THE VIEW FROM THE WRECKAGE

PROGRESSIVE POLITICS IN THE AFTERMATH OF MAY 2015

Two excellent bits of analysis on the general election, one by Nick Cohen and the other by Andrew Rawnsley , though coming from very different perspectives they both provide telling truths about Labour’s defeat and Cameron’s victory.
Cohen names the central poison that has gradually eroded the left in England,[1] disconnecting it from the great mass of the electorate, namely the fact that it despises the white working class, thinks loyalty to the UK or any kind of patriotism is reactionary and whose default position on any foreign policy issue is anti-British and anti-West. In Short, as Cohen states:-

‘The universities, left press, and the arts characterise the English middle class as Mail-reading misers, who are sexist, racist and homophobic to boot. Meanwhile, they characterise the white working class as lardy Sun-reading slobs, who are, since you asked, also sexist, racist and homophobic. The national history is reduced to one long imperial crime, and the notion that the English are not such a bad bunch with many strong radical traditions worth preserving is rejected as risibly complacent.’

People have a capacity to understand when you don’t like them, when you don’t respect their opinions, when you patronise them and when you revile and disparage their passions and concerns. Given the contempt with which so many on the left hold the English electorate it is surprising that the Labour party did as well as it did. Unless the broad spectrum of the left[2] recognise that as things stand they not only do not speak for the working class of this country but they do not even understand their concerns, then progressive politics will spend a generation in the wilderness. Simply blaming Murdoch, a right wing media, the voting system, or craziest of all, the greed and stupidity of the electorate itself,[3] will simply perpetuate the self-imposed exile.

That when it comes to the gross unfairness of our voting system they have a case, though it is not quite the case that many on the left think it is. The result of the last election represented a grotesque parody of democracy.

However under a more proportional voting system it is the right wing party UKIP who would have benefitted most, whom along with the Tories could have governed as a coalition even further to the right of this one.[4]

In short there is no magic bullet to solve Labour’s problems, either it reconnects with the mass of working and middle class voters or it dies. This is not quite as grim a scenario as it sounds, since what most people want, regardless of ethnicity, sexual orientation, or religion is good quality housing, good education and the possibility that they can improve their quality of life. And yes, also to identify with their community both local and national in positive ways.
 There is nothing inherently anti-state or anti egalitarian about these wishes, there is nothing in these desires that are inimical to a more just and equal society. Indeed it is only a vibrant social democracy that has both the will and ability to harness the resources to make these desires a possibility for all.
Such a society however must be fought for and an essential prerequisite of this fight must be the left discarding the fragmented politics of multiculturalism, removal of the politically correct blinkers and a commitment to re-join the rest of the community.  


[1] Scotland and Northern Ireland and to a lesser extent Wales have developed very different cultures from that in England. In Scotland left wing politics have been wrapped up in the flag of St Andrew espousing a very anti-English nationalist narrative. It will inevitably end in tears, though far too late for the Labour Party both north and south of the border.
[2] Some, such as the Stop The War UK, crowd are rotten beyond redemption, they, along with the Lufthar Rahman’s and George Galloway’s of this world need to be openly rejected and left to rot on the margins where they belong.
[3] To see this phenomenon at its most extreme one need only go on Twitter.
[4] Not a reason, well not an ethical reason, for opposing voting reform. 

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