Britain is in the heat of a General Election, three weeks away now. We just had the first live television debate between Prime Minister Boris Johnson of the Conservative Party and Leader of the Opposition, Jeremy Corbyn, of the Labour Party. Three years ago, before the General Election of 2017, comic book writer, novelist, screenwriter, actor, broadcaster, publisher, songwriter, magician, singer and activist, Alan Moore gave Corbyn his backing... but said that as an anarchist, he wouldn't vote for him, or indeed anyone. At the time he wrote,

As an anarchist I don't vote, preferring direct political action and comment without an elected intermediary. If I did vote, however, I would try to vote with the way that viable human history appeared to be going rather than against it. The economic and political agendas imposed in the West over the last thirty or forty years clearly lead only to a ruined environment, to international austerity while the planet's billionaires attempt to become trillionaires, to Donald Trump, and to a horrific abyss that threatens to make the English Civil War look like a Sunday-school outing. That scenario, in any sane person's reading of the situation, is not an option. If figures like Jeremy Corbyn are emerging to propose a far more humane and workable direction for society, and if such figures are garnering enormous support from part of the electorate that's been denied a voice for too long, then it may be that this is because people like Corbyn have become historically necessary.

But as posted by his daughters, Amber Moore and Leah Moore, on Twitter earlier today, something has changed. He now writes,

Here's something you don't see every day, an internet-averse anarchist announcing on social media that he'll be voting Labour in the December elections. But these are unprecedented times. I've voted only once in my life, more than forty years ago, being convinced that leaders are mostly of benefit to no one save themselves. That said, some leaders are so unbelievably malevolent and catastrophic that they must be strenuously opposed by any means available. nut simply, I do not believe that four more years of these rapacious, smirking right-wing parasites will leave us with a culture, a society, or an environment in which we have the luxury of even imagining alternatives. The wretched world we're living in at present was not an unlucky war of fate; it was an economic and political decision made without consulting the enormous human population that it would most drastically affect. If we would have it otherwise, if we'd prefer a fixture that we can call home, then we must stop supporting — even passively — this ravenous, insatiable conservative agenda before it devours us with our kids as a dessert. Although my vote is principally against the Tories rather than for Labour, I'd observe that Labour's current manifesto is the most encouraging set of proposals that I've ever seen from any major British party. Though these are immensely complicated times and we are all uncertain as to which course we should take, I'd say the one that steers us furthest from the glaringly apparent iceberg is the safest bet… If my work has meant anything to you over the years, if the way that modern is going makes you fear for all the things you value, then please get out there on polling day and make your voice heard with a vote against this heartless trampling of everybody's safety, dignity and dreams. A world we love is counting on us. Alan Moore

Northampton

November 20th, 2019