LABOUR, THE GREENS AND THE MORAL OF THE RALPH NADER CANDIDACY


For anyone considering voting Green this coming May I would say consider the US Presidential elections of 2000 and the role played by the Greens presidential candidate Ralph Nader. The 2000 election was of course famously close, a few votes more here or there deciding a contest that finally ended in the debacle of the Florida on/off recount. What may have been lost on this side of the pond was the role of the Green Party’s candidate Ralph Nader. To quote The Huffington Post “Nader was indispensable to the Republican Party.” Nader cost the Democratic Party at least two states, Florida and New Hampshire, victory in these states would have won the presidency for Al Gore. Again to quote Huffington, “Nader drained at least 2 to 5 times as many voters from the Democratic candidate as he did from the Republican Bush.” In short the Green Party candidate was the spoiler who gifted the White House to George W Bush. The rest, as they say, is history.

 It is perhaps worth a moment’s pause to reflect how the first decade of the 21st Century might have turned out had it been Al Gore rather than Bush junior who occupied the White House. Ironically Gore went on to champion the cause central to the Green movement, the need to address global warming. A campaign documented in the Academy Award winning film ‘An Inconvenient Truth.’

Nader was a principled man, -although the glee he took in damaging the Democratic Party electorally also suggests an unhealthy degree of vanity and personal animus, -who certainly believed that by standing he was furthering the cause of progressive politics. His legacy however was to open the door of government to the most viciously reactionary forces in American political life.
Which brings me back to May’s general election here in the UK. As I write this the two major parties are virtually neck and neck and the election threatens to be the closest in living memory. In such a close race small parties have the capacity to play a key role by siphoning off votes from the larger parties. The Tories, it is true, have UKIP to worry about, but so too does Labour, who face an additional threat from the Greens and SNP, both parties providing no attraction to Tory voters. As the Greens experience a surge in the polls it is the Tories that are doing the most celebrating. Here are just two tweets from yesterday tweeted by Tim Montgomerie of The Times, formerly of Conservative Home:-

Tim Montgomerie @montie  Tory-induced Green surge doing what it was intended to do: Lab down to 30% as Cons move 2% ahead https://twitter.com/Sun_Politics/status/557667408639692800 … #SplitTheLeft

Tim Montgomerie @montie Greens surging in polls since Cameron insisted they take part in the debates. It's almost as if this was all part of a #SplitTheLeft plan!

Now there is a very silly line that says this all doesn't matter since Labour and the Tories are just the same. - This indeed was Nader’s line in 2000, didn't matter whether you voted Republican or Democrat. - Of course it is nonsense, Labour could afford to be a great deal more radical and is too cowed by business lobby, but it does offer a serious alternative to what will be inflicted upon us should the Tories retain power. For make no mistake the Tories are now ideologically way to the right of any other European conservative party. They want to finish the job of dismantling the welfare state and creating a society designed only to meet the demands of the comfortable, the affluent and the seriously privileged. This coming election could well prove as decisive as that of 2000 in the US, in shaping how the next ten years turn out.


So if you are considering switching from Labour to the Greens just reflect for a moment on Ralph Nader and the consequences of his success in taking votes from the Democratic Party. 

Popular posts from this blog

NESRINE MALIK AND THE UNSUNG VIRTUES OF HYPOCRISY

Image
As I write this a 27 year old woman, Mariam Ibrahim, has just had a baby in a Sudanese prison, ‘the condition of the mother and baby is not known as Ibrahim's lawyer and her husband, a US citizen, had been denied access to her. Omdurman women's prison has a basic clinic, where the child is thought to have been born. Ibrahim has been shackled since being imprisoned.’ [1]   Mariam also has an 18 month old child who is also being held in prison with her. The ‘crime’ for which she is imprisoned is apostasy, for which she has received the death sentence. She has also been sentenced to 100 lashes, for the additional crime of having sex with her Christian husband. Although she has been a lifelong Christian her father was a Muslim, Sudanese sharia law forbids women to marry outside the Muslim faith, men needless to say can do as they please in these matters. Mariam Ibrahim and her husband.  Nineteen countries punish their citizens for apostasy, and in 12 of those countries
Read more

INTERVIEW WITH TOM VAGUE

Image
Tom Vague At the top end of All Saints Road there is a refuge, an enclave in which a local Bohemian culture retains a foothold, this is the Book & kitchen , a café/bookshop with adjoining terrace. Here the bustle of the nearby market gives way to conversation, conversation in the presence of images of the recent, and not so recent, past. The past of an area that has contributed so much to the life and culture of the city. I was there to meet local historian Mr Tom Vague a man intimately familiar with so much of this history. What Tom doesn’t know about the recent history of the area probably is not worth knowing. With Tom’s energy and effort Colville Community Forum, supported by City Living Local Life, recently held a gathering at The Book and Kitchen to celebrate this rich history. February 16 6-9 Pm, with Film Screening and Readings Exhibition February 16-26 2016. Featuring 30 Classic Westway Photographs and Posters. This represents one of a number of initiatives of t
Read more

LONDON BELONGS TO ME PART ONE

Image
. I. I have lived in London now just over thirty years, having moved here on 4 th July 1983 . I don’t know how long you normally have to wait to claim squatter’s rights but thirty years seems a good enough period to me. The glory of London is its parks and open spaces, you are rarely ever far away from a London park, common or heath. I am within fifteen minutes walk of Kensington Gardens or Holland Park , much closer to several smaller areas with grass and flowers and benches on which to sit, all maintained by Kensington and Chelsea council who also still believe in the value of trees. Those who would see what they call ‘the state’ shrink rarely mention such items in their calculations. What does it cost to maintain a tree? Too much by far for the likes of those right wing think tanks whom and I fear the phrase is soon likely to break under the strain under which it is now being placed, know the price of everything and the value of nothing. Holland Park is one of t
Read more