As two young Labour and Conservative voters, this we can agree on: Our party leaders are a joke
We have previously been inspired to take action by leaders who we thought would be prepared to set aside political games and act in the best interests of the nation. Neither Jeremy Corbyn nor Theresa May are doing that
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Your support makes all the difference.We expect entrenched and petulant stubbornness from toddlers, not leaders. But this country is facing the starkest example of intransigent “leadership” it has ever seen, at a time when dialogue is most needed.
We are two young voters, one Conservative, and one Labour. Though we have many differences of opinion, on this we agree.
It is not leadership to kick the can down the road. It is not leadership to push the country to the brink in an attempt to keep a party together. It is not leadership to show disregard for the desires of the people who got you to the position you currently occupy. The country needs guidance as Brexit enters the end of its beginning. If parliament and our respective parties cannot provide this, it must go back to the people.
It is falling to us, the younger generation, to work together, reaching across supposed political divides to fight for what we believe is best for our country. We are not compromising on our principles, but acting on them.
Contrary to the leadership of our parties, we do not think it is more important to demonstrate vitriolic opposition to each other than work together to secure a better future.
This does not mean our convictions are diluted in order to cooperate, as both our leaderships would imply that they would be. We are not being passively swung towards a centre ground: rather, we are fighting for what we passionately believe is best for our generation.
Theresa May is making concession after concession to the far right of her party in repeated frustrated attempts to force through a Brexit deal that has something for everybody to hate.
Simultaneously, Jeremy Corbyn has proved far more willing to stand up and say in parliament that he will “keep fighting for a fairer Britain that is for the many not the few” than actually do any of that fighting, even as jobs are already falling away from supposed “Labour heartlands”.
It’s not that our political leaders simply disagree with our views. Their attitude in facing the biggest political crisis of our generation has been so pathetically tribal that young people aren’t even on the same page as them anymore.
In a few short years, our parties have undergone a remarkable transformation. May is being held to ransom by a few hardliners within the party. Moderate MPs are cowed into submission by a small minority of very vocal constituents. These people do not represent the pragmatic values that led the Conservative Party in 2015 to win its only majority of the past 27 years. Meanwhile the Labour leadership seems incapable of representing almost 90 per cent of its members who want a new Brexit vote. If the political reality was not quite so terrifying, it would all be quite funny.
When May opted to whip MPs to support the no-deal motion from two weeks ago, the last glimmer of integrity, collective responsibility and stewardship for future generations within the Conservative Party was lost. The obstinate way in which the prime minister governs our country does not represent either of our politics.
Hope that her government could conduct itself in a more appropriate manner was lost at this point. But on Wednesday she showed an even darker side, buying into desperate populist rhetoric and turning on her own MPs in front of the nation. Misguided and terrifying in equal measure her speech was a desperate plea, but a plea to save herself rather than the people.
On the same day, Corbyn “stormed out” after seeing Chuka Umunna at a cross-party meeting. Whether this was overdramatised or not, the fact remains that Corbyn is not willing to proactively work with members across the house at our country’s most acute moment of national crisis.
These are not the values that once led us to join these now failing institutions. We have previously been inspired to take action by leaders who we perceived as prepared to set aside political games and act in the best interests of the nation. As Michael Heseltine said so powerfully to the crowds at the Put It To The People march on Saturday, it is more important to be at the table than to stubbornly turn your back.
We marched proudly side by side alongside a million others from across the political spectrum for a people’s vote. It’s our future, and our choice. Whatever our disagreements on what that future should look like, we are united in the belief that it is being failed by the reckless Brexit our leaderships are letting happen.
Ed Shackle is a member of the Conservative Party and the head of growth at Our Future, Our Choice. Phoebe Potter is a member of the Labour Party and head of mobilisation at Our Future, Our Choice
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