Regardless of who is selected by the Tory Party to be Prime Minister on Monday, I warn you.
I warn you that you will feel exhaustion – from the demands of multiple jobs and mandatory unpaid overtime you undertake just to put food on the table
I warn you that you will be exposed – to the elements and the market when the roof over your head is valued only as an asset from which wealth may be extracted in rent
I warn you that you will be cold – when you cannot afford to heat your home as energy bills are used to stoke the profits of privatised utilities
I warn you that you will have servitude – when Trade Union rights are dismembered atop an altar of free market ideology and those that would be your tribunes are to be broken by the press
I warn you that you will have injustice – where an underfunded court system suffers from a backlog of cases that will ensure justice will be delayed and as such denied
I warn you that you will have indignity – as the experience of your struggle will be dashed apart by those whose living depends solely on the controversies that they can fashion
I warn you that you will have suffering – when medical aid is denied by a lack of means as the NHS is starved of the funding it warrants
Whoever wins on Monday
- I warn you not to be young
- I warn you not to be defiant
- I warn you not to be old
- I warn you not to be working class
N.B. The above is a variant of Neil Kinnock's 'I Warn You' speech prior to Margaret Thatcher's re-election in 1987. I would whole-heartedly recommend reading the speech in full.
While I have significant disagreements with Kinnock on a range of issues (as if he would be aware of my qualms and needs my approbation) I have no hesitation in respecting his oratory or indeed his affinity for Aneurin Bevan.
