By Chris Bovey
With only a few days to the election, the true horrors of Boris Johnson securing five more years of Tory government to deliver his ghastly Brexit for Billionaires is sending shivers down our spines.
The opinion polls are all pointing to a Tory majority government, albeit on a minority share of the vote. If they’re right, that means this country will again be resigned to five more years of Tory mismanagement of our country, even though they are despised by the majority of people who live here.
Naturally, until the election result is declared there will be many of us praying the polls are wrong. I mean they got it wrong last time, didn’t they?
That’s true, most polls did get it wrong last time, although Survation and YouGov correctly predicted a Hung Parliament. However, all the polls in 2017 did pick up a rise in the Labour vote at the expense of the Tories, which we are not seeing now and none that I’m aware of are predicting anything other than a Tory majority.
That does not mean all is lost. If Lib Dem voters in 17 constituencies voted Labour and Labour voters in 12 constituencies voted Lib Dem, Boris would be gone by Friday morning. Not just as Prime Minister, but as an MP too.
This means the need to vote tactically for the candidate best placed to beat the Conservatives. The result of an UK election is usually determined in around 100 seats, with the rest being safe seats where most votes don’t count.
Undemocratic voting system
Our archaic First Past The Post (FPTP) voting system is designed to work with only two contenders. The flow of power is not elected by the British people by any reasonable definition of the word ‘democracy
Tactical voting has never been more important, now the Tories have lurched to the far-right, effectively becoming an English Nationalist Party led by an incompetent narcissistic serial liar in the form of Bo Jo the Clown. If they win an overall majority they will deliver the worst kind of Brexit that will see our National Debt rise even further (it’s already nearly doubled under the Tories) and less money for our cash starved public services.
This is because every form of Brexit, especially the one BoJo is proposing will see the UK worse off, which is why the government did everything it could to stop the public seeing impact reports concluding any kind of Brexit will be worse off.
I learned about this while studying economics. It’s not actually that complicated, if spending power is reduced in the economy, due to companies scaling down, relocating to another EU country or going bust then this sees a reduction in revenue for the government. It means the Exchequer will collect less money in corporation tax, P.A.Y.E., VAT, business rates, personal income tax, etc., while at the same time incurring a bigger benefits bill to pay all the people who have lost their jobs.
Multiplier Effect
Then we have what is known in economics as the ‘multiplier effect’ in which an increase in spending produces an increase in national income and consumption greater than the initial amount spent.
There can also be a ‘negative multiplier effect’ – which causes an initial decrease in spending to result in an overall decrease in spending that is greater than that initial decrease. As spending power is reduced as a result of Brexit then companies that have still survived this insane project of the Tory right will still be affected, as they will sell less commodities, which in turn means less spending power in the economy, as they in turn scale down, relocate, go bust, etc., leaving the government with even less money collected in taxes and an increasing benefits bill, and so on, hence ‘the multiplier effect’.
All parties have pledged to increase spending and partly funding it by borrowing. The key is how they plan to get the money to spend. The Tory party is claiming more spending, but the money was already committed to that spending in many cases, such as health. UK borrowing has always risen more under Conservative governments than Labour.
The simple truth is, with Brexit there will not be enough money in the pot, but the Tories don’t tell you this now, they will say any old lie to help them win the election before they can get onto the business of selling of the NHS and asset stripping what’s left of the UK, while giving tax cuts to the wealthiest in society.
Bo Jo’s Brexit for Billionaires
The thought of Bo Jo the Clown and his Tory goons delivering his Brexit for Billionaires should terrify anybody with a basic understanding of economics.
The UK already has the best deal of any EU member state, yet we are set to leave with a ragbag of liars, morons and English Nationalists at the helm who haven’t a clue what they are doing. The British government has hardly secured a single trade deal, unless you consider trade deals that are not entirely free trade with countries like Zimbabwe or The Seychelles a roaring success.
Apart from that, we have the Faroe Islands, an autonomous territory within the Kingdom of Denmark, with a population of just under 52,000, although nothing with the EU, as we cannot have individual trade deals alone with EU countries like Denmark.
