It would be remiss of me to neglect mentioning this here on tumblr.
The day after the Budget, Gideon ‘George’ Osborne was on the Today programme on BBC Radio 4. I heard an excerpt of his self-satisfied blarting as part of the 9am headlines. I cannot for the life of me recall what he said before, or after as my head went asplodey, but I will not forget him saying “… the political capital gained when you win an election…” [emphasis mine] any time soon.
What Osborne would know about winning an election could probably be written on the back of a stamp with plenty licking room to spare, as the Conservative party did not win the election. They barely scraped more votes than the other two main parties in the UK; not enough to form a majority government. Also, considering that voter turnout was 65% and that only about 36% of those actually voted Tory, it arguable that they represent the will of the people. The Conservatives could have tried to form a minority government, as the SNP have done in Scotland. Had they done that, they probably wouldn’t have got many proposed policies from their election manifesto past the Commons, never mind the Lords. Anything they did successfully pass into law could have ended up so watered down and altered, they would have looked positively socialist (I can dream…)
So, back to Osborne and this political capital he seems to think he has. Either the past year has actually caused him to mis-remember the weekend following May 6th, and he really does now think they won the election; he wants the electorate to believe that they actually voted for this and that the Tories have a legitimate mandate to destory the country for those who aren’t eye-wateringly privileged; or he doesn’t grasp how elections in this country actually work, so thinks that because they got the most votes (just), they won (pro tip: that’s not how it works in this country.)
No matter the reason, there is a growing campaign to remind the occupants of Downing Street that they (nor anyone else, for that matter) won last years’ election.
Look for You Didn’t Win on Facebook, follow us on twitter and read the blog. Instructions for our campaign are posted on the Facebook page and the blog, I’ll post them here too, when I get a chance!
