One’s Limitations

I’m not that clever. In discussions with several people on a politics board I had to admit that to myself. I may have feelings, a good turn of phrase and beliefs, I may be able to bring in history or current affairs but when it comes to a grasp of the minutiae, I don’t have it, and never will have it.

To me, the AV Referendum was an illogical question. Why would I want my second choice to win? I would prefer my first choice vote to count proportionally, percentagewise towards a total of seats. That was PR to me. Whatever AV was, it was not that.

And the EU Referendum. Is it democracy to say that the only two choices you have are between “concessions” that make things worse, unless you’re a Tory, or getting out? Where is the status quo, where is closer integration in this? Nowhere! That’s why I opppose the referendum – not because I am anti-democracy but because the whole process of the Referendum is about making things worse for the UK in the EU, and that once embarked upon, remaining where we are, or engaging in a more positive and constructive manner is not possible.

I realise that people don’t understand me, so here you are, some answers

 

Winds of Change
29th May 2015

Left Unity

Unity of the Left

I have committed my political allegiance to the Liberal Democrats but this is on the basis that they will renounce the policies of austerity, will move away from if not apologise for policies that they voted for under the coalition, that they will embrace a broad spread of issues to campaign on, from the Human Rights Act to the EU Referendum, from fighting immigration laws to campaigning to legalise soft drugs.

More than this, I wholeheartedly believe that the only way to defeat the evils of the Tory monster that has been unleashed on this country is for the left to unite behind these causes. The Greens, Sinn Fein, Plaid Cymru, the SNP, the SDLP and the Labour Party if it remains a left-wing party are natural allies in all of these fights.

UKIP as a populist party are also an ally of convenience on some of them, and the major right wing parties, the Tories and the DUP all contain individuals with a conscience, and with common sense, with an understanding that today’s Tory policies are destructive, divisive and dumb.

Left-unity is the only entity that will force any vote into the area of doubt, where Cameron has to rely on those of his party who have hearts, souls and brains. It is the only approach that will lead to a government defeat.

Labour or the SNP abandoning left unity is a disaster, but both have already indicated that there are battles which they will immediately abstain from. This is absolutely disgraceful.

The SNP is no longer a party of protest or of representation, with 50+ MPs it is a party of national opposition and it has a moral obligation to act as such a party for the whole UK

Labour under its caretaker leader has already abandoned two major fights for no reason. It has come out in favour of an EU Referendum, despite the fact that such a referendum is under Tory rules, will only have the choices of worse or really bloody bad, not OK or better. And it now supports an arbitrary benefits cap even lower than the one existing now which it voted against! The caretaker regime is taking the party wildly to the right, preparing the way for a new right-wing leader who will abandon the cause of left-unity.

Tactical considerations that a Tory victory in England could mean a chance for Scotland, or that abandonment of principles on one issue can allow a better focus on others just play into Tory hands. Conceding ground to fight makes no sense when the enemy has more forces than you do. Only a unified stand from all of the opposition parties can defeat the enemy. If you don’t want to defeat the enemy, get the hell out of politics!

The Liberal Democrats should fight on all of these grounds and welcome support from all-comers. No more shall shallow considerations matter. This is the only war that matters – defeating the Tories on as many of its policies as possible. This will take organisation, demonstrations, campaigns and protests. Sinn Fein is as capable in these areas as anyone, no matter that its MPs won’t take up their seats or vote, their MPs work hard for their communities and energise them. Left unity means working with your allies of conscience and this means burying the ancient hatchet. It also means accepting that the votes that the Greens or Plaid Cymru got in former Lib Dem constituencies were not the cause of the defeat of the incumbents, rather on the one hand a symptom of disillusion, and on the other hand a strong affirmation of left unity.

I would be proud to stand alongside Tim Farron, Dennis Skinner, Martin McGuinness, Caroline Lucas, Mhairi Black, or Leanne Wood on any demonstration or protest march. All of these are left figures with a conscience, with beliefs, with a heart. That may be uncomfortable reading, it may be a reorientation of the past, but this is 2015 and the enemy have won, we have to unite to defeat them.

