So I have my ballot paper for the Labour leadership
election and I desperately want to write “neither of these two…..I want to vote
for someone who represents neither the Corbyn camp or the parliamentary Labour
Party but has the best aspects of the two.”
If there had the chance I would have liked to vote for
Yvette Cooper or somebody of that ilk who actually represented where I am
coming from. That is I want a candidate who stands a chance of winning votes
from middle England and being media friendly whilst at the same time displaying
socialist Labour principals.
What I am faced with instead is a choice between Corbyn and
Smith. Whilst the former’s policies generally attract me I am unimpressed with
the way it seems that he has let John McDonnell manipulate him.
I also believe that there is no way he can deliver us from
a series of Tory governments over the next decade. The reason for this is
partly because of the way the media are portraying him but it is more than
that. He is focused on building a social movement and that is what he has
successfully been doing. However, social movements are not political parties.
With the system of democracy we have the key role of social movements is to act
as lobbyists influencing those in parliament and bring about change outside of
the chamber too. Social movements are effectively the way we let Parliament
know we want them to act in different ways to those they are proposing or to
take notice of issues which have been ignored.
With regard to the latter. I believe he has also allowed
himself to become the puppet of others who have ambition to take power in the
future and wanted a fall guy to be the interim leader. He is now saying
whatever appears to be necessary to gain the leadership and has shown himself
not to be a consistent and principled politician.
Whilst considering who to vote for I have also been
thinking of the views of those around me. Many of the most principled people I
know are supporting Corbyn because he stands for so much of what they have
campaigned and worked for over the years. He is the change they want to see.
Then there are those who are in a similar position to
myself and are generally going for Smith because there is the feeling we need
to rebuild with somebody the PLP will work with.
However, beyond these are the marginal voters I have
listened to over the years. These are generally people I have sometimes shared
offices with or listened to as they have chatted with their friends on buses
and trains. I know the concerns they have for themselves and their families.
Concerns which in the last election made many of these people vote Tory when
they were clearly undecided. They are often the people UKIP is exploiting the
fears of and some of those who have taken us in to Brexit. These are not bad
people in fact most of them are very good people, but they are people who have
different ways of looking at the world to many of those closest to me and those
whose thoughts fill my social media feeds. These are the people who the leader
needs to win over with policies which give principled alternatives to the Tories
but for which people will vote. What we need is somebody who can offer hope
where UKIP are offering fear and scapegoating.
Now I know that Corbyn offers that to some extent and that
is what is building his support. However, he is not offering this up in a form
which will appeal to those marginal voters I listen to on public transport.
Part of the reason for this lies with the media and the way in which they
portray Corbyn but it also has to do with the way in which he has portrayed
himself too. He has portrayed himself as somebody who is not willing to listen
and rather than breaking with past can be seen as a return to it.
So is Smith the answer in getting their votes. No, clearly
not. He is a man who appears to have so little charisma and principle that he
does not have the power to overcome the damage that has been done here by both
the PLP and Corbyn. Additionally, he is seeking to appeal to everybody and I
suspect is genuinely appealing to very few.
What also worries me here is the way in which the Labour
Party seems to be re-enacting some of the battles of the 1980’s with players
who are just a little older now. History tells us that it was that infighting
which led to the long years of Tory rule from 1979 onwards and gave Thatcher
part of the power she had.
We have already seen how the government has used the
publicity around this internal civil war to announce they are intending to
replace our signing up to the Human Rights Act with a British Bill of Rights.
What we are doing here is, I think, giving the government the opportunity (and
their future majority) to develop policy that is going to be deeply damaging to
the UK.
Additionally, the leadership contest seems to be bringing
out the underlying structural sexism which was a larger part of the left in the
1980’s but still lingers in some parts today. Over the last couple of decades
there has been real work in the party and trade unions which has overcome this
but it seems with the macho posturing and infighting that has been going on by
men of a certain age we have gone back to the bad old days.
Why don’t I walk away? Well, that would be the easy thing
to do. However, I have a belief that we need a strong opposition to defeat the
Tories and that will not ever be rebuilt if we all walk away. Even though I
voted for Cooper in last year’s leadership election it was Corbyn who got me to
stand up and say “yes, at heart I am really a Labour supporter and I want to do
what I can to support the vision for our country I have become a reality now
they are post-Blairism.” If we all walk away the Tories will have won without a
fight and UKIP will step further into the void.
So why don’t I just abstain? I clearly don’t want to vote
for either of the candidates and abstaining is what I would love to do. Yet,
standing idly by is not an option. I have to decide I want one or the other
because they are the choices I have.
I did hope writing this post would help but all it has done
is underline why I think that what has gone on is wrong and why all involved
need to shoulder responsibility for what they are doing to our country. When
history looks back at what the Tories have done during this period and what, I
think, will be the further dangerous rise of UKIP those involved in the PLP and
the Corbyn camp will be seen to have been a large part of the reason it
happened this way. I feel that both are equally to blame and am really angry
about that. The PLP should not have had the vote of no-confidence but Corbyn
should have stepped down when the result of that came through. We should have
had a leadership contest with a range of contenders to choose from not just
Corbyn and “stop Corbyn”.
So how will I vote? Well, I am tempted to in the end
effectively give my vote to another and vote how he, (who has been excluded by
the system which stopped people who legitimately became members in order to
support their principles), wanted to vote. The person I am thinking about has
faithfully voted Labour over the years and has held to the principles which
mean he believes in the Corbyn vision.
That said, I think if Corbyn wins the situation will just
get even worse because we need a fresh start. Yet I don’t believe Smith will or
can give us a fresh start and I fear his leadership is one which will give
Stephen Kinnock power. This factor is important to me as I have listened to
Kinnock and come to the conclusion that he is the next Blair. So I still don’t
know…..in the end it may come down to tossing of the coin and the hope that we
get a new party rising from the ashes which truly represents what I am looking
to vote for.
