Reasons to be cheerful, or maybe not

The last rites

For the last forty years it has become an assumption by politicians that Rupert Murdoch through his control of much of the media has been the king maker when it comes to elections. (It was the Sun wot won it!) To such an extent that Blair and Brown courted Murdoch to gain his endorsement during their years in office. But Murdoch's papers do not win elections they normally support whichever party the polls say is ahead and then claim to have shaped the result. This is why the Sun has put an each way bet on this election backing the Tories in the English edition and the SNP in the Scotland. There is another reason: Murdoch's papers, together with the Telegraph and Mail all fear that a Parliament which has a clear majority of pro- Leveson parties would introduce an effective press regulation, and finally eliminate their influence over Britain’s democracy.

On these ground alone there is sufficient justification for wishing and hoping that Cameron and the Tories fail to finish the job they have started but the electoral arithmetic is fickle and even with two thirds of the voters against them they could emerge as the largest party. Moreover older voters tend to be registered and turn out to vote unlike many of the young, the dispossessed and the more progressive voters.

There are many other reasons why a Tory government would damage the quality of life for many hard working families in the UK although these have seldom been discussed in the tedious election campaign. They include the further erosion of public services, the creeping privatisation of education and health, the selling off of Britain's assets and companies and the protection of privilege and wealth. The much vaunted increase in employment must be considered in the context of a decline in GDP, no real wage increases, the explosion of part time and zero hours work and the huge reduction in company pension schemes. It has been a period of not just prolonged austerity but also a lack of vision about the future of the UK both at home and on the international stage.

It is notjust the satisfaction of putting Murdoch in his box that suggests that Cameron should not be elected to finish the job by a voting system that is no longer for our time. There are a ream of other reasons.

• The loss of influence on the international stage, whether in Europe, where the PM has lost the respect of his peers; or on the world stage where the PM has been notably absent apart from the ill thought out foray into Libya, did he learn nothing from Iraq?
• The grossly expensive and damaging re-organisation of the NHS, which has undermined the significant progress made by the previous government that invested heavily in hospitals and new facilities, reduced waiting times and both set and met health improvement targets. We now have an NHS on the brink of collapse and a Health secretary who, in 2007, advocated the demise of the NHS.
• The legacy of Michael Gove, who abandoned the inherited school building programme, closed many sure start centres and devoted all the effort of his department into creating free schools and academies whilst neglecting existing schools and the standards of teaching. He lost the trust of the teaching profession to such an extent that he had to be removed from office and replaced by a more emollient minister before the election````
• The abdication of any pretence that local services are important with local government losing a million jobs, over 20% of its budgets and no longer given any status in determining priorities. The only attempt at localism was to delegate the blame for the budgetary cuts made by parliament onto councils. The sooner that local government is entrenched into a new UK constitution the better.
• The sell off of British companies from Cadbury to Centrica with over half of the Financial Times 100 companies now owned by foreign investors. This is matched by more than half the premier league teams now owned by foreign companies and the Chinese are building the next nuclear power station. This sell off has huge consequences for the UK and even the Mail says "we are all paying the price".
• The skewed investment in infrastructure which has seen London boom on the back of transport investment with HS2 and the London airport expansion set to further reinforce the London centric obsession of Cameron and Johnson. The Chancellor talking up the northern power house is a shameless gambit unless investment in the high speed train network radiates out from Manchester and Leeds to Newcastle, Sheffield, Liverpool, Edinburgh and Glasgow
• Cameron was happy to take the kudos for inherited successes most notably the 2012 Olympics, but also the booming arts and cultural activities that had been heavily backed by the previous government.  Meanwhile his government have stripped sport and culture of any new investment.
• The failure to tackle the shortage of housing in both the private or public sectors and instead pumping money into the banks that has resulted in more mortgage led housing inflation in London and the South East.
• Imposing a wage freeze on public sector jobs and a benefits freeze at the same time as allowing massive pay increases for the corporate and financial sectors and reducing taxation for the highest paid.
• Swapping one million jobs in the public sector that were fairly paid and with pensions for new jobs that are part time, zero hours and lacking pensions and then claiming an economic miracle when the GDP is still not back to the pre-recession level.
• Failing to reform the governance arrangements in Westminster despite the loss of trust in the institution. And then campaigning against House of Lords reform, fairer voting systems, reducing the voting age whilst maintaining the ancient rituals of Parliament such as passing through the lobby to vote.
• Cameron's speech on the steps of Downing street the day after the referendum calling for "English votes for English Laws". It was a guarantee that the turmoil of the last few years running up to the referendum would erupt again but if this meant the Conservatives obtaining the greatest number of seats in the new parliament then his strategy will have worked and the union would be less likely to survive.

So there are lots of reasons to be cheerful if this duplicitous government is evicted this Thursday. The prospect of Murdoch having called it wrong and to finally have his baleful influence removed by a more progressive government would be the icing on the cake. Unless of course he has called the result right again. (And sadly he did!)