General election – main parties ignore real issues

What we think

General election – main parties ignore real issues

SO THEY’RE off and running in the general election stakes. But for
ordinary voters looking for a party to back there appear to be more and
bigger obstacles than anything in the Grand National course.

All the main establishment parties seem to be in a race to the bottom
in terms of the policy options they are presenting to voters. Rather
than asking us how we would like to see our lives improved, we are being
asked how far we want to see public services privatised and how many
jobs should be cut.

Fundamental issues like the increasing wealth gap in British society;
the continuing deterioration of public services; the attacks on pensions
and the continuing cost of the occupation of Iraq will be painstakingly
avoided by Labour, Liberal and Tories.

Blair had the cheek, when calling the election, to say that "the
British people are the boss" and the ones who will make the choice.
But if this were true then why hasn’t Blair listened to the majority who
opposed the war and occupation of Iraq or the majority who want the rail
industry to be renationalised and privatisation of public services to
stop?

Blair wants your votes in this election but his real bosses after the
election, as now, will be President Bush and international big business.

Most voters will increasingly see this as the ‘no choice’ election
with all main parties the same. For many of those who do eventually
vote, they are likely to see it as a choice over which authoritarian
liar you least want elected.

That is not to say that there are not big issues that people want
addressed. It’s just that none of the main parties are addressing them.
To reinterpret the Tories’ election slogan, none of the main parties are
thinking what the voters are thinking; instead they tell us what the
politicians feel we should be thinking.

In some areas voters will have a real choice where there will be
Socialist Party and other socialist and anti-privatisation candidates.
The Socialist Party is standing 16 candidates and will be fighting on
issues that really matter to working people.

But even if you think this election gives you no choice in terms of
which vote to cast, there is the choice of fighting against the
capitalist system the establishment capitalist parties uphold.

After the election working-class people and the trade unions will
increasingly come into collision with the pro-business agenda of
whichever party wins.

The election campaign gives socialists a chance to promote the idea,
in working-class communities and amongst trade unionists in particular,
that the alternative of a new mass workers’ party, initiated by the
trade unions, is urgently needed and can be built.



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