*Honestly this is the hardest blog post I've ever wrote, not only have I tried to keep it non bias, but the amount of research I have done is stupid!!! *
If you're not from the UK, this post will probably not interest you. And if you're from the UK and not interested in politics, then you should be.
I'm not going to bombard you with my political beliefs and values, but if you follow my twitter (@13bethr shameless plug) you probably have a good idea. However, I respect everybody's political views, regardless of whether I agree with them or not, as there is almost always a reason why someone believes something.
I just wanted to give everyone a run down of the election so far and a biography of the main candidates. I hope this will encourage those who are not keen on politics to vote for YOUR future.
In the UK we have a General Election every 5 years. We vote for a local MP (Member of Parliament) to represent our constituency in parliament- there are 650 constituencies in England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales. In theory, the party who gets the most MP's elected into the House of Commons becomes the ruling party and their leader becomes Prime Minister (they need to fill half of the seats in the House of Commons in order to become the majority). However, if one party fails to fill a 'majority' of the seats, the parties can join together to create a coalition (such as that in 2010 when Conservative leader David Cameron joined with Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg) or the party with the most seats can lead, but not always with great effect, this is known as a hung parliament.
This may all sound a bit confusing, and if you are still unsure on the basics visit the government's website, where there is a handy little video to explain in detail.
In 2016, a year after David Cameron had been re-elected as Prime Minister, he resigned, after he failed to 'remain' in the EU referendum (Brexit). This left the country without a Prime Minister, and the Conservatives (Tories) without a leader. The race was on. Michael Gove, formerly Secretary of Education and then Secretary of Justice, and Boris Johnson, former Mayor of London, were both frontrunners for the job after a successful 'leave' campaign. However, they were not as popular as presumed. Boris forfeited the race and Gove was eliminated, so to speak. This left two candidates in the running, Andrea Leadsom and Theresa May. Both had support from fellow Tories, however in an interview with a national newspaper Leadsom claimed that May was unfit for the role of PM because she is not a mother. This caused Leadsom to step down, as people were outraged by her claim. So then, by default, Theresa May, the former Home Secretary, became the UK's second female Prime Minister.
Flash forward to 18th April 2017, a few days after Easter, Theresa May calls for Parliament to vote for a snap General Election for June of this year. This was a surprise to many people in the UK, as Ms May had said on record that she would not be calling a General Election, until it was due to be held in 2020. Many believe that initially the election was called as Ms May believed that she could gain more seats in Parliament than she currently has, as leader of the opposition (The Labour Party), Jeremy Corbyn appeared weak and unpopular. Parliament voted and agreed that a General Election is to be held on 8th June 2017. The campaign began.
Unlike the USA, campaigning in the UK is less costly and does not require billions of £'s worth of funding. Usually, the candidates travel the countries (the UK is made up of 4 countries) and talk to the voters about their policies. There are small advertisements on public transport etc and party political broadcasts are shown after the news usually. These broadcasts are low budget and attempt to be informative, not entertaining. However, after Ed Milliband's (the former leader of the Labour party) positive reception on social media platforms in the 2015 election, a heavier emphasis has been placed on this by all parties. We do not have nearly as many tv debates as they do in the US, however the one debate we have had was not attended by Primer Minister May, leaving many skeptical at her confidence as a leader.
So, who are the two leading candidates, and what do they stand for?
*disclaimer: of course I cannot include every detail about these politician's lives and political background, I am just trying to provide a non-bias overview!!
*Of course, there is a lot more to say, in a lot more detail, but a simple google search will answer any of the questions about the manifesto's. Alternatively I will try my hardest to reply to any comments on the blog.
Theresa May:
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| creds: The Independent |
Current Prime Minister Theresa May has served as an MP for the Conservative Party since 1997. She lives at the Prime Minister's official residence in London, 10 Downing Street. As noted before, she was not elected as Prime Minister, but became PM after the resignation of David Cameron. It has become apparent that Ms May is a lot more 'conservative' than David Cameron. She has held a number of posts in the Conservative Party including shadow Transport Secretary, shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, Home Secretary and Minister for Women and Equalities. Described as a 'devout Christian', Ms May voted against lowering the age of consent from 18 to 16 for the LGBT community, voted no in 2002 Adoption Act, which allows Gay couples to adopt, and was not present for many other LGBT bills in parliament including the Gender Recognition Bill and the Equality Act for sexual orientations. However, it must be noted that by 2013 she voted in favour of same sex marriages and the ruling allowing military personnel to same sex marriages outside of the UK. This obviously shows her softening to LGBT rights over the years.
As Home Secretary she cut the Police Force, in order to compete with the financial crisis inherited by the Labour Government. However, this type of budget cut appears to be a severe move for public safety, following the recent terror attacks in the UK. Moreover, in 2014 and 2015 Theresa May voted in favour of airstrikes in Iraq and Syria against ISIS, and had continuously voted for the deployment of troops in Afghanistan and Iraq.
In 2016, 55 per cent of citizens believed that Theresa May was the best candidate for PM, as opposed to only 23 per cent that supported Jeremy Corbyn. Before the snap election was called Theresa May was in a dramatic 21 point lead over Mr Corbyn.
May's slogan throughout the campaign is 'Strong and Stable'.
