OPPRESSION & LIES: Young Voters Beware of both Sunak AND Starmer!

Right, so both the Tories and Labour have decided to target young voters, but whereas Sunak seems intent on driving away what few of them might support him in a bid to woo older voters instead, pitching young against old, Keir Starmer prefers his old established trick of seemingly choosing to lie to them and act like he’s offering young people something, opting to put a big fat sweetener on the table for some would be voters, pitching an idea that has proven popular amongst teen voters or would be voters for a very long time. The problem Starmer has though, is that this particular pitch for the youth vote is already being exposed as a cynical ploy and a promise to ditch later like so many others, because as much as he’s promising something lovely with one hand, he’s already taken something away with the other and is arguably about to make that particular broken promise a whole lot worse.
Right, so Rishi Sunak and Keir Starmer have in recent days, early days of the election campaign, outlined some of their intentions as far as young people and young voters go and their opposing approaches certainly exposes their party attitudes towards the youth vote and despite their policies and how they will run the country being virtually identical, they have very different attitudes towards young voters and that clearly stems from where the youth vote has gone in recent years. Very few people below the age of 40, never mind the teen voters or young adult voters that are the focus of this video, look towards the Tories anymore, that’s been a trend for a long time now, removing their ability to study in Europe was a smack in the teeth, hiking their tuition fees already has been another, so it simply isn’t a demographic that the Tories appeal to, therefore they’ll keep on punching down on them it seems. In fact according to YouGov, the Tories are no longer the most popular party amongst anyone below the age of 70 and if that isn’t indicative of a party that is dying out, I don’t know what is. However it does reflect Sunak’s policy move towards young people, and that is a pitch to reintroduce National Service. The last people who actually did any of that, literally are over 70, the last conscripts, were those born before the 1st October 1939, so these would be people aged 85, or will turn that this year, or over. The idea of today’s youth, in fact anyone under the age of 40 for the most part, being proud to serve in the armed forces by force, in an attempt to foster a sense of national pride, when this country is led by politicians acting like global pariahs and operating in the interests of the rich and not ordinary working class people is farcical. The very reason young people don’t want to vote for you, is because you disgust them and everything you stand for disgusts them and they certainly I would imagine – I certainly would feel like this – they have no intention of risking their lives for rich people, who have blighted the lives of them and their families. Conscientious objection would I should think, be rife and I’d certainly rather go to prison than see any of my kids called up for this sick joke.
It is at the end of the day though, a headline grabbing gimmick, because just like the General Election being called itself, The Tory Party, had no idea Sunak was going to announce this. It would also cost and estimated £2.5bn and that is totally uncosted. Sunak is so desperate right now, to not be the Prime Minister that oversees the death of the Tory Party in all but name, he will promise literally anything, in a bid to attract voters, and this one is pathetic, but also shows the youth vote is not one he knows he can win, so better to just target them to win the votes of older people instead.
It would be churlish to not point out the fact that for years, in the name of cuts and austerity, the Tories have slashed our armed forces troop numbers and now seem intent on using our kids, to fill the gaps. Over 14 years of Tory misrule, our armed forces have been cut by 27%, from 100,000 to 73,000 soldiers, to the point Sir Patrick Sanders, the Chief of the General Staff has said we might need a citizen army, if for example as these people keep saying, Putin invades, but to which Sunak responded as being an unhelpful intervention, yet now, it’s conscription making an appearance in the Tory manifesto. Free soldiers in the form of our kids making up for Tory cuts. Over my dead body.
Keir Starmer’s pitch to the young is nothing to write home about either though, because on the face of it, he’s lying again to get what he wants, before probably breaking his word once more later on. It is his defining characteristic after all, his word is worthless:
He is now making the pitch to reduce the voting age from 18 to 16 on the basis that 16 year olds can go out to work, they can pay tax, therefore they should be able to vote. Sounds great on paper, would cost nothing more to implement and sure the argument is that we’re in a General Election campaign now, new announcements come at such time, so perhaps this is something Labour have been planning for a while, unlike Sunak’s announcement, which has shocked everyone apparently within his party.
