This election cycle may have been stunted, but it hasn’t been boring. Not just from the perspective of an interested observer, but also that of a voter. As a cheerfully pessimistic politics geek, there’s been a lot going on. It has been one to watch. I’ve never seen a manifesto collapse so quickly, for a start.

But as a member of the electorate, someone who has a stake in it all, I’ve been far more invested than just watching. Things have really reached a major turning point, far beyond that represented by Brexit. So I’m going to cut right to the big reveal and then work back around to explain it.

I’m going to vote Labour.

I honestly didn’t ever really expect to get over the betrayal and post-unionist pandering of Blair’s New Labour. Least of all in the context of the party as it has been since 2015. But I have. I’m still not a foaming fanatic attending Momentum rallies, but I must admit my support is no longer entirely begrudging.

Let me explain.

The Conservative Party do not represent the majority. This isn’t news, but it has never been more true than now. We’re facing an ideological coup that will drive this country in a far darker, more distressing direction. It isn’t about state minimalism and laissez faire economics. It’s about economic elites consolidating their power and authoritarian measures to keep it that way.

Under New Labour, public sector bloat and military mis-spending piled up some scary numbers. Many people – myself included – voted Conservative to get Labour out and address these things. Something a bit more sensible, but pragmatic rather than cynical. Trim the fat, not break the knees.

What we got was privatisation-by-deprivation. Austerity allowed the targeted mutilation of healthcare, education, public services. Their subsequent failure to perform was then held up to show how they weren’t working and needed private investment. Welfare was stripped back. Not because benefit fraud was bankrupting us, but because if you threaten people with homelessness and starvation, they’ll accept zero hours contracts and loss of rights.

I’ve moaned before how Brexit was the last poke in the eye by an ageing generation who’d enjoyed the best and then pulled up the ladder behind them. Affordable housing, high employment, rising living standards, improving healthcare, a welfare state, free education. And it’s true. But what we face now is a final power grab. One which, I sincerely hope, will open a few elderly eyes to just what is going on.

And the breaking point is the threat to inheritance implied by end of life care changes; things like the dementia tax. I get the impression that many baby-boomers thought that they would make it up to their kids by leaving a nice pile of cash and some property. It softened consciences otherwise brutalised by seeing their children have less and less of what they’d taken for granted.

Now they see they won’t even have that. The devil is here to take his dues. There won’t be a nest-egg. Property won’t suddenly flood into the hands of struggling members of generation X and younger. It’ll be sold to pay for care. Most likely to banks and private landlords. Welcome to New Feudalism, population: the future.

But that’s them, not me. Not those I’m speaking to who are also going to be voting Labour despite never imagining they would. So why me? Why us?

I’ve given up on easily buying a house or my university debt vanishing. But I want my kids to have healthcare. I want them to have a good education without massive debt. I want to know that when the economy crashes again, they’ll have some sort of safety net. And crash again it will, because it’s one of the things that economies just do from time to time.

If Theresa May wins this election, I doubt they’ll have any of those things. Maybe education will be spared. Maybe healthcare will struggle on due to the decency of the people who work in it. But it doesn’t seem likely.

They’ll have increased healthcare costs. Worse education opportunities. More debt. Even less chance to buy property than my generation have. As they grow ever more desperate, they’ll be forced to accept worse and worse employment terms.

I can’t stand by and watch that. I don’t think Labour will be some miracle cure. I don’t think they’ll find the money for all the things they’re promising. But I do think they’ll find some to keep the NHS alive. They won’t introduce grammar schools. There is likely to be progress on the deep inequalities in employer-employee negotiations and the rental markets. There’ll be at least some help for those who really need it.

And I do think Corbyn has started to show an ability to lead in ways that weren’t evident until now. That the Blairites are out of vogue. That there’s a hint of integrity and honesty returning to politics.  That Labour could actually move us back to nearer where we need to be.

Even if they don’t, it may slow the rot for long enough that someone else who can will come along. This matters. It really, really matters.

For all the nonsense, this blog is intended to be apolitical in that I don’t solicit people to vote one way or another. It is intended to raise a smile and maybe be mildly informative. If it does either of those things at least sometimes, I am meeting my own unambitious goals. As a rule, it isn’t meant to be propaganda or persuasive towards a particular position. I’m not here to preach.

Today though, I’m going to break that rule. I promise I won’t again, because I believe in people looking at the evidence and making up their own minds. But this once, I can’t look in my moral mirror and, with a straight face, tell myself it’s right to stay on the fence.

After the election, I’ll be back to intermittent slander and grossly simplistic caricature. Until then, it’s not about me. It isn’t about you. We won’t see terrorism suddenly disappear or wake up to a utopia. House prices won’t halve and the job market won’t heal itself. But we will leave our children and grandchildren a world where those things can be worked towards.

So please, vote Labour. Or Liberal Democrat. Or SNP. Or whoever will beat the Tories in your area.