The hyperbole attached to the upcoming election has been, as expected, of the ‘once in a generation’, ‘once in a lifetime’ variety. And, overused and therefore diminished in impact as they might be, the description, this time, is potentially valid.
The prospect of Brexit becoming a reality, allied to the continuation of the moral void that is a Tory government, is a prospect that should lead anyone with an ounce of empathy, social conscience, appreciation of fairness, of justice to determine that they no longer retain power.
And yet, when the opportunity arrives for a direct comparison between the leaders of the two main parties, we are left with an echo of the world according to social media.
And a clear indication why adversarial politics should be closed down, closed off, and consigned to history. But that is another argument for another day – or maybe not.
To have high expectations for a televised debate would be an extreme example of naivety, but the result was still a disappointment, because the performances brought nothing new to the argument.
Catch phrases and sound bites abounded, more to be fair from Johnson than Corbyn, but the opportunity to nail the tragedy of the Tory record in power was missed.
How can the answer to an accusation of the SNP controlling Labour aspirations not be the fact that the Tories bought their, now gone, slim majority with a hand-out to the DUP?
Why is Corbyn so unwilling to explain his personal opinion on the EU? Endless avoidance of a question, and repetition of an answer to an alternative question presents the same picture as Johnson’s endless parroting of getting things done, cooking deals, unleashing …….. stuff.
There is an innate morality behind a socialist – left of centre if you prefer – agenda. And that should always be the case that is proposed, and there were moments, but there were transient and brief and not retaining impact.
And that was because the live debate has become an echoing chamber for the narrow bellows of the distortions generated by social media. Perhaps because it worked in the US, and in the Brexit referendum, both sides have decided that the only way to win is to continue the process.
Reason. That’s all that is needed. A couple of minutes of calm reason. Just enough to make enough people think beyond the sound bites.
And, by the way, simple adversarial politics is no longer relevant. It still prevails, but it isn’t relevant, and will dissolve.Not soon enough probably, but it will.
And as to the rest – irrespective of how unsatisfactory it appears to you, there is an imperative that prevails above everything else.
Get rid of the Tories.
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