Time to reject main political parties
Western Daily Press, 18 June 2024, p. 17
For anyone on the ‘left’ of politics, your report on Labour’s manifesto launch (Starmer pledges ‘stability over chaos’, June 14) was an intensely painful read.
How could anyone with progressive politics vote for a party that is mimicking the Conservatives in all key respects (fiscally, militarily, in relation to Covid and mass untested medication etc.)?
‘Change’?... – Sir Keir and his spin meisters really are havin’ a laugh.
And how on Earth (pun intended) could anyone with a strong environmentalist ethic vote for a party that is foregrounding unashamed materialism with its prioitising of ‘economic growth’ and ‘wealth creation’?
What this indicates is that Starmer is simply trying to be all things to all people; but in the process, his choreographed people-pleasing narrative lacks any plausible coherence, and simply falls apart under the merest scrutiny.
Not that the Conservatives – or any of the mainstream political parties, come to that – are any better. The one sure way of casting a plague on all their houses is to not vote for any of them, but instead vote for Independent candidates wherever possible – or spoil your ballot paper with ‘I do not consent’ when no Independent is standing.
One thing’s for certain. If we don’t do the latter, but instead continue to vote for the indistinguishable Uni-party options, in five years’ time people will be moaning about the Labour government in exactly the same way they’re currently moaning about the Tories. Vote Uni-Party, and absolitely nothing will change.
Noam Chomsky agrees. He once said, “The main reason [people don't vote] is because they understand without reading political science texts that it doesn't make any difference how they vote”.
But if enough people were to reject the mainstream political parties, things can change! There’s certainly absolutely nothing to lose by voting Independent – and there’s everything to gain.
Dr Richard House
Stroud, Gloucestershire
Other Letters to the Press
- Political system is utterly bankrupt
- Credit where it is due - Stroud MP Dr Simon Opher
- Political parties have been irresponsible
- Causes of riots
- Starmer’s abject failure of leadership
- Tired of Punch & Judy politics in the UK
- Corbyn’s victory was extraordinary
- Poppycock
- Political opinions are not always far apart
- Corbyn’s success deserves acclaim
- Electoral reform is even more overdue
- Farage on the Ukraine war
- VAT on private school fees takes away choice
- Don’t vote for the self-serving elites
- Communities should have more control
- Time to reject main political parties
- We can break two-party cycle
- Independents day might be coming
- Current system is strangling democracy
- Tired old politics of abuse now irrelevant
- Anti-semitism
- Starmer’s Labour is Campbell on steroids
- Independent voices starting to be heard
- Elphicke defection is scarcely believable
- Voters show disdain for party-political system
- The Independents are on the march!