The Guardian has an article out this morning headlined:
I think this is a misreading of what Reform is doing.
Reform does not exist to win. It has no desire to do so.
Nor does it want to split the Tory vote. It is even questionable whether it is doing so. Some of its vote undoubtedly comes from Labour. Yet more will come from those who would not have voted at all without it being present, I suspect.
The Reform agenda is quite different. Those funding it simply want a populist far-right agenda that focuses on division in society by exploiting issues such as migration to dominate political debate.
By doing so, they force the issues that really matter, from climate change, to destitution, to real political reform, to tackling inequality, and so much more, to the sidelines, and force the so-called Overton Window that determines possible political outcomes ever further to the right.
Labour has fallen for that hook, line and sinker. If Tice merely moves Labour jumps in response.
The Tories are no better.
Reform does not need to win, and will not win. But it is getting what it wants anyway as all but right-wing options are removed from the Tory and Labour agendas.
And, apparently, nether of those parties can see that.
It's that fact that is most especially sickening.
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This is the inevitable result of a FPTP Electoral system.
I will vote for the candidate best placed to beat the Tories in my constituency more or less whatever they say. Sad but true.
So, the temptation is for non-Tory parties to move ever rightwards.
(Slightly) more subtly, it delivers politicians that are only interested in winning with little regard to principle. In a “winner takes all” system “winning” becomes the only measure of success and Marx’s (Groucho, not Karl) great line “Those are my principles, and if you don’t like them… well, I have others” applies to all our main parties.
A PR system will more likely politicians with principle. Parties would fragment without risk and we would see what each really stood for. Of course, compromise would be required to form a government but it would be apparent what those compromises were. Love it or loathe it the 2010 coalition government had two parties with different policies and it was clear to all what compromises were made and voters could then pass judgement.
Clive Parry, my avatar on social media is Groucho!
In speaking to a motion on one-member constituency meetings when I was in Labour, I said I was a Groucho Marxist but in this case I had no other principles. So clever was I that a young member came up after and said “You DO know he was Karl, don’t you?”
🙂
Love it.
But a look at his quotes shows a that Groucho was very perceptive.
Andy Beckett is the very best historian of the last 50 years in Britain in society, politics and culture, and writes for the Guardian in his brilliant and unmissable Friday opinion pieces.
This last week’s piece concentrated on conservatism and it’s power grabs and authoritarianism, as an admission of failure to shape society in their direction.
I always see a comment from Beckett that struck me (and fills me with so much hope) – in the 1970s and 1980s the Conservative party (and under Thatcher) did quite well in London – there was a point where there was slightly more Tory MPs in London than Labour (contrast today, where London could see at the next election no more than four or fives seats out of more than 70 London seats). Cambridge (not far from me) was until 1992 a solidly Tory seat, in recent elections the Tories have come third or fourth in Cambridge.
In the US, Los Angeles was a stronghold for Ronald Regan, and is is now rock solid Democrat.
Perhaps the ‘blue wall’ will (hopefully) be the next to fall.
And Beckett says that the Conservatives have no answer to these former solidly Tory areas, and the crucial thing is a lack of ideas: Thatcherism was fresh with new ideas from think tanks such as the IEA and Adam Smith, and what to right wing think tanks today offer?: more of the same stale Thatcherite neoliberalism. Conservatives have run out of ideas and so fall back on authoritan ways of squeezing more time, and the lamentable ‘war on woke’.
I would be filled with hope too, if the current Labour Party were to promise something better than Thatcherite neoliberalism when they form the next government. Getting the Tories out isn’t enough.
Funding figures second quarter 2023
Reform party £135,000
Reclaim Party ….of Lawrence Fox and Andrew Bridgen £200,000!
both are ‘small state’ parties and both disregard any net zero program .
In 2021 Reclaim got money from Brexit backing millionaires.
A progressive government should tackle the issue of dark-or opaque-money in politics.
My guess is that the oil companies are funding them in large measure. We could do with more information as we could with these ‘think tanks’ whose spokespeople appear on current affairs programs.
I agree. Dark political backers need outing. Please start with the Putin backed MAGA white supremacists, the Northern Irish equivalent of an alt right Taliban, the DUP. In any civilised state their ongoing open support of and by local armed paramilitary criminal gangs alone would have them proscribed. They are often forgotten about, too comic and ugly a political spectacle to look at by choice, but they have been more responsible than any other party for the delivery of a socially and economically destructive Brexit. Yet today we have another ERG crazy from a long list that includes Ben Habib and Liz Truss, Dame Patel, crawling out of the backbenches to garner support for destruction of the Windsor Framework.
We heard from a colleague caught up in the recent Dublin riots that there were a surprisingly large number of English accents amongst those participating and directing the rioters. Was it just a coincidence that this occurred the same day that Michael Gove was over in Dublin to try and convince the Irish government to drop their proposed legal action against the UK governments heinous ECHR law breaking Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act ?
Are the DUP being manipulated by Putin and the ERG as a political weapon to effectively deliver the wet dream of the global neo liberal cartel of a society sans government in Britain First ? Will we ever know the truth of any of it ?
Absolutely agree with this. The DUP are an utter disgrace. Their backing of Brexit including opaque funding of ads promoting the leave campaign, and their childish and self-defeating refusal to work with Sinn Fein because they, not the DUP, are now the largest party in Stormont should not be tolerated a moment more.
And as you say, their links with armed paramilitary organisations should be noted. If we had any kind of a proper government in charge instead of this despicable tory rabble they would come down on the DUP like a ton of bricks. Since they won’t take their places in the Stormont parliament, stop their wages. Make it clear that if they continue to sabotage power sharing Westminster will legislate to enable Sormont to function without them.
“We heard from a colleague caught up in the recent Dublin riots that there were a surprisingly large number of English accents amongst those participating and directing the rioters. Was it just a coincidence that this occurred the same day that Michael Gove was over in Dublin to try and convince the Irish government to drop their proposed legal action against the UK governments heinous ECHR law breaking Northern Ireland Troubles (Legacy and Reconciliation) Act ?”
The above is sickening but unsurprising, given the links between far right groups enabled by social media. I wouldn’t go so far as to say Gove had any involvement in these riots, but the fact that the UK “government” is trying yet another piece of idiotic stupidity to do with Brexit doesn’t surprise me.
So not only is the Irish government taking our “government” to court, I see they have promised to deal with the far right rioters with the full force of the law. Good for them. A proper government then. Unlike the current UK one, that’s for sure.
“A progressive government should tackle the issue of dark-or opaque-money in politics.” If only! First find a truly progressive party, then get it elected: fat chance as long as FPTP enables the winner-takes-all politics that have got us into this mess. PR and an equable written constitution should be the priorities, but again in today’s climate, fat chance. Civil disobedience anyone?
Reform UK will eat into the Tory vote more than Labour and Labour will benefit from this. However, one likely scenario I predict will be Reform not standing against Tories who they see as their political allies. This will be bad for Labour and make a hung parliament more likely. I suspect Reform and Farage want to inherit what’s left of the Tory party after the next election. A party that will be even more right-wing and bats*** than it currently is.
For the Left, voting Green and attacking Labour from its Left flank seems like the most effective method of effecting political change.
This is just another example of this re-active world of politics we live in. Everything is so reactive and short-termist, particularly with respect to the least important issues. Never ever these days are the actions of our politicians proactive and looking to the future betterment of the country and its people.