There’s a real prospect that voters treat today’s election as a poll on the current state of British politics – a chance to air our frustrations with what’s happening right now. It’s imperative that none of us let this be the case. People are picking sides because they want Brexit over and done with immediately – whatever that looks like; considering voting for a party which has no chance of forming a government or just abstaining as an act of protest, to send a message to Westminster that recently leadership has too often been lacking on all sides.
And then there’s Labour’s poor handling of its small but vocal fringe of antisemites – I can see how giving Corbyn a kicking to ensure these mistakes are never repeated by the natural party of progressives could seem to be an act of solidarity with British Jews.
It’s almost as if we’ve forgotten that this election will set the direction the country takes long into the future. A five-year Conservative legislative programme that has barely been presented, the impacts of which will be felt for generations. Decades will be shaped by our final settlement with the European Union; we’ll come to the point of no return on how we tackle the climate crisis as the deadline to act looms.
Johnson’s determination for this to be a Brexit election wasn’t purely because he thinks it’s a vote-winner. It’s because he’s desperate for the electorate to refrain from thinking about what five years of a comfortable Tory working majority in parliament, purged of its relative moderates, might bring.
That’s because if we truly took the time to consider what the UK might look like by 2024 it’s a vision that is petrifying, a fear that has driven unprecedented electoral pacts between other parties, and record numbers of activists to canvass despite the bitter cold.
Since 2010, the hardest right elements of the Conservative party have been kept in check by a “modernising” David Cameron, coalitions and barely functioning majorities. And yet in that time rough the number of people using Trussell Trust food banks has increased from 41,000 to 1.2 million; rough sleeping is still up 165%.
With a majority, Johnson could go all out, destroying the social fabric that underpins our society. And nine years into Conservative-led governments, Labour’s legacy of rights and protections from its last spell in power – that we now take for granted – is already fading. It won’t last much longer.
Unlike Labour, the Conservative manifesto is light on detail. It only paints a part of the picture – it’s up to us to fill in the gaps. Downing Street will be home to a man on the side of bigots who wanted to stop LGBTQ+ people joining the military. He’s attacked Europeans who have made a home in the country, and thinks tackling racism in the police following the Macpherson report was a waste of time. He has turned his disdain on single mothers: “a generation of ill-raised, ignorant, aggressive and illegitimate children”. He wrote that working class men are “criminals”, he moaned about the “encouraging the teaching of homosexuality in schools”.
The cabinet will be home to people who want to take away our access to free healthcare. NHS drug pricing could soar in a US-UK trade deal, meanwhile Trump is already being let in through the back door. Unlike Labour and opposition parties, Johnson has no solution to climate crisis – his party scrapped the Department for Energy and Climate Change. He’s taken protection for workers’ rights out of his “new” Brexit deal, while receiving endorsements from the far right.
To imagine this future is truly terrifying, and that’s exactly why Boris Johnson doesn’t want us to. As we await the exit polls we have good reason to worry – but being struck with hopeless paralysis will do no good. Acting to avoid this dystopian vision is all we can do. Today, that means making time to vote if you’ve not already and ensuring the same of those around you; join a final push to get people to the polling booth – it’s still not too late to change minds. And tomorrow? I’ll still be hopeful, regardless. The alternative is inaction – we owe it to those who’ll be hit hardest to resist giving up. Because whatever happens at 10pm, the next five years will bring the fight of our lives.
• Michael Segalov is a contributing editor at Huck magazine, a freelance journalist and author
