In many ways my worldview is very similar to where it was in 2012. According to politicalcompass.org.uk I am a centre-left libertarian, almost smack on the dot of Mahatma Ghandi. I broadly agree with that assessment, although I am by my own admission not a pacifist. I believe violence is sometimes necessary to ensure one's self defence against bully's and as a last resort earn one's freedom. So my Mahatma Ghandi's stick would be either a sharp pointy or a Bo stick like Donatello from the Teenage Mutant Hero Turtles.
I am pretty certain now that I am not a Liberal Democrat any more. My membership has expired and I have no plans to renew it. In many ways I have cause to feel sad about this. I enjoyed the weird and wonderful world of Lib Dem Party Conferences: the free goodies, free food, free booze, interesting stalls, wonderful people etc. But when it came down to it I didn’t feel right staying in a party just for the goodies. I don’t entirely subscribe to this Coalition "Stab in the back" myth. I understand that compromises have to be made. Granted, much of the Lib Dem co-operation with the cuts has happened with far too little protest from my old party. But by myself I have drifted away from the Lib Dems. My ideas about democratic reform have become more radical in particular. And generally I think the party is in danger of losing it's innovative and radical spark. That being said I am still strangely defensive of my party. I tire of this "they are all the same" faff because it is simply not true. I know many Lib Dems MPs and councillors who are very hard working and I wish them well.
At the moment I am fairly pessimistic about our country's short term political prospects. The initiative is with the hard right (not to be confused with the Far Right) and their standard-bearer United Kingdom Independence Party (UKIP). In times when the right are in power logic would dictate that support should flock mostly to the left as a protest vote. This however has not happened, which tells me that something is very wrong. The left should be getting a windfall but are losing out. This should ring alarm bells on the left side of the fence and encourage some soul searching.
I don’t have all the answers for why UKIP is getting the windfall. For the most part I can see five core causes: 1. Public opinion turning to support welfare cuts. 2. Media helpfulness towards UKIP. 3. UKIP profiting from public anger towards politicians and life in contemporary Britain. 4. Non-UKIP politicians mishandling the UKIP challenge. 5. The left failing to articulate an alternative vision loudly and convincingly enough.
The cuts to the welfare budget originally and rightfully earned the Coalition Government the British public's scorn. After banging on about so called 'scroungers', albeit in more diplomatic language, to the British public the government eventually managed to make public opinion turn. After looking at a few opinion polls on balance it seems a slim majority of the British public see the welfare cuts as necessary. This is news to the ears of the UKIP leadership who want the government to cut deeper into the welfare budget, using similar language about the issue as the Conservatives.
There is not a day that goes by that you don’t hear any news about UKIP, no matter how tenuous. It has almost become ridiculous how fixated the media are on the party, especially it's leader Nigel Farage. Some of this has been intentional, while other stories appear to have been accidental ones such as embarrassing remarks from UKIP councillors. But even the latter stories seem to work in UKIP's favour. As they say, it is better to be talked about than not talked about. I suspect that some of them, although perhaps not all are intentional leaks to keep the party in the mainstream dialogue. Godfrey Bloom, for all his vile opinions has not said anything that I have not heard on local newspaper Opinion pages, a sad sign of the times.
Then there is the British public's continuing resentment with the state of politics. I am guilty of more than a little cynicism about this trend. I know people personally from country's that are Communist, ruled by cliques who put on charades of democracy and those in almost total anarchy (Somalia). These cases seem to put our problems in perspective. To be sure I am not completely satisfied with all of our politician’s conduct (elected or unelected). What concerns me however is this is unconstructive anger. Anger seems to be directed towards more apathy or voting for UKIP. Let the system burn or vote for a party with reheated Conservative policy leftovers. This is where the left should be capitalising.
The self professed main standard-bearer of the left, the Labour Party has been lacklustre in hitting back at the Coalition or UKIP lately. This due to the party giving into the same old cheap tactic of Opposition politics, saying everything the government is doing wrong without presenting any alternative ideas. The Labour Party should ridiculing Prime Minister David Cameron as a weak leader for implementing policies against migrants, not coming up with their own variety. The problem is no political party is daring to question the myths that UKIP is propagating against immigration. No one has the guts to say that the last wave of Eastern Europe immigration gave us more public money than it took away, confounding the scare stories. Simply put this has happened before. The Labour Party adds fuel to the immigration fire by talking about immigrants depressing wages, yet they don’t talk about the problem of migrant qualifications being incompatible with jobs over here. It is all show, no policy.
Policy rooted in evidence is what needed. The British public are irritable and angry, they are susceptible to listening to scapegoats more than they are to being told they are wrong or have been misled. But those are the facts on the ground. UKIP are generating easy answers. A bit of careful planning, some moral courage, good research and new innovative ideas are the answer to lancing the UKIP boil.
Some of my leftist friends have whispered in my ear about UKIP potentially splitting the rightist vote to our advantage. While I see where they are coming from I think waiting on this could have some negative consequences. A Tory/UKIP electoral pact for instance would be for the left a disaster. Also it will distract us from the real problem which is making the left more palatable to the electorate.
Those on the left need to do many things. We need to start talking about policy a little more than talking about principles, the latter of which the left are susceptible to rambling on about. We need to prove through evidence why certain rightist policies are not working. We need to start making ideas and weave them into a vision of Britain, to sink Cameron’s and to prove that UKIP has none (or none desirable). I am working on some ideas myself, but I don’t have all the answers (sorry to disappoint).
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