So who should those of us living in England vote for tomorrow? I intend to vote Green – it seems to me that in England that is the best way to give a positive expression to the discontent with mainstream parties. I particularly hope that those who have the opportunity to vote for Rupert Read in the East of England will do so. Their support for renationalizing the railways would be enough for me, but actually I find myself in agreement with the large majority of their platform. I reproduce here an article from the ever excellent Peter Tatchell.
The Greens – not UKIP – are the real alternative to the political Establishment
By Peter Tatchell
Each of the three Establishment parties has succeeded in alienating its core vote. Labour over Iraq and the casino banking culture that flourished during its tenure in office. The Tories over Europe and equal marriage. And the Lib Dems over tuition fees and propping up of one of the most anti-egalitarian governments of modern times. All have been tainted by the scandal over MPs expenses. As a result, participation in mainstream politics is declining further than ever.
The UK’s first-past-the-post voting system is said to produce strong governments, avoiding what many perceive as the grubby infighting that dominates politics on the continent. But it isn’t working anymore. Millions of votes don’t count in rock solid safe seats and supporters of small parties are unrepresented or under-represented in parliament.
Many voters damn the political elite with the familiar refrain: “They’re all the same.” This is fairly true with regard to the big three parties: Labour, Tory and Lib Dem. There is very little difference between them these days. They all embrace, to marginally varying degrees, neo liberal economics.
Many people are, however, desperate for an alternative but they fear their voice will not be heard.
The European elections this Thursday offer a chance for something different. Because they use a system of proportional representation (PR), we have an opportunity to vote for what we believe in, without fearing that our votes will be wasted. PR is sometimes a mixed blessing. It was PR that allowed UKIP a foot in the door at the last Euro poll, and in this election it looks like the anti-EU party will win more seats than anyone thought possible for a new party 15 or even 10 years ago.
Nigel Farage entered the European Parliament in 1999. This was also the year that Caroline Lucas was elected as one of the UK’s first two Green MEPs (the other was Jean Lambert). She went on to become the first Green MP at Westminster. A parliamentary seat still evades Farage and his party.
UKIP supporters want to withdraw from the EU. They fantasise about plucky Britain standing alone against the world. UKIP stirs this nostalgia for ‘Great Britain’ and excites fear about immigrants and refugees. It has filled some of the void created by the discredited mainstream politics and, in particular, by the weakness of the orthodox left.
But for people who believe in social justice and equality, and who want action to thwart climate destruction and to protect the precious environment on which all life depends, the Greens – not UKIP – are the real alternative to the big three parties.
The Green vote is seen by some people as a protest vote, and there is no reason why it shouldn’t be. It is a vote against Labour’s failure to defend working class people and its initiation of the part privatisation of education and health care. It is a vote against the Lib Dem’s abandonment of principle in favour of power. It is a vote against Tory austerity which makes ordinary people pay for the economic crisis created by reckless bankers. It is most certainly a vote against the homophobia, xenophobia and climate change denial of UKIP.
But in this election, voting Green it is also a vote for something. The Greens are a party that offers an imaginative, alternative positive vision of how our future could look. This is fairly unique, given the broad political consensus between the stale, grey Tories, Labour and Lib Dems.
Unlike the three Establishment parties and UKIP, the Greens advocate decisive EU action to close tax avoidance loopholes and tax havens, tax empty homes and financial transactions, cap banker’s bonuses, axe nuclear weapons, prioritise energy conservation to cut household bills and to introduce rent controls, a living wage and free education.
http://www.reasonstovotegreen.org.ukAs a veteran of nearly 50 years of political campaigns, I look toward 22 May with a strange mixture of hope and fear. Fear that the hate-mongers of UKIP are poised to advance and to challenge some of the gains in minority rights and human rights, with the aid of their far right allies in the European Parliament. But also hope that the Greens may eclipse the Lib Dems; including the election of new Green MEPs such as Peter Cranie in North West England and Rupert Read in the East of England. Both lost narrowly last time. A tiny swing to the Greens will get them elected and, in the North West, will have the added bonus of probably surpassing the British National Party vote and thereby blocking the re-election of BNP leader Nick Griffin.
