[ID: The Seagull Meme. The First Panel Shows A Seagull Saying Hey. In The Second Panel, The Seagull Opens

[ID: The seagull meme. The first panel shows a seagull saying “Hey”. In the second panel, the seagull opens its mouth slightly and says “Do you know what day it is?”. In the third panel, the seagull leans back and opens its mouth a lot. In the fourth panel, the seagull leans forward and screams “It’s transgender day of visibility!”. The last panel is overlaid in the colors of the transgender flag. End ID]

19 Excuses Not to Vote Labour and Why They’re All Bullshit

(1) “Jeremy Corbyn is a terrorist sympathiser.”

Nope. Jeremy Corbyn is a politician who has met with people he opposes as part of diplomatic efforts to achieve peace. Other people who’ve shaken hands with terrorists include Prince Charles, Nelson Mandela and every Prime Minister of the last 50 years. Even Tony Blair has said he regrets boycotting Hamas when it won the Palestinian elections in 2006. If the media had any interest in doing so, they could dig up pictures of literally any politician shaking hands with someone undesirable.

(2) “Jeremy Corbyn is antisemitic.”

Labour definitely has an antisemitism problem, but it’s still the least problematic party in terms of racism. Despite several fuck-ups and slowness to react on Corbyn’s part, he has done more to tackle antisemitism than any other party leader. It’s absurd to hold him responsible for the actions of every person in a party that has half a million members and it’s absurd to pretend that Labour’s problems are comparable to the well documented antisemitism, anti-blackness and Islamophobia of the Tory party. Being wary of Labour antisemitism is understandable - voting for someone worse is not.

(3) “Jeremy Corbyn will bankrupt the country.”

The amount of income our government can generate is not fixed at a certain level. It is only limited by the willingness of politicians to tax rich people. Britain’s corporation tax is below the European average and you don’t see multinational corporations refusing to do business in France or Germany. Over 163 economists have put their name to a letter supporting Labour’s economic policies.

(4) “We can’t afford all these public services.”

Most of the services that Corbyn wants to nationalise are services that were already in state hands before they were privatised under the Tories in the 80s and 90s. This was never unaffordable - those services were prioritised because Margaret Thatcher believed that private companies were more efficient than the public sector. Labour isn’t trying to do something unprecedented here, it’s about correcting errors that were made by previous governments. All of these services are already nationalised in Ireland and many other countries. 

(5) “People will lose their jobs if Corbyn forces companies to improve working conditions.”

Companies like Amazon already operate in countries where they’re forced into providing better conditions than they do in the UK. Companies like Burger King provide their Danish employees with better conditions than their US employees - because local laws determine what they can get away with. Multinational companies won’t give up lucrative markets just because their profit margins are slightly lower.

(6) “We will have a recession if a 32 hour working week is introduced.”

There are numerous European countries where the average working week is less than 32 hours. Labour state that a 32 hour working week would improve productivity, and it’s hard to argue otherwise when we know that workplace stress is a leading cause of absence. And in any case, why should life be all about work?

(7) “Corbyn is an extremist”

There is nothing extreme in the Labour manifesto. Many policies in Labour’s platform are common across Europe. The manifesto is social democratic rather than socialist. In any case you have to remember, the NHS was treated as a communist idea when it was founded. Corbyn is portrayed as an extremist because many rich people want things to remain the way they are.

(8) “Corbyn is terrible at debates and speeches.”

Many people would disagree with you, but in any case this doesn’t really matter, does it? You’re not electing someone to become chair of the Oxford debating society. This isn’t a dramatic performance, it’s about policies. Labour’s policies can prevent the deaths of thousands of people.

(9) “Corbyn is a Brexiteer.”

This is such a ridiculous conspiracy theory. Corbyn voted Remain and campaigned for Remain. His ambivalence towards the EU is actually shared by many other Remainers - you don’t have to love the EU to see that leaving is a bad idea.

Corbyn has done more than anyone else to prevent No Deal Brexit. Whilst the Lib Dems and Change UK refused to work with him, he quietly sabotaged every Tory attempt at Brexit. His policy on Brexit is the right one - we can’t just ignore the 2016 referendum but people must be given a genuine choice between a workable Brexit deal and remaining within the EU. The question has to go back to the electorate, with No Deal taken off the table.

(10) “We need to Get Brexit Done.”

Why? Haven’t the last three years proved that Brexit is a far more complex process than anyone could have imagined? If we leave the EU now, we will still be hearing about it in 10 years from now because there will be years and years of complex negotiations to follow.

Corbyn won’t stand in the way of Brexit if that’s what the electorate still wants, but given that we’re currently being given a choice between delaying Brexit forever or accepting a situation where we don’t have access to food and medicines, it’s obvious that the Tories are not qualified to handle this situation.

(11) “I have to vote Liberal Democrat for tactical reasons.”

Voting Liberal Democrat in 2019 is no different from voting Tory. They have already stated that they wish to join another coalition with the Tories. Some of their candidates are ex-Tories. They refuse to apologise for the 120,000 extra deaths caused by austerity.

The only voters who have any excuse for not supporting Labour are those living in Northern Ireland, Brighton/Hove and certain parts of Scotland. The old rules of tactical voting don’t apply in most of England and Wales right now.

(12) “I’m voting Green because of climate change.”

The only place where it makes sense to vote Green is in Brighton and Hove - they can’t win anywhere else and your vote is too important to throw away. In any case, Friends of the Earth have declared that Labour’s manifesto is more impressive on climate change than the Green manifesto.

