Voting for a Good Cause

I was watching one of those post-Children in Need programmes the other day, you know, the ones where some minor celebrity tells us how wonderful we've been for donating all that money.  It was the usual stuff, telling us how it is going to help little Timmy who lives in impoverished conditions in Birmingham or little Annie who is suffering from some rare disease in Crewe, (they all have to be in the UK nowadays, following last year's accusations of 'white saviour syndrome' with regard to patronising celebrity interventions in Africa), when it occurred to me that what they should be saying is just: 'stop voting fucking Tory'.  Because, like it or not, most of the problems they try to address via this annual charity bore, sorry, telethon, are the result of the 'austerity' policies peddled by successive Tory governments.  Let's not forget that under the last Labour government - and I'm sorry if I'm sounding like a party political broadcast here, but sometimes these things need to be said - child poverty in the UK had been virtually eliminated, the gulf between rich and poor was narrowing and we didn't have food banks. The fact that, since the Tories came back, child poverty has returned, the wealth gap widened and even people who work are forced to rely on food banks to get by, should tell you something.

I've never made any secret of the fact that I'm not a fan of Jeremy Corbyn - I think is a weak and indecisive leader lacking the qualities needed to lead Labour to electoral success - but I'd take him over the abominable Boris Johnson any day.  At least Corbyn appears to be a caring and sincere human being. I find it fascinating how his political opponents seem set on smearing him personally during this election campaign rather than attempting any in depth critiques of Labour's policies.  Could it be that they realise that these policies might actually address the concerns of many voters regarding such issues as inequality and poverty and fear that, unless they can distract them with personal attacks on Corbyn, people might vote for them?  Mind you, even these personal attacks are getting increasingly pathetic, mainly centering on attempts to label Corbyn an anti-Semite.  Whatever else I think of Corbyn, I'm certain he isn't an anti-Semite, (although he really hasn't done enough to be seen to be tackling the alleged problem of anti-Semitism in the Labour Party).  I mean, the latest attempt involved photoshopping am old image of him at an anti-apartheid rally to change the anti-racist slogan on his shirt to read 'Jeremy Corbyn is a racist endeavour'.  Really?  How crass can you get?  But back to the original point: if you want to contribute to Children in Need or any other charitable 'good ause', then just remember to to vote fucking Tory.