It amazes me that when people (especially Tories) talk about the erosion of democracy in the Labour party they seem to forget that the Tory party has no democracy at all.
They get a choice of two stooges put forward by their MPs and their conferences have been Nuremburg rallies since well, since Nuremburg rallies.
Whatever you say about the declining influence of Labour's NEC, at least it gives a voice to members concerns, at least we have an NEC!
Of course for most Tory members, the lack of democracy in their party is not a problem, since most of them don't believe in democracy anyway.
For Labour party members who rightly fight for a bigger say in their party, it is a godsend for the Tory media who hypocritically exploit this to make Labour look authoritarian - it is all very convenient.
I'm not sure you are using the right correlation to make your point here. If the Conservative party wishes to run its internal affairs along the lines of a gentlemens' club, that is entirely the business of its members. No one is making you join and therefore no one is making you abide by their internal rules. Unless you do want to join and change them from within.
ReplyDeleteWhat matters is what happens when they are in power; the policies they enact.
Despite its apparent internal democracy, the Labour party has proved autocratic in government. Had Michael Howard won the last election I'm not sure; given his previous form as home secretary; that anything would have changed much as he, too is an autocrat.
Cameron, I'm not sure about, but neither, I suspect, is anyone else. He has promised to repeal the ID cards act, which is a good thing. Unfortunately, though, a politician's promises are much like an oasis in the desert. It's not until you've arrived and tasted the water that you can be sure it's not a mirage...
One final point. Your apparent obsession with the press seems to miss a vital point. Bias exists everywhere. Surely open bias is preferable given that an unbiased press is a non-starter. Read the Guardian, the Telegraph, The Mail and watch the BBC along with Channel 4 and draw your own conclusions. There are three sides to every story; yours, mine and the truth somewhere in between.
longrider: "Read the Guardian, the Telegraph, The Mail and watch the BBC along with Channel 4 and draw your own conclusions. There are three sides to every story; yours, mine and the truth somewhere in between."
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent point, anyone who puts the effort in and keeps an open mind can get an idea of what is going on (in that respect this country's media is still ok (compared to somewhere like the US). Unfortunately a lot of people are content to read about showbiz and these tabloid papers are the worst at feeding political bias in bite sized chunks.
Errr... great, Labour isn't as bad as the Tories. This is a weak argument - equally weak when applied to everything else too: yeah we're privatising parts of the NHS, but THEY would be worse.
ReplyDeleteThis is just the sort of argument that gets the pulse racing and will stem the loss of memebers, voters and general support. Or perhaps not.
A.S. "then it picks them up by the scruff of the neck, forcibly ejects them and tries to get them arrested on trupmed up terrorism charges."
ReplyDeleteThe terrorism charges are bullshit, he was never arrested. Walter says so himself. You forget that Walter is still in the Labour party. If you support Walter, then join the party he believes in.
I was present at the conference the year before that was attacked by fox hunt protesters. The stewards were overly zealous because of this. This was an error by the stewards not Tony Blair! There is far more debate going on in the Labour party conferences than ever happens in the Tory party ones.