Wednesday, September 09, 2009

Things Fall Apart ...

The tectonic plates are shifting again.

Even the most blinkered Labour supporters are opening their eyes. Jackie Ashley on Labour woes :

It may mean a decade, or more, in the wilderness, with only a fragment of a local party to sustain them; with no real media interest and without the money to run research groups, campaigns or conferences.
And if the philosophy of Jon Cruddas is any guide, there are no new ideas to sustain them, just the same old Guardianista/Helena Kennedy platitudes :

We no longer live in communities in which people share the same customs and culture. But the ideal of community with its ethics of reciprocity and solidarity remains as powerful as ever- especially at moments of crisis. We seek a mutual respect that grants self esteem, and creates a sense of belonging.
We'd all love a sense of community alright. Well spotted, Jon. But that's just what we haven't got. And who brought that about, Mr Cruddas ?

Yet are the Tories building a mass opposition ? Is Tory Blair pulling in more committed activists ?

David Cameron's charm offensive has failed to attract new members to the Tories – or keep hold of tens of thousands of people who were already in the party when he arrived. Local Conservative parties have lost almost a quarter of their rank-and-file members since Mr Cameron took over in late 2005.

Although the Tories have enjoyed a huge opinion-poll lead for several months, they have not been able to translate the surge in popularity into an increase in membership on the scale experienced by Labour during Tony Blair's early years in charge. The total membership in more than 200 constituency associations – barely a third of the overall number – who provided relevant figures to the elections watchdog fell from 185,000 to 145,000 between December 2005 and December 2008. The constituencies experiencing falls include "safe" seats, the bases of shadow Cabinet members and target seats that must be taken if the Tories are to win the next general election. In Mr Blair's first year as Labour leader, his party's membership rose by over 100,000 to 320,000.

One problem is the Grim Reaper. The decent old boys and blue-rinsers (aka frightful racist bigots if you're on the left) are slowly being winnowed away to join their forebears. Along with good Old Labour, the Tory representatives of British culture as it was before the 60s revolution are leaving us.

And what will British politics look like in the future ?


UPDATE - Paul Anderson is gloomy :

Outside its upper echelons, the parliamentary Labour Party has never been shorter of talent – and that is before the departure of 100 or more retiring MPs and goodness knows how many others who will lose their seats at the general election. Labour MPs’ morale is by all accounts still at rock bottom after the expenses scandal. At the grass roots, Labour is in a terrible state, its membership dwindling and disillusioned and its local government representation weaker than for 30 years. The trade unions are worse led and shorter of cash and activists than at any time in living memory. There is little sign of intelligent life among the left-leaning think-tanks ...

What’s worrying today is that the never-say-die spirit is so notable by its absence. At every level, Labour seems tired, resigned and confused, and there’s no new generation of activists waiting in the wings.

16 comments:

fellist said...

Reciprocity?

Like when we agreed that the African and Asian peoples had the right to control their own homelands in their own interest just like we did -- and so had the right to boot us out?

Oh, I'd like some of that reciprocity today.

Anonymous said...

And what will British politics look like in the future ?

This has worried me for a while now.

Often, when reading leftie comments on places like CIF, I get the impression many people on the left want a civil war.

That is really what they want.

No compromise. No negotiation. No attempt to convince or make a case. No willingness to even try to understand. They just want to see blood.

Not all of them of course. But a significant proportion.

Anonymous said...

After one of the recent incidents in Birmingham involving the EDL, I read a commentary somewhere by a (I think) a young liberal democrat who was on the UAF team. He was pretty unimpressed by the antics of his side, and I seem to recall that said that violent revolution was what the SWP/UAF wanted.


Could we go the same way as Spain in the 1930s?

Anonymous said...

"Often, when reading leftie comments on places like CIF, I get the impression many people on the left want a civil war. "

Ohh!

Exciting!

JuliaM said...

"Often, when reading leftie comments on places like CIF, I get the impression many people on the left want a civil war. "

Why not? They believe they'd win, after all.

Anonymous said...

Exciting!

Perhaps, if you like that sort of thing.

10 years ago I worked in an office with amongst others, Jewish, Moslem and Sikh colleagues.

There was the occasional heated discussion about Israel/Palestine or India/Pakistan, but these conflicts were all very far away and generally speaking, we all got on pretty well.

I'm not sure if we had the same characters in the same office it would be like that now.

Maybe its just me, but I think inter-community relations are not quite as good as they used to be.

Is this part of some long term trajectory?

Anonymous said...

Jon Cruddas has got a CIF piece up.

Jon says:

I would suggest it is because we have lost our language, our empathy, our generosity

Yes, I think he's right.

What I see on the left is a complete lack of empathy and a total absence of generosity.

Anonymous said...

The Left is dead. The nasty ultra Left want violence,
so they pal up with terrorist supporting islamist groups.

The BNP are not what they seem. The future has to be
a decent nationalistic, non racist form of Conservatism.

BUT we've got to get people to actually vote /

Foxy Brown said...

@Anon 8:57

"I get the impression many people on the left want a civil war."

They'll get one, mark my words.


@Anon 10:25

"Maybe its just me, but I think inter-community relations are not quite as good as they used to be."

No, it's not just you. Increased support for the BNP is the least of our problems. Our vibrant minorities are scrapping for meagre resources such as council housing.

Anonymous said...

Often, when reading leftie comments on places like CIF, I get the impression many people on the left want a civil war.

If they fight as well as they argue we should finish them off before tea time.

Anonymous said...

Slightly O/T

After David Copperfield left coppersblog behind I argued here that it had been taken over by "the system", turned if you like.

Otoh it may just be they guys handling it now are not as good as Dave but I note that Laban never seems to quote from it anymore.

I gave up reading it after Dave threw the towel in, the editorial line there seemed to have become totally conformist.

Anonymous said...

Copperfield is still the man behind Coppersblog you div - the numerous posts from Canada in which he talks about life with the Edmonton PD are kind of a clue!

Currently offline I notice.

Anonymous said...

The content that mattered most to us was though that relating to British policing.

And the prissy racial flat-earthers who have taken over that side of the blog have destroyed its relevence. Both in the content of the postings and the censorship of comments. Might as well just read a BBC article !

Laban said...

to be fair, anon - when DC started the powers that be weren't quite up to speed - and by the time they woke up he was getting pretty well-known.

The fate of Nightjack must always be hanging over a police bloggers head.

Wyrdtimes said...

Hopefully the future is:

English law for England
English taxes for England
Home rule for England

Anonymous said...

Exactly Laban, police blogs are now are either operated by the authorities or with bloggers so concerned looking over their shoulders that big bro might as well be running them anyway. Exactly whats happened with DC's blog.