However, there are issues here. First and foremost is the issue of whether you can believe anything Starmer says. Even if it ends up written in the manifesto, be wary of how such things get worded. He has weaseled out of previous pledges on national television down to how things are phrased, for example his pledge to renationalise water, when he rowed back on that and was picked up on it, he disputed the allegation, denied it, because the pledge didn’t actually say renationalise, it said take back into public ownership and he sat there and argued the two were different things. Equally, the manifesto will likely not mean anything anyway, certainly no more than Starmer’s word, because as always happens, ways and means and circumstances after they get elected will mean they can no longer deliver. It always happens, it certainly will with Starmer.
But underlining that in this pitch to woo young voters, is that he might give the vote to 16 year olds, but he might also be about to not only no longer axe turion fees – another broken pledge, but might be about to do a Nick Clegg and hike them again as well:
Bridget Phillipson will be Starmer’s Education Secretary as things stand was asked on BBC Question Time this week if Labour would rule out tuition fee hikes, now that they have ruled out scrapping them and she couldn’t do so. Bearing in mind this is a party that has already ruled out a wealth tax on millionaires and billionaires to make up spending shortfalls, here are Labour now threatening to lump even more debt on the shoulders of our kids as one of their chosen alternatives. Political choice. She said on Question Time this was a really unpalatable choice, she didn’t want to do that, but wouldn’t rule out doing it. Rachel Reeves fiscal rules for our kids, no wonder she’s being referred to this week not so much as a Red Tory, which we know she absolutely hates, but is being directly compared to Margaret Thatcher now, in the choices she looks set to make if Labour gain a majority.
So young people have a choice between the main two parties, between one that wants to apparently conscript them into the army and another that will give future younger voters the vote earlier than they might have done, but for those that can vote this time around, they are looking at tuition fee hikes in all likelihood and yet Labour remains the favoured party, according to that same YouGov poll amongst young voters and actually right now, it is for all voters under the age of 70. However, there has been a shift in this same poll, regarding voters under 40 and although Labour remain the most popular party amongst this age group, where previously the Lib Dems enjoyed a significant youth vote, they’ve frankly never won it back after THEY hiked tuition fees when they went into coalition with the Tories in 2010.
What has happened is the Green Party have now filled that niche. In all age groups under 40, the Greens now occupy second place to Labour. Now you might look at that and think well they’re well behind, I would remind you that polls show a trend more than actual figures that are gospel, they are always estimates based on their own methodologies and these vary from one pollster to another, so this indicates a shift to one extent or another, made all the more remarkable, by the fact the Greens get barely any media attention, too much focused on Reform UK, even now, who barely even made a dent at the local elections, look set on losing their one MP who was a defector anyway, and given it was Lee Anderson, they can have him and frankly that is testament to the Greens use of social media and that their policies are online all the time, via their website, so nobody needs to wait until manifestos come out to see what they stand for.
For example, where scrapping tuition fees goes, here’s what current policy, decided by Green Party members as all policy is, says:
‘Abolish fees in Further Education and all courses in FE would be provided for free at the point of use.
Write off all outstanding debt and resulting interest related to 24+ advanced learning loans provided by the student loans company to fund tuition for level 3 and 4 courses.
Increase the funding per student in Further Education to match that in schools.
Initiate a swift transition from the current start stop funding arrangements to a long term funding process for Further Education provision over a 10 year period.
Place all funding bodies back under the democratic control of local authorities/regional bodies.
As part of the transition to the Universal Basic Income, reintroduce an Education Maintenance Allowance at a level which would be effective in supporting disadvantaged students, and through a system which was clear and transparent, and not open to inconsistency in application.
Protect and improve the current support provision for disabled students.’
How this would be paid for, which no doubt many will be thinking, will be by increasing the proportion of public expenditure given over to education. It will simply be a bigger priority, than current parties regard it as. Other moves will be to integrate grammar schools, academies and free schools into the national system and block any more being created, ending this two tier system of education the Tories have created. They will also scrap the charitable status for private schools as well as levy VAT and Corporation Tax on them.
There are frankly just better offers for young people than the snake oil being sold by Sunak and Starmer and I hope more come to realise that, as well as other demographics, who will be able to see where their taxes could and should be better spent than what they are now.
Keir Starmer’s lies meanwhile are becoming a focus of attacks on Labour in this election, and frankly it isn’t before time he was made to answer for these. With so many to his name, everyone should be asking themselves why should I trust this man? As this video delves into as a recommended next watch, and I’ll hopefully catch you on the next vid. Cheers folks.