Cards on the Table
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cDIREoCTIONmFOR THE pass DEMOCRATIC LEFT CARDS ON THE TABLE by Michael Prior August 2010 6 6 6 Tr hink e b m u N N PIECES 6 6 Tr hink e b m u N PIECES by Michael Prior CARDS ON THE TABLE The small increase in turnout seems mainly to have been previously Labour voters responding, perhaps a little wearily, certainly “hesitantly, to the old call to Keep the Tories Out which had become the drum“ beat of most Labour-inclined commentators in the weeks before the election. This was almost certainly the reason for the dreadful results of all the left alternatives to Labour. Compass publications are intended to create real debate and discussion around the key issues facing the democratic left - however the views expressed in this publication are not a statement of Compass policy. Cards on the table www.compassonline.org.uk PAGE 1 Cards on the table independents and various ‘protest’ This unexpected result, a ‘normal’ election candidates, flat-lining for the nationalists but one which has turned British politics in and electoral catastrophe for small parties a totally new direction has provided the he author is someone who left the of the left. In other words, business as Labour Party and the wider left with the Labour Party in despair fifteen or so usual with the, historically, not uncommon difficult problem of how to respond to t years ago and has never for a final result of the arrow of the two-party coalition politics. The immediate, knee-jerk moment regretted it. Now a member of wheel-of-fortune coming to rest in that response has largely been what might be the Green Party, he will never, ever, vote sector marked No Overall Majority. This termed the pit-bull strategy; to attack Labour again so long as it is led by men rather normal situation has, however, been ferociously on all fronts hoping to split the who refuse to accept that lies and deceit over-shadowed and largely ignored by alliance between the two governing led Britain into an illegal and immoral war. one, rather startling, political innovation. parties so that it will collapse and force a (Being led by a woman is, of course, even Instead of following the standard practice new election. There is apparent sense in less likely). He will also feel a grim of several small and no-majority this strategy for the Labour Party in that if satisfaction when such as David Miliband governments in the past ─ to stagger on such an election returned a Labour and Jack Straw are hung out to dry for for a while and then call another election majority, a possibility which gains credibility lying to Parliament about British ─ the Conservatives, rather cleverly, and if it were to be held in the midst of savage involvement in torture and illegal the Liberal Democrats, possibly cleverly, public expenditure cuts, then business-as- rendition; grim because it will do little for agreed a formal, negotiated coalition, a usual could be resumed with the bonus those who suffered the sanctioned shift in governance which may turn out to that the growing challenge from the third- torture. Nor is he on his own. As the be a critical watershed in British politics. party might be effectively extinguished. Dixie Chicks put it, we’re not ready to Or may not. make nice. However, there are two obvious risks This rather unexpected normality of the attached to the pit-bull approach. First, a I start like this to make clear that the May election was what stopped a bad forced election could just provide the British left is not, as some Compass election for Labour turning into a rout. Tories with a parliamentary majority and initiatives seem to suggest, an inchoate The small increase in turnout seems the mandate to proceed with their public- mass just waiting for the right trigger to mainly to have been previously Labour sector cuts. Second, and in my view much crystallise into a progressive alliance ready voters responding, perhaps a little wearily, the most likely, the assault on the coalition to unite behind Labour. Rather it is certainly hesitantly, to the old call to Keep could fail and it would carry on with fractured body of people, riven with the Tories Out which had become the increasing confidence for a full five-year considerable bitterness and distrust and drumbeat of most Labour-inclined span. Clearly, a great deal depends upon wary of any kind of effort to drive it into commentators in the weeks the proposed referendum on a new a convenient corral however enticingly before the “This coalition existed through voting system. The labelled as the home of a rainbow, golden, election. This was to the 1970s when, it can be Alternative Vote is greenleft or somesuch colourful coalition. almost certainly argued, it actually reached its far from And that’s just the members of the the reason for the apogee with just about every proportional but it Labour Party. And yet, as a long-term dreadful results of left group in Britain, including will undoubtedly member of that left, it is painfully obvious all the left the Communists and most favour the that some kind of alliance is just what we alternatives to Trotskyist bands as well as LibDems, probably have to come to terms with. Labour. In the case Labour factions, in various awarding them of my own Green informal coalitions fighting another forty or so The most striking feature of the May Party this was each other for control, direct or seats something election was just how ordinary it was. In disguised by the indirect, of the Labour Party.” which, like it or not, months before voting most observers, somewhat fluky would be ‘fairer’. It including myself, predicted that it would be victory of Caroline Lucas in Brighton, fluky would also be a system which would a ‘wild’ election with an even lower because this is pretty much the only seat effectively cement coalition politics into turnout than 2005 and with some kind of in the country which is effectively a four- British governance. Just how far Labour revenge being wreaked on the major way marginal where the winner needs will succeed in weaselling its way out of its parties, in particular Labour, after the only 31% of the vote. In nearly all other manifesto commitment to an AV system expenses scandal. The electorate, it was constituencies, the Green Party suffered remains to be seen. If it succeeds in commonly felt, had become disillusioned serious declines in actual votes with the successfully opposing its implementation in with system. What actually happened was deposit-saving level reached in only two 2015 (not to mention the entirely fair a small, though important, increase in places outside Brighton. removal of its current 8% or so poll turnout, resounding defeat for advantage because of slanted electoral compass PAGE 2 www.compassonline.org.uk Cards on the table boundaries) then the coalition could Labour can extricate itself from this question “Why did Hardie refuse an collapse and Labour might return. On the morass remains to be seen but it clearly a alliance with the Liberals?” other hand, opposing what many might problem for the formation of a centre-left http://www.davidmiliband.net/2010/07/09/k see not only as reneging a manifesto bloc that its major potential component eir-hardie-lecture-2010/ To which, of promise but also a move towards a fairer has a recent history of sitting rather to the course, the answer is he didn’t as, after voting system could result in electoral right of centre. being elected in West Ham with the suicide. Liberals not standing a candidate, he The second and, in its way, more moved to sharing his dual-member seat in The risks associated with the pit-bull important problem is the incapacity of Merthyr Tydfil with a Liberal and helping approach are not just short-term. Outside Labour, both leadership and many to negotiate the Lib/Lab pact in 1903 the left commentariat which shrieks “split” members, to understand the concept of which led both a Liberal landslide and the every time some disagreement within the political alliances. There are good historical election of 29 MPs under the name of the coalition is aired, there is a feeling (and it reasons for this block which are difficult Labour Representation Committee. Hardie can only be a feeling) that the electorate even to summarise here. (Those worked as part of various Liberal/Labour is beginning to feel rather comfortable interested in greater detail might refer to alliances throughout his parliamentary with coalition politics in which differing an essay of mine in Left Out: Policies for a career. It is possible that Miliband’s mistake views are openly expressed and Left Opposition Today which can be found stems from a poor education. More likely compromises are agreed. Unless some at it stems from the ingrained habit of countervailing left-leaning alternative is www.lwbooks.co.uk/ebooks/ebooks.html rejecting alliance as part of any Labour found there is the distinct possibility, or http://hegemonics.co.uk Essentially they strategy and refusing to see that it is indeed probability given the bias of AV come down to the fact that in its origin actually something present even in its voting, that Britain will be governed by a and throughout much of its history, Labour formation. centre-right coalition for many years. The was itself a coalition bringing together C word has been much used on the left in rather disparate groups into one rambling More towards the left, just after Gordon recent months but has been given organisation, perpetually at odds with each Brown’s coronation as Labour leader, Jon remarkably little concrete clothing, often other and united only by the need to Trickett M.P.