Saturday 11th March

I used to vote Labour, in fact I have almost always voted Labour (once in a local election I tried to vote tactically for the Liberals and they lost anyway) and I will always vote Labour (I hope).  One of the sad facts of life is that often people start off when they are poor voting Labour and then as they become wealthier they start voting Tory – oh well.  I haven’t, and I can never see myself voting Tory. I hate what they stand for – privilege, the wealthy, private rather than collective solutions.

The Labour party is languishing in the polls, and has been for ages.  I suspect that come what may, and whichever leader we have we will be hammered at the next election.  But then Labour were hammered in 1983 just after the Falklands – and I suspect that the same effect is happening now.  Okay, so we haven’t just won a war, but actually Brexit is being portrayed almost as a war by most of the press, and people who voted Brexit see her as their champion.  Mrs. May is going into battle against those wretched Europeans, just as Mrs. Thatcher did before her, and she is going to win…

And of course, even if she loses it will be portrayed as a victory, or some sort of glorious defeat.  The wicked stubborn Europeans will be blamed, and hardly anyone will admit what a terrible mistake it has all been.  And I will still vote Labour, because I cannot vote for anyone else.  I still believe in the values of the Labour party, so to vote for anything else would be a betrayal.  I voted Labour in all the Thatcher years, we knew then that we would lose, but Democracy is not all about winning, it is about participating.  They said in 1983 after Michael Foot and the SDP defections that Labour would never get back into Government.  They also said in 2001 after William Hague that the Tories would never regain power.  We may be in for twenty years of Tory rule, but I suspect somewhat less.  And I will still vote Labour.  I used to vote Labour, we hear people say when interviewed at by-elections, and then they look guilty and say they are thinking of voting UKIP or Tory.  Well, let them – I used to vote Labour and will continue to do so.