Saturday, 10 June 2017

Post election thoughts and what next (Video transcript)



Hi everyone, I just wanted to talk to you a little bit about my post-election thoughts and what I think we could expect from the future.

I suppose my first thoughts when I woke up at 6am this morning were – okay well it looks like we’ve got another 5 years of an oppressive, austerity driven tory government, no matter what shape or form, and that is obviously a very disheartening and frustrating thing. There’s no doubt that we’re really going to have to fight against another 5 years of social injustice and dishonest politics from the the torys. We’re likely to face some tough times ahead.

But I was also quickly filled by a massive sense of achievement, and overwhelming hope. Despite all the odds – having had the press, the establishment, and even some of his own MP’s obsessed with disrupting his dignified and passionate vision…from start to finish, this man, Jeremy Corbyn, has shown the country…shown the world…that people power CAN change things through simple messages, united causes and simple human dignity. And that our country has a clear appetite for democratic socialism.  

This maverick of a leader, with the whole establishment against him has secured 261 seats, more than his past 3 predecessors and has halted a tory majority. This maverick of a leader is the first anti-establishment, left-wing leader in our political history to disrupt our toxic political status-quo in such a way. Moreover, there’s no doubting the fact he has played a massive part in engaging the largest amount of young voters in our political history – an astonishing 70% of 18-30 year olds – the majority of whom voted Labour. In short, this man has done something SO many deemed unimaginable. For a country that has been asking for change and real representation for decades we have shown a clear message that, for a huge amount of us, doing things in this way, could be the answer.

So I suppose the big question now is – what next? Well first and foremost…we don’t yet know what will come of the next few days – whether Theresa May will indeed be able to form a weak minority government or whether it could all go copout and we find ourselves back at the polling stations in 6 months’ time. Who knows.

But no matter what happens, there is one thing we all must do: we must maintain this fantastic political momentum by truly backing the left starting now onwards. Collectively the anti-tory, anti-austerity progressive alliance we now have in parliament, has the chance to defeat the torys, now more than ever. We have such an important task ahead of us; supporting those who will be working day in day out to fight the unjust and manipulative regime that the torys will try and entrench into our society, once more. So I urge you to not see this result as defeat, continue to speak out, continue to demonstrate, continue to support your Labour representative or whoever else you have voted for, be it through canvassing, debating, blogging or even just retweeting the odd statement. We cannot give up now. We have a serious chance of putting the concerns we have voiced today into fully-fledged action in the not to near future.

So do not give up. And I just want to finish by saying a massive thank you to everyone who put such impassioned work into this campaign, to everyone that voted labour, and most of all to Jeremy Corbyn – because he is the person who has, time and time again, who has put everything he has into fighting for this change, against all the odds. As a young, first time voter, I have never be so inspired and motivated to fight for what I believe in, and I’m know so many others feel the same.

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