Tactical voting
A Tory victory for Boris on Thursday is not guaranteed, although I concede it’s looking likely. If we think smart and vote tactically the Tories will not win.
I’m actually lucky enough to live in a constituency that the Tories could see fall to the Lib Dems. This is because even though Totnes would have been considered a safe Conservative seat, thanks to the defection of our former Tory MP, Dr Sarah Wollaston, to the Liberal Democrats, they have a realistic chance of winning the seat, but only if people vote tactically for the Lib Dems.
I could never vote for Sarah Wollaston if she were standing as a Tory, but credit where credit is due, she always responds personally to constituency correspondence, even though she knew I couldn’t stand her government. She helped me out with a personal matter where I couldn’t get a hospital in London to deliver my medical record to Devon after being hospitalised following an anaphylactic shock.
Obese, mendacious, lying slug
I once described Boris as an obese, mendacious, lying slug in one of my many emails to Dr Wollaston, to my surprise she responded to say we were ‘singing from the same hymn sheet’. That was while she was still a Conservative MP. I wondered what the hell she was doing in the Tory party if she thought that. Seems she also wondered the same thing, which is presumably why she left to join the Lib Dems.
Dr Sarah Wollaston agrees we are singing from the same hymn sheet after I described Boris Johnson as an obese, lying, mendacious slug … and that was while she was still a Tory MP. I wonder what she thinks of him now?
I’ve lived in South Devon all my life and it’s one of those seats Labour can never win, however the Lib Dems in the past came within 887 votes of taking it from the Conservatives in 1997 and have traditionally been in a strong second place.
Tactical voting websites recommend voting Lib Dem in my constituency of Totnes.
Thanks to their association with the toxic Tories they actually lost their second place due to the Lib Dem meltdown, but if we apply current national opinion poll swings to the Totnes seat, it would already put the Lib Dems back in second place. For the Lib Dems to win the seat they would need the support of Conservative voters who like Dr Wollaston, do not want to vote for an English Nationalist Party and for Labour voters to lend their vote tactically. The Greens have stood down in Totnes to give the Lib Dems a better chance of winning.
Conversely in seats like Norwich North, where Labour are just 507 votes behind the Tories, only the Labour Party has any realistic chance of beating the Conservatives. I have a Lib Dem friend in Norwich who is not only tactically voting Labour, he’s also delivering leaflets for them. If I lived in Norwich or Plymouth, I wouldn’t hesitate to vote Labour to keep the Tories out.
To find out who best can best the Conservatives in your area, please go to www.getvoting.org
Looking at the polls, I’d say there is virtually no chance of Labour securing a majority government, but if people vote tactically on Thursday then we could still wake up to a shock result depriving Boris of an overall majority. This would scupper his loony Brexit plans and almost certainly result in a People’s Vote.
The reason the Leave liars have been so vehemently opposed to a final Brexit vote is because they know would not be able to get away with selling the same lies twice to an electorate whose demographics have significantly changed with more younger voters inclined to wish to remain in the EU and less elderly voters who wish to leave due to having passed away.
Vote swapping
If you do find yourself in the situation of voting for the party that is not your preferred choice, then there is the option of Vote Swapping.
I know several people in Totnes who are tactically voting Lib Dem, even though they are Labour, just as I have Lib Dem friends who have moved out of the area that are going to tactically vote for Labour as their constituency, as the Lib Dems stand no chance.
There is a website where you can arrange to swap your vote, so it has more influence, so for example a Labour supporter in Totnes will agree to vote tactically for the Lib Dems while a Lib Dem voter in somewhere like Norwich will vote tactically for Labour.
To find out more about Vote Swapping for the UK 2019 election please go to www.swapmyvote.uk
Tactical voting is the only way to get these incompetent Tory bozos out of government. Vote smart, vote tactically. Let’s make Boris Johnson the shortest serving Prime Minister in the history of this country.
www.getvoting.org
Chris Bovey is a businessman, writer, artist, musician and practical joker. He lives in Devon with his partner, two children and cat. You can follow him on Facebook or Twitter @ADHD_BadBoy.
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