tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post4647922835872019620..comments2024-03-27T09:14:27.496+00:00Comments on All That Is Solid ...: Radical Theory and the Crisis of the PresentPhilhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/06298147857234479278noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4486641877026778105.post-62048269439693926662021-04-04T12:49:48.104+01:002021-04-04T12:49:48.104+01:00Corby is might not be a thing...
I thought you mig...Corby is might not be a thing...<br />I thought you might recognise the analysis presented here by Alec Niven 3rd April in the Guardian. It was certainly familiar to me.<br /><br />In spite of the gathering hype around NIP we should be realistic about its electoral prospects. Britain’s archaic first-past-the-post system makes it extremely difficult for smaller parties to establish a foothold in Westminster – even when, like Ukip for much of the 2010s, they have bags of money and several million voters.<br />As yet, NIP has none of Ukip’s advantages and most of its limitations. Barring an astonishing breakthrough, it will struggle to make much of a dent in the two-party system, and in the short-term it will probably do little more than split the Labour vote in Hartlepool.<br />But for all its shortcomings, the rise of NIP might just be the start of a more general realignment in British politics. The rise of a left-populist party, however small, exposes a major weakness in the strategy of the Labour party under Keir Starmer. It proves that Labour cannot simply take for granted the votes of the younger, idealistic demographic that swung so decisively behind the party under Jeremy Corbyn. Labour has no chance of gaining power unless it manages to retain some, if not all, of the leftist voters and campaigners who helped it secure more than 3.5m more votes in the 2017 election than it managed in 2015.<br />Given Labour’s dismal recent polling, and a general mood of apathy and bitterness among its grassroots members, the arrival of a new leftwing party shows that unless Starmer makes some conciliatory moves to regain the trust of this faction – and fast – his political project will be in serious trouble. If even a minority of disaffected Corbynite northerners get behind NIP, and if its example inspires other left breakaway parties elsewhere in the country, Labour’s downslide will accelerate.Kennoreply@blogger.com