Who Did You Vote For?

It was only a matter of time

 

I just checked the respect box on the poll .. even tho i didnt vote .. so you have to take that off . oh i did it because i wasnt sure whether you could repeatdly vote on this poll like you could on the old one ...


wouldnt want sal to be riggin the results would we now .............

 

Respect are the worst because they are just has beens from other parties and merely an anti war 'faction' of an excisting party.

 

Has beens from the other parties? Maybe people are leaving the other parties for a reason? I'm not going to include the Greens into my argument here, even though Respect does include a number of ex-Greens, because I think the Green party has provided an excellent progressive, anti-war voice lately, as well as standing for vital environmental policies.

But as far as Labour goes, they've lost over half their membership since 1997, the majority of which jumped ship over the issue of the war. Does that not say something about the state of mainstream politics? I wouldn't even say that the membership has abandoned the Labour party, rather the Labour party has abandoned the membership. The three councillors who defected to Respect said that New Labour no longer reflected their views, and who can blame them for leaving?

There are no illusions that New Labour is anything like Old Labour, or that the party leadership is even living on the same planet as the grass roots activists of old. Tony Benn said himself that he has been a life long Labour party member, and will continue to be, but he believes that the party has been subject to a 'takeover bid' by the New Labour project and that it must be reclaimed. Others, such as Jeremy Corbyn share that view. I expect George Galloway would have, had he not been expelled for calling for troops to disobey orders, and branding Blair and Bush wolves, and so forcing his hand. If anything, his new party, Respect, is probably the best chance to reclaim Labour. Whilst some work from within, others will, I hope, over time, show that Blair's project is no longer electable.

I don't see Respect as the worst option. Neither am I so blindly partisan as to say that they are the best. There are plenty of holes in their policies which I would like to see addressed, and will push from the inside to be addressed before the general election next year. But there is much in their statements of policy which I agree with. Chief amongst which is their stance on the war, one which I've opposed since September 11th. Renationalisation, support for Palestine, defence of asylum seekers, a raise in minimum wage, committment to the environment, all things which I can identify with and am happy to campaign and vote for. I don't see them as has beens, nor do I see them as the only way forward, but they are a way foward....

 

that's a very flippant remark .. people change their minds for all manner of reasons.


Support your arguments.

 

I didn't vote because I'm not old enough but if I was I would have voted Green

Summer. xx.

 

Well it was Greens for the euro election and no-one for the stoopid local ones because the green party wernt featured...just labour, lib dems and tories, and none of them are getting my vote!

 

Has beens...maybe a little strong. sorry about that..

Gonna have to agree to disagree on the first part of your post..

A fresh party is fine , but all the problems and headaches while they sort themselves out would be chaos. whats the point . The real problem i find with respect /green /bnp / etc etc is that they only reflect a small criteria of a vast complexcity of issues. Within no time at all there would be fractions an frissions within , as the mundane role of running the country dawns on them . What happens when there is no big nasty war in Iraq...or they make things 10 times worse with peaceful tactics. Very nice idea but a bit of a dream IMHO.

 

Well yes it is a dream, but then so was the formation of the Labour party at the beginning of the last century. From chaos and disorganisation, they shattered the existing system of two-party democracy, to stand solidly on a platform of socialist principles, representing sections of society that had long been neglected. Now they've abandoned this position, it lies empty, there is a huge vaccuum on the left of the political spectrum. This leaves us on the left with two viable options, short of a revolution (which may be more of a nightmare than a dream) 1) reclaim the Labour party, 2) create a new party to fill their vacated shoes. My choice is a bit of both, campaign for that new party, in the hope that Labour will be pulled leftwards by a surge in support for Old Labour principles reflected by Respect, and if they fail to do this, get enough Respect candidates elected to offer a viable political alternative.

You make a good point on the issue of war. But remember in the current political climate, indeed under the very structures of globalised capitalism itself, imperialistic wars are alarmingly frequent. From Suez to Korea, from Vietnam to Afghanistan. I sincerely doubt Iraq will be the last, though I truly hope that it is, and will campaign for Respect and other peace organisations in the hope that we can affect change for the better in reigning in the rampant imperialists. Neither is Respect a single issue party. I would never support a single issue party, I find them far too shallow. For instance I support the legalisation of cannabis, but voting for the LCA would be fairly pointless in my opinion. Respect has a comprehensive framework of left wing, socialist policies in a simillar vein to Old Labour, one which I suspect will be built upon following a national conference later this year to discuss their post election direction. But only time can tell, you may be proved right, though I hope not....

 

I could possibly agree with you , as you make convincing points (wich in itself frightens me) .. It sounds almost to good to be true. A bit of propaganda to me.

