#21: 13th hour of the UK election
An Indian citizen voting in UK
Before I start, this is a free flow no edit newsletter post. Consider this as a podcast. Since I don’t have a good calming voice, it has to be through the keyboard. So you can hear this in the voice of Harsha Bhogle, or Scarlet Johansson or Benedict Cumberbatch. Important thing is that the form is just free flow. This reduces the friction in publishing a post. No cuts no buts no coconuts
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UK is is voting today, July the 4th . The incumbent government run by the conservatives (also known as Tories) is facing a major setback that they might get a historical low number of seats. after 14 years of Tory government, tax levels, NHS waiting lists, and legal migration are record high. The short term Liz Truss government ( which had an expiry date lower than a lettuce) has made the situation infinitely worse by pumping up inflation. in 2022 UK observed inflation rate of 11 % which is unprecedented. Even though inflation had come down by second quarter of 2024, the prices are >20% higher than 2021. Covid, global supply chain crisis and Ukrain war had contributed to this mess.
So it is pretty sure that people want a change. But are they excited about it, sadly no. The Labour party lead by Sir Keir Stammer does not offer anything radical. His position seems to be centre-right on many issues. They have taken strategic silence on the Gaza issue and even justified the genocide indirectly at different occasions.
Third largest party is liberal democrats. They seems to be a centrist party, but in this election their stands seems to be more left than Labour. However, many young people in UK have a strong contempt towards them for braking their promises in 2010. They campaigned for removing the tuition fee for collage, but after forming a coalition government with Tories, they have increased the fee almost three times.
Like any other European countries, UK also have an ultra right wing upraise . The new right wing party is called Reform UK led by formal media personality Nigel Farage. They seems to be taking up from the divisive politics of Suella Braverman who planned to send all the illegal migrants to Rwanda.
You may wonder why I am so much interested in this election, being an Indian citizen. I have been a UK resident for last 3 years. In an ideal world, all the resident tax payers should be able to vote for the government, irrespective of nationality. But our world is far from ideal, isn’t it? But funnily enough I can vote here !
All the people in commonwealth nations (including republics like India) are subjects of king ( cant add laughing emoji) and they can vote if they are residents of UK. So yes I am going to vote in couple of hours !!
What I feel most concerning is how the whole narrative is around migrants. Legal migration has increased upto 800 thousands in last couple of years. The current government already changed the migration laws by raising the minimum annual income of a person to bring their family into UK. At the same time working population is reducing in UK and economy is stagnant. After Brexit, they lost the labour supply from eastern Europe and people from Indian, Nigirian, Pakisthan etc were ready to move to uk despite of the high visa fee (one of the highest). Most of these legal immigrants pay £776 per year to NHS on top of the visa fee (this is set to increase further). And the whole election campaign focus is about how you are going to reduce the migration. Nobody had the guts to say migrants are not the problem but solution except the leader of green party. In one of the election debate she said (I am rephrasing)
“In you are seeking health care, a migrant worker is most likely to be a nurse or doctor who takes care of you rather than one standing in front of you in line”
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I started this post in the morning. Now back home after voting. As a political buff, I enjoyed the election campaigns. Also it was so different from Indian election and I could learn a lot along the journey.
Labour is expected to win with a historical majority. Even though it has some regressive elements, it may be better for UK to be in a politically stable with a centrist party in power. Especially when European countries move towards extreme right.