In one way or another, I was involved with the British Labour Party for some 32 years. I was once a minor candidate. However, unlike many, I was never in love with the party, and it was never a substitute religion. What happened to it in the latest election here is of interest to me, so I have written a long and tedious blogpost about it--commence at your peril.... British politics are remarkably conservative. The three main parties have been around for over a hundred years in one form or another. One of them has been around for at least two hundred years, and arguably for a further century and a half on top of that. Until recently, even the exceptions could fit into a coherent rule; when the main parties are in broad ideological and social agreement, an alternative, such as the Common Wealth Party in the 1940s, or UKIP in the noughties, will generally arise and, whilst not successful in terms of seats, might well prove a depository for new ideas. Similarly, when one large party is...
This is a collection of personal and largely unedited observations covering the years from 2006 to now; I assert my copyright but am fine with links and footnotes. Some posts are obviously much more researched than others, and any errors are wholly mine except where I have innocently disseminated or linked to other bloggers or commentators.