 

Winds of Change
29th May 2015

Musings on Equality

Online conversations are intriguing, especially when on social media they often seem to happen when you are not online, and you log in the next day to find a barrage of criticism from someone you only vaguely knew existed.

“You people are going too fast”

“You risk offending people”

These are two statements that were levelled at me for my strong support of gay rights and celebration of the referendum victory on equal marriage in Ireland.

“You people” is an attack phrase, and one supposes it is aimed at the LGBT community. I am not gay but I massively support equal rights and so I was a strong proponent of the yes vote. Perhaps that made me seem to be gay in some people’s eyes, though those eyes clearly didn’t look very far – did they assume that the entirety of Sinn Fein were gay?

I am not offended that maybe they thought I was gay, only that they sought to bring the argument down to the rhetoric of “you people”.

As for their second argument, “You risk offending people”. I don’t even know where to begin on this! Who does equal marriage offend? People presumably who don’t want to marry someone of the same sex. So, why can’t they just get on with their lives, and accept that people who do want to marry someone of the same sex should have the right to do so? Surely, if you don’t like something that doesn’t affect you, and doesn’t harm in anyway, you can accept it for those who it does good to?

It is not like any rights have been taken away from straight persons in order to give them to gay couples. Rights are not a limited pool where giving them to someone means you took them away from someone else.

In general terms, if you risk offending people by giving rights to others, then the ones you might offend seriously need to go away and have a long hard look at their so-called morals. If they decide that they are religiously strict in their self-identification, I think then they will admit that many other equality laws offend them, so one more shouldn’t make much difference.

It was implied in a comment to the discussion (that I was not a part of because I was asleep, even though it was directed at me!) that Islam was a stumbling block, that by giving equal rights to the LGBT community it was by definition attacking Islam.

I find this nonsensical. For a start, homosexuality has a huge place in Islamic culture and history, whatever the immans may pretend. Beyond this, if the mosques and immans don’t want anything to do with it, the law does not force them to. Gay Muslims can have a civil marriage and still be both gay and Muslim.

It is the same for hardline Christians. If they want to lock themselves in little towers of pretend morality, then they can do what they want. The world will get on and let anyone who wants to get married, marry who they want.

So, this is my response to an attack that was made on me when I was not there, and to the discussion that was had around it when I also was not there.

Equal rights is equal rights, ideas like “too fast” or “offending people” are just excuses to deny people the rights to which they are entitled.

 

Winds of Change
28th May 2015

The Queen’s Speech

A Serious Discussion on Monarchy

I have been a Monarchist all my life, I am a Social Democrat and I always believed that the Queen standing above politics was the best protection against fascism in its modern guise, that the Queen represented social continuity, national stability and a link with the past.

Maybe in the past she would have had the power to tell the Prime Minister that she was not saying certain things in the Queen’s Speech. Maybe she is just getting old, or perhaps her advisors are too politicised. I don’t know.

But I have to agree with the Marxist commentary on the Queen’s Speech yesterday that it was absolutely obscene to see a millionaire sitting on a bloody golden throne with a crown of diamonds on her head say that we’re all in it together, one nation blah-blah and by the way we are cutting benefits to the poor but giving lots of money to the rich.

What the actual buggering fuck?!

Was this a dirty trick from Cameron and the Tories? I honestly don’t think they have the brains, schoolroom politics made large, little tossers made big in the spurious glory of their majority.

So, does Her Majesty not have a say on what she is going to say? Or did she or her advisors drop the ball and not realise how absolutely disgusting this would look? The richest of the rich in finest regalia amongst glorious pageantry come to tell the poor that they will have less and be worth less, be treated as shit and be shafted even more, but don’t worry because her government is giving the well-off and the rich lots of things to make them happy.

What the Hell?!

