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RSSDéjà vu. Labour tribalists block a “progressive majority”. Again.
Beckett, Blunkett and Reid should hang their heads in shame.
By Mehdi Hasan Published 06 May 2011 14:36
If David Cameron wins a Commons majority at the next general election, on redrawn boundaries and under first-past-the-post, he should send a personal note of thanks to a former acting Labour leader and two former Labour home secretaries. Margaret Beckett, John Reid and David Blunkett were at the forefront of the Tory-funded, ultra-conservative No to AV campaign, loudly defending the dysfunctional electoral system that helped deliver the 20th century to the Conservative Party.
Beckett was president of No to AV; Reid shared a platform with Cameron for a joint No to AV campaign event on 17 April; Blunkett, meanwhile, on the eve of the referendum, cheerily confessed to having been fully aware of the No to AV campaign's lies and smears.
AV looks likely to be defeated. The result isn't out till this evening but I hear YouGov is predicting a 2:1 majority for the No side.
Do you get a sense of déjà vu? Just a year ago, it was Blunkett and Reid who led the (successful) attempt to scupper a "rainbow coalition" between Labour, the Lib Dems and the nationalists, preferring to luxuriate in opposition as Cameron, George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith squeezed the middle and demonised the poor.
A once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to reform our broken, majoritarian voting system that disenfranchises millions of voters and puts power in the hands of a hundred thousand or so "swing" voters in "Middle England" marginal seats has been lost. It was our last chance – supporters of PR who opposed AV, such as the RMT's Bob Crow, whom I debated on the Jeremy Vine show yesterday, were perhaps asleep when Osborne pointed out that a No vote in the referendum would settle the issue of electoral reform "for the foreseeable future". He's right.
But John Harris and Guido Fawkes are wrong: there is a progressive, social-democratic, anti-Tory majority in this country, a majority of voters who back well-funded public services and redistributive taxation. The problem is that it doesn't have a hope in hell of being represented until the likes of Blunkett, Reid, Beckett, John Prescott and the rest – David Cameron's "useful idiots" inside the Labour Party – get out of the way.
Mehdi Hasan is the New Statesman’s senior editor (politics) and the co-author of Ed: The Milibands and the Making of a Labour Leader
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97 comments
In fact there should be an annual awards ceremony for political hacks. MH would win a truck load of awards. Most tribal hack, most myopic hack, most angry hack, most irritating hack, most I still wanna be I'm the student union hack. Year on year....he'd be better off ad a stand up comedian.
Might I also remind you that "progressive" is a neutral word. One can get Progressive MS. Not good. Labour have attempted to corrupt the word "progressive", in a manner Orwell would acknowledge.
lolMehdi
95% of the 31.5% who have voted yes want PR, so thats 30% who who wnat pr, plus of the 68.5% who've voted no apparently 30% wanted pr too. so that's another 20.5% who want PR, if htere had been a referendum on PR I reckon the yes campaign would have won.
Oh not a good week for our little extremist friend is it? The animals kill uncle Osama and then the same animals vote out the AV referendum. Oh the Tories do well.
Ohh Medhi...hhahhahhahhahhhahhhhhaaaaahhhhahahhhahahahahahahaahahahahaha
Mehdi, Its 4 days now! Where is our dose of "in Praise of Osama bin Laden"...the wait is unbearable.
/\ Ass
I don't see Labout as progressive or democratic, especially on their policies on law, asbos and "counter terrorism".
The main issue on the AV vote is the turnout, I make it about 26% of the national electorate in support of the No vote. I'm losing faith in British democracy.
what makes some people think that evidence is required to show that most people want good, well funded public services... a fairer voting sytstem, taxing system etc... i think you are failing to realise that the majority of british people are not well off, right wing arseholes.
I don't feel John Reid et al had any effect on the result. And you cannot cook up AV out of nowhere, with no public engagement with it, and expect voters to support it. Most voters, I guess, saw it as a way of getting more LibDem MPs, and therefore would run a mile.
