Just who to vote for on 4th June? I have encountered people who won’t be voting Labour (and they are part of Labour’s core vote) since the MP expenses scandal (‘troughgate’). They want to vote as they are rightly scared of a high BNP vote if turnout is low. But who to vote for? I think most, as they are politically progressive, will be voting Green.
What does seem to be taking place is a process in which ordinary people are losing all trust in the LP. It was identified as the party that at the end of the day as being on their side. This has been eroded over the years by the warmongering and reactionary economic policies of NL. Why vote for someone who will vote to allow your job to be scrapped and who will support an economic system that leaves you with nothing.
Just think how long and hard ordinary people have to work to earn the £3000 or so that Paul Murphy spent on a new boiler because the old one produced water that was too hot. BTW why not just turn the hot tap down and the cold tap up? Mind you if you are not footing the bill…the greedier of the MP’s are seen as one with Fred the Shred and not with working class people (this includes you Hazel!!).
The danger is that this alienation from the LP will lead people to vote BNP. NL are still identified enough with progressive issues such as anti-racism and with being concerned with the rights of oppressed groups that people who have reactionary ideas about such things can decide that progressive ideas are simply a cover for self serving careerists to bambozzle ordinary people with. This is what lies behind the commonplace saying “they are all the same”.
So back to 4th June…. just who do you vote for..? Green….?
I know I damn well won’t be canvassing for my incumbent Labour MPat the next general election (and if you look at his NL clone style voting record…well, you get my drift… I think if you swapped him with a donkey, nobody would be any wiser regarding voting strategy. Though I am possibly being too hard on the donkey as it may possess something Dowd lacks…. independent political thinking….)
And is the Labour Party finished? Well, it would need a miracle such as reinvigorating the politics of social democracy and socialism with fresh ideas and MPs who aren’t self-serving or worship at the altar of corporate capitalism. And to once and for all ditch the anti-working class ideology that is neo-liberalism. Replaced with a red/green ideology.
But this won’t happen instead Labour will limp on and stagger towards the next elected thoroughly destroyed and discredited. There might be an Alan Johnson coronation, the bridge between the warring Blairites and Brownites, who might save the party from total wipe-out, time will tell.
But come 2010 it will be a party in tatters, worse than the Tories circa 1997. What will emerge from the ashes is anyone’s guess but somehow I don’t anticipate a social democratic phoenix raising from the ashes. More like infighting and witch hunts. But without a miracle the LP is dead…
Fin.
Tony Benn wrote in 2002 that Labour’s victory in 1997 was a contradiction between the public wanting to get rid of the Tories whilst the city and the establishment wanted to retain the Tory policies. Which is exactly what happened. Now that the Labour Party is virtually unelectable and indistinguishable from the Tories I would expect to see any emergence of traditional Labour policies being demonised by media. For my part I personally think that the LP is dead in the water. The big question remaining, as you said who to vote for.
They said the Tories were finished as a party once but I remember my dad saying ‘don’t believe that, they will rise again’. Now look at them.
If there is no Labour party then I and many others just won’t vote, but there will always be a left party whether its in the form of Labour or something else. Besides anything millions of people still believe in Labour policies and their needs should be catered for. If there is no party that will do that then there would be trouble in society.
I’m voting Green, definitely.
Voting BNP or Green. BNP?! I am not racist just would like someone who would resemble some more Britishness at the local council. The outrageous BNP plans would only work if they were elected as a majority at the General Elections – as for local…
I think they are a good alternative for the main parties – this said I am not aware fully of the different parties involved, only the ones I have received in advertisements through the letterbox.
In my hometown to which the crime has gone out of the roof because previous councils allowed mass convicts to be housed here and witness protection – they now want to allow asylum seekers to stay here.
I have nothing against asylum seekers… just that a) they have to have fled a worn torn country and not just be hoping for a better life to gain from benefit systems that dont exist there b) you flee to the nearest safe country, to get here they need to go past France c) you are only an asylum seeker while you have applied for asylum. If you are turned down you become an illegal immigrant, if you are successful then you are an refugee.
If you want to improve your life such as a better education system than your country then you get a visa NOT apply for asylum. If you are from a country which is a part of the EU you are almost guaranteed a visa here.
Those that come over here claiming asylum then dont return when denied I have absolutely no respect for.
Dan, firstly, when people say ‘I am not racist just…’ means that they usually are. How the hell can you vote for a fascist party?!
They are fascists, simple as that. The BNP’s politics are based on racism and violence. They deserve contempt. They deserve no platform!!
Secondly, scapegoating asylum seekers is contemptible as well.
To vote for the BNP is beyond contempt!
Don’t worry I will either vote for an independent or not vote at all. I am not sure if the Green party are in the local elections – is there a way to check?
Just wanted to hear some views on the BNP. As you can see I will only take action regarding what I truly believe in and likewise that I wouldn’t ever vote for them or the two main parties.
As for Asylum Seekers, I have nothing but respect for any genuine ones even if they have bypassed a safe country on their way here. The others… well I don’t have any. It seems like we will disagree on that one.
What I wanted to mention about the BNP is how they are allowed to have such a generic name to which brings the rest of the country to shame? To outsiders people presume that everyone in Britain somewhat agrees with their views. It surely says the entire nation is in acceptance with their views when they really are a small majority.
*It surely says the entire nation is in acceptance with their views when they really are a small minority.
Not woken up yet… :S