This poll was suggested by Kirtsy in a comment here yesterday and seemed to be popular as a question needing an answer.
So, here it is:
Should left-leaning politicians and powerful figures begin a new party to pressure Starmer’s Labour in the way UKIP pressured and changed the Tories?
- Yes (75%, 2,332 Votes)
- No (15%, 461 Votes)
- Wait and see (5%, 169 Votes)
- I'm abstaining, but show me the results anyway (5%, 158 Votes)
Total Voters: 3,120
Loading ...For what it is worth, I think so, but that care will be required. Any such party has to be seen to be capable of having its own opinion, and not be controlled by any one interest if it is to attract wide support.
I should add a caveat as well: I doubt I will ever engage in party politics. But I could act as an adviser, as I am to others already.
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It’s only those on the far left that think that Labour is ‘centre right’.
That’s the problem, your ‘Overton window’ is so far away from reality and your ideas far more extreme than you’d like to pretend, so you repeatedly misunderstand where the centre actually is.
What it’s far left about my opinion?
Please explain
You seem quite sure of it so tell me what I have said that shows that I am far left
Try defining far left whilst you are about it
I look forward to your explanations
I will never understand why wanting redistribution of wealth, and I’m not suggesting removing all the wealth from the rich, just more equality in society generally, investing money in education for working class children, restoring the NHS to its original format, making properties that we live in fit for purpose and enjoyable, making wages much higher and improving opportunities to make people want to work and by the same token improving productivity is considered far left.
Totally agree with you Suze!
No new party will make any difference without proportinal representation, as the first past the post system heavily favours the 2 main parties. And with boundary changes and voter ID both favouring the Tories, it makes it even less likely that any new party will succeed.
I think the original question referred to the effect it would have on the Labour Party, rather than the new party taking power.
I feel it would be a precarious strategy, as the outcome is impossible to predict, and it might just result in further acrimonious polarisation.
The trouble with starting new parties is that it just dilutes the opposition and lets the Tories back in.
I have no faith in Kier Starmer changing anything if he becomes PM. It will be more of the same.
Time for a new party.
Here in Scotland we have alternatives, and SNP is the main outlet for most people. The right wing intransigence of the main UK wide parties is one of many reasons why many people here want Independence. The democratic deficit means that we never get the government we vote for.
We have a way out and we are going to take it soon, hopefully.
Set up in the 60s’ before consumerism really took hold of the majority of ordinary people it may have worked b ut post Thatcherism and very successful brainwashing and now digital 24/7 control – eat,drink and be merry.
I voted No because of fear of splitting the vote. The priority for me is to get the tories out. I don’t like much of what I have seen of Starmers intentions, but I hope they don’t completely represent what he might actually do; we are all aware that the labour party must not open doors for tory rabble-rousing. That said, maybe Starmer is in danger of being hoisted by his own petard. I hope for a smaller majority government – that way there is a better chance of controlling extreme executive policies.
I voted no , because there is already another party to vote for …. The Green Party . I voted for them when still The Ecology Party , after reading Jonathan Porritt’s book Seeing Green . And have voted for them when in a constituency where conservatives would win easily anyway , but voted Labour when they had a good chance of winning , just to get rid of the Tories . Without proportional representation another party is pointless.
I abstained, because as others have pointed out, we already have such a party, the Green party, who already have decent progressive policies.
Progressives should stop wasting time on listening to labour bleats about splitting the vote, when it’s labours fault we still have FPTP, and it’s just an attempt at moral blackmail to force people to vote for labour instead of the greens; who, as has also been pointed out, are treated with contempt by labour. Actually, aren’t the LDs and SNP also treated in this way due to labour’s arrogant and (ultimately) self-defeating tribalism?
Kirsty’s proposal and the survey have generated a great debate. At this stage it seems a continuation of ABC (anything but tory) is the better tactical route to champion local concerns, demonstrate a coalition of interests and undermine the legitimacy of FPTP masquerading as democracy.
The debate has revealed that there are and have been many, many oppositional parties. UKIP and the Brexit party were tactical battle weapons designed for a single long war of attrition AGAINST the EU. Those who would vote Labour are FOR social justice. From that view, I don’t think the aim of UKIP etc can be transferred over.
“Left” and “right” are now an anachronism. They tend to be used by two party states to marginalise hybrid and complex viewpoints and practical compromises.
My key requirements for reinventing the UK political system are:
– to turn the Houses of Parliament into a museum
– relocate Parliament out of London
– provide new parliamentary meeting place(s?) arranged in the round
– instigate a fair and equal electoral system (PR?)
– and provide proper funding for local government
Not a lot …
Aim high….
Another analogy is the Greens forming the Left locus alongside the SNP in a coalition, except that was reached through a decent voting system (d’Hondt).
I think the two party system in WM is democratically bankrupt so I wonder if there’s any point. But as you rightly say, it worked for UKIP, they flipped the Tories exactly as intended.