I haven’t posted on here for a while and there’s a few reasons for that. The first being that the big kids are both now in school full time and while that has freed up some time for me during the day, it has also brought about a lot of issues ensuring that they’re both settled and happy. Plus that new ‘free time’ has immediately been filled with life admin as the world continues to turn and things need attending to.

Another reason for my lack of recent content is that I just haven’t known what to write about. This isn’t because of a lack of ideas but more because of an abundance of things that I’ve wanted to say. Where do I start? What do I want this blog to be? Is anyone really interested in my thoughts?

So here I am, on the 12th of November and the conclusion I’ve come to is that it doesn’t matter whether anyone wants to read my thoughts but more that I feel a need to express them somewhere if for no other reason than to get them out of my head and stop the constant whir of activity that keeps me up at night.

I never intended this blog to become political but if we’re honest every aspect of our life can be affected by politics so to ignore the current political state of the UK would be to ignore the cause of many of the things that are negatively affecting both my and my wider community’s lives.

On the 12th of December we will be having a General Election and yes this election will have a great impact on how the rest of the path of Brexit is laid out. However this election is more than just an opportunity to express a remain or leave opinion but is also about who we want to govern our country over the next eight years. I find it hysterical and depressing that the Conservatives, who have been in power for 10 years, have chosen the campaign slogan of ‘the UK deserves better’. This may be the one an only time I agree with them. The UK does deserve better, the average person deserves better, the poor deserve better, the elderly deserve better, the LGBTQ+ community deserves better, the ethnic minorities deserve better, the disabled deserve better, immigrants deserve better, young people deserve better, those with mental health conditions deserve better – we all deserve better and if the past 10 years have shown us anything – the Tories are not going to give it to us. They will keep any and all benefits of their government to themselves and their benefactors.

Here are just some of the things that the Conservatives have brought about during their tenure that directly disadvantage the poorest parts of society.

The Tories scrapped housing benefits for 18-21 year olds. As austerity has continued more and more businesses are finding it hard to take on employees and in fact many high street stores where young job seekers may have found work in the past, are closing down, Mothercare and Mamas and Papas being the latest victims. This has put increasing pressure on the job market and if young people are able to find work, most often it’ll be at a minimum wage level which will barely cover rent, particularly in cities. Therefore, scrapping the housing benefit for that age group does not incentivise those who would get a job if they could, but in fact force them onto the streets as any job they do get will not enable them to pay for their basic amenities.

The Grenfell tragedy didn’t happen in a vacuum. The Grenfell tower block was inhabited by poor working class people whose home was not fit for habitation due to the materials used to build it. The fire services have seen huge cuts and this meant that on that fateful night despite the greatest of efforts by those who were there, the fire service were not able to get there in time to save everyone. The people of Grenfell are still waiting to be re-homed and have, just this past week, been blamed for not using good common sense to get out of the building safely by the very party that enable the tragedy to occur.

Schools are seeing cuts that amount to 11% reduction in funds per pupil. This is hitting the poorest communities hardest, where families struggle to provide three meals a day for their children, where hope for successful futures is already at an all time low, where families are less able to find the support they need and so these children are already, from their young age, set up for failure for no reason other than the fact that they were not born rich.

In fact the research carried out by The Resolution Foundation shows that 67% of the latest round of cuts imposed by the Conservatives will hit the poorest households. However 80% will benefit the better off. How could anyone justify these cuts? How can anyone justify these statistics? Well, the Tories don’t justify them, they deny them. They continue to claim that their way of doing things will benefit everyone in the misguided idea of trickle economics. An idea which has proven time and again to not actually work.

As for the alternative parties to choose from you have of course the Brexit Party which as far as I can see has one idea – to Brexit and other than that no plans for the country and no history of running a country. So god knows what they’d get up to – I truly hope we never have to find out. So that basically leaves you with the more left leaning parties and between each of them, there isn’t a huge amount to choose from but I think that the most important thing right now is for the country to unite. If, those of us on the left come together and work as a team to remove the Tories from power we would have the ability to make huge, sweeping changes to this country that could benefit the millions of us who have suffered in the austerity age brought about by the Conservatives. Now is our time, now is our chance.

It’s been a while since I’ve posted but it’s been even longer since I have felt a sense of hope for the future of our country. On the 12th of December go out and vote. Vote for the future you want, for the future you want for your children, for the future you want for your fellow man.