Personally I had huge problem with it, especially the idea that preferences are treated as votes. This was just rubbish.
I voted Yes to AV, and would have been happy to see a subsequent move to AV+ in the future. But the simple fact seemed to me to be that most people knew too little about it and either voted No, or didn't vote. It was depressing to hear so many of my friends dismissing the whole issue. Political disengagement is a huge problem in this country, the result of politicians who can't communicate with the people in words of less than 6 syllables. As a Labour supporter, I fear for the future if we do not get a clear message across to the electorate about what we stand for and what our policies are. I cannot bear the thought of a 2nd term Tory government. Start speaking in Human Ed please.
A silly and deluded piece.
Beckett, Blunkett and Reid are to be commended for voting for what they believed in, rather than meekly following the leadership of their party.
It's called democracy Medhi, it's a system whereby people's views are respected and they are allowed to vote accordingly. What you seem to be saying is that you don't like it when people disagree with you (or the labour party), and you don't think politicians should exhibit integrity if it means their actions produce results that you personally dislike.
It's incredible that any serious political writer can be arguing that politicians should act in the way that most favours their own party, rather than representing the views of their constituents or their own beliefs. I don't think this solypsistic reasoning would impress principled politicians such as Tony Benn.
Yes the majority of the country are anti-Tory, but please bear in mind that there is an anti-Labour majority also. And speaking of majorities, try to remember that the vast majority of the population agreed with the no campaign. Perhaps they too should all hang their heads in shame and "get out of the way" (until we all agree with Medhi Hasan anyway).
If you study international politics - see neogramscian theory, Cox, Habermas, Kaldor - you start to want to limit the domestic reflective vote in favour of a stable small 'c' conservative system. What is more important than democracy so-to-speak, is the ability of civil society to control the choices available to politicians. In short, we don't need central control, we need solidarity and a professional workforce. AV, as a more reflective voting system, removes part of the need for this and is an example of negative selection (see Hayek).
Reid, Beckett et al. went against the Labour leadership. I hope this isn`t a sign of underlying divisions in the Labour Party.
What with the AV Referendum result and the dismal showing in Scotland, Ed Milliband and his team very much have their work cut out.
Sam - dont you read what these people actually write?
David Laws has said that the ONLY reason he didnt join the Tories was their opposition to repealing Section 28, which banned the promotion of hiomosexuality in schools...now the Tories have jettisoned their opposition to gay equality, he can now join them with a clear conscience?
Nick Clegg has said - just this year! -that there is "virtually nothing" with which he and David Cameron (self-described as a Liberal Conservative)disgaree!
Danny Alexander called Labour and the Left tribal and reactionary, and has said that the Tories are far more "radical" and "individualist"..in a good way!
Classic Liberals, you are right, are at base anti-collectivist, anti-unions, anti-socialism or even social democracy, etc.. economic and social Thatcherites, in modern terms.
A "progressive" majority is a myth - in what way is the trebling of tuition fees progressive? Radical, true, but not progressive!
The Lib Dems are only progressive if you consider Margaret Thatcher a progressive...so sad!
It was due to all those pesky conservative middle england voters in Aberconwy and Solihull (chuckle). And those pesky middle england Scottish nationalists.
Whereas those fantastic councils of Lambeth and Haringey voted yes to AV. Wish all constuencies could be run like them.
gerry, you are correct from theoritical construct. The people I know who are liberals today, would mostly vote 9/10 to labour. Maybe my sample is biased but I think that there is good chgance of that being normally be true. So in reality it is probably better to focus on voters, rather than theory.
If the voters cannot work out difference between AV and current system, I doubt if they analyse what constitute a liberal; from theory point of view.
Mehdi, all Labour people are tribalists, every last one of us. That doesn't mean we all voted against AV or that we're all dead set against the idea of coalitions, so please don't tar us all with the same brush.
