How To Repair an Irrepparably Split Political Party

I wrote this story about 35 years ago on my Commodore64, neither its USB or HDMI connections were functioning but I managed to Bluetooth it directly to my tablet.

Today It seems almost profetic but as you know, having been written so long ago, it couldn't possibly have been based on any recent events.

                                                             Setting The Scene

Imagine if you will, a political party split on whether to go to war or not, a split that runs so deep, that it threatens the very existence of the party. The leader of that party only has a few merry men and women standing firmly behind her, but to her advantage she holds the support, of the majority of the membership. The remainder of the party leadership are pro-war and vastly outnumber the leader, but their membership following is far smaller. Neither side is willing to give any quarter.

So, the pro war faction decide to stage a coup to oust the anti war leader. And to lend weight to their treachery, they devise a plan to assissinate her, not with weapons, no, but with words. They were not brave enough to use weapons, because they thought that they might get into trouble. So they called her names and made shit up.

The pro war side had a terrible weapon in their arsenal, for they held power over the selection process for new candidates and undemocratically, they have selected all of their own candidates for election. Meaning that, even though the vast majority of members support the anti-war agenda, they will never get to see any of their preferred candidates selected, which they felt was very, very unfair.

To make matters worse, every time one of the pro war candidates lost, they tried to put all of the blame on the shoulders of anti-war candidate, but her supporters were having none of it.

Both sides stake claim to having the support of the wider electorate, but neither can prove their claims because they are based on heresay, doorstep gossip. Their refusal to put this question to the electorate meant that the answer to this question will never be discovered.

                               The situation seemed hopeless, stalemate, or was it?

Whilst both sides of the party had reached an impasse, a small group of 500 of the most faithful and loyal members had had enough and decided to do the unthinkable, they resigned their membership of the party and created a new party so they could carry on with their anti-war beliefs without hinderance.

Eventually, the time to start campaigning for the long awaited general election arrived, the pro war faction of the party fielded all of their own candidates and were ready for battle. The anti war majority, predicted to have done well in the elections, had no-one standing. 

On the day of the election the candidates were announced, the 500 loyal anti-war members who resigned from the party, re-emerge as independent candidates. Well funded by a number of wealthy benefactors, foreign governments, we'll never know but they have a clear purpose in mind, to stand against everyone except, the anti-war members from their old party.
The campaigns came went and were surprisingly strong for the independents, no-one expected it.

When election day finally arrived, slowly over the course of the night, the results came in......
1st place 250 seats - The pro war party.
2nd place 180 seats - The anti war party.
3rd place 120 seats - The Independents
Everyone else won 50 seats between them.

The massive loss of seats cost the anti-war party dearly in the election and the pro-war party of division, hate and poverty were duly elected.

                                                                   The Fallout

On day one of the new government there was nervousness in the air, no victory celebration from the pro-war party and the entire country were glued to their TV sets, waiting for the announcement that they had long suspected was coming.

The news reader came on....

"We are hearing reports of mass defections from the independents to the Anti-war party, we will keep you posted with developments".

By early evening, the news anchor came back on the TV, the atmosphere in the country was charged with excitment and anticipation, could it really happen? could it be true? because everyone knew what had just happened, they just wanted it confirmed.

"Well its been an extraordinary day in politics, a day that shall be long remembered. The final counts are in and we understand that all, I shall repeat that, all of the independents who won their seats have now all defected to the anti-war party, We are unclear what this means exactly, but it does appear that the main opposition to the government actually hold more seats in parliament than the elected government itself. Ladies and gentlemen, on their first day in office, the elected government has been rendered a 'lame duck'. Quite extraordinary."

On day one, all of the winning independents defected to the anti-war party who, for the first time in years, are now unified in their anti-war majority, massively strengthening the leaders position. Their resignation wasn't an act of desperation but a calculated act to illicit a specific outcome. Some called it unfair but the fact remained that defections were well within the rules.

The benefactors and the public were well aware and supportive of their agenda but no-one believed it could happen, for they knew that these independents had no intention of remaining as independent. On day one of the new parliament all of those who won, defect back to their old party to rejoin the leader in her anti-war stance. Sadly, because of the unavoidability of this action, the party lost this election by 130 seats and handed the victory to the party of division, hate and poverty. But, 180 of the faithfull 500 won their seats and immediately defected.

This now resulted in the unprecedented, extraordinary situation where the opposition party had lost the election, but had more representatives in parliament than the government, thereby rendering them a lame duck government, with no power to enact any of their dreadful, punishing laws. It was only a matter of time until the government in waiting, the anti-war party, seized power.

