Who are 'they'?

One of my political greats, in that he made such a dignified exit on being ousted from his seat, and incidently the man for whom I voted in the Labour Leadership ballot in 2010, Ed Balls:

You may have noticed that we now have a Conservative Government. Some of us are not happy about it. I refer to the Tory Party as 'they' because it takes the sting out a little bit. And also, as an oblique reference to a comment by Youngest Daughter: 'Who voted for them? I haven't met anyone yet who will admit to it. Who are they?'

We are not quite three weeks into this new government and of course 'they' are still getting used to the fact, as indeed are the general electorate. The size of their majority was unexpected. It may surprise some of you to know that I did not vote for them. Like many like minded friends I posted on various social media sites 'awful warnings' of what I feared 'they' would do if 'they' got into government. Those fears may have been the subject of a few blogs on here too. I went out and worked for my local Labour party parliamentary candidate. The night of May 7th into the morning of May 8th was truly horrible, not helped by the fact that I had dropped my smart 'phone down the lavatory on the morning of May 7th and couldn't quickly text friends and family when the lamentable results began to roll in.

Now, when I eventually wake in the morning, I tend to think - not necessarily my first thought, but high on the list of early thoughts - 'I wonder what 'they' are going to do today?'

Because [never start a sentence with a conjunction but this is permissible when politically grieving] now 'they' have the permission of the electorate to carry out so many 'promises' they had headlined in their manifesto and campaign speeches 'they' will. Because the electorate have ratified their promises. Promises like cutting the welfare spending by £12bn, without detailing what and where these cuts will be. [Don't worry about this too much all, those people who voted for this government. Because the kindly man who is again in charge of this is that sympathetic figure, Ian Duncan Smith. Sarcasm alert]

Of course 'they' have given plenty of encouraging sound bites since their election victory. Like the pledge for a seven day National Health Service. The same pledge that they gave in the last Parliament but for which we are obviously still waiting. As Andrew Gwynne MP, Labour’s Shadow Health Minister, comments: 

David Cameron’s plans for a seven-day NHS are simply not credible without the extra resources and staff the NHS needs – particularly in areas like general practice, where the Tories have created a GP workforce crisis.........  

to read full comments please go to  http://www.labour.org.uk/pages/news

So a bit of consumer advice here, buyer beware. Election/manifesto promises are not covered by trading standards/consumer law. It is up to the electorate to complain. And those who voted for the Government - or didn't vote at all -aren't really in a position to do that. I didn't so I can. And I will. Watch this space.






Best moment of the Election results: Nick Farage NOT being elected: