SUBSCRIBE TO OUR FREE NEWSLETTER
Daily news & progressive opinion—funded by the people, not the corporations—delivered straight to your inbox.
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
5
#000000
#FFFFFF
"Today, vote to save our NHS. Vote for a pay rise. Vote for free childcare. Vote for lower fares and bills. Vote for real change. Vote for Labour," tweeted Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn. (Photo: Dave Ward/Twitter)
"It's Happening," Declares Jeremy Corbyn as Early UK Election Reports Suggest "Longest Queues Ever"
"These images of people queuing to vote will scare the death out of the Tories. Get up, get out, and let's make history."
Dec 11, 2019
As Britons headed to the polls Thursday for the much-anticipated and highly consequential general election, U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sounded a note of optimism in response to early reports of big crowds and long lines at polling stations across the country.
"It's happening. We can do this," said Corbyn after the British newspaper Metro reported that early turnout resulted in the "longest queues ever" at several voting stations.
Aidan Conway, a resident of Balham, London, told Metro that he has "never seen a queue like this at my polling station."
"Many of the voters out this morning have said the lines are 'full of young people,'" Metro noted.
That could be good news for Labour. According to YouGov, more than 60 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 voted for the Labour Party in the 2017 general election.
"More than 1.5 million people under the age of 34 registered to vote between Oct. 22 and Nov. 19, compared with 1.2 million in the same time frame in 2017," the New York Times reported late last week.
Labour activists on Wednesday continued to promote their get-out-the-vote push online and in communities nationwide, telling voters there was still time to make a difference and urging them to head to the polls to "kick the Tories out of government":
As Labour supporter and Guardian columnist Owen Jones wrote Wednesday, "Tories have discounted millennial rage against their policies and that mistake could cost them dear at the polls."
They have endured a decade of assaults on their living standards and their beliefs. The Tory elite calculated that this onslaught would have no political consequences because young people would not vote in sufficient numbers for it to matter. This hubris finally collided with reality in 2017, but it was not enough.
And so this is the question that will soon be answered. Will enough young people march to polling stations, in the right places, to stop a hard-right Tory government committed to implementing hard Brexit by the end of next month? Will Boris Johnson's entitlement meet its nemesis in the shape of a revolt of the young? There is very little time left. But if Britain's nightmare finally ends, it will probably be the young who save us from it.
Corbyn has characterized the general election as a life or death moment for the National Health Service. Last month, the Labour leader unveiled over 450 pages of trade documents that he said show Johnson has put the NHS "on the table" in talks with the U.S. over a possible post-Brexit trade pact.
As voters headed to the polls Wednesday, Corbyn tweeted, "Boris Johnson will sell-off our NHS, and that's the tea."
"Today, vote to save our NHS," Corbyn said. "Vote for a pay rise. Vote for free childcare. Vote for lower fares and bills. Vote for real change. Vote for Labour."
An Urgent Message From Our Co-Founder
Dear Common Dreams reader, It’s been nearly 30 years since I co-founded Common Dreams with my late wife, Lina Newhouser. We had the radical notion that journalism should serve the public good, not corporate profits. It was clear to us from the outset what it would take to build such a project. No paid advertisements. No corporate sponsors. No millionaire publisher telling us what to think or do. Many people said we wouldn't last a year, but we proved those doubters wrong. Together with a tremendous team of journalists and dedicated staff, we built an independent media outlet free from the constraints of profits and corporate control. Our mission has always been simple: To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. Building Common Dreams was not easy. Our survival was never guaranteed. When you take on the most powerful forces—Wall Street greed, fossil fuel industry destruction, Big Tech lobbyists, and uber-rich oligarchs who have spent billions upon billions rigging the economy and democracy in their favor—the only bulwark you have is supporters who believe in your work. But here’s the urgent message from me today. It's never been this bad out there. And it's never been this hard to keep us going. At the very moment Common Dreams is most needed, the threats we face are intensifying. We need your support now more than ever. We don't accept corporate advertising and never will. We don't have a paywall because we don't think people should be blocked from critical news based on their ability to pay. Everything we do is funded by the donations of readers like you. When everyone does the little they can afford, we are strong. But if that support retreats or dries up, so do we. Will you donate now to make sure Common Dreams not only survives but thrives? —Craig Brown, Co-founder |
Our work is licensed under Creative Commons (CC BY-NC-ND 3.0). Feel free to republish and share widely.
As Britons headed to the polls Thursday for the much-anticipated and highly consequential general election, U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sounded a note of optimism in response to early reports of big crowds and long lines at polling stations across the country.
"It's happening. We can do this," said Corbyn after the British newspaper Metro reported that early turnout resulted in the "longest queues ever" at several voting stations.
Aidan Conway, a resident of Balham, London, told Metro that he has "never seen a queue like this at my polling station."
"Many of the voters out this morning have said the lines are 'full of young people,'" Metro noted.
That could be good news for Labour. According to YouGov, more than 60 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 voted for the Labour Party in the 2017 general election.
"More than 1.5 million people under the age of 34 registered to vote between Oct. 22 and Nov. 19, compared with 1.2 million in the same time frame in 2017," the New York Times reported late last week.
Labour activists on Wednesday continued to promote their get-out-the-vote push online and in communities nationwide, telling voters there was still time to make a difference and urging them to head to the polls to "kick the Tories out of government":
As Labour supporter and Guardian columnist Owen Jones wrote Wednesday, "Tories have discounted millennial rage against their policies and that mistake could cost them dear at the polls."
They have endured a decade of assaults on their living standards and their beliefs. The Tory elite calculated that this onslaught would have no political consequences because young people would not vote in sufficient numbers for it to matter. This hubris finally collided with reality in 2017, but it was not enough.
And so this is the question that will soon be answered. Will enough young people march to polling stations, in the right places, to stop a hard-right Tory government committed to implementing hard Brexit by the end of next month? Will Boris Johnson's entitlement meet its nemesis in the shape of a revolt of the young? There is very little time left. But if Britain's nightmare finally ends, it will probably be the young who save us from it.
Corbyn has characterized the general election as a life or death moment for the National Health Service. Last month, the Labour leader unveiled over 450 pages of trade documents that he said show Johnson has put the NHS "on the table" in talks with the U.S. over a possible post-Brexit trade pact.
As voters headed to the polls Wednesday, Corbyn tweeted, "Boris Johnson will sell-off our NHS, and that's the tea."
"Today, vote to save our NHS," Corbyn said. "Vote for a pay rise. Vote for free childcare. Vote for lower fares and bills. Vote for real change. Vote for Labour."
As Britons headed to the polls Thursday for the much-anticipated and highly consequential general election, U.K. Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn sounded a note of optimism in response to early reports of big crowds and long lines at polling stations across the country.
"It's happening. We can do this," said Corbyn after the British newspaper Metro reported that early turnout resulted in the "longest queues ever" at several voting stations.
Aidan Conway, a resident of Balham, London, told Metro that he has "never seen a queue like this at my polling station."
"Many of the voters out this morning have said the lines are 'full of young people,'" Metro noted.
That could be good news for Labour. According to YouGov, more than 60 percent of voters between the ages of 18 and 29 voted for the Labour Party in the 2017 general election.
"More than 1.5 million people under the age of 34 registered to vote between Oct. 22 and Nov. 19, compared with 1.2 million in the same time frame in 2017," the New York Times reported late last week.
Labour activists on Wednesday continued to promote their get-out-the-vote push online and in communities nationwide, telling voters there was still time to make a difference and urging them to head to the polls to "kick the Tories out of government":
As Labour supporter and Guardian columnist Owen Jones wrote Wednesday, "Tories have discounted millennial rage against their policies and that mistake could cost them dear at the polls."
They have endured a decade of assaults on their living standards and their beliefs. The Tory elite calculated that this onslaught would have no political consequences because young people would not vote in sufficient numbers for it to matter. This hubris finally collided with reality in 2017, but it was not enough.
And so this is the question that will soon be answered. Will enough young people march to polling stations, in the right places, to stop a hard-right Tory government committed to implementing hard Brexit by the end of next month? Will Boris Johnson's entitlement meet its nemesis in the shape of a revolt of the young? There is very little time left. But if Britain's nightmare finally ends, it will probably be the young who save us from it.
Corbyn has characterized the general election as a life or death moment for the National Health Service. Last month, the Labour leader unveiled over 450 pages of trade documents that he said show Johnson has put the NHS "on the table" in talks with the U.S. over a possible post-Brexit trade pact.
As voters headed to the polls Wednesday, Corbyn tweeted, "Boris Johnson will sell-off our NHS, and that's the tea."
"Today, vote to save our NHS," Corbyn said. "Vote for a pay rise. Vote for free childcare. Vote for lower fares and bills. Vote for real change. Vote for Labour."
We've had enough. The 1% own and operate the corporate media. They are doing everything they can to defend the status quo, squash dissent and protect the wealthy and the powerful. The Common Dreams media model is different. We cover the news that matters to the 99%. Our mission? To inform. To inspire. To ignite change for the common good. How? Nonprofit. Independent. Reader-supported. Free to read. Free to republish. Free to share. With no advertising. No paywalls. No selling of your data. Thousands of small donations fund our newsroom and allow us to continue publishing. Can you chip in? We can't do it without you. Thank you.