From a former UK Labour Party member: I absolutely cannot vote for you

As many of you in the United States may have seen on the news, there’s a very big election taking place tomorrow in the United Kingdom. The 3rd national election in 4 years—all because of the self-inflicted chaos of the Brexit process. I knew from the moment the election was called which party I was voting for and the only real leader who is on offer to the British people (hint: he’s the current Prime Minister). But a word about the main opposition party in the United Kingdom, which is completely unrecognizable from the party it was 10 years ago. The party I was a paid member of. And the party I actively went around my student city of Cardiff canvassing for, knocking on doors in 2005 (the election ultimately won by Tony Blair). What on earth happened to the Labour Party? It’s a cautionary story that should be heeded in the United States too.

As a swing voter, I’m a great believer in electoral systems deliberately set up to achieve balance, and to not allow any politicians or one party, too much power. When that happens it’s always bad news, no matter the political party. The vast majority of people out there, I’d hazard a guess over 80 percent, reside somewhere in the middle—either center left or center right. The Labour Party in the United Kingdom is the main left-wing party and found itself out of power throughout the 80s and most of the 90s, coinciding with Margaret Thatcher’s time in power. A not dissimilar thing happened in the United States with Ronald Reagan. The reason why Tony Blair and Bill Clinton were so successful was that they cleverly moved their parties to the center and captured the middle ground again. After Tony Blair was forced out of office and then Gordon Brown went on to lose the 2010 election to Conservative David Cameron, something very curious happened to the Labour Party. They completely shifted to the “hard left” and abandoned that centrist philosophy. This culminated in Jeremy Corbyn, a long-time member of the extreme fringe of the party, becoming leader in 2015. Since then, he’s put forward a series of policy proposals that would send shivers down the spine of anybody with even the smallest knowledge of the modern economic system and how it generates wealth and opportunity. One can always make an argument for increasing equality, that’s always a noble goal, but some of Jeremy Corbyn’s lunatic policies include: re-nationalizing many industries and taking them back under government control (including railway, water and energy utilities), seizing assets from private companies for a mandated redistribution among all their workers, and imposing skyrocketing taxes on many business and some of Britain’s best known (often self-made) entrepreneurs. His party truly belongs in a different era, and became like this after being infiltrated by a hard-left group called Momentum. This resulted in large numbers of moderate party loyalists, including many members of Tony Blair’s ultra successful team, fleeing the party. What should have happened: this far-left mob should have just formed their own political party and let Labour continue to be mainstream.

I’m going to not mince words because I feel strongly about this: Jeremy Corbyn is dangerous. Dangerous to the United Kingdom’s economy. Dangerous to the United Kingdom’s safety (he’s a man who has aligned himself with groups like the Irish Republican Army (IRA) and Hamas throughout his career). And dangerous to the United Kingdom’s future—he’ll almost certainly have to go into a coalition if he wins which will force him into another referendum on Scottish independence. He is a grown-up student activist who is simply not a leader.

The current political discourse in the UK is of course complicated by the Brexit issue. Nevertheless, there is a parallel here for the United States and a dire warning of what happens when a left wing party pulls away from the center. The moderate independents flee them in droves. I know many people, including lifelong Labour voters (members of my family amongst them) who have said categorically they will absolutely not vote for Corbyn and will be voting Conservative, for Boris Johnson, for the first time. The opinion polls look abysmal and the writing is on the wall for Corbyn. However, we all know the only poll that matters is the one on election day. December 12th.

Tony Blair, architect of the most successful Labour Party in history, winning 3 thumping landslide elections, once put it well when he warned the party as it was moving away from the center: “History tells us that when you run a traditional right-wing party against a traditional left-wing party, there is only ever one traditional result”. The right almost aways wins. The electorates in both the UK and US who are yearning for the sensible center—if forced to choose between a very left wing party and a very right wing party—will almost always chose the right wing one.

I hope that in the UK, the end result on Thursday is a resounding loss for Jeremy Corbyn, his party, and his beliefs.