Skip to main content

Realignment of the Left?


http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/unite-union-boss-len-mccluskey-threatens-to-launch-party-to-rival-labour-9231266.html



Unite union boss Len McCluskey threatens to launch party to rival Labour



Len McCluskey: General Secretary of Unite



"a rival party could be created to challenge Labour if it does not win next year."

The need for a new party on the Left of British politics is already clearly evident. Whether the Labour party win the next general election or not, is neither here nor there.
By qualifying the suggestion of a new party, McCluskey repeats the very same duplicity which has plagued the present Labour party for decades. Namely that ideology and principle are somehow linked to winning elections and that such principles can be shelved or even discarded in order to achieve electoral success.
That was one, but not the only one, of the reasons why I left the Labour party shortly before Blair became leader. Labour had degenerated from a party of principle, (albeit that such principle had been watered down over the years since Kinnock,s leadership and had become no more than empty rhetoric which could be changed more often than underwear) to a party more obsessed with courting their perception of public popularity and stealing any "policy" from other parties which gave an impression of being popular. A philosophy carried on and expanded into an art form by Blair, then Brown and now by Miliband.
As recently as February of the year, Miliband promised reforms more far reaching than those of Tony Blair, a prospect which should send a cold shiver through anyone who believes in social justice and wishes to have a real alternative to the Tory party and their divisive policies, demonising one section of society against another.
"Unite" general secretary Len McClusky does a grave disservice to many people in this country who would enthusiastically welcome and support a party of the left, with its roots in the Trade union movement, which is where the Labour party originally came from, a fact so conveniently forgotten over the past decades.



TUC Demonstration.
 
McClusky should really get some backbone and do what many now believe to be necessary, rather than wallow in the same wishy washy morass as Miliband, and be prepared to accept Labour MP's voting with the Conservatives, abstaining on matters of supreme importance to the people of this country, and abandoning its traditional supporters and political base if Labour win the next general election..
It is a political realignment which this country is in great need of, not a cynical acceptance of the status quo. 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Northern Ireland and Brexit. The return of "The Troubles"

Northern Ireland: police attacked in another night of disturbances | Northern Ireland | The Guardian When the "Brexit" debate was still filling our newspapers and our television screens, readers may remember why I had changed my mind since voting to leave at the referendum vote. Apart from the economic arguments, which had become crystal clear after peeling away all the lies and misrepresentations trotted out by Bozo Boris and his "Get Brexit Done" conspirators, there was always the problem of the border between Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. Would it be possible to have a border between the European Union and the United Kingdom where people, goods and services could pass freely between the two nations without customs restrictions, tariffs, duties and all the other formalities? Would it be possible to have one part of the United Kingdom treated differently from other parts of the United Kingdom, particularly when Scotland for example had voted overwhe

The Parliamentary Labour Party conspirators are hatching another coup.

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/corbyn-labour-leadership-rebel-mps-a7202641.html Labour MPs plan for Corbyn victory  and plot how to confront an emboldened leader Even for the "Independent", the number and use of unnamed anonymous "sources" in this article is quite astonishing. However, amongst all the usual speculative delusion, there is one factor which causes concern to anyone who believes in the Labour Party, its principles and in he democratic process of the Labour movement. It is abundantly clear that elements within the Parliamentary Labour Party, are even now, planning another coup in the event that Jeremy Corbyn should emerge as winner in the current ballot. The failed coup of earlier this year, has now descended into a sham leadership election, because the conspirators still fail to accept the democratic decision of the Labour party membership and cling to

Plemont development or return to nature?

  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-jersey-  A date has been set for a public inquiry into plans for Plemont Headland. This exceptional location must be sold to the National trust for Jersey, and returned to nature. Any other outcome involving development of the site, can only demonstrate the extent to which greed and self interest have become endemic in Jersey.