"Redistributive taxation"? You mean tax those who actually make or do something to provide money for those who just drift through life or get involved in drugs or breed what they can't feed or decide to move from some 3rd world sh*thole and then live at someone else's expense?
I don't think it was silly or deluded Spencer.
For what it's worth politician's almost always act in favour of their own party, while the concerns or aspirations of their constituents are flaty ignored.
Perhaps your the one who's deluded?
It's amazing how these loons go off-topic at the drop of a hat.
For the record, this article is about AV.
For the record (loonies please note), here's Mehdi's Twitter comment:
So..#Osama Bin Laden is dead. First thought. Good riddance. Second thought. Won't make much difference. Will it?
http://twitter.com/#!/ns_mehdihasan/status/64981050484465664
Actually politicians almost always act in favour of their own career aspirations. However, that doesn't mean that they should.
"to reform our broken, majoritarian voting system"
in favour of a [neologism warning] minoritarian system?
The thing that put me off AV was a second or later choice, if actioned, being ranked the same as a first choice. Now if there had been a weighting according to the voters' own ranking....
You have to wonder if those in favour thought it genuinely fairer or simply more favourable to their own choice of party.
"there is a progressive, social-democratic, anti-Tory majority in this country, a majority of voters who back well-funded public services and redistributive taxation, "
Who want good public services, good welfare and a good standard of living, paid for by somebody else?
Not sure about this article, however disappointing the result may be. Reid and Beckett are hardly popular enough in their own party, let alone with the rest of the electorate, for their interventions to have clinched the result. Blaming Labour politicians as 'reactionaries' on what was a matter of free choice takes us back to the self-hating climate of Labour in the early 80s. Rather than look for 'traitors', perhaps the yes campaign should have the grace to admit that they failed to sell an idea; the result wasn't even close, was it? .
Losing AV looks like it has basically guarenteed the Tories a majority at the next election. If the Lib Dem vote collapses, at the moment it doesn't look like Labour will benefit enough from it. In Scotland the disillusioned Lib Dem vote went to SNP. In the south of England it went to the Tories. Only in the north of England and in Wales did Labour benefit, but they were places Labour was already strong.
Mehdi - there isnt an anti-Tory majority in the UK, certainly not in England....most Lib Dem voters in England are on the right of the political spectrum!
Clegg, Laws, Alexander et al are representative of this, being Liberal Conservatives in all but name, and being more Thatcherite economically than most Tories..
So I voted No to AV, because I dont want these Lib Dems to forever in power, which that system would have given them...
There is and never will be no rainbow coalition of "progressive" parties, you are as usual projecting your silly desires onto real UK politics...just as "left-wing" Lib Dems did before the general election, refusing to see Clegg and the Orange Bookers for what they clearly are...sad!
68:32 is not a majority, that is a total bitch slapping.
Also, the Tories hold more council seats than the rest of the other parties combined.
There is no progressive majority
The arguments have been totally and utterly rejected just as they were for all this talk after the hung parliament election.
It might sound good in Islington but it comes across as a complete self-absorbed over-indulgence elsewhere.
I'd agree that there is an anti Tory vote. Whether the people that vote “anti Tory” actually do so because of where they sit on the political spectrum is another question!
Labour and the left are keen to throw around this "progressive" majority drivel, but, in polling, a tough line on immigration, reduction in benefits and lower income taxes poll very very strongly. Labour benefit from the fear of Thatcherism and try to convince people that the UK is a left leaning country – it isn’t. We are a centre ground nation with a significant number of people who vote against the Tories for no politically justified reason other than they “don’t like them” (which may well be a reason but I would argue is not a justifiable position to take).
'...demonised the poor'.
So sick of hearing about 'the poor'. Are you talking about the millions of people sitting on their arses watching Sky whilst the hard-working majority pay their housing benefit? Screw 'em, and screw the New labour project that bought their votes for so, so long. Why do you think the Tory vote held up on Thursday? Because the British people are done supporting a bone-idle, anti-social, work-shy underclass. There are no real poor in this country - just lazy, benefit-gorged Labour supporters, and their time is coming at last.
