Dear Harriet,
For once I am grateful for my perennial disorganisation, as I meant to cancel my Labour party membership ages ago. I even thought I had done so. But the emails (ever-growing at the moment) that arrive in my inbox tell me otherwise. I'm pleased to have retained my membership this summer for one simple reason – voting on its leadership candidacy.
For a party that has turned its back on its left-wing roots for some time now it's refreshing to see a genuinely left-wing proposition with policies that traditional Labour supporters can get behind. As it stands I will still cancel my membership after the leadership has been decided but I would consider a return if Jeremy Corbyn wins and (crucially) is able to put his ideology in to action.
I didn't vote for Labour in the general election because you are not a left-wing party. You weren't even a consideration, really. It was a toss up between the Greens and the SNP – though I am Scottish by family I'm English through birth and have only moved to Scotland recently. They were my options because they were the only parties available to me whose politics I agree with.
It seems to me that Labour are leaning on the 80s and early 90s as guidance following the election defeat, much supported by a predominantly right-wing press - that more central and right-wing policies are needed to have any chance of getting in to power the next time round. It's a shame really, isn't it, that power supercedes what a party purports to stand for (in this instance, supposedly equality and a fair society over supporting greed and wealth)? But such is the thinking of the modern day career politician, I suppose.
The landscape though, Harriet, I feel is different now. Because there are alternatives to Labour for the left-leaning of us, aren't there? Bowing down to the nasty party is just not going to work this time. It's going to alienate your supporters even more so and send them elsewhere. I don't believe there are enough swaying voters for that to be your route in to power – there are more (I could say better, reluctantly, but they will be better for those whose ideology matches) right-wing parties to choose from now, too. Those who don't know too much about the differences and will pick based on the leader, Rupert Murdoch's opinion, what name they prefer on the day...? I'm not sure they'll be enough for you, either. Your strategy seems to ignore the welcome shift from binary politics, and it will be to your detriment.
Because you are alienating a massive portion of left-wing supporters who are horrified by the deepening chasm between rich and poor, who will not stand by and watch while families are pushed further in to poverty while the wealthy and corporations get tax breaks, and who will not watch the welfare state getting destroyed in favour of money and greed. The left does have a voice, and it's getting louder, and it's getting angrier.
I voted for the Green Party in the general election in the end. I really like the SNPs, in their conviction and their strong, authentic leadership and, of course, their progressive and fair policies. However I felt the Green vote was a louder left vote. It made my vote only about that; about being a voice against the disgusting policies that hold forte in Westminster currently.
My one Green vote didn't change the make up of Westminster, but numbers do matter alongside results – growth starts somewhere, and to this end my number matters. Meanwhile the SNP result was another gain; while they aren't a possibility for UK voters outside Scotland they at least demonstrate that a left-wing party can gain popularity and political clout.
So consider all of this, Harriet, while you forget that an opposition party is there to oppose. Where the meagre UKIP support in the election had you running to the treacherous, spiky right hills. Where this and exploitative, trashy television programmes have you believing the majority of the populace really want a society that punishes foreigners and the vulnerable. Consider it, if you must, in numbers - in voters who are walking away from you all the time. In the people that make up the rallies, in the people emailing you and other Labour MPs, imploring you to act morally.
Consider what that means for Labour power, if morality and integrity have already left you.
I don't believe the Tories won the election because society wants what they are draconially and with ever-greater expedience forcing upon us. I believe Labour lost it because you didn't stand up to anything and you didn't stand for anything.
Consider that, please.
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