I feel like I’m in an abusive relationship with my government. Maybe it’s me, but it’s not a great place to be, and I just don’t know how to change my lot in the near future.
I’m not sure who I am anymore, if I am the one who is bringing the nightmare being inflicted on me by this government on myself? Or is it really them? Surely they can’t be all bad. Surely, I must have provoked them, caused it.
So, how did we get here? Well, as with all abusers, they didn’t show their colours before weentered into this sorry relationship. Everyone puts their best face forward at the beginning.
The past wasn’t great, so people wanted a new start, a bright horizon and along came Labour.
Those of us who had been in a relationship with Labour before knew they were bad, but after 14 years of mess and muddle, many were convinced that this new partner would be different.
We tried to warn them, but they wouldn’t listen. Who can blame them? Labour promised to make life better.
I feel like I'm in an abusive relationship with my Government. But I refuse to be gaslit — Renee Hoenderkamp
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To increase wages, to fix the broken NHS, to punish the super superwealthy and put money into non-functioning public services.
To build houses, to appoint more doctors and teachers, to grow the economy, and put more money in the pockets without raising taxes on the working man. What wasn’t there to like? And so, like any abused partner, we went in and looked forward to everything being different this time.
The first few weeks of the honeymoon period were okay. There were a few warning signs - sleaze immediately began raising its head when they said this would be a government of service and there would be no more sleaze.
Perhaps it was historic, perhaps this was the new dawn. And then there was more sleaze, from Keir Starmer’s suits and glasses to Rachel Reeves’ concert tickets. But we had invested so much, surely, we had to give them time.
The first real punch in the stomach was when a vile teenager murdered three little girls at a dance camp and injured many more.
People were angry, so our new partner decided that we weren’t grown up enough to have any information, that we needed to be kept in the dark.
That made some angry, and that anger erupted. Some people took it too far, made vile threats and actual violence. It was ugly. So, Keir decided to punish us, call us all far right.
Far-right for asking questions about what was happening to our country in the face of unprecedented migration at a speed no small island could cope with.
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