{"id":14086,"date":"2017-12-05T17:30:35","date_gmt":"2017-12-05T17:30:35","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=14086"},"modified":"2017-12-05T17:30:35","modified_gmt":"2017-12-05T17:30:35","slug":"tories-in-chaos-comment-joy-johnson","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=14086","title":{"rendered":"\u010f\u00bb\u017c\u010f\u00bb\u017c\u010f\u00bb\u017c\u00e2\u20ac\u0098Ye are many, they are few\u00e2\u20ac\u2122"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Under the Tories economic stagnation became political chaos \u00e2\u20ac\u201c and Corbyn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Labour relit a spark of socialist hope after a decades-long gloom.\u00c2\u00a0 2017 will go down as a turning point year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Theresa May\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s snap general election called no doubt because she believed her own rhetoric \u00e2\u20ac\u201c \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Brexit means Brexit\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 while spectacularly misreading the public and gravely underestimating Jeremy Corbyn.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Despite the attempt by ardent Brexiteers to spin a narrow majority in the referendum as the \u00e2\u20ac\u0098democratic will of the British people\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 as if four per cent was a convincing win.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

People voted for different reasons in a Leave campaign that was emotionally driven and steeped in distortion.\u00c2\u00a0 And in a Remain campaign focussed on an argument predicated on economic prosperity being put at risk.\u00c2\u00a0 It was an argument showing the enormous disconnect between people weighed down by austerity and wage stagnation and the Prime Minister, and his Chancellor.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Just imagine how the referendum may have turned out if the arguments that we are now hearing had been articulated during the campaign.\u00c2\u00a0 The most obvious one being the cost of leaving far outstripping the \u00c2\u0141350m to be spent on the NHS instead of being \u00e2\u20ac\u0098sent to the EU every week\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Prominent Leavers stood in front of the bus with the figure emblazoned on its side for photo-ops at every campaign pit stop.\u00c2\u00a0 The message to the voter was clear.\u00c2\u00a0 Only it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t.\u00c2\u00a0It was highly contentious.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

So despite a winning slogan that has secured its place in campaigning history the sound of the footsteps of Brexiteers like Ian Duncan Smith distancing themselves is deafening.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Spectacular political miscalculation<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

This spectacular political miscalculation that voters in Labour Brexit constituencies would vote Tory or that Remainers in Tory held seats would still vote Conservative went some way to stripping her of her authority and her majority.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But it wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t the whole story.\u00c2\u00a0 It wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t only the Theresa May and the Conservatives who underestimated Jeremy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s campaigning style that inspired voters to turn out in their droves anyone watching the TV programme \u00e2\u20ac\u0098The Summer that Changed Everything\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 saw how the Labour MPs the programme makers followed were not in the same campaign.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Who could forget Lucy Powell exclaiming \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Oh My God\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 when she saw the result of the exit poll that the Tories had lost their majority.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

These MPs just couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t accept the huge numbers turning out to hear Jeremy speak contemptuously putting them down as \u00e2\u20ac\u0098Jeremy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s love bubble\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.\u00c2\u00a0 When I see people running up a hill in the rain to hear the Labour leader do the same for them then I will take them seriously.<\/p>\n

Gordon Brown said Jeremy Corbyn was a \u00e2\u20ac\u0098phenomenon\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 is an acknowledgement of significance.\u00c2\u00a0The Tories are irrevocably split over the EU with the zealots on the benchers both alongside and behind Theresa May issuing threats on how she is to conduct the negotiations.\u00c2\u00a0 We are not that divided.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Obviously there are some divisions all political parties are coalitions of sorts.\u00c2\u00a0 But we need to fight elections united and the first test will be local elections next year.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

In the meantime Chancellor Phillip Hammond\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s budget last Wednesday was judged a success because he was able to walk out of the Chamber upright is as bad a joke as the litany of jokes he made during his speech.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

But the budget showed what we already knew.\u00c2\u00a0 He is as out of touch as his predecessor, George Osborne, although even Osborne didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t make the astonishing claim that \u00e2\u20ac\u0098there is no unemployment\u00e2\u20ac\u2122.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

With 1.4m registered unemployed, and more than three million insecure workers, who have no idea how to pay their bills from one day to the next, Hammond\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s statement beggars belief.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Unravel <\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

Outside of Parliament, away from the political theatre the Chancellor may have survived that day but the budget is beginning to unravel.\u00c2\u00a0 For starters there was no mention of social care despite the enormity of the problem.<\/p>\n

Arguably this budget will be remembered for what it did contain slow productivity growth and economic weakness that will continue to condemn people to further bouts of misery.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Wages will continue to plummet.\u00c2\u00a0 Personal debt will go on soaring to dangerous levels and the cost of living squeeze will continue.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Austerity is still here.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0 And child poverty, which has risen to 4m under the Tories, is set to rise by a further million by the end of this Parliament.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

On Brexit we are still no clearer as to whether the government has any idea how to navigate our exit.\u00c2\u00a0While the Tories remain in power this is our future.\u00c2\u00a0 The many can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t afford them any longer.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Until such time we should continue to be inspired by Shelley:<\/p>\n

Rise like lions after slumber <\/em><\/p>\n

In unfathomable number <\/em><\/p>\n

Shake your chains to earth like dew <\/em><\/p>\n

That in sleep have fallen on you Ye are many, they are few.<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n