As a crucial General Election nears I’ve been encouraged to draw your attention to a piece I posted on my own blog, Chatting Critically, a few days ago, entitled ‘Seizing the Moment- From Social Selfishness to Social Solidarity’.

It was born out of a feeling that this Election, so superficially and partially covered by most of the media, is the most significant for 40 years. Back then Thatcher’s victory heralded the neoliberal assault upon our collective sense of the social and political. Today we have a small chance of turning the tide. Let’s not say in a week’s time that we didn’t try hard enough.

The piece begins:

Over the last few weeks I’ve discarded a number of responses to the fast-approaching General Election, fearing they were self-indulgent and added little to the overwhelming priority – to oust the Tories and to break from the selfish bullshit, that is neoliberalism.

After this crude opinion, I promise, it gets a touch more nuanced, drawing on the Open Letter from Stormzy, Akala and company featured in the Guardian.

It ends with a couple of slogans – perchance, a legacy of my political past.

FROM SOCIAL SELFISHNESS TO SOCIAL SOLIDARITY

SEIZE THE MOMENT! VOTE TO OUST THE TORIES!