Well, it’s no secret that betting your life’s savings on a Labour victory this year will not allow you to retire; the odds are so short, you’ll probably win the price of a cup of tea. Should the almost certain in-coming socialist government be a source of concern? I, for one, am very worried and not for the usual reasons (economic incompetence (no change from the Tories!), continued uncontrolled immigration (no change from the Tories!), a growth in the “Third sector” (no change from the Tories!), alignment with the EU (no change from the Tories!), an increased power of the unions (well, Labour can be original in this comparison!)) etc.

What really worries me, as a libertarian, is that Starmer et al will see their whopping majority as an opportunity to settle scores and shut down opposition. I fear we are about to enter an age of State-sponsored all-out attack on those that champion Individualism over Collectivism, with social media companies coming under huge pressure to censor opinions and the Left’s grasp on education, policing, local government, the judiciary, the Home Office etc. to become tighter and tighter. Of all these, education has been the most fruitful. We now see the young indoctrinated to hate the West and its values, preferring the Islamo-fascism of Hamas to the democracy of Israel, to fear a trace gas in the atmosphere and the apocalypse it must surely bring, and embrace transgenderism without recourse to basic Biology. As Lenin said, “give us the child for eight years and it will be a Bolshevik forever”.

The next five years, I fear, will see an acceleration of the destruction of the society we have built around the nuclear family. With two-tier policing and a politicised judiciary, shutting down of dissenting voices will not be difficult; GB News will be the first of many. History tells us that the Left does not stop at mere censorship in its mission to crush dissent; could we really see individuals “taken into protective custody” for re-education? You may laugh at this, but didn’t that happen in Australia during Covid? Arrests made with no crime committed? But surely Starmer would never do that, would he? Remember, he’s most definitely a sheep in wolf’s clothing, far more radical in his desire to remodel society than Anthony Charles Lynton Blair ever was. And then we will have reform of the Lords (long overdue, but not the reform it actually needs) and of the electoral system. A House of Lords that will rubber-stamp the legislation of a Labour government with a super-majority, that will not subject an Electoral Reform Bill to the scrutiny required. Hey presto! A system so slanted towards the Left with gerrymandered constituencies we’re unlikely to ever see a non-socialist government again. A return to the EU is then odds on (you might win the price of a cup of tea again!). And why don’t we throw in a blasphemy law (clearly under another guise) too?

What I also fear is a natural result of this onslaught on freedom: those of us who value individual liberty (including Average Joe) will see the only way out is to fight fire with fire. Will we see a shift on the Right towards Authoritarianism? “After all, that’s what the Left is doing to us, isn’t it?” Be under no illusion, Authoritarianism is just as evil as Collectivism; indeed, they are the two sides of the same coin.

I hope I’m wrong. Am I paranoid? I probably am. But even if a tenth of what I fear comes to fruition, I urge everyone who values individual liberty to stay faithful to your beliefs. History also tells us that intolerant regimes always fail, so never lose hope…

Average Joe