We need a new centrist party… Apparently…
As I reported last month, a Labour split looks increasingly likely. After the antisemitism row, there is now another factor. The no confidence motions in the MPs Joan Ryan and Gavin Shuker passed by their constituency parties on Thursday night will be seen as a prelude to deselection. Corbyn is unlikely to intervene to save such MPs; those ousted in this way may feel they have nothing to lose by forming a new party.
Militant Tendency in the eighties caused a similar fault line to emerge in the Labour party as moderates became disillusioned and formed the SDP. They subsequently joined forces with the Liberals and look what happened to them. There is nothing new under the sun, I guess. We now have Momentum engaging in a similar takeover of the Labour party, dragging to the hard left, leaving moderates with no political home. So, if they do split, which will be fine by me, then what? The Tories, similarly wallowing in the more don’t exactly offer an imposing alternative. The advantage, though, is that it will keep Corbyn and his band of Trotskyites from the levers of power. Much as I deplore the current incumbents, they do have one thing going for them. They aren’t Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, thank goodness.
You have to be pretty bloody awful to make the ineffectual Theresa May look good in comparison. But, well, they have managed it.
Meanwhile, history is repeating itself. It’s like watching one of those really bad B movies where you know the ending, but can’t help watching anyway.
Labour leavers could call their new party Blu Labour
Anna Soubry* would join them 😛
* like Vince Cable, she has a history of changing allegiance for personal gain.
I have to say that I think that the whole Brexit issue has really highlighted the ignorance and complete incompetence of all of our MPs to deal with genuinely important, nation-wide issues. In the wake of the Referendum, even the most fervent Remainer or the most hard-line Leaver must surely have sat back, aghast at some of the immature and uninformed comments that have emanated from those whom we had (or thought we had) tasked with the business of running the country. It’s been a real wake-up call for many voters. People have long moaned and groaned about our “out of touch” politicians, but I don’t think – until MPs actually had to do something as important as negotiate our way out of 40 years of complex integration with a political machine as far-reaching as the EU – many of them quite realised exactly how crass and small-minded our politicians had become.
It is my fervent hope that once the Brexit dust has settled – with no deal, a rotten deal or even a halfway-decent one – it will spell the demise of both (maybe all three) of our major parties. Only a genuinely “good” deal could save the Tory party now, but on current form that really does seem like a very remote possibility indeed. But at the very least the glaring ignorance and incompetence displayed by all of our MPs – from the dizzying heights of the Prime Minister right down to the most humble backbencher – must surely decimate the current stranglehold that they have on power, which, in my view can only be a good thing. This split is just the beginning of a slow and painful death for the Labour party; I suspect that a similar fate awaits the Tories – just a bit further down the line.
Good! For far too long these two massive parties have held sway, both of them moving increasingly far away from their traditional values (and thus from their traditional voters) and moving increasingly towards a woolly, politically right-on, middle ground where the policies that each enacts once in power are virtually indistinguishable from the other’s, despite being thinly veiled by some “lefty-sounding” or “righty-sounding” weasel words, which fewer and fewer people actually believe. If Brexit achieves nothing else, it has at least shown these charlatans and poseurs up for what they actually are – nothing more than a bunch of people with parish-councillor mentality promoted way above their stations and way beyond their capabilities and fixated on one or two treasured hobby-horses, who view their election to Parliament not as an opportunity to help run the nation more efficiently and fairly, but merely as a chance to push those hobby-horses a whole heap further than they might otherwise be able to achieve. Disgraceful.
And if any breakaway group from the Labour party even dreams of some kind of merger with the traditionally “centrist” LibDems they’re going to be very disappointed. The LibDems eagerly moved into the vacancy on the Left which opened up when Blair dragged Labour, kicking and struggling, into the centre-ground in order to make them electable, and any Labour MPs looking to associate themselves with the LibDems may well find that they’ve simply jumped out of the frying pan straight into the fire! LibDem policies these days are probably more left of centre than the current wishy-washy Labour party’s are!
Interesting times ahead, methinks.
Personally, I think they will rise like zombies from the ashes. Apologies for the mixed metaphor.
It is very rare that a comment on a blog makes me want to stand up and applaud but your’s did! Please say you are considering running for high office yourself.
Thank you, BD. I started typing a short comment and then, alas, Rant Mode took over. Apologies, LR, for taking up so much space. Did feel good to get it out of the system, though.
And High Office, BD? I don’t think I’d stand the proverbial snowball’s chance in Hell! Sage-looking, but mindless, nodding a la “dog on the parcel shelf” in response to rubbish ideas just isn’t my strong suit. Not “conformist” enough, y’see, …..
What terrifies me is what comes next if the current shower of shit get replaced. Yes, we need to break up the metastasised parasitic lump that is the current body politic, but it is horrifying how many who want to turn the clock back to before the Referendum don’t realise that if they do, the clock will not stop until it reaches 1642.
I hope that’s not the only way to get the grown-ups running things again. Not a pleasant thought.
Oy! What’s wrong with 1642? Turnip with milk for breakfast, turnip soup for lunch and a nice roast turnip for supper. All washed down with a delicious turnip-infused tea. What could be nicer, I ask you? Mmmmm, lovely!
More turnip, anyone?
+1
Well said
The Conservative Party has become the Labour Party.
Given enough time and splits, Labour might become the Conservative Party… Blair started the ball rolling.
At the moment they are becoming the monster raving loony party.