The right wings of both main parties are now effectively separate parties in themselves.
Each owes allegiance to a former Prime Minister. One of those Prime Ministers is dead. The other is the living dead.
The opinion polls were right. If last year's General Election had been conducted according to electoral law, then there would indeed have been a hung Parliament.
In 2020, there will be a hung Parliament, or (not very probably) a Conservative overall majority on paper but dwarfed by the size of that Thatchobite Party, or a Labour overall majority on paper but severely tested by the size of that Blairobite Party.
In any of those circumstances, even one MP could exercise very considerable influence. If that MP were of sufficiently definite views and character.
Outside the party, and high in his rural fastness, sits the conscience of the Old Left, the Bernie Sanders of Britain.
ReplyDeleteSanders is wrong about cannabis (although many on the more libertarian wing of Old Right agree with him, as does Nigel Farage), but that would be less of a problem under his proposed economic arrangements.
DeleteLike abortion, drug abuse exploded into and then in mainstream society, American and British alike, from the 1980s onwards. There would be far less of either under social democracy. As there used to be, in fact.
Sanders may or may not be right about global warming itself, but several of his policy prescriptions are good in themselves (others, it must be said, less so), which is in very stark contrast to the usual approach to the matter.
Apart from that, though, Sanders is the one. He is by far the best of the available candidates, and all polling makes it clear that, unlike Clinton, he can win.
In any of those circumstances, even one MP could exercise very considerable influence. If that MP were of sufficiently definite views and character.
ReplyDeleteDo it.
""Sanders is the one. He is by far the best of the available candidates""
ReplyDeleteNo, he really isn't. He's the "best of the available candidates" if you're a pot-smoker, a young lady who wants the Government to pay for her abortions or an illegal immigrant who wants to be rewarded with full citizenship, for sneaking into the country .
And Bernie's out of the contest already. It's all over, and he's already prepared his goodbye speech and he's now merely asking Hilary to pick a good VP.
And Hilary is far to the Left of Sanders on gun control, something Trump will use as his trump card, so to speak.
The NRA is already four square behind him for that reason.
Nobody likes the NRA. A Presidential candidate whom it even vaguely supported has not been elected in 12 years. And counting.
DeleteNobody likes the NRA.
ReplyDeleteProving in one sentence that you know absolutely nothing about America.
The liberty to bear arms is their most sacred constitutional liberty-the NRA are the guardians of that ancient freedom.
No, they are just the NRA. This is their last throw of the dice. If they don't elect Trump, then even they might get the message.
DeleteThe gun lobby is small and getting smaller but they have guns. Terrorists, basically. You are right, nobody else has any time for them, they rule by fear.
DeleteOnly Clinton can save the NRA, she's the only Dem that Trump could beat.
DeleteQuite. Although one could argue just as forcefully that only he could be beaten by her. Her nomination, which is far from assured, would result in quite the unpopularity contest.
DeleteThe NRA is as bad as the so-called pro-life organizations, endorsing any Republican because he is a Republican. If anything a real Second Amendment organization would have endorsed Sanders, real pro-lifers would have endorsed nobody in decades and certainly nobody this year.
ReplyDeleteThe American pro-life organisations have played no small part in bringing America to this pass. They need to be answerable to it.
DeleteWhatever Sanders's views on abortion, there would be less of it under his economic arrangements. Nor is he in favour of every other way of killing people ever devised, as, for example, Ted Cruz is. Clinton and Trump are, of course, in favour of every such way, including abortion.
Sanders has a D- rating from the NRA. Don't believe the Clintons' lies.
ReplyDelete