The most important thing in this election is to vote to stop Boris Johnson's Tories winning a majority. Stopping Johnson means also stopping the reactionary policy of Brexit; it means stopping the drive towards Bonapartism that the Tories are engaged in; it means stopping the continued shift to the Right. Had Labour adopted a principled international socialist position, over the last three years, of opposing Brexit, the matter would have been simple. Labour would have continued the process, started in 2015, of burying the rotting corpse of the Liberals, and they would have engulfed the Greens by offering a progressive alternative to their innate Malthusianism. The potential for that was clear in 2017, when millions of Liberal and Green voters loaned their votes to Labour, in order to stop May's hard Brexit. But, Labour has failed to do that, and in consequence, it has squandered much of that wider support. It has enabled the Liberals to stage a significant resurrection, despite the appalling political strategy of Swinson. Instead of having a clear lead over the Tories, Labour's own reactionary stance over Brexit, has divided the opponents of Brexit, and thereby created the condition under which the most reactionary Tory Party for decades, now stands on the verge of taking office, and pushing through a hard Brexit that will have reactionary consequences for years to come.
The political realities mean that, in the majority of seats in England, the main challenger to the Tories is Labour. Labour's best hope of beating them is that, again, as in 2017, Liberal and Green voters lend their votes to Labour, in the hope that, in defeating the Tories, Brexit can be stopped. The chance now of a Labour majority looks slim if not impossible. The experience of 2017 shows its risky to write off that possibility completely, but this is not 2017. Labour has squandered its advantage from that time, and is likely to lose seats not gain them. Only if Liberal and Green voters lend their votes to Labour can the Tories be prevented from gaining a majority. Its necessary to vote smart.
In some Labour seats like Stoke North and Central, the right-wing Labour MP's have repeatedly voted with the Tories over Brexit. It is more than understandable if Liberal and Green voters, in those seats, as well as Labour Remain voters, see no point in voting for Tories brandishing a red rosette rather than Tories brandishing a true blue one. But, they should hold their nose and vote Labour anyway, because at least a Labour MP can be put under pressure by the party and its members, whereas there is no chance of doing that with a Tory. Of course, it would have been better had Labour introduced mandatory reselection and got rid of these reactionary MP's. No doubt, as those who have been deselected have done, such democratic accountability would be described as bullying, misogyny, or anti-Semitism, but that again simply illustrates the mistakes made by the leadership in not tackling the attacks of the Right before now.
But, by the same token there are seats across England where Labour has little chance of winning, but where Labour votes could defeat the Tories, and enable a Liberal to win. Some big Tory names like Raab, could be defeated if all the anti-Tory voters pool their votes. Given Britain's undemocratic first past the post election system, a vote for Labour, in a seat that Labour has no chance of winning, is effectively a vote for the Tories. Its not like a Presidential election, where every vote counts. In the elections earlier this year, millions of people voted tactically in this way. Votes for Remain candidates were a clear majority, and Remain supporting parties won the majority of seats. The Tories, in particular, got hammered. The potential to do the same in this election exists.
John McDonnell could not openly advocate that people vote for a party other than Labour, because that is against Labour rules. Its what got Campbell immediately expelled. But, McDonnell has effectively called on people to vote tactically. Earlier this year, even 60% of Labour Party members, let alone supporters voted for parties other than Labour, in order to vote tactically to defeat the Tories. We can expect the same in this election. The majority of Labour's support now comes from young people, and it is they that have the flexibility of mind to be able to use tactical voting websites so as to see how best to defeat the Tories in their particular seat, and that is precisely what is required to defeat the Tories and Brexit.
And, its important that Brexit is defeated. Depriving the Tories of a majority means an almost certain Labour Minority government. The SNP will back a Corbyn Labour government, and that means that whatever Swinson says, so will the Liberals. Its far more likely that the Liberals will ditch Swinson than that she will be able to use her small number of Liberal MP's to demand that Labour ditch Corbyn. There is now a clear majority for Remain. Another referendum is still a bad idea, but, if there is to be one, it becomes vital that it be conducted by a government that would not stack the chips in favour of Brexit, which Johnson would be bound to do.
The support for Remain is now around 55%, as against 45% for Leave. That proportion is only going to grow. In five years time, around 3 million Leave voters will have died, and around 3 million young Remain voters will have joined the electorate. In 10 ten years, at least 5 million Leave voters will have died, and five million young Remain voters joined the electorate. If Johnson and the Tories are elected, and push through their reactionary Brexit agenda, it will mean that a growing number of young working-class voters will be increasingly angry at the damage done to their lives by a group of old Tory voters, many of whom by that time will no longer even be living. In ten years time the support for being in the EU will stand at around 22 million, with the support for being outside down to only around 12 million. The demand to rejoin the EU will be unstoppable.
But, its better to prevent all of the misery and division of the intervening period to begin with.
Stop Johnson - Stop Brexit - Vote Smart - Vote Hope
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