Politically Homeless - new party an option?

[Awkwardy]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10032517/Anti-Brexit-activist-Gina-Miller-start-True-Fair-political-party.html

Going to watch this closely....

Hmm

I'm not a fan of GM. She did great work around Brexit but her 'True and Fair' company did a number on charities.

@Wrongsideofhistorymyarse

I'm not a fan of GM. She did great work around Brexit but her 'True and Fair' company did a number on charities.

This is interesting. I need to read more.

At the min I'm hoping that a Green party led by Shahrar Ali could be my new home. I'm a lifelong labour voter (from a Labour family, in a Labour safe seat) but a number of things, not only relating to [people]'s rights, have left me feeling they're no longer the answer.

I don't have a plan B if SA doesn't win the leadership election though.

But the time does seem ripe for new parties. Labour's crisis is greater than Starmer or cervixes, for sure.

I'm hoping the Greens might be my new home.

blogs.ncvo.org.uk/2015/12/12/true-and-fair-foundation-report-is-neither-true-nor-fair/

I don't see the point of new parties.

We've got to work with what we've got.

The WEP is sadly a waste of time and loosing money and members.

Green was my first political party, joining a year ago, and I see really strong reasons for boosting their support.

Not least as most young people may vote green.

It's difficult to start a new party.

As the Change UK fiasco showed all too clearly.

I’ve started taking an interest in the SDP. Don’t know enough about them to claim they have my vote but not found anything that rings alarm bells yet.

It seems that the SDP still exists and they appear not to have completely swallowed the gender woo crazy according to their website. I thought they had disbanded but apparently not.
Rod Liddle is a member so there's that.
Socially conservative and centre left economically according to wiki. I don't know very much about them at all.
Might be worth having a look.

We need proportional representation ideally. With first past the post we’ll become a one party state long term. Terrible for democracy even if you support the Conservatives.

I find the SDP are closest to my point of view. I hope Shahrar Ali wins but I have lost faith with the Greens over their safeguarding and critical thinking failures despite agreeing with the majority of their policies. SDP don’t have candidates in my area so I can’t show support for them in elections.

For the first time in my life I didn’t vote in the last elections (local and Pcc).

The thing about a new party is that it has to be based on some real, coherent constituency or perspective. Otherwise it just doesn't hold together, you end up with a group that just fractures.

You can see in the other, older parties, how they had this in their beginnings, they represented groups with something in common, and a shared perspective. They may have changed since then, maybe significantly. The LP doesn't meaningfully represent worker any more, for example. But because it's been organic there is still a kind of coherence.

I was a Green in Canada for a while - the part is in trouble now, in part because what held them together initially isn't at the center any more. Originally they were in many ways quite centrist, and seemed to pull from both right and left approaches, but in reality were basically low level communitarian which is a perspective that does actually span right and left politics. But as they have attracted more "progressive" members and tried to appeal more widely, they too have been captured by idpol and begin to look like just another version of urban socialism.

So I guess my thinking is, what ideas unite those who are now politically homeless?

I think I agree with Daisy's point. I'm desperate to find a political home, but I don't really see how yet another new party can accomplish very much as long as we have a first past the post system.

I've wondered if FPTP might be less important than reducing the degree of control parties have over MPs.

I’m watching this with interest. Can’t vote for my usual choices as they’re committed to abolishing women’s single-sex rights. Can’t believe I’m having to write that. I have great hopes of Shahrar Ali for leader of the Green Party. Otherwise — politically homeless, like so many others.

I doubt a new party will be able to make much headway, sadly. I'm pinning my hopes on finding a non-xenophobic, left-of-centre, environmentally-responsible party that also recognises the material reality of biological sex. Har-bloody-har.

I'm hoping that a Green party led by Shahrar Ali could be my new home
Me too, it’ll be a no brainer. But it’s a big ask for him.

