Our first order problem is the voting system; we have a first past the post system but have become a multi-party country. There is no guarantee that changing the voting system alone will fix things but without it we don’t seem to be able to even get started on the huge challenges we face. This has significant political implications and, if not fixed, is ultimately a threat to society [1]
Two opinion articles show how hard it is to actually make politics work in the way any reasonable person has a right to expect. One is optimistic and offers a way forward, the other pessimistic and blames volatile voters.
The optimistic article (27 May).
As well as a useful round up (with links) of the betrayals and slights of hand that are being perpetrated by Labour, George Monbiot spells out how tactical voting can become the way to fix our rotten system.
‘Join the Lib Dems, Greens, SNP or Plaid Cymru. As their numbers rise, other voters will see the tide turning. Encourage troubled Labour MPs to defect. Most importantly, begin the process in each constituency of bringing alienated voters together around a single candidate. This is what we did before the last election in South Devon, where polls had shown the anti-Tory vote evenly split between Labour and the Lib Dems. Through the People’s Primary designed by locals, the constituency decided to back the Lib Dems. The proof of the method can be seen less in the spectacular routing of the Conservatives (as similar upsets occurred elsewhere) than in the collapse in Labour’s numbers, which fell from 17% in 2019, and 26% in a poll before the primary began, to 6% in the 2024election. The voters took back control, with startling results’
It’s not perfect (and may in fact be difficult to achieve) but I would argue there isn’t a viable alternative.
The primary candidate for another approach is to campaign within Labour for a change in direction. This has a long tradition, going all the way back to the national government of Ramsey MacDonald up to the civil wars of the 1980’s between left and right and the resurgence led by Jeremy Corbyn. I think this approach is long past its sell by date. Labour now is not the party it was [2].
Whilst people, who like to think of themselves as radical, persist with this transformed Labour Party they sap away the chance of change and prevent the progressive majority [3] in the country from being reflected in Parliament. Energy is directed to infighting (we want our party back) and tactics instead of policy campaigning. They may persist because of loyalty or nostalgia because Labour used to represent the organised working class. But those organisations have been broken and are only slowly coming back.
The Labour Party itself has capitulated and re-fashioned itself. People who already paid for the Banking crash are being asked to pay again - it’s unfair and unnecessary there are many ways to pay for what is needed [4]
It’s time to abandon the Labour Party - fighting to get it back is a diversion, doing the same thing and failing over again and again is the definition of madness.
The pessimistic article (16 May)
Andy Beckett falls into the trap that sees every problem as one of individual fault. This is the logic of individualism [5] - it makes everything personal and ignores the fact that there are systemic dysfunctions in which individuals are caught up. It’s perfect for maintaining the status quo, everyone is to blame and no one is accountable, we beat ourselves up for the failure whilst and companies dodge the costs they impose on us.
Systemic problems are difficult to overcome and nigh on impossible for an individual to combat. They can be very serious and amount to poor or incompetent governance. To reiterate, things are serious enough to constitute a threat to society [1].
At a trivial level get an erroneous parking fine - it’s still much easier to pay than challenge. When touts buy up tickets and overcharge, when companies use differential pricing, when the system says no…and on it goes. People shrug it off, caveat emptor and the system goes on. All of this friction makes many of us bridle, but for the less well off life becomes an intolerable battle with bureaucracy.
Three of these systemic problems are mis and dis information, manipulation and lobbying (see notes). These three have always been there - politics in the c18 for example was rude and crude, there were frequent riots which were exploited for political advantage. What has changed?
- Firstly the belief in progress, optimism and the expectation that life for everyone ought to be OK. Once upon a time we had the idea of a social contract [6] - after all if people were needed to fight we also needed “homes fit for heroes”, arguably as big a driver for welfare as ideology.
- Secondly technology [7], gives the appearance of mass participation but is in fact dominated by rich and powerful interests. An offensive comment or a quip in bad taste amongst friends in the pub could be put down, laughed at or scorned but it effected just that small group, now it goes viral.
Misinformation [8], manipulation [9] and lobbying [10] feed into and interact with one another; the perfection of targeting, messaging and triangulation in marginal seats. It is now possible to craft messages to minority groups who (by accident) find themselves in the small switching groups. This is something which the politicians and their parties have developed and are entirely responsible for.
The fact is many politicians like this trend because they can be vague on detail and do what they like in office, all the while claiming to have a mandate. Combine it with the acceptance of ultra-conservative economics and the siphoning off of vast amounts of wealth from the common realm to be hoarded by a minority who don’t believe in community, collaboration or even that they should pay tax at all and the current government is where you end up.
Economists are changing [11] but the thinking doesn’t seem to be filtering through to the politicians who, with a few notable exceptions, treat the current economy as a technical problem (see note)
The only way in which individual voters can be blamed for any of this is that they do not seem to translate the frustrations they feel (caused by the fact that nothing works) into to the conclusion that governance actually matters. The demand that good governance in all aspects of political economy should to be at the top of the agenda.
The tactics recommended by Compass which George Monbiot rounds up so well show us that there is a hopeful, constructive, constitutional and peaceful way we can resit.