Close on the heels of our nationwide horror at seeing almost all of our UK politicians excusing Israel’s blatant and atrocity-strewn destruction of Gaza, this week we had to witness yet another disgrace in the House of Commons, where MPs claim to be the voice of the people.
In a packed House, each MP was gaggling to say their own virtuous piece in the debate about what the Tory Party just allowed to happen to Diane Abbott … without allowing Diane Abbott to speak.
Well you might say only the Speaker’s at fault (again) but a) the only reason he’s still Speaker is that those appalling MPs have managed to “get over” him completely and deliberately screwing up the SNP’s recent attempt to have a serious debate about the need for ceasefire; and b) surely if you or I had been in that House, we’d have noticed Abbott trying repeatedly to get a word in that debate about her and we would not have settled for a bit of performative groaning, would we?
Time to bounce back
We truly have hit rock bottom. We – most of us, across the nation, know we’re lumbered with an unconscionably dreadful, obstructive bunch of self-serving con-merchants instead of a government. It’s got some people talking about revolution but armed insurrection is not just illegal and dangerous, it doesn’t necessarily work. Let’s not all go out and get arrested/killed just to find out if, on the off-chance, the government we threw together in the aftermath of a revolution was any better.
A year ago, you might have said (many people were saying) that that conclusion leaves us helpless. Now, suddenly, it doesn’t.
It’s not the end of the world
The good news is that we do know our government’s failed now. Really, most of us do and at last, rather than worrying about how “you have to vote Labour to get the Tories out”, or arguing about which of the attempted new parties is going to “make it” in our system that’s blatantly designed to serve only the two main parties, many people are beginning to believe in the possibility of independent candidates getting elected. What’s more, they’ve stopped saying “but what can one person do?” They’ve realized that lots of independents means a large team of MPs who aren’t Labour or Tory.
This could be the Progressive Alliance we were looking for in 2017 — but this way, it could be a real alliance, with teeth.
Liverpool City Council has a shining example of a group of independents coming together and becoming a force for good. The popularity (despite his glaring faults) of George Galloway in Rochdale has reminded us all that independents can win by-elections. The enthusiastic response of so many to the announcement of Andrew Feinstein’s intention to give Starmer a run for his money in Holburn and St Pancras has really galvanized the mood. Now, at last, the country is beginning to see how voting for independents might get us somewhere in national elections. It’s one of those things that’s only significant if enough of us do it — and now in the year 2024, lots of us are ready to do it…
Look at Starmer, standing up and apologizing to the nation for “letting” Galloway get elected – that is, apologizing for allowing a tinsy bit of democracy to happen.
The so-called Labour so-called leader has probably done more, single-handed, to help along the idea that it’s time to find some alternative politicians than all the rest of them put together.
The Next General Election
Now, the fact that small and/or single-issue parties are starting up all over no longer seems self-defeating. Let the Worker’s Party of Britain (Galloway’s backing band) win a few seats, and speak up for working people. Let the Party of Women win a few, and be a voice for women’s rights in the House. Let Just Stop Oil win a few, and talk about – well, stopping oil. The plethora of “new lefty” parties can no doubt win a few each, and form a more vocal Socialist Campaign Group in Parliament than the one we have now. Probably, the Welsh and Scottish parties and the Green Party will see an increase in their seats, too. I fancy a Bring Back British Rail candidate somewhere, and a Save our NHS candidate – do you see where this is going?
Because independents are by definition all different, any unsavoury ideas any of them have will be drowned out but also, because they are all independents, together they’ll be a significant disruption to the appalling, ‘stonewalling’ debates in the House of Commons and a real challenge to the Labour/Tory establishment in votes where establishment MPs are brazenly going in the opposite direction to the will of the people.
And as for those god-awful “debates” in the House, if we all get behind the best of the independents or small-party candidates in our areas, we could have a big enough “non-establishment” group in the House of Commons to prevent atrocities like the Speaker spiking a debate of global importance, or a bunch of racists ignoring a Black woman when talking about her.
Let’s do this
Take a look at the independents on offer in your area in the coming council elections. Don’t be too fussy. There’s a bunch of independents in my town now who are touting the innovative idea of putting local business people into council, and running the town in the interests of local businesses. Well that’s never been tried before. I suppose the wealth they create sort of trickles down … (That was a joke – just checking!) but you know, they’re not bad people, they’re just trying to find a way to go on whilst local government funding is so abysmal. Their line is not as bad as the neoliberal norm, and their presence will put pressure on the establishment parties. If you don’t get a real socialist candidate in your ward, my advice will be, take a look at the independents.
If we can free up our councils and get some real work going on locally, it will encourage even more people to get behind an independent candidate in the general election later this year. We’ll have to get on with it though, and we will have to back them with organized determination. You can bet your life the powers that be have seen which way the wind’s blowing and will already be thinking of ways to thwart independent parliamentary candidates.
And then…
Once we have a significant sized group of independent and small party MPs in the House, we can start figuring out how to re-design our government so that it’s democratic enough that we never again have voiceless groups or communities, but resilient enough to face the climate crisis and the global-scale monsters that continue to run our world for profit and the spoils of war.
Please give it some thought and then, more importantly, please get organizing — either preparing to support, or preparing to be. the best independent candidate where you are. Good luck!
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Dear Reader,
Times are hard, and so the articles on this site are freely available but if you are able to support my work by making a donation, I am very grateful.
Cheers,
Kay
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Kay Green 