A general election is coming, but this country needs a deeper change

Nimco Ali
Daniel Hambury/@stellapicsltd
Nimco Ali26 July 2022
WEST END FINAL

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Yes, we have one coming sooner than you think. Look at the crisis the Tories are creating for themselves — blue-on-blue attacks can now be found live on national TV. It’s not just those two candidates either. Think of how Labour and the Conservatives are at each others’ throats. There is a rancour infecting our politics and it stems from our electoral system, which is further dividing us — just when we need calm unity to deal with the huge problems we are facing. 

I used to love general elections because I knew who and what I was voting for. Maybe that was youth or naïveté. But until 2019 I voted for the best candidate, hoped they won and that their party formed a government. Hardly rocket science. 

At the last general election I could not bring myself to vote locally for either of the two main parties. And when I voted Green I didn’t want them in power — but I hoped they could help head off a Jeremy Corbyn government. 

The parties are still struggling with their identities now. Labour, for one, has its own crisis. As much as Starmer tells us he is asking himself and his members serious and soul-searching questions, it won’t be enough to win back voters they lost at the last election. So if Labour are to be in power again they will have to create a coalition with another party. 

The obvious partner would be the Lib Dems. But I have no idea how that will work. Labour is now, by its own admission, a pro-Brexit party. The Lib Dems are very much not. 

This is all very concerning for me because as someone who believed in the mantra that the UK has the greatest democracy, I see very little of that in action right now.

We have a cost-of-living crisis in the UK, a war in Europe while climate change is killing millions of the poorest in the world. Yet none of this seems to be a priority for those who seek to win the next general election. That’s why I hope we finally accept that we need real electoral reform. First Past The Post is not fit for purpose in our complex world. The idea that just one political party can govern and deliver for a diverse country is ridiculous. 

This country is not really divided by red or blue walls — despite what breathless commentators declare — but it is united in a hope for a better future for our children, communities and ourselves. As cheesy as that sounds, I know we are fed up with the dumbing down of our political system and the awful tribalism that ensues. It does nothing for this country or those in need. 

So whoever the next PM is, I hope they are ready for change because it is coming. Whether it’s the Alternative Vote or Proportional Representation, our election system simply has to catch up with the world we are living in.

In other news...

Like a perfectly normal person, I have of course spent the last few weeks watching Love Island and I have got an insight I was not expecting. This year, what has stood out for me is how strong and self-assured the girls are — and how the boys are the same as always. The boys assume the girls will fall at their feet and beg to be picked. 

This year, though, the boys’ egos came in for a kicking. Oops. It’s common knowledge that girls are so much more emotionally and socially ahead of boys but in the world of Love Island — always based on looks — girls always came off worse. 

Until this year. Now the girls are having their heads turned and are unsure about the boys around them. I am so here for this. If it was up to me, Ekin-Su would win the show as an individual because she has been brilliant — she is just playing the game the boys have always been allowed to play.

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