The European Elections were a disaster - for New Labour certainly, but no less so for the Left in general. In this country NO2EU ran a good campaign but the basis of its coming-together (not to mention the lateness of it) was always going to hamper its performance. The Greens did well but failed to increase its representation, and the Socialist Labour Party did...well...pretty much as usual.
But worst of all was the election of two BNP candidates as MEPs, giving them a base and a considerable budget from which to build.
The story for the Left was the same throughout Europe (the only positive exception being Bloco de Esquerda in Portugal), with a resurgent Right just about everywhere.
This ought to be a wake-up call for the Left in this country - our splintered quarrelling Left - which sometimes appears to think that winning some obscure point in an arcane political debate is more important than actually providing a political alternative to the rapidly imploding New Labour other than fascism.
For the Left to fail to unite is nothing less than a dereliction of duty in the face of what is to come in the form of a massive attack on working people's living standards and on the welfare state, whichever of the main parties wins the next election.
But worst of all was the election of two BNP candidates as MEPs, giving them a base and a considerable budget from which to build.
The story for the Left was the same throughout Europe (the only positive exception being Bloco de Esquerda in Portugal), with a resurgent Right just about everywhere.
This ought to be a wake-up call for the Left in this country - our splintered quarrelling Left - which sometimes appears to think that winning some obscure point in an arcane political debate is more important than actually providing a political alternative to the rapidly imploding New Labour other than fascism.
For the Left to fail to unite is nothing less than a dereliction of duty in the face of what is to come in the form of a massive attack on working people's living standards and on the welfare state, whichever of the main parties wins the next election.
No comments:
Post a Comment