If the Queen does not have the power to tell the Prime Minister he is getting her to make a political statement, not just in the words but in her aspect in speaking them, then I think it may be time to have a grand constitutional convention and discuss everything. I have always reserved the powers of the monarch from my support of such an idea.

Now, I just don’t know

 

Winds of Change
28th May 2015

Radicalism is a Right

Its only two weeks since the country was tricked into voting for evil, but in those two weeks democratic radicalism has come under massive and sustained attack.

 

  1. Extremism Laws that allow the government, the Tories, to define who is a radical and who is an extremist, who comes under this law, who cannot talk, demonstrate, protest or even seek support.

 

  1. The Metropolitan Police are already arresting and charging demonstrators for what are essentially minor non-crimes in an effort to prevent protest and to build a narrative of how demonstration lands you in jail, and should not be engaged in

 

  1. The Home Office now wants to review and censor all TV programmes for “radicalism”, its the same as in Iran, in other hardline states, in the new Russia where independent television is under constant attack, hounded and driven out of their premises.

 

  1. Murdoch is now cleared to complete the takeover of Sky, destroy its independent voice and change Sky News, a home of journalists with integrity, into another Fox, full of ignorant right wing hacks.

 

Protest is an essentialk part of the democratic tradition, especially when elections are so unproportional in creating virtual elective dictatorships. Marches, the people’s voice, the ability to get across messages that challenge the establishment, all of this is essential.

Even more so when the establishment already has the advantage of vicious right-wing media, the police, the courts, and rich backers to fund any excess they want to promote.

Radicalism is being made illegal. Again, I believe that Martin Niemoller’s quote has an eternal resonance:-

 

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

Just because the rhetoric targets a different radicalism than yours, does not mean that you are not next, or the one after next.

 

Winds of Change
23rd May 2015

For too long?

“For too long we have been a passive and tolerant society that said as long as you obey the law we will leave you alone”

For too long?!

This is wrong?

People who obey the law should still be attacked, they should be hounded, they should be subject to extra-legal tests?

This is one of the most astonishing blatant examples of Tory evil ever stated.

What is says about the Tory agenda for the next government is astonishing in its cut-throat nastiness. They will now go all out against the young, against the unemployed, against the disabled, against the poor, against protest, against unions, and against so-called radicals.

You would have thought that such an attack would rise the people but Martin Niemoller said it right

“First they came for the Socialists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Socialist.

Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Trade Unionist.

Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out—

Because I was not a Jew.

Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me.”

They come first for the illegals, they come next for the young, and most people are neither illegal immigrants or young, they think OK, sacrifice these people, we will then be OK. Then they come for the unemployed, and for the disabled, and most people thank the Lord they are not either. Then they come for the poor, then they come for the demonstrators, then they come for anyone they can label radical at will, and you realise THERE IS NO ONE LEFT. You gave up and abandoned everyone else. You connived, you colluded, but then it comes for you and there is nobody left to defend you!

Niemoller has it right. You have to make a stand at THE FIRST INSTANCE. You have to stand up for the poorest and the most vulnerable even if you think self interest says screw them, we’re alright. Because you won’t be alright. You will be next.

Defend everybody or fall. Common decency, that is all.

Winds of Change
22nd May 2015

UNITY, DEMOCRACY, VICTORY

What is democracy? It is an interesting question.

Obviously it is voting in general elections, council elections and Euro elections

  1. It is the campains
  2. It is the literature, the party systems, and so on

 

But we have a right to assembly, we have a right to march, to demonstate. The Tories want to take this away.

We have a right to strike. The Tories want to take that away.

They don’t want to take your vote away, they can control that, on the one hand by gerrymandering the boundaries, on the other by their right-wing media friends fearmongering and scaremongering people into voting “the right way”.

It is obvious therefore that demonstrations, marches, assemblies, strikes are what really frighten the Tories. It is what they seek to ban, ergo it is what is a real weapon.

And of course, what the Tories excel at is in promoting division, and in doing this division between the progressive left not only lets the Tory government in with a majority, but prevents the opposition from organising to defeat this government.

