Monday 4 April 2011

You Didn't Win, Dave

It's nearly a year since the general election in which - following a hung parliament - David Cameron's conservatives formed a coalition with Nick Clegg's Liberal Democrats to assume power. Since that time this Tory-led government has used its position to pursue a cuts agenda which threatens the NHS, the economy, and some of the most vulnerable groups in society.

Despite the damage which most economists and commentators think their cuts will do, the Tories are unrepentant. Interviewed on radio on the day of his recent budget, Tory chancellor George Osborne justified his decisions by saying 'political capital comes from winning an election'.

Fair enough, George. Although there's just one teeny little problem: you didn't win.

The Tories did not gain a sufficient majority to form a government on their own. That's why they had to form a coalition. Making a deal with the party that came third in order to bolster your meagre numbers is not 'winning' an election.

Since the Tory-led government took power, we've been subjected to a barrage of lies. We've been told that we have to cut, cut, cut because our debt burden is too high - even though our debt has been higher than today for 200 of the past 250 years. We've been told that NHS reforms are 'desperately needed' to repair a broken system - even though satisfaction with the NHS is at a record high. We've been told that Osborne's budget is 'a budget for growth' - even though every economic announcement from Cameron's government leads to growth forecasts being revised ever further downwards.

All these lies are bad enough. But we will not stomach the lie that the reason the Tories can get away with what they're doing is that they 'won' an election which ended in compromise and shady backroom deals. That's why were asking people to join us in sending a message to David Cameron and the government he leads.

We want readers to send a postcard to David Cameron at 10 Downing Street, to arrive in time for May 6th, the anniversary of the election Cameron failed to win. And we want those postcards to be marked with a simple, clear message for David Cameron and the government he leads:

You.

Didn't.

Win.

Watch this blog for further updates from the 'You Didn't Win' campaign. And follow our twitter account for information as it happens. We didn't vote for Cameron. He didn't win. This May, let's remind him of that fact.

3 comments:

  1. Love the postcard idea. I'm in :)

    ReplyDelete
  2. what's more Dave became leader through....?
    AV - first past the post would have seen David Davies as PM now...

    ReplyDelete