The End         

The Death of Neo Liberalism

Have you ever wondered why there is so much negativity and hatred towards the left these days? The thing that has struck me so powerfully is the unprecedented level that the vitriol has reached. Why?

For too long the labour party has been edging ever closer to the right, which has kept capitalism as an economic plan, thriving. But the problem with capitalism is that it is an insatiable beast which will ultimately run out of the 'assets' on which it needs to feed. The last great store of wealth in the UK are the assets owned by the tax payer. Under the Conservatives neo-liberal economy, many of the assets we owned, the utility companies, railways and royal mail have already succumbed and we now bear witness to the 'fire sale' of the most profitable sections of oir last publicly funded assets. The police service, the NHS suffering increased costs to run and a degraded service to the public because sections of them are disappearing fast into private sector ownership. All of which provides woefull value for the tax payer. Social housing is an excellent example of dreadful value for the tax payer, we are now in the ridiculous position where it would be cheaper to buy the unemployed a home, than to rent one for them. Instead of the tax payer building an asset portfolio of hundreds of thousands of good quality homes, our taxes are wasted on private landlords, with no prospect of a return on the taxes we pay. This is what neo-liberalism is, it believes that all assets should be owned privately, not by governments. They achieve this by getting business friendly politicians into power. Once there, they can then start stripping the people of their assets until the tax payer has has nothing left. Most people know this as privatisation.

The new threat from the left for once, isn't just rhetoric, there lies behind it a very real plan. Jeremy Corbyn will create the structure for it, but it is ordinary people like you and me, who will benefit from it by building the infrastructure. Capitalism has effectively strangled creativity and entrepeneurialism, it has made it very hard for new innovations to be realised. Jeremy Corbyns policies will set this creativity free to impact on our lives in a million different ways. Technologies will be created to challenge and surpass existing industry, where decent pay and working conditions will become a standard. What will be created is truly 'trickle up' economics. It could even prove to be a 'tsunami up' economy. An economy that provides wealth for everyone, not driven and reliant on markets or shareholders. An economy of inherent strength, that has no need to slash thousands of jobs because of a dip in profit. And the thing that is petrifying the neo liberal conservatives the most is, that we now know how to do it.

It was John McDonald who inspired these thoughts, who in response to the Queens speech said:

"Labour rejects the failed and cruel austerity programme adopted by this government. Instead, working in partnership with businesses, entrepreneurs and workers, Labour would create an entrepreneurial state to support innovation, create wealth and drive growth. And we would share the proceeds of that growth fairly.

By investing in our economy Labour would lay the foundations of a new society that is radically fairer, more equal and more democratic. An alternative based upon a prosperous economy which is economically sound, environmentally sustainable and where that prosperity is shared by all"

I do not know if I'm using the right terminology, but I've called this 'Social Capitalism', maybe its just socialism. Where business is a tool used for the betterment of everyone, not for the enrichment of individuals. Within this society there would be no room for tax avoiders,  their existance wouldn't be tolerated. Reclaiming taxes would be much less of a problem than it is today, because a corporations survival would depend on it. It's not opposed to people building personal wealth, so there is a place for true, honest capitalism, which takes people with it, instead of leaving them behind. Corbyns policies are inclusive enough to appeal to many on the right, however, the days of the tax payer funded money tree will be consigned to history.

If this is Corbyns plan, then it is not surprising that there is so much opposition to him, so much desperate need to rid government of him because Corbyns vision is the only solution to reversing inequality and provide a fair economy for the benefit of everyone. There is so much creativity, innovation and entrepeneurialism just waiting to burst through that would be prevented from doing so, under our traditional parties. This is a vision that can does not depend on EU membership of, but all the more important to realise now that we are 'out'.

To allow the right to win now would be to deny the British people the opportunity to enjoy a country of social and economic justice.

I think therefore, going back to my opening paragraph, the manifestation of hatred and vitriol against the left can only be explained as the manifestation of fear, and judging by its levels, it must be rife within the neo-liberal community. A fear not only that neo-liberalism is in its death throws, but that there is something very real emerging, to seal its fate. The dream, that generations of people have been fighting for in social and economic justice is within touching distance and for the first time, we will no longer have to settle for scraps from the masters table. This time it's different, it feels real, this time its not rhetoric, this time we really do know how to achieve it. This is why, the bile that has been spewed by the main stream media about Jeremy Corbyn and his supporters has achieved nothing except for the opposite it was intended to. This time we have the vision, we have the talent, we have the support and most importantly, we have the leadership to guide us there.