The Fixed Term Parliament Act is a Tory trick, it increased the threshold needed to win a vote of no confidence from simply winning it, to winning it with a margin. So what happens if you win it, but not quite enough? A Tory government that just had 55% of the Commons vote it down, it can continue? This is simply insanity, but is Tory tricks. Its not designed to actually come to this pass, it is designed to prevent people daring to try.

Dare to try! There are some humans on the Tory backbenches, there are some decent people, not only in the Tories but in the DUP (*Shannon voted against austerity). Fight the Tories, win that vote, and then look to the constitutional consequences. Fear is the Tory weapon. Don’t be afraid to fight because you might not win ENOUGH. Fight it, win and then challenge this constitutional insanity.

The Tories won with less than 40% of the vote. There is a majority against them, even if some of that did vote UKIP. That FPTP gave them a majority on that percentage is the same stupidy that prevented the SDP/Liberal Alliance in breaking through in 1983.

But parliamentary representation is not the entirety of democracy. Look to the community organisations, look to Radical Assembly, look to the PCS union! Look to march, to demonstrate, to show by mass action how the Tories are intent on destroying this country and everything good about it.

All parties should find their balls and come out in support of the anti-Tory groundswell. Failure to do so is a failure of representative democracy.

Winds of Change
21st May 2015

False Narrative

We have to win back our lost voters, we hear that from both Labour and the Liberal Democrats. ‘Our’ voters? They are not yours, they are not anybody’s, they lend you their vote, it belongs only to them.

The idea that a majority is some fixed item that exists for more than a moment after an election is also an illusion, a psephologist’s dream.

Vince Cable had a safe seat because he had a majority in the many thousands. No! He lost his seat, so where did the Lib Dem votes go…? No! There were not “Lib Dem votes” they were voters who had lent their vote to the Lib Dems, but now did not.

You can hold a thousand autopsies. You can have a hundred investigations. You can write a dozen reports. You look into it until the cows come home, or they refuse to. But you CANNOT analyse where “your” vote went, because you did not have that vote.

What you had was the trust and belief of people, and that is the only truth in this whole debate. Why was it lost? How can you get it back?

PARTY ANALYSIS

Labour – Scotland is an interesting microcosm, it shows not only how it was lost, but what the end game is if you lose it. Labour no longer seemed a viable left-wing party to many Labour supporters in Scotland. It stood alongside Tories in the Referendum, and in this it served to emphasise the right-wing policies that New Labour adopted – PFI, war in Iraq, everything that people’s anger and resentment simmers under the surface.

Lib Dems – the party I supported for 20 years, and ten before that supporting the SDP in the Alliance. But I did not vote for them in 2014 or 2015. Why? Not because they entered a coalition with the Tories, but because of the laws they supported the passage of in coalition – the laws which attacked the poor, the disabled, the young.

What I see in the debates after the twin disasters is that Labour is bouncing to a Blairite right-wing analysis! Never mind about abandoning their core voter, never mind about the slow build up of betrayal that came to a head, just worry about the rich and corporations who constantly moan whilst they make money!

The Lib Dems I see a better debate in. Their disaster was more dramatic, but the core belief seems to be stronger, the understanding that they have to reconnect and show belief, show vision is stronger.

BELIEF, VISION and TRUST

Don’t look to the segmented electorate in all your A1s and C2s (or whatever). Don’t look at what the rich and privelege moan about, they will always moan, they are selfish and conceited, they want more, believe they should have more, they don’t care for the poor, for the ordinary person. Ignore them!

Look simply to why you exist, what you stand for, what you are in politics for. Don’t play games trying to find a policy “to appeal”. Know what is right, and put all your energy into it. If people don’t accept it, use the word “yet” and redouble your efforts.

Political parties don’t exist to win election. Think about that! They do not exist to win elections. They exist to promote a vision and to implement that vision they must win an election. But if they have no vision, then winning an election is pointless, it swaps one lot of centre-right conservatives for another. Without the vision, the parties are pointless.

