Let’s Win This Battle Together

Owen Jones’ closing words at the anti-austerity march on Saturday resonate with me. It is vital that all those represented there, and other progressive forces, work together to win. As Tim Farron says winning is the priority, for without it there can be no change. But as Tim recognises, and as Jeremy Corbyn epitomises, ditching one’s principles for a short-term victory is not winning, it is surrendering. Winning is to be part of the long-term narrative.

What therefore does winning together entail?

 

  1. It requires that the joint opposition epitomised by the march stays together, stays focused, stays in touch, reaches out further and grows, hopefully as the mainstream progressive parties elect leaders who will choose to stand united with the people on the front line.

 

  1. It requires that grassroots organisations, campaigns and battles are co-ordinated, that nobody is left to fight their own battle, or that conversely nobody abandons the overall war to focus on their own problems, dividing the united front and doing the Tories’ job for them.

 

  1. It requires the progressive political parties to work together at a national level, to put aside their own pride, their own interests and work for the common good. We saw arguably the inverse of this in Northern Ireland where the Ulster Unionists and DUP agreed electoral pacts to see off progressive MPs from the Alliance Party and Sinn Fein. But this shows that it can work, and does work.

 

  1. All progressive parties must commit to a pledge to introduce Proportional Representation as soon as they are in a position to do so. Tim Farron has said that if he is elected leader of the Liberal Democrats, then PR as a law will be an essential prequisite to entering any future coalition – not a referendum, not a commitment to look into it, but a pledge to table it as one of the first major pieces of legislation. All parties need to agree this.

Point 3. in my opinion is a vital component of 4. and after stating them above, they need to be expanded upon as a unity. Labour has been the largest progressive party in the United Kingdom since the 1920s and it still holds that position, and some within the party will argue that electoral pacts and proportional representation are unnecessary encumberances, and that Labour will always poll well enough to be a major force.

But 2015’s General Election shows that a political party with one quarter of the total electorate’s support, at something like 36% of the votes cast, can win an absolute majority and whilst Labour is the second party in parliament, it is part of a fractured opposition that is watching the Tories destroy the welfare state.

Maybe Labour can win again sometime under FPTP like how in 1997 they came back from 3 defeats, but the country does not have another ten years to wait for them to get their act together. Labour does not represent its MPs, nor does it even represent its members – what Labour has always respresented is the working man, though you would not this if you listened to the leadership campaigns of some of its contenders.

Electoral pacts are the only solution to ensure that the progressive forces win at the next election, whenever that may be. Winning THAT election has never been more vital for the country. Labour must swallow its pride and stand some PPCs down against Liberal Democrats, Greens, Plaid and even the SNP, if they will live up to their belief in PR and reciprocate.

In turn, the Lib Dems must stand down candidates against Labour, against the Greens and against Plaid where that is needed. The Greens must stand down candidates against Labour, the Lib Dems and Plaid, and Plaid must stand down candidates against Labour, the Lib Dems and the Greens where that is a necessary option.

One is not looking to change the face of the system, but to swing key marginals in a progressive direction. Where the Liberal Democrats pose the strongest challenge to a Tory incumbent then the other progressive parties must stand their candidates down. This is going to be a challenge, not least because in the wake of #GE2015 the parties are going to need to look at recent polling data, not exclusively the vote in May 2015 where the Lib Dems, in coalition, saw their vote collapse.

There are easily enough seats available for Labour, the Lib Dems, the Greens, Plaid and the Alliance Party to pick up enough to overturn a Tory majority in Westminster. What they must do is dare, and having dared what they must then do is stick to their promises. Labour especially needs a leader who puts decency at the heart of what he does, and that man is Jeremy Corbyn.

 

Winds of Change