The Yellow Peril

Off goes Edward McMillan-Scott to the Lib Dems. That he does not have to resign his seat is as good an argument against party lists as you could possibly want, and the arguments against them are all very good indeed. The Edmund Burke quotation usually trotted out when MPs change parties was of course uttered before party names appeared on ballot papers, but if anything that is an argument for party names not to appear on ballot papers, as they did not do until very recently. As with party lists, the argument is essentially the same: we do not vote for parties in this country, we vote for candidates. If the party label is your reason for voting for a particular candidate, then people never had any difficulty finding it out. If you feel betrayed over this or anything else in the course of a Parliament, then that is what the following General Election is for.

Now, to McMillan-Scott. He did not even oppose the Iraq War, but the Lib Dems will take anyone, from the polling booth to Strasbourg. They are defined by what they are not, rather than by what they are. McMillan-Scott has left the Tories because of their association with Michal Kaminski, who like all their new associates at Strasbourg is far too good for them anyway. Look at the things for which those parties stand. The Tories are no more in agreement with such positions than are the Lib Dems. But the Lib Dems will not even sit next to people who hold such views.

The Tories do not support generous welfare provisions, public services in the public sector, universal healthcare provided by the State, workers’ rights, or the public ownership of important companies. But they will at least sit next to people who do. Edward McMillan-Scott and the rest of the Lib Dems will not even do that. So, if you believe in generous welfare provisions, public services in the public sector, universal healthcare provided by the State, workers’ rights, or the public ownership of important companies, then you cannot and must not vote Lib Dem. You do not need to take my word for this. Just ask Edward McMillan-Scott.

The Tories do not support the safeguarding or restoration of family life in general and paternal authority in particular by the safeguarding or restoration of high-wage, high-skilled, high-status employment such as coal-mining. But they will at least sit next to people who do. Edward McMillan-Scott and the rest of the Lib Dems will not even do that. So, if you believe in the safeguarding or restoration of family life in general and paternal authority in particular by the safeguarding or restoration of high-wage, high-skilled, high-status employment such as coal-mining, then you cannot and must not vote Lib Dem. You do not need to take my word for this. Just ask Edward McMillan-Scott.

The Tories do not support measures for the payment of mothers to stay at home with their children, for adoption and against abortion, for palliative care and against the euthanasia opposed by Gordon Brown, for the traditional marriage supported by Barack Obama (or, at the very least, against compelling anyone to conduct deviations from it), against sex and violence in the media, against State toleration of drugs and prostitution, against unrestricted Sunday trading, or against supermarkets opening on what are supposed to be public holidays for everyone including shop workers. But they will at least sit next to people who do. Edward McMillan-Scott and the rest of the Lib Dems will not even do that. So, if you believe in the payment of mothers to stay at home with their children, in adoption rather than abortion, in palliative care rather than the euthanasia opposed by Gordon Brown, in the traditional marriage supported by Barack Obama (or, at the very least, against compelling anyone to conduct deviations from it), in action against sex and violence in the media, in action against drugs and prostitution, in restrictions on Sunday trading, or in public holidays for everyone including shop workers, then you cannot and must not vote Lib Dem. You do not need to take my word for this. Just ask Edward McMillan-Scott.

By accepting McMillan-Scott on the terms that he has set out, the Lib Dems have declared definitively that they offer no home to those, some of whom may once have been attracted to the premature and thus fatally flawed SDP, who stand in the tradition of the Labour MPs who mostly voted against Heath’s Treaty of Rome. Who all voted against Thatcher’s Single European Act. Who voted against Major’s Maastricht Treaty in far greater numbers than the Tories, including the only resignation from either front bench in order to do so. And who all, together with every Lib Dem MP, voted against the Common Agricultural and Fisheries Policies every year between 1979 and 1997.

By accepting McMillan-Scott on the terms that he has set out, the Lib Dems have declared definitively that they offer no home to those, some of whom may once have been attracted to the premature and thus fatally flawed SDP, who stand in the tradition of the trade unionists who have spent decades defending the secure, high-waged, high-skilled, high-status jobs of the working class.

By accepting McMillan-Scott on the terms that he has set out, the Lib Dems have declared definitively that they offer no home to those, some of whom may once have been attracted to the premature and thus fatally flawed SDP, who today will not allow climate change to be used as an excuse to destroy or prevent secure employment, to drive down wages or working conditions, to arrest economic development around the world, to forbid the working classes and non-white people from having children, to inflate the fuel prices that always hit the poor hardest, or to restrict either travel opportunities or a full diet to the rich.

By accepting McMillan-Scott on the terms that he has set out, the Lib Dems have declared definitively that they offer no home to those, some of whom may once have been attracted to the premature and thus fatally flawed SDP, who today recognise that we cannot deliver the welfare provisions and the other public services that our people have rightly come to expect unless we know how many people there are in this country, unless we control immigration properly, and unless we insist that everyone use spoken and written English to the necessary level.

By accepting McMillan-Scott on the terms that he has set out, the Lib Dems have declared definitively that they offer no home to those, some of whom may once have been attracted to the premature and thus fatally flawed SDP, who stand in the tradition of the Catholic and other Labour MPs, including John Smith, who fought tooth and nail against abortion and easier divorce. Like the Methodist and other Labour MPs, including John Smith, who fought tooth and nail against deregulated drinking and gambling. Like those, including John Smith, who successfully organised (especially through USDAW) against Thatcher’s and Major’s attempts to destroy the special character of Sunday and of Christmas Day, delivering the only Commons defeat of Thatcher’s Premiership. And like the trade unionists who battled to secure paternal authority in families and communities by securing its economic base in high-waged, high-skilled, high-status male employment, frequently marching behind banners that depicted Biblical scenes and characters.

And by accepting McMillan-Scott on the terms that he has set out, the Lib Dems have declared definitively that they offer no home to those, some of whom may once have been attracted to the premature and thus fatally flawed SDP, whose deep roots in the former mining communities, in the women’s suffrage movement, in the 1945 General Election victory, and elsewhere, make us unsullied by the weird cult of Winston Churchill, so that instead we can and do condemn his carve-up of Europe with Stalin, just as we condemn genocidal terrorism against Slavs and Balts no less than genocidal terrorism against Arabs, or the blowing up of British Jews going about their business as civil servants, or the photographed hanging of teenage British conscripts with barbed wire.

Vote Lib Dem in, say, North West Durham? No, no, a thousand times no. You do not need to take my word for this. Just ask Edward McMillan-Scott.