And They’re Off...
I’m sure my Ironside ancestors, not given to gambling, wouldn’t approve, but Ladbrokes on Monday were offering 33 to 1 on my becoming an MP before or during the next general election. My own odds would be rather longer, but I suppose that it’s nice that they care.
Their press statement wasn’t entirely flattering : ‘Jessica Bridge of Ladbrokes said: "George Galloway has shown recently that anything can happen in politics. Hitchens shouldn't be ruled out as a serious contender.” ’
Anything can happen, eh? Well perhaps not. Anyway, grateful as I am for the encouragement I’ve received from many readers, I’ll now go into a bit more detail.
One, this is not an attempt to found a new party. As I have said a thousand times, real political parties arise when there is a vacancy for them. There is, just now, no such vacancy.
Anything founded when there is no vacancy bears the same relation to a real party as a Hornby trainset does to the old Great Western Railway. You may call it a party, and make appropriate noises as you play with it on the sitting-room floor. But it will not be a party.
What I would hope, at this stage, is that concerned individuals would begin to think about forming small exploratory committees in existing constituencies, under the ‘Justice and Liberty’ motto. They should aim to find out if there is support for a candidate broadly in favour of the simple principles I set out. They should then look for a suitable person, preferably genuinely local prepared to put himself or herself forward, with all the time and commitment that this involves, and prepared to serve in Parliament if actually elected.
The first aim of such committees must be to undermine the duopoly of the dead parties, and to send a repeated signal to Parliament and the media that voters in sizeable numbers are no longer prepared to vote or work for MPs who ignore their most basic concerns.
Only if such a party begins to score sizeable votes, and eventually wins seats, will the next stage begin – the stage in which the duopoly is genuinely challenged.
Several possibilities occur. Here’s an example: If such a committee manages to set itself up, it might then raise funds to organise an open primary election (those involved will need to become experts in electoral law quite quickly, as the duopoly will certainly try to use that law to obstruct them) which would be bound to attract a great deal of publicity and would, if well-organised, help to create a local presence for the candidate eventually chosen, and a legitimacy much greater than that held by the candidates of the duopoly.
I should have thought that anyone interested should aim for a long, slow take-off. The duopoly parties (and the Liberal Democrats as well) must be holed below the waterline before and during the next election (which will probably produce a Lib-Lab coalition, at this rate), so that they can be properly sunk in the next five years or so.
The main purpose in the early stages will be to attack them for their complacency and their rejection of common sense, as well as their obsession with elite preoccupations, and their scorn for the real difficulties of normal human beings. There will be time enough, once the duopoly have been badly damaged, to begin to formulate a detailed programme. For the moment, it will be simpler, and not dishonest, for a radical movement to define itself by what it is against.
Thanks to the ghastly Fixed-term Parliaments Act, there will be time to take advantage of the increasing problems of the Coalition (though it would be wise to be reasonably well-advanced by the time the Coalition stages its inevitable fake split, something it is likely to do around the end of next year).
As for me, personally, I shall not rush into the first by-election that comes up, but will consider carefully before putting myself forward. Genuinely local candidates with real connections and loyalties will often have a higher claim. I have no illusions about the limits of my appeal. But I think it possible that, despite that, there may now be enough voters who are detached from their old loyalties, and willing to listen to a thoughtful alternative.
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