Blaming Labour voters may eb another convenient myth, and one that the Lib Dems will cling to.
In my constituency the Yes vote was a lot less than the combined % of Green, Plaid Cyrmu and Lib Dems who turned out to vote.
That doesn't even take into account the many Welsh Labour voters like myself who voted Yes.
So if even all voters from parties who wholeheartedly backed AV - Lib Dems, Greens, Plaid didn't appear to vote Yes, or abstained even though they bothered to turn up to vote for the Welsh Assembly...how can it all be the fault of Labour tribalists ?
I suspect this may have happened in other constituencies. It would be interesting to see if anyone has the time to analyse the results for that.
I'd agree partly with the above comment that there is no natural 'progressive' majority. Basically England is still a conservative country, and that includes those in the English working class; they don't like change all that much.
The former English colonies of Wales Scotland and Ireland tend more towards radicalism, because they have been the subjects of English rule and know what being made to feel inferior subjects is all about. This explains the rise in nationalism in these countries and the desire to break away from England. But it would be a mistake. Because the bonds of centuries cannot be broken that easily, neither ca the assets be divided up equitably.
It wasn't 'Labour tribalists' who blocked a 'progressive majority'.
Does Mehdi really think Beckett, Reid & Blunkett are that influential?
13 million people voted No, just 6 million voted Yes.
Nobody should dimiss the votes of 13 million people, as if they were just fools gulled by a few Labour hacks.
Maybe, just maybe, the Yes campaign lost beacuse it wasn't convincing?
I'm upset that people like me aren't being represented at all on this issue. I voted NO on the same grounds as the true Left did- the GMB, the RMB, Unite...politicians like Dennis Skinner. Many of the true Left of the Labour party voted NO. I wish that the nasty parts of the Labour party wouldn't be depicted as the true essence of the NO vote on the 'Left'. It's simply not true!
"But John Harris and Guido Fawkes are wrong: there is a progressive, social-democratic, anti-Tory majority in this country, a majority of voters who back well-funded public services and redistributive taxation"
Evidence, please?
Couldn't agree more Mehdi.
Just contradicting people you disagree with (Guido Fawkes and John Harris) does not prove your point. Many people disagree with them but do not believe in a progressive majority as defined by the chatterati.
Where is this soi-disant progressive majority? - Even the use of words like progressive and reactionary are sounding out of date. It doesn’t matter how much people say something, it does not have to automatically come true.
Many people are no longer capital C Conservative but they are still so with a small c – would you be happier with Cautious or Careful?
Mehdi, I am watching with glee. True there is majority of people who want all the freebees. But they are not progressives. I call them regressive(s)
Fortunately the country have been spared a monopoly/ dictatorship of regressive(s). Many of them are mean minded with little brain and no inclination to work. No wonder they can be bought.....it is natural for freebee seekers to take it. Dont you think so?
Good article. Thats the history of socialism. Repeated n number of times. Thats why, Mehdi, it never works. Grow up and leave the uthopia.
And presumably if Ed Miliband wins an overall majority, he should send a note of thanks (and an apology for being wrong) to those same dinosaurs for not saddling him with coalition with the Liberal Democrats?
I don't buy into permanent anything. Permanent governments eventually fail because they run out of ideas and money and the country recalibrates itself politically to force them out. Japan was the last dissenting case, and that too has fallen.
The idea that you can one-off change the electoral system and one side will forever be in the ascendency is remarkably short-sighted.
Totally agree. I have been campaigning for the Yes vote. But Labour's useful idiots have scuppered our chances for even full electoral reform. Funnily yesterday at the polling station it was a Labour supporter of John Reid's ilk who got gobby without engaging in debate over the issue. I fear for the progressive majority because of these clowns.
