Discover Top Posts Tagged with #progressive alliance

Let’s not fuck this up like we did with Brexit and Trump, guys.

https://twitter.com/saiyanhajime/status/857724548879405056

https://www.tactical2017.com/

#tories out #stop the tories #ge2017 #tactical2017 #politics #tories #conservative #labour #progressive alliance

Two Horse Race

“And Democracy has fallen at the last fence…”

My Mother enjoyed a flutter on the horses. I think it started with a lucky, superstitious win during the Second World War (the war, if you recall, to end fascism), when she backed an outsider with a name that recalled her brother Ken, who, at that time, was a Red Beret, parachuted into war-torn Europe, and it romped home at 66 to 1.

But she always flatly refused to bet on the Grand National. “It’s a cruel race,” she said, “Horses are maimed and die.” My Mother’s kindness was second to none but her willingness to pursue logic beyond first base was never strong.

I’d like to think, however, that if she were still alive she would be aware of a painful analogy that we face in present-day politics. Because it seems to me that what we see in our electoral commitment to “first past the post” (FPTP) comes pretty close to the Grand National in its pursuit of winning for its own sake regardless of the damage left in its wake: the fallen horses of people’s hopes and aspirations and, at the last ditch, of democracy itself.

I feel this very powerfully when I consider what now passes for the Labour Party. FPTP is so manifestly a corruption of representative democracy that any decent party, or politician, with even a passing commitment to the national interest, should be determined to see it replaced by something better. And by better, I mean something that, at the least, allows each member of the electorate to conclude that his or her vote counts (companies can’t vote, of course. But in our travesty of a democracy, they are allowed to bribe politicians to do their bidding).

But the Labour Party is so convinced that it can occasionally “win”, outright, under FPTP that it would rather see the country as a whole lose nine times out of ten in an election, and allow a minority party to scoop up the majority of seats (only then to ride roughshod over the constitution through the whipping system) than change to a fairer system under which we can all claim to have a voice, if change would mean “sharing” the temporary ascension to absolute power that corruption once in a while allows it.

This is, frankly, perverse, but also, frankly, very human. Contrary to what Steven Pinker wishes to persuade us (his book, “Rationality”) we humans are not rational. We are rationalisers, a very different animal. We think, yes, but we think mostly to support our own short term advantage, or to confirm our prejudices, not to promote our long term best interests or to change our minds.

If only the leadership of the Labour Party would stop and think. It’s the race that’s wrong. They are saying the equivalent of “I know this is a dangerous sport, I know my beautiful horse, and several beasts of great majesty may die outright or be so horribly maimed that they need to be put down, I know that even I and my fellow jockeys may be thrown and suffer appalling injuries. But I believe I can win. I believe I can beat all the others to the line. And that’s what counts.” No. No it doesn’t.

What counts is the national interest. First, second, third and last. What counts is service to all the people of this nation. Ideology is a false god that must be subordinated to service. And serving the people involves, just at the base level, ensuring that their voice is heard, ensuring that they have real access to justice, ensuring that they have proper, effective levels of social security and health care, ensuring that they have clean water to drink and can afford to live, and building a future that is fit for their children. If that is “socialism’, so be it. But all it is in fact is Element 1.01 of effective governance in a healthy modern democracy.

The trouble is that people have been duped by consumerism into seeing everything as a “winner takes all” competition that exists for its own sake. It isn’t. People are not disposable commodities. They are what life is about. They are what it is for. This is not X Factor or Strictly, where those voted out get to sit in the audience and applaud the stronger acts as they pick up the trophy. We have to make a world in which the ceremony is just the start, and is where the real work begins; work to ensure that nobody gets left behind.

It is easy to claim to be “the party of business”. Business is selfish, myopic and easily appeased. But business is just what people do and it is people we have to take care of. People who actually do the business, get things done, keep things working. People who, admittedly, sometimes don’t know enough to judge what is in their best interests but who still need to be protected, sometimes even from themselves. Democracy has, first and foremost, to be a safeguard from tyranny and not to become the tyranny of a claimed majority.

And that requires people of good will to work together even if it means surrendering some of the imagined sovereignty of individualism. Working together is what saved the human race from extinction. The lie of extreme individualism, “libertarianism”, is now the human race’s greatest threat.

If only Keir Starmer weren’t so stupidly wedded to coming second behind the sweaty arse of the Tory horse, the almost inevitable outcome of his blinkered approach to our corrupt electoral (and Parliamentary) process, he could pull off the biggest win imaginable: the creation of a modern nation, confident and secure, tolerant and dynamic, vibrant and successful. But to do that, he has to surrender his addiction to power at any price and recognise the need for concerted change above all. He needs his ambition to be bigger than an electoral win in a rigged competition.

We are running out of time for Keir to grow up and see the true nature of his patriotic duty. The race to the bottom, which sees the Government treating Parliament with the utter disdain of a bullying thug that expects now to get its own way because it always has, is under starter’s orders. He needs urgently to change his colours and ride for a progressive alliance.

#democracy #tyranny #progressive alliance #Starmer #Labour

Why a progressive alliance may be a great idea, but it’s never going to happen.

New on the BLOG | 57 minus 06: Progressive? Sure. Alliance? Well…

Why I don’t think a progressive alliance in UK politics is ever, ever, going to happen.

#57 minus #blog #politics #british politics #progressive alliance

Samajwadi Party leader SRS Yadav passes away due to coronavirus

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Member of Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council (MLC) and Samajwadi Party (SP) leader SRS Yadav, who was battling COVID-19 infection, died on Monday.

Samajwadi Party condoled the demise of the leader.

“The demise of the senior and respected leader of Samajwadi Party, National Secretary and MLC SRS Yadav ‘Babu Ji’ is the end of an…

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#Akhilesh Yadav #Government of Uttar Pradesh #infection #Janata Parivar #Progressive Alliance #Samajwadi Party #Samajwadi Party (SP)#SRS #State governments of India #Sunil Singh Yadav #Twitter #Uttar Pradesh Legislative Council #Uttar Pradesh Legislature

Sellafield engineers shine at global awards Sellafield Ltd and supply chain companies have triumphed at a global awards ceremony. Full story: https://www.cumbriacrack.com/2018/11/02/sellafield-engineers-shine-at-global-awards/

#AXIOM #Progressive Alliance #Rojiar Ferschy #Sellafield Ltd