What a depressing General Election campaign in prospect

No hope and far too many uninspiring politicians

As a progressive, a Social Liberal of the left and radical this election holds out little for me at all and I don’t think I’ve ever felt so negative in my now 43 years involved in politics.

Yes, of course, the Tories have very much had their day. They’ve brought the UK to its knees whilst destroying our public services and our international reputation. Whilst never voting Conservative I find the mess that party has created astonishing. My old dad was a life-long Tory who died in 2009 but he was telling me that his party was going wrong at the turn of the century. How right he was, yet if he was still with us would he believe how far they have sunk? I think even he would also be astounded.

Yet despite the utter political, economic and social mess we are in the opposition parties are clearly struggling to offer an alternative way forward. Too often we have heard the Official Opposition saying they will stay with this Tory policy or that and in turn this has meant that our lead opposition party has by default been putting forward a right of centre policy platform.

Then look at the political leaders themselves; what an uninspiring bunch they are. Charisma has pretty much passed them all by and it makes you wonder where the next generation of leaders will come from and whether they will be just as engaging! Kennedy, Smith, Ashdown from the recent past must be turning in their graves and even Blair must surely wonder what on earth has become of the progressive political class.

That there will a changing of the guard seems all but inevitable but will we take any steps forward or can we only hope to stop or even just slow down our decline? Food banks are everywhere, poverty likewise, housing for those on low incomes is all but unobtainable, our wonderful NHS is on its knees, local councils are going bankrupt, our rivers are full of sewerage, and social care has all but fallen apart. In short there’s a massive agenda to address as we are in a right old pickle and that’s being polite about our dire situation.

You can’t create a society where the rich keep getting richer whilst the poor keep getting poorer without there being civil unrest yet do our political leaders realise this? I fear they’re sleep-walking us into a social and civil catastrophe if they don’t wake up and smell the coffee soon.

The bottom line is that it seems many voters will vote for the party in their constituency best placed to beat the Conservatives, or at least that’s what they say they’ll do. On that basis they’ll often not be voting for things they like and want to see but simply to chuck out the politicians they hold responsible for the state we are in. Our electoral system has always effectively made us vote for our least bad option and it seems we’ll be doing that with bells on in 2024.

Forgive me, but there really is little to be positive about when trying to stop things getting worse is just about the limit of many of our leading opposition politicians.

Yet there will be a few progressive politicians hiding even in Starmer’s Labour Party that are being kept quiet so as not to raise expectations. My party, thankfully, doesn’t have the ability or willingness to hold down our radical progressive MP’s as can be seen on the rare occasion when a Lib Dem gets onto a TV programme like Question Time. Tim Farron (despite my reservations  about his religious issues), Layla Moran and Deputy Leader Daisy Cooper have all made really good contributions in recent times, so yes there are glimmers of hope that even this old political misery can identify.

The really strange thing about the state we are in, as we approach GE 2024, is that the Conservatives have successfully pulled a once left of centre Labour Party onto their own right of centre lawn to do battle. So, whatever the result, the war will be won on a centre-right policy agenda and this old progressive finds that utterly depressing.

Oh, and one final thought, should we look upon Labour’s leadership as New Conservatives? They certainly come over to me, as a progressive, like that.