Make sure you vote: Show UKIP and the three Establishment parties the red card. Give the Greens a chance.
@Kempe
“Can’t see how Korea was “fucked up” by the Yanks.”
Before the Korean War and all the bombing and mayhem the country was artificially divided by the 38th Parallel separating families, friends and cultural ties
This from Wikipedia
“After the surrender of Japan in August 1945, the 38th parallel was established as the boundary by Dean Rusk and Charles Bonesteel of the U.S. State Department – War – Navy Coordinating Committee in Washington, D.C. during the night of the 10th of August 1945, four days before the liberation of Korea.”
Some liberation! But that’s what the Yanks do! They liberate other countries like they did with Iraq, Libya, Bosnia, Afghanistan and now Ukraine! It leaves countries fucked up for decades.
Kempe. (The Jen Psaki of these threads)
Korea not fucked up by the US?
Aside from their massive bombing of Koreans in their own land the US also managed to kill 20,000 Koreans in Hiroshima, about 1 in 5 of the victims.
http://www.globalpost.com/dispatch/news/regions/asia-pacific/japan/130805/hiroshima-forgotten-victims-korean-survivors
Mary
Thanks for posting the 38 degrees survey, the results of which were close to what I got when I filled in individually the questions on the VoteMatch website. I share Craig’s move to Green.
“Some liberation! But that’s what the Yanks do! They liberate other countries like they did with Iraq, Libya, Bosnia, Afghanistan and now Ukraine! It leaves countries fucked up for decades.”
Be fair now, John.
The Americans are fucking up their own country too.
They’re equal opportunity fucker ups these yanks.
Up here in Scotland the Greens have had a very good referendum campaign and seen their support rise from 7% to 10% by latest polling. I had been considering giving them a second preference vote in the next Holyrood elections as I’d be fairly comfortable with an SNP/Green coalition, but I’m put off by the occasionally erratic behaviour of individuals within the party – sounds as if the English experience is a bit similar.
It may be down to inexperience or political naivety, in which case I suppose the only cure is to elect them and hope they sort themselves out. That’s what we did with the SNP, after all.
With those reservations, Green probably best choice for those of you in the south with a progressive turn of mind.
“Spoiling your vote will simply marginalise any explanation of why the majors didn’t win it. There will be no reporting of your clever scribblings over the paper, nor the snot you snorted over it, nor the blanks where ticks, crosses or numbers should be. Your spoiled vote will simply be reported as “invalid” and people will be left to imagine why – stupid, illiterate, drunk, crazy, recalcitrant.. a lost opportunity.”
Jemand, voting will only perpetuate incompetence, to for one moment think that you will get a better option or be regarded as a voter that matters as much as any other, is wishfull thinking/asking for more of the same. Sadly I’m not enough of a Bhuddist/masochist to wrest a smile, walk up to the booth and make/take my cross.
One day your satisfaction will be disturbed and overwhelmed by a majority of disatisfied and you will demand that your pro party political point of view is heard, most likely to be your last argument, swallowed in a sea of heard it all before.
Then you might have to grapple with random selection of reps in future, rather than personal choice and manipulation of the system.
And what will your voting do? apart from legitamising a political oligarchy that has no mandate for this pre chewed slate of candidates, whether its this or other elections.
Any political party that care’s would have tried to quell this level of disatisfaction to increase their legitimacy a long time ago, not this lot, instead they try and manipulate the voting process, offering us the worst possible option of all, AV, in a take it or leave it referendum rather than a choice of systems.
Nothing short of a tax boycott can bring these criminals to justice. And some more, justice not forgiving, reparations for ills done and confiscation of assets, negating of all privatisation legislation and contracts, a wholesale reform by the concerned, not those who define concern for their own mettle.
here is a sentence for you, should you find it hard to go against your genetically imprinted party political allegiances.
” who has given you self serving, (scum sucking, optional political oligarchs a mandate to present us with this pre chewed candidates slate, when you only represent a minority?”
Habbabkuk (La vita è bel
la) !