(13) “Corbyn is backed by the Russians.”

If Corbyn had such a major force on his side, you wouldn’t see so much constant criticism of him in the media and the Tories wouldn’t have so much more money behind them than Labour have. The Sun is printing conspiracy theorists about “extreme leftists.” The BBC is allowing Boris Johnson to talk absolute rubbish without challenging him. It’s pretty damn clear that all the heavy influence here is working against Corbyn.

(14) “Jeremy Corbyn is a threat to national security.”

Behaving as if the UK should get to decide what happens in other countries is a threat to national security. The Iraq war made the UK a more dangerous place to live. The UK would be safer if we learned how to mind our own business. Corbyn gets this. He also gets that nuclear weapons have not deterred terrorists from attacking the UK and that US forces shouldn’t be allowed to keep overturning the democratic decisions of citizens in other countries.

(15) “I would prefer a woman prime minister.”

You’re not going to get one this year and the interests of feminism are not served by electing women who are prepared to hurt other women. Neither Thatcher nor May ever did anything positive for women, whereas many of Labour’s policies will benefit women and particularly women living in poverty, disabled women, women of colour and LGBTQ women.

(16) “I would actually prefer someone more left-wing than Corbyn.”

Fair enough, but the people being killed by Tory policies cant afford to wait for that option to arrive. If anarchists like Alan Moore can choose to vote for the first time in decades, why cant you?

(17) “My dad earns over £80K a year and Labour will tax him more, but he isn’t rich”

Someone who earns £85K a year can certainly afford the extra £4.81 a week that they would pay under a Labour government. The average salary in this country is £29K. The average salary for someone on minimum wage is just over £15K. People earning over £80K can certainly afford to pay more. 

(18) “Labour ruined the economy”

The current Labour leadership has completely different policies than the New Labour governments, so it’s ridiculous to blame the current leadership for anything that happened under New Labour. In any case, New Labour’s public spending did not cause the GLOBAL financial crisis of 2008. That was caused by the banks and it was used by the Tories as an excuse for policies that have benefited the rich at the expense of everyone else.

(19) “I can’t bring myself to vote for anyone. They’re all liars.”

Over the past 10 years, Tory policies have been responsible for an estimated 120,000 extra deaths. The situation is so severe that the United Nations has investigated the humans rights implications. We live in a country where thousands of suicidal children can’t get the help they need. Thousands of disabled people have died after being declared fit for work. Parents are going without food so their children can eat. Many black people and Muslim people are terrified of Boris Johnson remaining Prime Minister. Hate crime against every marginalised group has gone up dramatically in the past decade.

There’s only one political party that recognises the full extent of the problem and only one party that is prioritising the people affected by it.

Watching the exit polls like

we need to save the NHS.

🔥WHAT IS HAPPENING TO AUSTRALIA??🔥

- 500 MILLION hectares burnt (compared to the 1 million of the California bushfires, & 500 thousand of the Amazon one). That’s more than the size of Belgium!

- 19 people dead and 12 missing (as of today), hundreds upon hundreds of homes have been destroyed. Many people are living in shelters right now because they have nowhere to go.

- 480 MILLION animals dead including rare species of wildlife (koalas are now back on the critically endangered list). Wildlife hospitals are at CAPACITY.

- Our capital city has now been labelled as the WORST air quality city in the world. Smoke fills the air, their post offices are shut until further notice. Businesses in major cities in the country are sending their workers home. Major highways keep closing then opening then closing down again.

- The smoke & flames are engulfing so much of the country that you can SEE IT FROM SPACE. The temperature in NSW has just hit a high of 48*C (118*F) this week. The smoke is now also so large that it is affecting the air quality all the way over in New Zealand!!!

- The Australian Navy have just rescued people who had been fleeing on boats to the oceans to get away from the fires (this is an all time record of people rescued on home-soil by the Navy). The army has also been deployed to help.

- Many cities & towns now have no internet, electricity, or any sort of power. Petrol stations are closing down which means no fuel.

- So many rural communities all over the country have also been suffering from one of the top most intense droughts recorded. This started just before all of the fires.

- People are buying equipment for our Firefighters because they can’t keep up with demand (due to our government cutting their funding!!!). Many Aussies are angry with our Prime Minister, who keeps deflecting questions on climate change and saying ‘let’s rally together’ without actually specifying what he is going to do for the future of Australia now that it is all burning up.

- The harbour bridge and opera house are completely covered in smoke. Ash covers car windows. People are being evacuated all over the country. Some people are staying to protect their homes... The air quality in SYDNEY is equal to smoking 30 cigarettes every time you take a breath. And there’s so much more that’s happening that I couldn’t fit.

- Australia now holds the record of the ‘largest fires in recorded history in the world’, and hardly anyone seems to be paying attention. WE NEED YOUR HELP. When the Amazon was burning, when the Notre Dame was burning, when California was burning you all screamed for someone to do something. We’re begging for help and no one will hear us. PLEASE SHARE WHAT IS HAPPENING. #AustraliaOnFire

DONATE TO :

Firefighters across Australia

Red Cross Australia Disaster Relief

Salvation Army Disaster Appeal

Port Macquarie Koala Hospital

Supply items to people who have lost their homes or can’t go home

Endangered Wildlife Conservancy

Take Me To Church by Hozier except he’s practicing it alone in the front of an empty cathedral, while you watch, hidden, from far behind the pews. He’s at least physically alone, because when you search for the source of the backing vocals, you see no one else.