OK well since I initiated Skunx’s last entry one I think it only correct to get involved and say why I disagree with his stand. You are of course perfectly entitled to take it and if you decide it’s right for you then that’s grand but here’s why it wouldn’t be right for me:

Firstly I’m afraid voting Conservative is never an option, this is a party wholly in the pocket of the establishment who concentrate on policies that benefit the haves rather than the have-nots, they do not agree with the principles of free healthcare and education nor do they agree that the state should provide welfare or public infrastructure and services. These are core beliefs of mine, I believe tax is a good thing if used correctly and I fundamentally believe that those who have are duty-bound to assist those who have-not and I don’t care if they say they got there through their own hard work etc. this is not a meritocracy and not even the capitalists claim that it is.

Secondly the Lib-Dems are not an anti-war party, they were late joining the anti-war movt. they were behind the involvement of troops once the war had started and they have not been especially vocal on the Iraq situation since. In my view they have attempted to cash in on the anti-war vote and their lack of any difference in share of the vote this time around means that they didn’t succeed. I have perhaps more sympathy for the Lib-Dems than the other mainstream parties as their policies are slightly nearer mine than Lab/Con, however the Lib Dems play the same party game as the other 2 and are not anchored in any fervent ideological position if it looks like that position is not a vote winner.

If a vote for any party that isn’t guaranteed a win is wasted then politics will never change and in which case one should resort to direct action. Personally I believe over time you can change things if enough people decide they want to. 252,000 people did vote Respect, a party formed 20 weeks ago, that’s not too bad. The Labour Party started with nothing as did the BNP and UKIP and they have now achieved varying degrees of electoral success, the vacuum now on the left necessitates that we do the same.

Skunx’s G/F thinking that Respect are MRL partyesque I’m afraid shouldn’t be dignified with a comment, if people can’t be bothered to read any literature and inform themselves what a party stands for then they shouldn’t be getting involved in the political process and that includes passing inane and inaccurate comments, sorry. After the work that many people including myself have put into to the founding and propagation of this party I find that opinion insulting to us and those we represent. After all there are no other parties that represent Socialism at the level we have achieved are you therefore saying that there are no socialists in the country?

A vote for the Lib Dems/Labour/Tory/U’KKK’IP will not change the fundamental shift to the right of mainstream politics, if you agree with that shift then fine but if you do not then looking at the stats for the BNP alone should now make one realise that a genuine Left-wing alternative is required and Respect is the only one on the table. Personally speaking I do not agree with parliamentary democracy because it is another one of these systems that at best is a crock of shite, but that is the current system and I have consented to work within it for what we believe is the good of the majority of people rather than the minority of people has been the case for many years. Democracy is supposed to be about having the ability to cast your vote based on who you feel will represent you, it is not supposed to be about being boxed into a situation where only if you live in a certain postcode will your vote make any difference. How is this or tactical voting representative? As it is enough people in this country have to live here and abide by the rules without the ‘democratic’ right of enfranchisement, let’s not make it even worse.

Labour is not working but the Tories never even pretended to, I would like to get rid of the current Labour government but I would rather stick with the current Labour government than have even the thought of a Conservative one. This would be catastrophic for the majority of people in this country and I stand against it with every fibre of my being. I will be damned if I will allow my children to be brought up under the same draconian political climate as I was in the 1980s.

Original Comments:


Jimmy Sunshine made this comment,
a levelheaded response to a depressingly familiar political cop-out. i don’t know what to say, rb, where a leftist would vote tory to get rid of labour, and hesitate to vote for genuine opposition because, basically, the herd is moving in the opposite direction. our comic book media makes people frightened to think, frightened to act, frightened to change and prepared only to vomit up the same old tired excuses which were written for them by the establishment in the first place. the irony is they will elect comic book raving loonies like blair and howard and kilroy silk as long as the mirror and the sun tell them to. next they’ll be telling me the general belgrano hit an iceberg and respect is funded by the chinese state circus who are secretly smuggling asylum seekers into the country to build complex uranium-based dirty bombs which will pollute our food and only be set off at ramadan because thats the month when johnny foreigner with the swarthy complexion doesn’t eat, thus ensuring global domination for the muslim chinese population who are so envious of our jobs and lifestyles they want to…. etc etc
Visit me @ http://jimmysunshine.blog-city.com/

[Redbaron responds -How did you hear about the Chinese State Circus, that isn’t in the public domain?! As regards the ‘dirty bombs’, (Ah MI5 codeword seeker -come on in, nice of you to join us!) well to be fair that’s only those of us in the paramilitary wing of Respect most of the moderates are yet to be convinced.

comment added :: 16th June 2004, 14:02 GMT+01
protagonist made this comment,
a view from across the ocean from the protagonist’s alter ego paradox:
most people vote their fears. remember we had an election over here a few years ago between good old george w and al gore. so why did it come down to a couple of grandmas in florida deciding this thing? because the two men were 99.7% exactly the fucking same! when you are trying to figure out what the 0.3% difference is, you miss the fact that no one is saying anytyhing different. as long as the major parties can scare people in to voting their fears instead of their conscious, we’ll always have two political parties churning out the same corporate politics as usual.
did you know people used to duel over politics? oh yea, this used to mean something! in the 1800’s here in the good old us of a politicians used to get in to fistfights and brawls over politcs right on the senate floor. that was when it mattered. i’d like to see people so invested in the future of their country and morality of their government that they are willing to take a punch for what they believe in. no one in this country would dream of being willing to fight or die for something as irrelevant as prescription drug coverage for senior citizens. why are we talking about that instead of, say, the thousands of people we are illegally detaining in gitmo or the millions of children starving in nations that we won’t help because they didn’t jump on board our war machine.

god bless america, land of the free…??

[Redbaron responds – with empassioned and erudite comments like that Kim you’re always welcome chez Baron]

comment added :: 17th June 2004, 01:54 GMT+01
Cancergiggles made this comment,
We are in the worst of all situations politically. We do not have a single credible political party and for some time have been reduced to options based on the personality cult. What is really dangerous is the fact that only Blair has a personality at all. Two faced, lying SOB he may be, but he is the only UK politician who is competent at the political game. He is without a doubt the most accomplished political survivor of modern times and a very very smooth operator. I dislike him, many of his policies and the scary creeps like Blunkett who surround him but at least I can have some respect for his incredible ability to con the electorate. The other political leaders are a joke and there isn’t even anyone waiting in the wings for any party (God forbid that bastard Brown ever moves next door)who has any charisma whatsoever.
A propos the most dangerous man in Britain whom I have been keeping a wary eye on for some 20 years, I believe our Home Secretary is about to become deeply embedded in the shit over his blatant lies regarding the still developing scandal over Home Office shady dealing over immigration and whistle blowers. Blunkett is a megalomaniac and somewhere to the right of Eugene Terreblanche. I prescribe one of those nice thick canvass jackets with long tapes on the sleeves.
Visit me @ http://cancergiggles.blog-city.com/

comment added :: 18th June 2004, 09:48 GMT+01