The Name of the Rose

While I have no intention of joining it, I am the sort of voter that Jeremy Corbyn’s and Zarah Sultana’s new party would need to attract, and in principle could, at least in my case.

But that party’s name should contain no “ist”, or “ism”, or other such word. Its only constitutional aim should be, “To secure economic equality and international peace through the democratic political control of the means to those ends.”

Wherever the party had more than one position to fill, then the members should vote for one candidate, with the requisite number elected at the end. Its internal discipline should apply the Smith Principle: “If John Smith could have tolerated this, then so can we.” Beyond that, it should rarely or never mention the Labour Party.

The issues of Brexit, Trident, NATO, gender self-identification, Net Zero, and the IHRA Definition are still there. But why? At least on all but the fourth and fifth, if those, the people are not. They got their party back. And they are welcome to it.