With the vision, the votes will follow. It is axiomatic that you have to have someone who can propound that vision, who can enthuse, who can lead. That is personality, that is charisma, but it is also a willingness to listen, to be humble, to not seek power for its own sake, but to seek it for service to the people.

Votes will follow Vision, but you must have vision!

Winds of Change
21st May 2015

Scotland at Westminster

I wasn’t sure what to title this article, but I think a neutral title works best.

It has been explained to me that the SNP has a policy of not voting on England-only issues, as if EVEL already exists. But this policy is that of a party of protest, or of representation, not of a major party of opposition who, at this moment, occupy the position of being the standard bearer of the progressive left.

Furthermore it abandons Wales, all too often junked in with “England” where laws are concerned. I would ask the SNP to consider that a law that applies to England AND Wales is not an England-only law, but one which affects the entire United Kingdom, whether or not it has effect in Scotland or in Northern Ireland.

And to what end would the SNP abandon their progressive left comrades in England? Is it a message that England does not matter because First Past the Post gave the English a Tory majority, despite less than 40% of people who voted voting Tory? Is it that this potentially permanent Tory majority, to be expanded by gerrymandering, should abandon decent progressive English people to being second-class citizens?

Therefore, I would argue, and call upon the national and parliamentary leaders of the SNP to seriously consider:-

1) The SNP is no longer JUST a representational party of Scottish nationalism, but is a major progressive left party of the United Kingdom, currently in a leading position to challenge the Tories, and a party that the progressive left across all 4 parts of the UK is looking towards to see leadership and statesmanship and not only Scottish-focused actions.

2) Laws that affect England AND Wales are not English-only but fall under a UK-wide remit of the SNP to challenge, fight and vote upon.

3) Whilst the United Kingdom holds, then it is an obligation upon the progressive party of one constituent part of the UK not to abandon the people or causes of another part of the UK.

By refusing to stand as the progressive opposition to the right-wing government in Westminster, the SNP seriously devalues their national, UK-wide role. By agreeing to stand aside under a pseudo-EVEL accord, the SNP only empowers the Tories. They will gain nothing from this, and from their failure to stand united with the other progressive left they will show the Tories how to divide and rule.

The SNP can stand tall as the voice of the progressive left. If they don’t it will not be to their credit, but to their shame.

Winds of Change
19th May 2015

Open Letter to Nicola Sturgeon, Angus Robertson & Alex Salmond

Please support the progressive agenda

Is EVEL in place? No! Then you have both the moral right and the moral obligation to vote alongside the other progressive parties to defeat Tory laws.

In Scotland, you have laws to protect foxes against hunting. Why do you not think that English laws to this end deserve defending? Either you accept that as things stand Scotland is part of the UK and the SNP is part of a progressive opposition to the Tories, or you make it clear that EVEL already works and you consent to the right-wing agenda.

Whilst you have the voice, and whilst you stand as the standard bearers of the progressive left, you owe it to the rest of the UK to stand with the others to defeat the Tories.

Tories won’t thank you or give you anything for helping to defeat the other parties, they will just take what they want and if they can they will play you. Conversely, Tories will not penalise Scotland, will not become harder to do a deal with because you stand up for the progressive left in the rest of the UK. They will neither take umbrage on the one hand, nor respect your strength on the other. They will deal with what they have, and if you continue to stand up to them they will deal with you as you are.

Stand alongside Labour, alongside the Lib Dems, alongside Plaid, the Greens, the SDLP and say in one voice that you accept the leadership of the progressive left when it falls to you. Make it clear that you will not abandon the left in England, in Wales, and in Northern Ireland. You will not sit back and gloat that you already have built-in defences when the rest of us are under a renewed onslaught.

You get nothing for weakness, and your whole message is that only strength gets things. Don’t be cowards now. Stand up for the rest of us when we look to you for leadership.

Thank You

Winds of Change
18th May 2015