Before you call the general election a done deal, let's look at what five more years of the Tories would actually mean

After a super-hard Tory Brexit, we will become an international tax haven, a European Cayman Islands floating forlornly on the edge of (but excluded from) one of the largest free trade areas in the world. A parasite sucking greedily on the funds of the world’s tax-avoiding corporate fat cats

Prime Minister Theresa May having some chips while on a walkabout during a election campaign stop in Mevagissey, Cornwall (PA Wire/PA Images)

Everyone seems to be treating the general election as a foregone conclusion. That is a very dangerous way of thinking because it means we are in danger of handing over our freedom of choice. Not only is the election not a foregone conclusion, but it will be one of the most pivotal moments this century.

To realise why, we just need to cast our minds forward to see what a Tory landslide would look like.

Scotland

A Tory victory means a hard Brexit which will – almost inevitably – lead to the devolution of Scotland. This will accentuate a continuing Labour decline and, compounded by an unfair electoral system in which millions of votes don’t count, mean that the Tories would be looking at years, perhaps decades, of unchallenged power.

Privatisation of the NHS and schools

With a blank cheque, Theresa May will make sure that the backdoor privatisation of our most cherished public services will continue apace. Healthcare and education are already halfway privatised. Tory hegemony will of course see the transformation complete in all but a grimly smiling façade (picture Boris Johnson in a horror clown mask).

The NHS will continue its ragged decline, consciously underfunded until the point where it becomes “inoperable” as a state service and the Government is “forced” to privatise it in all but name and some token free-at-the-point-of-delivery services.

Our school system will be dominated by multi-academy trusts, massive business-like conglomerates of schools run by “super heads” leaching millions in taxpayer money to finance their six-figure salaries. Meanwhile we will all be forced to swallow the usual Tory line that they are spending more than ever on education. I spend more than ever on loo roll. It’s because of something called inflation (and the thought of a Tory future).

Hard Brexit

A hard Brexit forced through by the Tories will be the driver for a lot of problems, compounded by the fact that, increasingly, it looks like we will come out of negotiations with the raw end of the deal.

Already with an economy practically devoid of a manufacturing base, and with almost half our foreign trade depleted, we will be forced to rely even more heavily on the one thing we do well – finance. We will become an international tax haven, a European Cayman Islands floating forlornly on the edge of (but excluded from) one of the largest free trade areas in the world, a parasite sucking greedily on the funds of the world’s tax-avoiding corporate fat cats.

The knock-on effect from this will be an ever-widening gap between the richest and poorest, plunging thousands more into poverty.

But hey, at least we’ll have control over our borders again. And all our jobs back. What a joke that will be when France closes the border at Calais, as it has said it will, and the Calais Jungle becomes the Dover Jungle. And when all the legal immigrants who prop up our economy, not to mention our health and social care systems, have gone home.

Benefits

In a way I suppose it’s lucky that a Tory government with a blank cheque and years of power to look forward to will impose even more swingeing cuts on the benefits system. Because of course there will be so many new job opportunities opening up, doing things like changing adult nappies, working in meat factories and washing up round the backs of takeaways – all the jobs most of us were more than happy to let immigrants do. Well, soon we’ll have our chance to get stuck back in again.

Becoming America’s lapdog

Our one hope – as ever – will be our relationship with the US and a trade deal where we hold all the worst cards, no doubt forcing us to toady even more on globally important issues like the environment and security. All this with a president who apparently isn’t trusted by his own Congress to hold the keys to the nuclear deterrent, and who believes climate change is a conspiracy invented by the Chinese.

If the Tories win, we face a future as a crippled, isolated state, our backs turned on our nearest neighbours, stretching out pitifully across the Atlantic with an ever-growing dependency on a quisling relationship with a bully superpower led by a megalomaniac with terrible hair.

Or we could choose something else. So please don’t think of the election as a done deal.