onebuttonmonkey wrote:By the way, I wasn't just venting my "what to do?" despair rhetorically. I genuinely don't know and would value the advice of those around here. mrs. onebuttonmonkey says I should rejoin Labour; I don't know if I've ever felt like I'm about to have less in common with them or less ability to influence them.
What to do?
Have you seen the other new threads on the Daily Politics forum? One started by me ("Left") and another by Donut Hinge Party ("Outreach") where some of us have had a natter about some of the things you're concerned about.
People are rejoining Labour - apparently there have been more than 20,000 of them (younger people, mainly). It might be worth doing, as OMOV applies to the leadership election and I will be interested to see what the candidates are offering.
I still think that Labour should get away from the Blairite crapola and get real - they have lost a lot of votes this time; people in the 40-year-old age bracket have never experienced a truly left-wing government, and associate new Labour with Iraq and whatnot.
They often don't appreciate just how run down our public services were and how much had to be rebuilt - these are the people who didn't vote Labour and who have some legitimate concerns which we should be listening to.
I think there is an appetite - especially amongst people like me (60 next year) and those older who remember Wilson, Heath, and worked through the Thatcher years, and younger people who are sick of the same old stuff from all parties - to get active and engage with politics in a new way.
That's why I think we have to stop squabbling and get Labour, what's left of the LibDems, the Greens, the TUSC, NHA, and others together; knock their heads about a bit and get rid of the crazier elements, and put forward a real left-of-centre alternative to what's going on now.
The massive cost of social security is something that could be sorted out really quickly, for example - stopping all the stupid programmes and assessments, a mass building programme (think how the Greens could help with that!) of sustainable dwellings for rent only, a system of rent caps until that's done, a proper living wage......if we did all that, we could probably afford a citizens income on the amount we're spending now.
But - and it's big but - big ideas like this mean that someone will take a hit. Homeowners with massive debt, most likely, and as that's the demographic that voted Tory, it would take some persuading to get them on board.
I am inclined to think that when people can't get their operations unless they pay, can't get their kids into decent schools or colleges unless they pay, can't help older kids who will get no support while they can't find work, things will change. When it becomes obvious that immigration isn't slowing down, the country faces a constitutional crisis, the impact of leaving the EU is made clar to people foolish enough to think we can go it alone, things will change.
Whether people will be willing to suspend their own interests for the greater good remains to be seen, and on recent evidence it doesn't seem all that likely - but I have hope, and I refuse to give in to the Tory jackboot which really IS proto-fascism.
They'll fuck up, and soon, I think. Their arrogance will do for them in the end.
Take heart, OBM - some of us are still hanging in there.