And today was supposed to be a productive day. I was going to do some marking, some planning, some cleaning.
And then Theresa May decided to go and ruin it by announcing that she was calling a general election for June 8th.
For those of us on the left, be it in the disintegrating Labour party, the shattered remains of the Liberal Democrats, the idealistic cocoon of the Greens, or floating somewhere in between, there can only be one reaction to this announcement:
The good news is that, unlike 2015, there won't be a shock outcome. Unlike 2010, there won't be a chance after the election to keep the Tories out. Even if the Lib Dems make gains (as predicted), the collapse of Labour will put Theresa May back into Number 10, possibly with a majority of over a hundred. Labour will almost certainly do worse than they did in 1983, under Michael Foot, when they slid to 209 MPs. They may even drop to the total that John Major got in 1997, 165 survivors of the Blair landslide. There are whispers they may go below that.
If you care about progressive politics, or even having a functioning opposition to the government, this election could be a bleak milestone. Brexit aside, the vision that May has laid out in the last few months has been ugly and regressive. And it is about to be endorsed by millions.
I normally relish elections. They're what politics junkies live for. But not this one. I cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel. This is going to be a bloodbath. Let's get it over and done with.
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