The BNP is not the far right’s victory – it is the left’s defeat

The Guardian reports that Stoke on Trent, once a Labour stronghold, now has nine BNP councillors. That’s nine fascists who will only be happy when every non-white and every person who does not identify with the alleged values of the country (better raise my hand then) leave.

But why are these people in a position of power? Because the (white) working class feel let down by the party that supposedly represents them. It just happens to be the case that the everyday issues Labour attempts to tackle are ones that directly affect the middle classes instead of those who really need their help. There’s a rule of thumb on the battlefield: always help the person making no noise before the one who’s screaming – at least you know the vocal one is alive. I don’t think it would hurt to transpose this rule in to politics today. Let’s put those who whinge on about what, in the grand scheme of things, are relatively insignificant in to second place behind those who do not have the time to air concerns and grievances. You can only air your concerns when you have free time; is it really that surprising then that people who work 60 hour weeks see no connection between their lives and ‘politics’?

Yet the BNP are going out and actually listening to people. But instead of showing the truth, or improving the lives of constituents so that they can see it’s not the blacks or the foreigners ruining the country, they distort facts and figures and prey on the insecurities of a quietly racist nation. And Labour are powerless to stop them; partly because their foreign policy, and much of their citizenship policy is quietly or institutionally racist, and partly because they have completely lost their way; on the outset Labour now do not have the same values as Labour did. It may be New Labour, but New is not always better.

A new Statement of Purpose

Readers of my old blog will know that the majority of material I posted was to do with the British Labour Party. On this blog that will not be the case. This blog is going to encompass much more than just my daily frustrations with a party losing its way.

Who?
My name is Matt Donoghue, a recent politics graduate and a soon-to-be Masters student and then PhD researcher (if the ESRC like me enough to give me a scholarship). I have been a member of the Labour Party for at least half a decade now, but currently the only things that are keeping me from tearing up my membership card are the political group Compass and Chartist magazine.

Why?
I believe that this country (and most others around the world) needs to be reorganised along social democratic lines, where democracy is transparent, the economy is democratically run, and where civil political and social freedoms (Marshall 1950) are completely de-commodified (Esping-Andersen 1990). Welfare and health should be the country’s main concerns, not waging war or implementing neo-liberal policy to placate the rich. I want to see an end to conflicting economic and social policy, particularly in the areas of welfare and citizenship policy. Personally I want to see a Labour Party with backbone; a Labour party that doesn’t fetishise the concept of ‘electability’. Sometimes policies can be unpopular, but that doesn’t mean they’re not the right thing to do. If I truly believed that what Labour is implimenting right now was what the party wanted I wouldn’t have a problem – democracy would have spoken. But as it stands this isn’t the case, and the 175,000 members (remember the aim of 1 million?) the Party has feel increasingly unrepresented. If the Party’s own members feel this way, how does the country feel? The local elections told us: life long Labour supporters – people who could not face voting for anyone else – stayed at home and just didn’t bother. Politicians talk of fighting apathy without realising they have to change their own ways.

What?
This blog is going to have a wider remit than my last one. It will still cover issues of Labour Party and left wing politics that I want to talk about, but it will also cover Irish politics of interest and, in line with my research interests, developments and issues in the regions of citizenship policy and theory, welfare policy and theory, and the integration of both in to modern society. This will have a wide berth, easily covering issues such as racism and other forms of discrimination.

If my ESRC bid is successful, next year I will be starting a quasi-comparative PhD studying the relationship between Citizenship and welfare policy in the UK and France. So expect issues in these general areas to come up more often than not.

When?
One of the reasons my last blog died was due to fatigue. I just couldn’t write anymore about what the Labour Party was doing wrong. Whenever there was hope, it was dashed. We’ll see what a period out of government does for the Party. I will try to post as frequently as possible. But for now expect one or two articles a week, depending on work and other issues.

The future?
I’m not yet sure how I’m going to perpetuate this blog. One idea I have is to make it a collective effort, with multiple authors. If you might be interested in such a project and vaguely share the same ideals and/or research interests as me, please get in touch with me and hopefully we can sort something out.

So welcome back to DirtyLeftie. For those who’ve never heard of it, welcome to DirtyLeftie. I hope you enjoy your stay.

- Matt

The very same

Well, it’s not dirtyleftie.co.uk but it is still dirty leftie. A big error deleted my old blog, and frankly I can not be arsed to re-register the domain. So now wordpress is on here, I’ll shall just stick to this. Don’t know how often I’ll post yet. We’ll have to see if anyone takes any interest in what I have to say anymore.

But rest assured, I’m still as Jaded, cynical, and witty as I always was. Probably won’t be seeing you for a while then.