The concern trolls are out in force over Your Party: “They will split the vote and let Reform in”. “It will have extremist policies”. “There will just be infighting”. Or my favourite: “It will attract all kinds of unsavoury characters”.
Thing is, this is a perfect description of our existing political parties.
All the trolls crawl out the woodwork over Your Party
Unsavoury characters? Let’s start at the top.
Former prime minister David Cameron took £8.2m to promote Greensill Capital, who the Serious Fraud Office are investigating.
Prime minister Tony Blair lied to start an illegal war in Iraq that cost the lives of at least half a million Iraqi citizens and 179 British servicemen and women.
Reform MP Nigel Farage took £40,000 from Nomad Capitalist to advise people on how to avoid paying UK tax.
Peter Mandelson had “a particularly close relationship” with billionaire paedophile Jeffrey Epstein.
That’s just the tip of the iceberg. Matt Hancock’s WhatsApp VIP lanes for covid contracts. Rachel Reeves giving a donor a Treasury job. Born-again immigrant basher Robert Jenrick took £12,000 from billionaire Richard Desmond then fast-tracked a planning approval that saved him £40m – which is really bad negotiating, as much as anything. Reform MP James McMurdock jailed for kicking a woman on the ground. Remember that next time they say they’re defending women and children.
The list is long and unsettling. For the record, I claimed £0 expenses in my five years as mayor, and declined all offers of corporate hospitality.
Labour has lost the vote all on its own, no help needed
Infighting? Reform have already lost 20% of their MPs in an acrimonious row threatening legal action. The Tories had four PMs in four years. Labour is suspending MPs at an alarming rate, while the lean and hungry are circling to replace Starmer. They spent years victimising and expelling people on spurious grounds, then feign surprise when people find another home.
Your Party hasn’t split the Labour vote. Labour had already thrown it away when Reform took control in Durham and won the Runcorn by-election, after the sitting Labour MP was convicted of violent assault.
In July last year the British people handed the keys to Labour. Not with much enthusiasm, mind, after their increasingly limp performance.
What was the first thing Starmer & co do? Stuck two fingers up at the British people, cutting the Winter Fuel Allowance. Cosying up to financiers rather than the people who voted for them. Mistake after mistake and insult after insult has compounded this. Freebiegate, the “Island of strangers” speech, cutting money from disabled people while ordering new American nuclear jets.
The real ‘extremist’ is this Labour government: participating in genocide
We are told that Reform voters are this, Reform voters are that. It’s all speculation. What is a statistically certain fact is that most Reform voters are ex-Labour and ex-Tory voters.
What about extremism? That’s the one they’ll really push. But not with any facts. Like the fact that if you enforced the regulations on the private water companies, their value would drop and public ownership would cost almost nothing and save billions in unjustified dividends paid from our bills. 82% of Britons support public ownership. By definition, that can’t be extreme.
Or extremism like declaring non-violent protesters terrorists, while supplying weapons to a foreign military on trial for genocide. I don’t think it’s an extreme position to say that gunning down unarmed civilians queuing for food is immoral. Despite unbalanced reporting, a majority of Britons oppose the IDF’s action, while just one in five supports them.
Psychological projection is a defence mechanism where individuals attribute their own unacceptable thoughts, feelings, or impulses to others. Such defensive patterns are often used to justify prejudice or evade responsibility. That’s what we’re seeing from Labour’s ruling elite in particular.
Speaking of extremes, Britain has 156 billionaires. Last year, 2.8 million people relied on foodbanks just to get enough to eat. Only an extremist government would allow that. Like frogs in boiling water, we’ve been desensitised into accepting extremism. Yet even 68% of millionaires support a wealth tax!
Your Party: time to build community power
Your Party could be massive. But it will be pointless unless it changes things. It needs to build community power, as we are in Tyneside with Majority. It needs to contest and win elections, otherwise we’ll have the same merry-go-round of charlatans. Any large organisation will attract a few bad apples, too. A culture of openness and transparency is the only way to deal with that.
Jeremy Corbyn has confirmed the new party will be federal. Majority members have been at the heart of building this. We’re already organised, active, and effective. We will be running candidates in council elections next May. If you’re in the North East, get in touch.
Zarah Sultana is speaking at the Majority annual conference in Newcastle on Saturday 6 September. Book your ticket quickly. If Your Party appeals to you, join Majority today, and get a head start on making a difference.
Featured image via the Canary
This post was originally published on Canary.