken off the table.
(10) âWe need to Get Brexit Done.â
Why? Havenât the last three years proved that Brexit is a far more complex process than anyone could have imagined? If we leave the EU now, we will still be hearing about it in 10 years from now because there will be years and years of complex negotiations to follow.
Corbyn wonât stand in the way of Brexit if thatâs what the electorate still wants, but given that weâre currently being given a choice between delaying Brexit forever or accepting a situation where we donât have access to food and medicines, itâs obvious that the Tories are not qualified to handle this situation.
(11) âI have to vote Liberal Democrat for tactical reasons.â
Voting Liberal Democrat in 2019 is no different from voting Tory. They have already stated that they wish to join another coalition with the Tories. Some of their candidates are ex-Tories. They refuse to apologise for the 120,000 extra deaths caused by austerity.
The only voters who have any excuse for not supporting Labour are those living in Northern Ireland, Brighton/Hove and certain parts of Scotland. The old rules of tactical voting donât apply in most of England and Wales right now.
(12) âIâm voting Green because of climate change.â
The only place where it makes sense to vote Green is in Brighton and Hove - they canât win anywhere else and your vote is too important to throw away. In any case, Friends of the Earth have declared that Labourâs manifesto is more impressive on climate change than the Green manifesto.
(13) âCorbyn is backed by the Russians.â
If Corbyn had such a major force on his side, you wouldnât see so much constant criticism of him in the media and the Tories wouldnât have so much more money behind them than Labour have. The Sun is printing conspiracy theorists about âextreme leftists.â The BBC is allowing Boris Johnson to talk absolute rubbish without challenging him. Itâs pretty damn clear that all the heavy influence here is working against Corbyn.
(14) âJeremy Corbyn is a threat to national security.â
Behaving as if the UK should get to decide what happens in other countries is a threat to national security. The Iraq war made the UK a more dangerous place to live. The UK would be safer if we learned how to mind our own business. Corbyn gets this. He also gets that nuclear weapons have not deterred terrorists from attacking the UK and that US forces shouldnât be allowed to keep overturning the democratic decisions of citizens in other countries.
(15) âI would prefer a woman prime minister.â
Youâre not going to get one this year and the interests of feminism are not served by electing women who are prepared to hurt other women. Neither Thatcher nor May ever did anything positive for women, whereas many of Labourâs policies will benefit women and particularly women living in poverty, disabled women, women of colour and LGBTQ women.
(16) âI would actually prefer someone more left-wing than Corbyn.â
Fair enough, but the people being killed by Tory policies cant afford to wait for that option to arrive. If anarchists like Alan Moore can choose to vote for the first time in decades, why cant you?
(17) âMy dad earns over ÂŁ80K a year and Labour will tax him more, but he isnât richâ
Someone who earns ÂŁ85K a year can certainly afford the extra ÂŁ4.81 a week that they would pay under a Labour government. The average salary in this country is ÂŁ29K. The average salary for someone on minimum wage is just over ÂŁ15K. People earning over ÂŁ80K can certainly afford to pay more.Â
(18) âLabour ruined the economyâ
The current Labour leadership has completely different policies than the New Labour governments, so itâs ridiculous to blame the current leadership for anything that happened under New Labour. In any case, New Labourâs public spending did not cause the GLOBAL financial crisis of 2008. That was caused by the banks and it was used by the Tories as an excuse for policies that have benefited the rich at the expense of everyone else.
(19) âI canât bring myself to vote for anyone. Theyâre all liars.â
Over the past 10 years, Tory policies have been responsible for an estimated 120,000 extra deaths. The situation is so severe that the United Nations has investigated the humans rights implications. We live in a country where thousands of suicidal children canât get the help they need. Thousands of disabled people have died after being declared fit for work. Parents are going without food so their children can eat. Many black people and Muslim people are terrified of Boris Johnson remaining Prime Minister. Hate crime against every marginalised group has gone up dramatically in the past decade.
Thereâs only one political party that recognises the full extent of the problem and only one party that is prioritising the people affected by it.
gummygunk
izzy806
areudirty
amandla
ellievsbear
germansingergirl