No offence to anyone but do you agree or disagree , that a lot of people have voted for 'respect' purely on the here and now and not for the future.
I am a bit fick and you bamboozled me with a bit of the labour party history lesson . Have all respect supporters studied political history that much ... i know i have not ... why should i (IMHO). Again i am a bit fick.

I also take a look at your picture a with all the 'terrible' images (that accompanys all your posts)... i hate all that kinda of tactics.

I don't mind being proven wrong , and i can hold up my hands and say 'fair enough' if i am . i hope not.

 

Well to answer your first point, I argue based on ideals and opinions, I prefer not to use propaganda. I'm not a fan of propaganda, even if I agree with the principles on which it is based. That is why I'm no fan of the Socialist Worker, even though it supports issues I care about, propaganda is an off-putting and distasteful method of campaigning. Highlighting that point, I'd be quick to tell you which points of Respect's manifesto I disagree with, their policies on Europe for example. I'm pro-Euro, they're not. Though for me the war is the bigger issue. Equally, I can tell you that should I see Respect failing in its hopes, in representing my dreams for a better society, I'd have no qualms in finding someone who better represented to me. I'm not partisan as such, I'm simply throwing my weight behind this new party in the hope that it can make a difference. Fingers crossed.

Yes I'll agree with your second point. A lot of people will vote Respect in the here and the now based on the war. I don't necessarily see this as a bad thing. The anti-war movement has perhaps been the single biggest popular movement in British history, certainly it has yielded the largest demonstrations in British history. For a political party to bring these disperate voices together, for me, is a positive step forward. Socialists, environmentalists, trade-unionists, Muslims, Old Labourites and more, finding common ground over one issue, may it be built upon for the future!

As for political history, well it's one of my chosen subjects of study. I've still a lot more to learn, but would love to discuss it further.

I'd hasten to add that the picture in my signature isn't Respect literature. I made it. I wrote the poem and trawled through a vast number of websites looking for the imagery to use in the poster. Unfortunately in all my research, I would say that the images I have used are not terrible. They are incredibly mild. You may be surprised not to be able to see a drop of blood in any of the war images. I had to search for hours to find pictures as tame as those. It was a very harrowing and heart wrentching, not to mention sickening, experience trawling through endless pictures of mutilated faces, severed limbs and exposed bones. It was a shock to me, I truly hadn't expected to find what I saw there. I'd been fed a diet of sanitised mainstream media images, much like the ones I have included in the poster. The reality is much much harsher. The poster and the poem aren't trying to shock, they are trying to inspire....

 

I can't vote I am Canadian!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Love & No Voting here
EnonEmouse

 

RESPECT for euro and GREENS locally

Love Learning and Freedom Clairexxx

 

green euro and localy

 

For a start at least you didn't vote for a government that took us into a war that many of us didn't agree with. The Greens are a fairly inoffensive choice. Very little to disagree with there.

But the main thing you should hold on to be pleased with yourself over is that you helped to prevent the BNP from making gains. The Nazis rely on low voter turnouts to get people elected. If no-one turns out to vote, but the extremists, then the extremists will get in. A vote for Greens etc, is a vote against the Nazis and that is something to be proud of. I can recognise that people have different reasons for not voting. Some people are genuinely apathetic, others, like yourself and Showmet, are more against political parties on principle. But I somehow doubt the Nazis care which one you are, when not voting helps them either way. You should take some solace in the fact that even if you couldn't vote for positive reasons, at least you voted as a defence against fascism....

 

Well so far, I'm quite proud of you all. The left wing credentials of this forum seem to have been upheld, and it looks like at least some of my tireless campaigning for Respect may have paid off. Good on you Greens too. I only put BNP up as a choice so we could begin a witch hunt for whoever voted for them! Looks like no one did, so let's play burn the Lib Dem instead! C'mon, own up, who did it?

 

I refused to vote on principle. I think politics is far too important to piss on it by participating in such a hollow mockery.

 

Just for argument's sake (and quitting smoking has made me very argumentative!) what is your alternative to voting, and what do you personally do to promote a democratic political alternative in Britain?

 

Hehe I can't vote but my mum voted Respect. There's a scary number of people that I've spoken to who are voting Tory or UKIP though Mind you, I do live in Surrey

Summer. xx.

 

I was under the impression that RESPECT, SSP and the SEA (N Ireland) aren't anti-europe in a 'lets build big barriers between us and them' way, but rather in a 'we're not dealing with these damn imperialists' way. So, if other equally left-wing canididates get in elsewhere, then co-operation would take place. To paraphrase the ex-president of some pacific islands, it's a case of 'give according to ability and receive according to need', regardless of where you are in the world.