Thread by @PaulDJohnston

[Thread] Broken politics in the UK

I don't think Labour is going to win the next GE. I also don't think Corbyn is going to be beaten in any leadership election because the membership is firmly behind him.

Labour as a political force is toast

This causes a problem. The Conservatives are also split. They aren't really electable either. If they do win it's because of the inept Labour showing not because of their leadership. They are struggling to hold together too.

So where does this leave centrists?

The Lib Dems are nowhere. They've been punched in the face by the electorate over tuition fees multiple times now and I don't see that changing.

They are a spent force. They have no power.

The Greens? They have something that the other parties don't have - a lack of being tainted by power. But their dogmatic approach to some issues means that is highly unlikely they'll be able to build the consensus that our electoral systems require to take power.

And so for those of us who need a Centrist/Liberal party to vote for are currently bereft of options other than a protest vote, or at best a "least worst option".

Added to that the rise of the "social democrats" and some of those pushing for "radical" politics, I'm beginning to wonder...

Are these people pushing to build the politics of yesterday, today, or the future?

Because at the moment I'm seeing a lot of yesterday's politics...

Future politics is all about two things at the moment:

1) #ClimateChange
2) the emerging rebalancing of power in the world towards China and away from The US

At present, almost everything I hear from all of the parties, except the Greens and LibDems and to some extent the SNP, is so far away from this conversation as to be pointless.

It may be that #Brexit is all about point 2 but if it is, then it's being very badly handled.

The #schoolstrike4climate should have been a really clear and obvious wake up call. Kids are not "bunking off school" for a bit of fun.

The #schoolstrike4climate was a group of kids organising to make their voices heard in the *only way they really can*, by not going to school.

I, for one, hope that we get a new party formed out of a few Conservatives, a few Labour and that the Lib Dems choose to disband and give members a free choice to join this new party.

This party should focus on the #ClimateChange and making this country work in this new world

This new party should not be led by a Lib Dem person either or it will be seen as a rehash of the same party.

The only other thing that matters is that the party must rebalance this country.

Inequality is real. We need to come up with a way to stop London taking all the money

And we need to do it fast. The regions gave London a kicking at the referendum and the big two haven't noticed.

Our politics is broken. We can fix it and tackle #ClimateChange and inequality and figure out our place in the future.

But only, I think, with a new party.

/fin