21 May, 2014 – 3:20 pm
To Mary:
“I shall remind people that you deny the right of Israel to exist and that you are anti-Jewish. That’s fair, isn’t it?”
Hasbara shit!
We know you are an anti-Semitic (i.e. anti-Palestinian) racist Habbabkuk.
Being a Zionist is nothing to be proud of no matter who endorses it. (e.g. Cameron; Blair; Miliband; Netanyahu et al)
The Zionists days are numbered.
ללכת למשוך את איבר המין שלך
Craig
21 May, 2014 – 5:02 pm
“Left Unity (giggle) 1200 armchair revolutionaries who all hate each other”
http://azvsas.blogspot.co.uk/2013/12/left-unity-conference.html
I’d take what Tony Greenstein says with a pinch of salt.
He describes himself as a socialist but seems to spend much of his time knocking the left.
I met him at a Palestinian Solidarity Campaign meeting some years back and he disrupted the whole meeting because someone on the committee was too left wing for his liking.
Doug
Oh, I am not basing myself on Greenstein in the least. Just an amusing link.
We are seeing massive voter disillusion with the mainstream parties. the left in the UK is incapable of taking any advantage – because they are utterly useless and almost incredibly stupid.
When there were chances of real breakthroughs for the left – first Tommy Sheridan in Scotland and then the WikiLeaks phenomenon – the left allowed both to be destroyed by the entirely self-regarding obsessions of bitter sex-negative feminists.
” Dr. Daniel Pipes, on his blog called Prince Charles “a secret Muslim convert”. ”
A ringing endorsement of Charlie’s bona fides, then.
Pipes is NOT a secret Jewish convert, btw. He was born into the faith. And is a famous Islamophobe who supports Israel as if it were his own country. Perhaps it is…
Lulz from Danny here –
http://www.loonwatch.com/2009/12/daniel-pipes-unhealthy-obsession-with-the-hijab/
This short video exposes the Farage manipulation of MSM. It makes the point that the ‘half-human face of racism’ is never off the box.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbiTdD1_S0I#t=29
I realise from the Greenstein article that this conference didn’t get around to discussing tactics etc, but they’ll never get anywhere unless they base themselves in local communities, providing services and support with local people’s problems.
Advice centres, legal and financial, credit unions, food banks etc in every target area. People get to know you personally as a organisation that’s helped them and their neighbours, they’ll vote for you.
There’s never a shortage of professional people in these leftist groupings, so shouldn’t be a problem finding experts who can recruit similar folk locally.
So build your cadre, send them into the field and go forth and multiply.
And you’re looking at doing that daily and consistently for at least two elections.
They’ll never get anywhere just selling newspapers, holding meetings, the odd bit of media or even knocking on doors.
Sure, that’s great once you’ve got the practical base covered, but without that they’ll never go anywhere.
The biggest problem with these leftists is that they’re much too abstract and intellectual and I suspect that many of them are much too fond of talking about ideas than doing anything practical.
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Herbie, yes. That’s (whisper it) the IRA/Taleban model. Though hopefully without the AK47’s. Supply what the state can’t supply. Help.
Just cast my vote. Noticed the razor sharp fold in the ballot paper obscured the last party – UKIP – from view. There was no logical reason why the fold should have been in that place.
Final polls all have UKIP in front with Lib Dems and Green battling it out for the wooden spoon. If Farage pulls it off having endured a relentless smear campaign from the entire British media for months on end then it will have to rank as one of the greatest political achievements of modern times. I have to give it to him – he has shown a degree of energy and perseverance that can only come from one with absolute belief and conviction. None of the media-trained clowns of the main parties could have given what Farage has. If he can survive the Labour postal vote and the highly suspect three-day count then they will have been well and truly rumbled.
Not Chunky Mark the taxi driver but Chuck Windsor the taxi driver!
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/cartoon/2014/may/21/steve-bell-cartoon-prince-charles-vladimir-putin-adolf-hitler
Some good comments below.
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Ba’al
It was the British Labour Party model too, although they had the advantage that the Capitalists rather nicely concentrated the peeps for them.