Rod Liddle is a member so there's that
He may be GC but he’s also a misogynistic dick head. Not a ringing endorsement for them.

With FPTP it is very hard to impossible for a 'new' party to make any impact. Anyone remember the name of the 'breakaway pro-EU' party? Off to google as I have forgotten.

Ha ha...it was Change.UK.

One of my friends has joined the conservatives - her logic is that they are likely to be in power for the foreseeable future, given that there is no real opposition, and she can "do more" by working with them (pushing them I think she means!) on bringing forward more socially beneficial policies than she ever good trying to get any other party to wake up to the TRA agenda.

I'm not sureI can follow that path - but part of me understands her logic.

@OhYesIKnowWhatYouMean

One of my friends has joined the conservatives - her logic is that they are likely to be in power for the foreseeable future, given that there is no real opposition, and she can "do more" by working with them (pushing them I think she means!) on bringing forward more socially beneficial policies than she ever good trying to get any other party to wake up to the TRA agenda.

I'm not sureI can follow that path - but part of me understands her logic.

I agree with your friends assessment. Imo the politically homeless, but socially and equity conscious should join the Conservatives and use their power to influence more socially 'kind' policies, rather than waste time trying to influence established left-leaning parties who all just seem to be doubling down on the TRA position, or joining new parties that cannot have real influence with the FPTP system.

From my point of view, only one mainstream party that is electable in any sense is holding the status quo. For now. If they get voted out god help us, they would become susceptible to being captured to gain votes. Then that would the end for us frankly. Even with women in the party like Liz Truss. And all and any of the established left leaning captured parties will never row back once elected. You cannot trust them on this issue.

I'm suffering badly from Conservative austerity policies, but I would rather vote for them with tears in my eyes and sleep on the streets, rather than support a party who would erase my womanhood and my sex based rights.

SDP policies here: sdp.org.uk/policies/

Ticking lots of boxes for me

I am also sympathetic to the idea of joining the Conservatives and tapping into their traditional values which where less neoliberal capitalist and more about creating stability for the whole country including a safety net, helping those who have fallen on hard times get back on their feet, looking after the most vulnerable etc. Ok I am talking pre Thatcher but I do think those values are still common among many conservative voters. The point of Conservatism was surely mainly about maintaining the status quo, security and stability in times past rather than about increasing the gap between rich and poor, increasing child poverty, austerity and free market capitalism as some of the current lot seem to be focused on.

In reality I am still a long way from being able to bring myself to join. Apart from which I am not sure the Conservative membership has much influence on policy…

I suspect that big donors are the ones who get the influence, as with the other parties (cough LibDems). If big pharmaceutical companies wanting to sell blockers and hormones start donating to the Tories then all is pretty much lost.

I fear that political parties and governments are losing power to multinational mega corporations, it has been coming for years but the big players have more wealth and power than some nation states. Perhaps we are facing the end of democracy… I am not sure how governments can stand up to tech companies and the medical industry as it is in the states, which it seems may be headed our way as part of trade deals.

There is a movement back towards that kind of pre-Thatcherite conservatism, which is why we're seeing more policies that are not so free-market come out of conservative parties. There are some political writers who tend very much in that direction. So trying to move parties in that direction isn't an impossible idea, the time might be ripe for it.

The big corporate donors never donate just to one party - both are pretty dedicated to corporate capitalism. Parties like the LP just pretty it up a bit more.

The SDP looks more like a think tank than a viable party to me. Lots of interesting ideas but I can't see a clear power base. It's not a mass movement, and doesn't seem associated with any powerful institutions. And it doesn't seem to have a strong, easily identifiable golden thread running through it which it can coalesce around.

@PoisoningPigeons

I doubt a new party will be able to make much headway, sadly. I'm pinning my hopes on finding a non-xenophobic, left-of-centre, environmentally-responsible party that also recognises the material reality of biological sex. Har-bloody-har.

If you find one, please let me know!