The Lyons Share

I'd rather not be writing this post here at 5.00 am after only four hours sleep before my penultimate day at work but this is just too important. So hear I am nailing my colours to the mast.

It won't be a surprise to my Facebook friends where I stand on this but I have always kept quiet on my blog about politics but I have had enough and had to say something, even if it sways just one person to not vote Tory it's worth it. And it's my platform and I can say what I like. I might alienate a few people here but this is just too huge a thing to ignore.

Just have a look here to see the damage the last nine years of unnecessary Tory austerity (it was a choice, not an inevitability and was nothing to do with Labour, it was all about bailing out the bankers) has done to Natural England. Funding has been cut by more than 50% since 2010.

How are NE meant to do all the things they should be doing looking after our SSSIs with these crippling cuts? Such as assessing, advising and enforcing? This alone is having a dramatic effect on our wildlife and this alone is reason enough to not vote for them again.

TORIES HAVE A TERRIBLE RECORD ON CLIMATE CHANGE

Just look at the policies in the manifestos, if you are not sure where your politics fits with the policies, then please take the time to go through the 'Vote for Policies' website. You might be surprised! Anyway, the Tories have little interest in doing anything sensible with climate change. Do you want our country to go down the route of America, just so we can inflict self harm on ourselves over an obsession with leaving the EU? Take a minute and think of the real issues at hand here.

LEAVING THE EU WILL DAMAGE WILDLIFE LEGISLATION

I don't think the laws we have from the EU are perfect and we could do with more protected species and a different approach but we will NOT get this by leaving the EU. If this hateful Tory Party gets a majority they will see that as a mandate to leave the EU dramatically and the laws we have that protect species and important places will be ripped up so that it is easier to develop, make no mistake.

NEARLY EVERYONE IN THE CONSERVATION SECTOR VOTES PROGRESSIVELY

Yes I live and work in a bubble. Has the last nine years taken a huge toll on me watching my country go down the pan? Absolutely. It's hugely distracting from the natural history and wildlife conservation that I should be doing.

I WOULDN'T BE DOING MY JOB IF I WAS 18 NOW

I grew up on a council estate below the poverty line in Staffordshire. I live a different life down here due to social mobility, partly down to not paying huge tuition fees back in late 1990s. I would not be doing the job I am doing now if I were 18 now. Austerity has destroyed social mobility. You meet very few people in conservation now who do not come from middle class backgrounds. Volunteering is not on your radar when you don't have enough money to eat.

I am proud of my roots. This Tory government have took everything away from the poorest in our country and in return handed them a tiny morsel, a thimble full of poison. A vote that most people didn't fully understand or research (and I categorically stand by this - because I didn't either, if I had known just how much we stood to lose I would have campaigned harder back then). This summer our Parliament did exactly what it should have done to block Brexit being pushed through (I was outside Parliament the day the proroguing was announced). Bercow is a national hero and one day will be recognised for it. A second referendum is the only way to end this nightmare.

The BBC, the Sun, the Mail and the others have done an amazing job in turning the poorest people, those in the Labour heart lands, against the one person who is trying to help them. The tragic thing about the way you hear people talking about Corbyn is awful. People have and do believe the lies about being an IRA supporter and an antisemite. If you fall in this category of a lifelong Labour supporter and are about to vote Tory just because you desperately want Brexit and have believed the lies about Corbyn please, please think this through. This vote is for FIVE more years of Hell under the Tories. Five more years of cuts, of homeless on the streets, of food banks, of NHS waiting lists. PLUS the chaos of a hard Tory Brexit and the destruction it will do to our country.

Further to this, when I hear people say about Corbyn "he's boring", "he's week", "I can't get my head around him". Just stop reading the Sun for one minute and look at what people DO not what they SAY. I know that is hard as politics is really about what people say but you have a record here of what the Tories stand for, they have been in power for nine years and look what they have done to our country. We are in a total mess because of them. Public services stretched to their limits.

Standing up for the weakest in our society while not being a loud, brash bully are not signs of weakness, they are signs of strength. What does it say about the state of our country that so few people can recognise strong leadership and that so many people are so easily led to believe exactly what the press want them to believe? Wake up people. Our country is gripped by a collective mental health crisis and the Tories and the press are our abusers. I bet you have all met someone with Narcissistic Personality Disorder (think Donald Trump). They use tactics like gaslighting, triangulation and projection to manipulate you, I have been there. Once you can see it though, you can never not see it. This government are very fond of projection. Accusing your victim of the very things you are doing to them. Just look at the smears they have pushed on Corbyn. Take a look at things objectively and try and make a decision that you have made, rather than regurgitating sound bites.

Yes I will be voting Labour and I would love to see a  socialist government in the UK once in my lifetime but I am actually more concerned about getting rid of the Tories than anything else. You should absolutely vote tactically in this and every election until we have proportional representation. The outdated political system we have here favours the Tories (as it does the larger parties). So whatever you do, if you care about wildlife, if you care about people, if you care about anything but your own pocket, please, please, please vote progressively. Vote Labour where you can can but if not, like in Brighton Pavilion, vote Green and in seats where Lib Dems are likely to get in like Lewes and Eastbourne, then vote for them. It's not hard to do a little research and find out who the party to vote for is to oust the Tories.

My home town of Rugeley was always a Labour seat until last time when it swung to Tory. It sadly has a 69% leave vote but please, I beg my hometown not to screw themselves over voting to make their lives worse. Vote Labour in Rugeley again, get the Tories out!

I think this video by George Monbiot sums it up so well. Please watch this if you are undecided.

Brexit isn't worth it. Our country has been screwed by Tory austerity and not EU membership. Brexit just isn't worth voting Tory for. There is another way we can be governed. Please do the right thing.