The Tory Manifesto, in a nutshell, calls for a few main points:
- In terms of Social Care, pensioner's winter fuel payments will be means tested (as opposed to paid by the government), a policy nicknamed the 'Dementia Tax' was described as a political U turn in social care policy- it is described by Business Insider as:"Under the plans, anyone who receives care in their own home will have to pay for it through the value of their home once they have passed away. This means that the entire value of a person's home, apart from the first £100,000, will be claimable by the state."
- Education: creation of 100 Free Schools, £4 billion increase in schools budget and free school meals for young children to be replaced by free breakfasts.
- Theresa May vows to lower tax and simplify the system, as well as a 0 percent increase of VAT.
- Pension reforms from a "triple lock" to a "double lock" meaning a rise in pensions following earnings or inflation. The Tories also vow to being tougher on those who abuse the pension system.
- In regards to Immigration the Tories simply aim to reduce the amount of immigrants entering the country.
- Promise to increase NHS spending by £8 billion.
- Promise to eradicate the deficit within 10 years.
- Maintain the Trident nuclear deterrent and increase military spending by 0.5 per cent.
- Build 1 million new homes by 2020 and new council housing deals.
- Reduce the number of MP's to 600.
- Eliminate homelessness by 2027.
- Vote to repeal Fox Hunting act.
- The 'best' deal for Brexit.
Jeremy Corbyn:
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| creds: The New Statesman |
In 2016 controversy arose around Corbyn, an event known as 'traingate'. He posted a video of himself sitting on the floor on an 'overcrowded' Virgin East Coast train in attempts to show the effects of privatisation of the railways. However, Virgin released footage of Corbyn walking past a number of empty seats on the train, claiming that the video was staged.
He has been seen as a political outsider in the Labour Party, and when leadership elections were being held, he was described as having a 'bleak' chance of winning by the Daily Mirror. But despite the media's expectations, Corbyn won the bid for Labour leader. In 2016 two thirds of Corbyn's shadow cabinet resigned and a vote of no confidence against the leader showed 172 votes to 40, after a Brexit struggle. However after a second leadership election Corbyn proved popular once again with Labour voters and he remained leader of the Labour Party with 61 per cent of the votes. When the snap election was called, Corbyn welcomed the decision. In recent months, Corbyn has become overwhelmingly popular with young people and grime artists have come out in drones to support Corbyn's bid for government.
The Labour Manifesto:
- Rise in taxes for the wealthy and corporations, and higher powers for HMRC to punish people avoiding tax.
- No aim to reduce immigration numbers and instead calls to create fair rules to manage migration.
- Accept the result of Brexit, aims to retain single market benefits and maintain rights for EU citizens in UK and vice versa.
- Public ownership of railways and free WiFi on rail networks.
- Partial public ownership of energy companies and ban fracking.
- University tuition fees abolished.
- £30 billion of funding for the NHS. Pay cap scrapped.
- Creation of a National Care Service, Carers allowance increased to that of Job seekers.
- Outlaw of 0 hour contracts to workers, four new public holidays, paternity leave doubled and pay increased.
- Minimum wage in line with living wage.
- "Triple lock" guarantee, free bus pass and winter fuel allowance for pensioners.
- 1 million new homes including 100,000 council housing.
- Scrap bedroom tax and promise to end benefit freeze (not in manifesto).
- Support renewal of Trident
- 10,000 more police officers.
As this is the UK and not USA, we are not working in a bi-partisan system. We have more than these two parties, but those are the two frontrunners.
The other leading parties are:
The Liberal Democrats lead by Tim Farron is the 3rd most popular well known party. This is a link to their manifesto.
Back in 2010, the Liberal Democrats were raising momentum when charismatic leader Nick Clegg ran in the general election. But after the Lib Dem's disastrous coalition with the Tories, support dropped for the party.
Tim Farron has increased their popularity slightly since the leadership debate, where he claimed Theresa May could not be bothered to show up.
The Scottish National Party (SNP) lead by Nicola Sturgeon, has also seen a decline in recent years, but Sturgeon is relatively popular with liberal voters and political minds. It advocates Scottish Independence. Sturgeon has said that if Labour would win with a coalition government she would consider joining them. Of course it would never be possible for the SNP to win a general election, but their aims are to win a majority in Scotland, not the UK. A link to the SNP manifesto. The Green Party is a left wing political party. Caroline Lucas and Jonathan Bartley are joint leaders, and Caroline was the first Green MP elected in 2010. Their policies are a mixture of left wing politics and environmentalism. The Green Party "Guarantee" link.
The UK Independence Party (UKIP) is one of the more controversial parties in the UK. It is lead by Paul Nuttall, however it's most well known figure is Nigel Farrage. UKIP is a eurosceptic, right wing political organisation. It currently has no MP's in the House of Commons, and has lost popularity after losing Nigel Farrage. It has a racist reputation, however the members of the party strongly deny that they have a racist rhetoric. UKIP's manifesto link.
Plaid Cymru is the Party of Wales. It is lead by Leanne Wood and advocates Welsh Independence. The party has varied success, and currently holds 3 of the 40 available Welsh seats in Westminster.
It is described as a Social Democratic party. The link to Plaid Cymru's manifesto.
So there you go! A quick crash course in the who's who of the 2017 General Election. I urge you to consider each parties promises, and also to check out your local MP's promises, as those are the things that will directly impact your local area. It is important you vote for you and not just who your parents/friends/family vote for. Only you can decide your future, every vote counts so please please please use it.
Happy voting everyone.