If there is no progressive najority why is it that even M Thatcher could'nt get more than 40% of the vote. The UK has been governed by parties that have not achieved a majority of votes for all the time I have been alive - 71 years. How come when the Soviet Union fell not one of the countries liberated adopted FPTP,indeed I believe there is not one European country that uses that system. Are those who like the current system trying to tell us that the UK has been more successful than all those in Europe. Better than Germany? Better than Sweden, better than Holland or Austria. Where have they been living?
"If David Cameron wins a Commons majority at the next general election, on redrawn boundaries, and under first-past-the-post, he should send a personal note of thanks to a former acting Labour leader and two former Labour home secretaries."
Erm, I don't think so. They can blame their policies and probably also electing the dire Ed Miliband as leader.
Don't get me wrong, I want Labour in power but I will vote in the referendum based on what I think of the electoral system on offer, not trying to stitch up what results it will bring.
We already have re-distributive taxation, or had you forgotten about the 50p tax rate (the third highest tax rate in the developed world).
Labour, as a whole, are not a progressive party, pure and simple.
Let's face it: the Labour Party has not been progressive since 1979 and after Jim Callaghan's defenstration in Parliament by the conniving Tories. Harold Wilson embodied this tradition in the Labour Party. Sadly, with the rise of obsolete dinosaurs like Beckett, Prescott and Reid who would rather the purity of a Conservative-Labour duopoly rather than near perpetual progressive coalition, the Labour Party has become a reactionary beast. A morbid entity committed to its own brand of authoritarian neo-liberalism, so starkly reminiscent of the Thatcher days.
That's why I'll never vote Labour again. Blair and Brown were unreconstructed Thatcherites. Ed Miliband and 'Blue Labour'? The exact same.
Vote SNP!
AV is a terrible system. Everyone knows it, in particular the Lib Dems. Don't blame Labour for some pie-in-the-sky miraculous transformation of politics failing today. Blame Clegg and his crappy compromises. Blame the Lib Dems for accepting the date and terms of the referendum and blame the political bubble for failing so utterly, so miserably, to engage ordinary people in the debate. The Yes campaign was a disgrace. Not the lies of "No", but inward-looking, full of hyperbole & completely out of touch. I voted yes very very reluctantly, despite believing in change, because I felt cheated by this process and those involved. It's been a pathetics, immature and shameful episode in our political history.
Not all Labour voters are progressives, many are sympathetic to Labour's trade union policies or some things like that, or simply vote Labour because of their social class, or because their parents voted Labour.
@Confused Elector: Ab-so-blood-exactly!
I have heard this mentioned numerous times before on here and i would like to see some evidence that the British people, especially the English are centre-left nee Progressive's in outlook.
I firmly believe that England is a nation of libertarians and small 'c' conservatives. I also believe that the facts and figures back this up.
The issue for me is that because of the "career politician" and party tribalism the population do not have political parties to match their actual views.
How about elections based on personal merit and thought out personal opinion of those standing rather than just party-oriented b*llocks?
Mr Reporter, just because you want something to be true doesn't mean it is true........... no matter how many times you say it.
I'm an Englishman who has lived in Scotland for the past 40 years. I was born into a Labour supporting family and voted Labour for most of my adult life. This time I voted SNP.
It's the SNP that embodies all of my left of centre beliefs and instincts, not the Labour party any more.
In Scotland large numbers of the well off
vote for socially just policies because fairness seems to be ingrained in the Scottish psyche. The SNP have managed to attract, not just the votes, but the hearts and minds of people across the whole of the social spectrum.
I think Labour's decline in Scotland is terminal as is that of the Lib Dems. The Tories aren't even worth a mention.
Independence now looks a distinct and attractive proposition. Scotland will prosper as an independent country and will harness the wind and waves to be at the forefront of a new industrial revolution.
I agree with this. Blunkett, Beckett, Reid - they have chosen to help the Tories. And not just for the next election - for elections to come since electoral reform is off the table for decades.
Its bizarre.
I suppose it means they can continue in their lazy approach to politics.
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