{"id":3353,"date":"2015-03-16T12:11:36","date_gmt":"2015-03-16T12:11:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/unitelive.org\/?p=3353"},"modified":"2015-03-16T16:36:33","modified_gmt":"2015-03-16T16:36:33","slug":"before-its-too-late","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/?p=3353","title":{"rendered":"Before it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too late"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/div>\n

Veteran anti-austerity campaigner and author Harry Leslie Smith speaks exclusively to UNITElive, following his address to a packed crowd at the University of Manchester NoVoteNoVoice event last week (March 11).<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

It was the summer of 1945 and Harry Leslie Smith, then only 22, cast his first ballot in a general election. The Second World War, which had killed half a million of his fellow countrymen and left millions more maimed, penniless and without any social support, had just ended.<\/p>\n

 
\nWhile many of us face election season with a certain here-we-go-again weariness, the electorate after the War was electrified by the possibility of building a new future.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bYou have to understand that the vast majority of us in the armed services came from the lower classes,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 says Smith, a RAF veteran from Yorkshire who had before the war known only poverty. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe didn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have much choice on whether we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d go fight or not. For us, it was just the thing to do for your country.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d come back from the war having experienced ferocious fighting and bloodshed, and before the war we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d known only want and hunger,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he explained. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIt was in everyone\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind that we were not going to go back to what we had experienced in life before the war. We were positive that we were going to change the whole system.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nSmith says that he and his peers were lucky to have the choice of a strong Labour leader, Clement Attlee, who promised the country a new future, one with a state-funded health care system, plentiful council housing and a cradle-to-grave welfare state.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWhen the time came for the election, we were really a rowdy bunch. We were singing and dancing and having a beer or two. We talked about what it was going to be like in England, that we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d finished with the hard life we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d all experienced.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nWith the support of millions of armed servicemen and women, all speaking with one voice, Attlee won by a landslide, and the rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bWe weren\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sure if we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d get what we wanted. But sure enough, we did, and life was good.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBefore it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too late\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

 
\nIf there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s anyone who can attest to the value of voting, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Smith, who has experienced first-hand the connection between the personal and political \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that voting can, in fact, change your life.<\/p>\n

 
\nWhile millions up and down the country may feel disillusioned with politics and reluctant to turn up to the ballot box, Smith believes that as May approaches, there has never been more at stake since that fateful election nearly 70 years ago.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThis will be the only opportunity to turn things around before it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s too late,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bToo many people are suffering today in the country. They\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re being ignored because of the mere fact that they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re poor, and no one\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s listening to them. Austerity has cut their lifestyles, when they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122re living standards should have been increasing.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bEven the Cameron government itself, just before an election, is saying that its austerity policies have only just begun, that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s going to be more.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf that happens,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Smith warns, \u00e2\u20ac\u015bthere will be people starving in the streets. There will be children rummaging for food in the bins behind restaurants, just like it was back in my day. This is what will happen.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nSmith argues we can avoid this fate if working people, those who\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve borne the brunt of austerity, let their voice be heard in the same way working people did in 1945 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c by throwing their support behind a single party with a strong leader.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve spoken to Ed Miliband a few times, and I think he has the right character,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 Smith said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bIf he wanted to be, he can be the strongest leader in England, provided that he keeps on track with what working people need and never forgets it.<\/p>\n

 
\nSmith points to David Cameron, who, he says, is simply too out of touch with working people to understand what their concerns are.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bThe only contact that Cameron gets with the general public is when someone is serving him his tea,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he said. \u00e2\u20ac\u015bStill, he pretends to know what the people need. But this is not a game of pretend. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s about actions and decisions being made to benefit not just one group, but the whole of society.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bI know I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m not a historian, but at 92, I am history, and I fear its repetition,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he adds, worrying about a return to the days when he was forced to labour at the age seven to support his family.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bMaybe this is the curse or price of advanced age \u00e2\u20ac\u201c to witness a timid present unable to face its future and its past mistakes.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 
\nStill, there was nothing timid about the hundreds of young people who came to hear Smith speak at the University of Manchester. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s in these young voters — who Smith believes are just as engaged and hungry for change as his generation in 1945 \u00e2\u20ac\u201c that he places much of his hope.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bSome call my generation the greatest generation,\u00e2\u20ac\u0165 he told the students, many of whom were clutching copies of Smith\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s book, Harry\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Last Stand<\/em><\/a>, about the importance of protecting the welfare state.<\/p>\n

 
\n\u00e2\u20ac\u015bBut I think your generation will be the greatest, because you will finish the job that my generation started.\u00e2\u20ac\u0165<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Veteran anti-austerity campaigner and author Harry Leslie Smith speaks exclusively to UNITElive, following his address to a packed crowd at the University of Manchester NoVoteNoVoice event last week (March 11).   It was the summer of 1945 and Harry Leslie Smith, then only 22, cast his first ballot in a general election. The Second World […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3354,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[17],"tags":[76,224,223],"wps_subtitle":"If anyone knows the value of voting, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Harry Smith ","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3353"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3355,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3353\/revisions\/3355"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3354"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3353"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3353"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/unitelive.test.igniteamt.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3353"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}