Britain on the brink

Alex Eastwood-Williams
Opinion

We have just hours to go before the great British public deliver their verdict in a contest between two, quite frankly, unthinkably awful options. 

At time of writing polls have just opened in the second most important British election of the last 50 years, the most important of course being last year's EU referendum.

While conventional logic would suggest that this election will be a referendum on the referendum result - after all a victory for Labour could seriously disrupt the Brexit process, while the shamelessly anti-democratic, pro-EU and ironically named Liberal Democrats will be hoping to galvanise the support of self-loathing Brits and stage an electoral comeback.

But the truth is that more is at stake in this election than just Brexit - indeed, the future of a union that has existed since 1707 potentially hangs in the balance.

What had been expected to be a Tory landslide has turned into a neck in neck race between Labour, led by unreformed and unapologetic 'socialist' leader Jeremy Corbyn and the Conservatives led by the weak and indecisive (despite her slogan saying the opposite) Remain supporter Theresa May. UKIP and the Liberal Democrats remain in the background, with neither expected to do well - the Conservatives expecting to take UKIP's support and Labour hoping to gain Liberal Democrat voters.

Like the tagline for the 2004 movie Alien vs Predator, whoever wins, we lose. 

Well, not quite. Let's be very clear: Labour cannot, should not, must not win.

Surprisingly enough, my opposition to Corbyn's Labour doesn't actually stem from economics. In fact some of their ideas on the economy I can even support  -creating a public investment bank and standing up for worker's rights are both good ideas, and I support re-nationalising utilities in principle, though not in practice (there are more important things to be spending public money on right now than buying railways).

I mean sure, his plans to tax businesses and introduce "excessive pay levies" will send the economy into a tailspin and cost jobs, but these are pretty standard centre-left policies which I oppose for pretty standard centre-right reasons. Britain can recover from bad economic policies - it survived James Callahan, John Major, Tony Blair and Gordon Brown, after all.

What alarms me instead about Corbyn is the fact that he is the most blatantly anti-British politician I think I have ever seen. I cannot think of any mainstream politician so hell-bent on destroying the United Kingdom in history - even Oswald Mosley was generally supportive of the UK's existence.

This is the second time Labour haven't ruled out working with the Scottish Nationalists - and we all know what the SNP's condition for working with Labour would be. Labour shouldn't even consider working with a party who fundamentally oppose the existence of the United Kingdom.

Add to that Corbyn's comments in support of the IRA, and for a "United Ireland", his opposition to the Monarchy and his support for various middle eastern terrorists, and you get the feeling that you're dealing with a modern day Quisling.

It should also be remembered that Labour were vehemently in favour of remaining in the EU - an organisation that seeks to subjugate and destroy all European nation-states under a single anti-democratic, super-national government.

Corbyn's Labour have effectively stated they will undermine Brexit negotiations, allow free movement of people (the main reason people voted to Leave) and allow therefore Britain's borders to undefended, and its economic sovereignty dictated by the foreign banks and multinationals who control the European Union and I'm not even going to mention Corbyn's visceral hatred of the UK Defence Forces.

In fact the newly appointed Shadow Home Secretary voted against triggering Article 50 - despite Labour's dubious claim to supporting the results of the Brexit referendum.

Jeremy Corbyn and Labour hate Britain, and a Labour-SNP government could destroy it. It's not inconceivable that Corbyn would start talking to Sinn Fein and others about breaking up the UK - in fact if the Soviet Union was still around I'd have no trouble believing Corbyn was taking orders from Moscow.

All that said, naturally you'd think that I would therefore be supporting the Tories, who we're all led to believe are a shoe-in - after all, no sane or patriotic Briton would support the above.

Firstly, it's not a shoe-in, and in fact I'm worried that this sense of inevitability could benefit Comrade Corbyn. The collapse of the Cuckold Party (or "Liberal Democrats" as they're officially known) will probably boost Labour's support, as will the naive youngsters who may turn out to vote for Britain's demise.

While there is a chance that the Liberal Democrats could make a comeback, riding on the backs on middle class anti-Brexit voters who have been turned off by Labour's economic policies, Corbyn's ability to connect with nostalgic former Labour voters from the 1970s, who may have abandoned the party in the Tony Blair years, could boost the party's support levels. 

But if there's one thing I've learned in politics, it's that voting against a bad option sometimes leaves an equally bad option in a stronger position - and the truth is that I don't trust the Tories.

Sure, Theresa May has said the right things and made the right moves on Brexit, and her support of reinstating grammar schools is a good idea, despite being lifted straight out of the UKIP manifesto, but I am never going to trust a Conservative Prime Minister who voted to Remain in the EU. If Boris Johnson was leading the Conservatives, perhaps I wouldn't have such a problem.

There's also the question of the Conservatives' vague election manifesto - as scary as what Labour produced is, it's costed, whereas the Conservatives have given only a list of vague and empty platitudes.

Despite calling themselves "Strong and stable", the Conservatives under Theresa May have U-turned like a drunk driver. May's professed commitment to slowing immigration and protecting Britain (especially following the recent wave of Islamic terrorism in the country) can be called into question when one considers her actions as home secretary - failing to cut non-EU immigration rates, and defunding the police (possibly making them less able to investigate and respond to terror threats).

Most disturbingly of all, May used the recent terrorist attacks to promote the already-existent Conservative Party policy of regulating the internet, effectively using fear to justify granting greater and unnecessary powers to government - and in true globalist fashion, she wants an international agreement regulating the internet too. And despite proclaiming that 'enough is enough' when it comes to terrorism, she did not make a single mention of immigration in relation to terror.

There is no way that a party led by such an untrustworthy and duplicitous woman should be given a blank cheque and the freedom to do anything they want. The Tories, now more than ever, need to be kept on a short leash.

Which of course leads me to UKIP.

I still support UKIP - I like the manifesto, I like the principles, I like the policies and I like the people.

But I am expecting UKIP to face an electoral wipe-out. The raison d'être is gone after the referendum, and so is the party's best asset (Nigel Farage). The party has also been plagued by so much infighting that even hardcore supporters must be asking themselves whether they can continue to support such a rank bunch of amateurs.

And while UKIP are doing a lot of damage to Labour, especially in the north - and I fully welcome this - the fact is that they do the most damage to the Conservatives, and this is backed up by independent research. Given the high stakes of this election, splitting the anti-Labour vote is not a good idea.

The last year has been cruel to female political leaders - whether you're Hillary Clinton or Marine Le Pen. It's been particularly cruel to leaders who were predicted to definitely win, or win in a landslide - and if Labour are going to win this election, it would be Tory arrogance and media conceit that does it. No election is ever a foregone conclusion. 

The chances of UKIP doing well, or even winning a single seat this election are slim. The reality is that, as unbearably awful and pro-globalism as Theresa May is, this is a "hold your nose and vote Tory" election. 

Britain is on the brink, and with the possibility that Brexit could be snatched away from the people who worked so hard to win it, and indeed the possibility that the blatantly anti-British Jeremy Corbyn could well break up the union, the stakes are as high as they've ever been, and Labour must not be allowed to win. 

About the author

Alex Eastwood-Williams