This is all very true and very important, but can I point something out? Theresa May and the Tory party as a whole are the most right-wing government we’ve seen for a long time. This isn’t just about caricatures and fox-hunting. Yes, she’s a twat, and yes she wants to bring back fox hunting.
This government has taken away disability benefits and replaced them with a new scheme that is absolute pittance, they increased the national debt, and have continued to de-fund and sell off parts of the NHS. They want to scrap free school lunches for impoverished children, privatise the NHS, reduce the winter fuel allowance for pensioners, tighten border control and immigration, fund more grammar schools, not to mention what has now been dubbed as the “dementia tax” where millions of elderly people and their families are essentially getting financially penalized for living longer while unwell. They are promising to CUT corporation tax, which is already lower in Britain than most other countries in Europe, meaning that all these multi-billion dollar corporations have to pay even LESS than before, and want foreign workers and international students to pay more for their healthcare while over here, as well as to increase defense spending.
And last but not least, I shit you not, Theresa May wants to give the government power to regulate what is posted and shared online.
Quotes from the actual, literal, official Tory manifesto:
“Some people say that it is not for government to regulate when it comes to technology and the internet… We disagree.”
“While we cannot create this framework alone, it is for government, not private companies, to protect the security of people and ensure the fairness of the rules by which people and businesses abide… Nor do we agree that the risks of such an approach outweigh the potential benefits.”
And from The Independent article:
The manifesto also proposes that internet companies will have to pay a levy, like the one currently paid by gambling firms. Just like with gambling, that money will be used to pay for advertising schemes to tell people about the dangers of the internet, in particular being used to “support awareness and preventative activity to counter internet harms”, according to the manifesto.
The Conservatives will also seek to regulate the kind of news that is posted online and how companies are paid for it. If elected, Theresa May will “take steps to protect the reliability and objectivity of information that is essential to our democracy” – and crack down on Facebook and Google to ensure that news companies get enough advertising money.
If internet companies refuse to comply with the rulings – a suggestion that some have already made about the powers in the Investigatory Powers Act – then there will be a strict and strong set of ways to punish them.
“We will introduce a sanctions regime to ensure compliance, giving regulators the ability to fine or prosecute those companies that fail in their legal duties, and to order the removal of content where it clearly breaches UK law,” the manifesto reads.
Honestly, this shit is terrifying.
And that’s not even talking about how many trans people who have begun their transition are not able to vote. Lets not beat around the bush.
Yes, she wants to bring back fox hunting. But she also wants to do a hell of a lot more much more harmful things than that. This government could be worse than Thatchers. She will make life miserable for the working class, the disabled, migrants, and other minorities.
So talk about it. And get your ass down to polling stations or organise your postal vote. Please, for the sake of everyone vulnerable in this country - VOTE.
