Introduction LO:
Without any hesitation I agree with Tony Blair’s opinion article in the New Statesman.
In my view, the reason is fairly simple: European labour / left-wing parties and UK Labour did not make a (clear) choice for either Globalism / Internationalism or Nationalism. Most Conservative or right-wing parties did make that (clear) choice.
It should be noted that there are several hybrids in the corner pockets of this diagram. Adding these would make my diagram less rather than more clear.
——–
New Statesman title: Tony Blair: Without total change Labour will die
New Statesman subtitle: The Labour Party needs complete deconstruction and reconstruction. Nothing less will do.
By: TONY BLAIR
Date: 11 May 2021
“The challenge facing Britain’s Labour and Liberal Democrat parties cannot be overstated. Political parties have no divine right to exist and progressive parties of the centre and centre left are facing marginalisation, even extinction, across the Western world. Where is the French Socialist Party of François Mitterrand or the German SPD of Willy Brandt? And dominant national parties can very quickly become small fringe parties under the hammer blows of poor leadership and social and economic change. Look at the Liberal Party of Asquith and Lloyd George, reduced from 397 to 43 seats in just 18 years in the early 20th century.
Joe Biden’s victory in the United States apart, progressive politics across the globe is badly placed: four election defeats for the UK Labour Party and no one betting against a fifth; the German SPD placed behind a moderate Green Party; the French Socialists, who won the presidency in 2012, now polling at 11 per cent; the Italian left imploded and divided; the Spanish and Swedish socialists hanging on to power, but way below their earlier levels of support.
And truth be told, no sensible Democrat or democrat should overplay the Biden victory. He won against an incumbent like no other, considered by centre-ground voters to be uniquely strange and unacceptable in his behaviour. In the middle of the Covid-19 crisis, Donald Trump’s actions appeared to have worsened the pandemic; and even then, Trump increased his number of votes in the 2020 presidential election from 2016, while the Republicans took seats in the House and probably only lost control of the Senate thanks to the bizarre post-election antics that ended in the storming of the US Capitol in Washington, DC on 6 January. The Biden victory was a heavy reaction not so much against the policies as the comportment of Trump. And in Biden, the Democrats nominated possibly the only potential leader who could have won.
Without Biden, and his self-evident reasonableness and moderation, there might have been no victory. Ideas matter in politics, and rightly matter a lot to progressives. But without leaders who can frame and present these ideas successfully, they gather dust on shelves, not votes in ballot boxes. Biden’s manifest decency – right person, right place, right time – turned out to be vital.
Even now however, with the new president on a roll, his understated manner belying an extraordinarily radical stimulus and “build back” programme, the Democrats will not have it all their own way.
It could be that the domination of the Republican Party by the continuing division over Donald Trump eclipses any opportunity for a revival, at least for the presidency; but should the Republicans resolve their leadership crisis and identify a viable leader, they could give the Democrats a run for their money. In particular, while Biden is battling the Covid-19 crisis, his obvious competence in an area where partisan politics is regarded as stupid serves him well. But outside that domain, the Democrats may struggle, especially on cultural issues. America remains a deeply divided country.
In short, leave to one side Joe Biden, and around today’s Western world there are only flickers of a progressive agenda with deep majority support.”
0 Comments