When the exit poll came through at 5 am on Friday morning (Australia time), I couldn't quite believe it. The polls showing Labour twenty points ahead, throughout the election campaign, appeared to be correct, judging by this final, most accurate poll. I for one, took it with a pinch of salt; I still didn't believe it was accurate, sceptical about information collated before a single vote was counted.
It wasn't until the actual results started to filter through, that the penny dropped. Labour was indeed on course for a landslide victory, akin to that of Tony Blair in 1997.
I was up at 3.45 am to watch the British election results counted throughout the United Kingdom; sitting in my lounge in front of an electric fire, in the middle of a cold (well relatively chilly) Australian winter, I was ready to watch the results tally up. With a cup of tea and a warm hot water bottle, I anxiously awaited confirmation of this projected Labour Landslide.
Usually I would be at work on a Friday, but I had taken a personal day, because of a pre-planned hospital visit. At 9 am I had to make my way to Midland hospital, mobile phone in hand, watching the results while I walked to my appointment. Later that afternoon, I was back home, glued to the box once again. It was clear there was indeed going to be a new Labour government, and I was delighted.
As the afternoon progressed here in Australia, the scale of the losses, from one of the worst UK governments in my lifetime, was unlike anything I had ever seen before, and I couldn't have been happier. Watching the likes of Jacob Rees-Mogg and Liz Truss lose their seats, as a political wave of change engulfed Britain, was satisfying, after everything they had done to bring Britain to its knees. These were the people that had lied repeatedly, partied during the pandemic, paid millions of taxpayers money to their mates for unusable PPE, and destroyed the hopes and dreams of a nation with their Brexit lies. This was karma coming back to bite those who had spent so long, taking their positions for granted, and disrespecting the British public.
Despite this great Labour victory, there are some warning signs on the horizon. Reform will now have a voice in Parliament; this extremist, homophobic, racist party will now be voting on the future of the UK — that is scary. Then there are the one-trick pony 'Gaza Activists,' who high jacked some local constituencies, because of their extremist views on the war in the Middle East. Of course this only happened in areas with a high Muslim population, but the appalling, confrontational campaigns they fought, against good, trusted MP's, was a disgrace. MP, Jess Phillips, spoke up against the treatment she received from these awful groups, organised to cause maximum disruption, hurt, and pain to her, just because she was a woman — that was shocking to see. The UK is not a fascist country, and that kind of behaviour should not be tolerated. Those responsible should be bought to justice!
I am not a political activist, and have voted for most political parties during my lifetime. This time, however, I was sadly unable to vote, but my support for this new Government is unequivocal. The Tories had to go; they had caused so much damage to my home country that it would have been impossible for them to continue. They have a lot of expectations to live up too, and I hope they will succeed in their endeavours to change Britain for the better.
It is true they won a landslide with a small percentage of the vote, but that is the British electoral system, so they can't do anything about that, unless they feel the need to in Government. Nevertheless, they are now the party in charge, and all of us should give them our full support. If they don't live up to expectations, then I, like everyone else, will vote them out. The hope is, however, they will achieve great things in the UK and the Tories will remain out of power for a very long time; after the catastrophe of the last 14 years, do they really deserve to govern again?