So difficult when they were spread out over the land.
The Scots were quite good at it too.
“The biggest problem with these leftists is that they’re much too abstract and intellectual and I suspect that many of them are much too fond of talking about ideas than doing anything practical.”
This is almost true. The truth is many of them fancy themselves as intellectuals and have practically no clue about how to run anything.
I almost feel sorry for you in a way, Herbie. Another election comes and passes and still the far left don’t even register with the electorate. Really you should change tactics and just cancel democracy or something because you ain’t going anywhere.
“Just cast my vote. Noticed the razor sharp fold in the ballot paper obscured the last party – UKIP – from view. There was no logical reason why the fold should have been in that place.”
First conspiracy theory of the day.
“If he can survive the Labour postal vote and the highly suspect three-day count”
And an encore.
Bravo!
” American planes dropped 635,000 tons of bombs on Korea ”
Japan had two atomic bombs dropped on them but they seemed to have recovered.
Towards the end of WW2 the Allies could not agree on who would take control of Korea once the Japanese had been removed. As a compromise the country was divided into two temporary areas of administration, the USSR taking the north and the USA the South, in the same way that Germany was divided into four administrative zones post war. As in Germany the USSR refused to hold the free elections previously agreed to that would’ve started the process of re-unification. It was an invasion by the North in 1950 that started the Korean War.
“the entirely self-regarding obsessions of bitter sex-negative feminists.”
Inaccurate and unworthy, Craig. I’m quite sure Sheridan was targeted by the ‘security’ services but by hell did he make it easy for them, given his personal pastimes. He ignored the verbal and written advice of a friend (a retired QC, no names, no pack drill) who told him to ignore the allegations. Even if you win, you’ll lose, was the gist of that (prophetic) advice. But instead of waving it all away as prurient curiosity about his private life, Tommy broke up a nascent socialist grouping in Scotland by attempting to coerce his ‘comrades’ (his preferred term) to lie for him. Some did, others would not. Some of those who told the truth were women, and some who supported the lie were women too. Make of that what you will.
Still, Tommy Sheridan is busting a gut right now campaigning for Scottish independence. It might be a penance of some kind, or an attempt at political rehabilitation, but he is effective in a constituency that the SNP cannot easily reach. We will get a Yes in September, and he will have been one of its authors.
On Assange, I’m pretty confident that the women most intimately concerned are trying to please someone other than themselves, as you yourself have from time to time pointed out. That’s hardly traditional feminist behaviour.
Labour postal vote rigging is pretty well in the realms of conspiracy Fact, Herbie.
Re my other two observations – there remains no logical reason why the fold should be made where it is other than to obscure the UKIP option.
And yes, I do find a three-day count suspect considering 650 constituencies are counted overnnight and the results made available by the early hours following a GE.
Herbie, I’m sorry but I can’t pass the opportunity:
Are you seriously suggesting that there has NEVER been a conspiracy and that there has NEVER been any electoral fraud in the UK?
Labour postal vote rigging
Plenty of material.
Anon
“And yes, I do find a three-day count suspect considering 650 constituencies are counted overnnight and the results made available by the early hours following a GE.”
I think that’s just an EU thing. All the results have to be announced at the same time, and there’s some rather large countries in our wonderful empire.
What’s been notable over the past few months of media smears against UKIP is the near total absence of any argument as to why it is in Britain’s interests to remain in the EU. To give Farage his due, he has tirelessly argued for why it is not in our interests, but his opponents – ie the entire media and political class – have chosen to play the man rather than the ball. I wonder why that is?
I therefore ask, can anyone, especially Craig if he’s reading, put forward a solid case for why Britain should remain in the EU?
NB: Childish cartoons such as the above posted by John Goss are no substitute for a reasoned argument.
Anon
There’s plenty of fraud in the UK, voting and much else, but your examples aren’t it.
Herbie, thanks. Do you happen to know where the votes are being counted?
Herbie
“There’s plenty of fraud in the UK, voting and much else, but your examples aren’t it.”
Herbie, yes I am sure you can regale me with the horrors of capitalism for hours on end but we are talking voting fraud here.