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Left
Out: Alternative Policies for a Left Opposition TodayDoug Bain, Peter Lawrence, Andy Pearmain, Michael Prior, Willie Thompson
© Mike Prior 2010
Instead of the 'wild' election foreseen by many commentators, with the electorate seeking revenge upon a discredited system, the election of May 2010 actually reinforced the 'normal' pattern of British politics - with two dominant parties, a third smaller party, and a handful of nationalists. No huge protest votes, no independents, no new parties save for a solitary Green Party MP.
But it did produce one, possibly historic, change - the formation of a formal coalition between two of the three leading parties, and the attempt to govern on the basis of their sometimes contradictory election manifestoes. There is also a strong possibility that Britain is seeing a new political bloc, a centre-right alliance of two - perhaps more - parties working together in a fluctuating but rather stable way. There are signs that the British people may be happier with this form of governance than the previous pattern, whereby two allegedly totally hostile parties, which actually share a good deal of political ideology, swap places in a time-honoured pendulum.
But whatever the outcome, the election has provided the British left with a real problem. Excluded in all but a token way from the selection of a new Labour leader, it is difficult to see any purchase for left policies inside any of the competing power blocs as they exist today. The left has truly been left out.
The essays in this book view the current political scene from a historical perspective in an attempt to understand just where and why the left has gone wrong. They provide a basis for a new left, one based upon current reality not historical myth, and with policies which could form the basis for a left bloc to challenge the emerging centre-right coalition. The authors acknowledge that their ideas can only be a starting point, but they could help to start a new journey.
Contents:
The Left in Scotland
Doug Bain
An
Economic Strategy for the Left
Peter Lawrence
Labour's
'Critical Friends': Compass, the Labour left and the CPGB
Andy Pearmain
Searching
for the Left
Michael Prior
Social Democracy
in Perspective
Willie Thompson
