The General Election's Big Issues: Concluding Thoughts

Daniel Priestley - Writer and Editor

In this series of short articles, writers for InTuition will be looking at the biggest issues political parties need to deal with in the upcoming general election. In today's article, Daniel Priestley brings to a close the series with some concluding thoughts.


There’s never been so many things to think about when casting your vote in a general election. In this series we’ve aimed to shed some light on a few of the key political issues but there is so much we haven’t been able to touch.

Do we need reforms to the welfare state? Can we say that universal credit is really working? Do we need to manage the deficit? Is it wise to end austerity? How can we effectively manage immigration? What should we do about trident? Why haven’t we changed our outdated electoral system? Should we really still have a monarchy? And what about devolution? Should Scotland be given a second independence referendum? How can we resolve the political crisis in Northern Ireland? Should we reverse reforms to the powers of the unions? How can we better reduce crime? Should we abolish tuition fees? How can we reform and improve our education system?

Our country feels more in chaos then ever. You may think our two candidates to be the next prime minister are completely and utterly incomepetent, and no one could blame you for thinking so. Whether it’s Johnson’s absolute inability to speak the truth, or Corbyn’s failure to deal with the problems in his party regarding anti-semitism - a convincing argument can be made that they have both shown themselves to be unfit for the office of Prime Minister. Meanwhile the Liberal Democrats have become a single policy party, incapable of doing anything other than sobbing about a referendum they lost three years ago. The Green Party plods along still failing to provide a credible left wing alternative. The SNP threatens to tear the United Kingdom apart, and don’t get me started on the Brexit Party.

This won’t be the election where we get it right. However, we can use this election to think about where we want to go as a country. When casting your vote, draw your eyes away from the drama of the media and think about the issues that are most important to you. Look at the manifestos of each party. This isn’t an election where all the parties are the same, this is an election with competing visions for the future of the United Kingdom - perhaps all flawed.

After the election, we should not stop engaging with politics. We need to rally together and think about how we can to a better point before the country hits the polls again. We need to work out how to improve political education. We need to reform our democratic tools, such as our broken voting system, so citizens can effectively participate in politics. We need to work out what and priorities are and perhaps most importantly, try to find a way to improve the quality of political debate in the UK.

Read all the articles in this series here.



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