General Elections-2019: the result (a disaster)

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Dreadful. Five more years of austerity, ‘irrefutable’ Brexit, a bleak fate for the NHS, more cuts to the universities, a life in uncertainty for EU citizens, more issues with the Northern Ireland border (god, help us all), more troubles with Scotland. Do I wish to continue? I won’t.

Can’t help but agree with acerbic Mencken who once said that “democracy is the theory that the common people know what they want, and deserve to get it good and hard” and “every election is a sort of advance auction sale of stolen goods.”

Also, many thanks (not) to Labour, who elected a leader with a very questionable background (let us put it this way), because four years ago their previous leader didn’t eat a bacon sandwich gracefully enough.

And thank you, LibDems, for all your efforts: it’s hard to be the only party to be persistently Remain and to try hard to get rid of the name (and shame) of being called “yellow Tories” after Clegg’s betrayal in 2010. Keep calm and carry on, and, as I always say, contra spem spero.

The amount of hate towards Jo Swinson is ridiculous. The same folks who blame her for being too self-confident (self-centered, ‘full of herself’) supposedly hate weak and helpless politicians. The main mistake of her campaign was to mention that she wants to revoke Article 50 and stop Brexit if the Liberal Democrats won a majority: at the same time, that was a campaigning claim, no more and no less. Yet people on social media are constantly bashing her for being ‘deluded’ about the wishes of the majority over Brexit and hold against her the simple ‘if I would be a Prime Minister...”.

I am feeling sorry for her: she was bright, enthusiastic, and full of stamina. I can hardly imagine myself in her shoes, because, even though I think of myself as being thick-skinned and cynical enough, I’d hate to be subjected to such waves of insult and mockery.

Her last speech as the leader of the party was beautiful: “I’m proud to be the first woman to lead the Liberal Democrats and I’m even more proud that I will not be the last.”

Thank you, Jo Swinson. You did what you thought would be the best for people like myself.