Liberal Burblings

I have to admit it. There have been a few times in my life when this thought has crossed my mind: “Why don’t I join the Labour party?”

The last time this thought occurred to me, for example, was in 1989. I have since had a team of scientists measuring the duration of that thought. Using measurement systems normally used to measure flashes of light which are so brief that they are invisible to the naked eye, they have recorded that thought in 1989 as being of 0.0000000000000000000000000000101 nanoseconds in duration.

But, I have to say, the behaviour of the Labour party this week in relation to voting reform, answers that question “Why don’t I join the Labour party?” once and for all.

Basically, the Labour party are an historic reaction to the power of the Conservative party. They are nonetheless valid for that. But basically, they are tribal. They work, corporately, to keep as much power in their hands as possible.

It has not always been thus. As Martin Kettle points out in an excellent article, the Chartists are at the heart of Labour’s history. One of the Chartists’ key demands was the equalisation of constituency sizes, a measure which Labour now opposes.

Jack Straw is quite incredible. He is so small minded he can only see Labour’s advantage and then deploys his lawyer’s skills to find an argument to defend that advantage. I don’t think he’s dishonest. I am sure he’s persuaded himself that his cause is just. But it isn’t.

This week he has repeated that he sees the equalisation of constituency sizes as “the worst kind of gerrymandering the world”. But the opposite is the case. The current situation is unfair and the equalisation needs to happen to correct it. Martin Kettle elegantly shoots Jack Straw’s fox on this one:

Be clear, therefore, that Labour is not trying to protect fairness from those who would destroy it but to perpetuate an unfairness from which Labour itself benefits. Inequality of constituencies is not the only source of bias in the electoral system – but it is certainly one of them. For the past five parliaments it has been biased towards Labour. No amount of red herrings about the danger of reducing the number of MPs, or the inappropriateness of including more than one major change in the same bill, should be permitted to distract from the essential propriety of correcting that bias. To claim this bill should be opposed because it is partisan is not just opportunism, it is an Orwellian inversion of the truth.

Elsewhere, Mark Thompson brilliantly uses a Gatling gun to destroy the other skulk of foxes put forward by Labour to defend the indefensible.

This must be one of the most disgraceful week’s in Labour’s long history.

Related posts:

1. Leaked email from Tory MP reveals true thoughts on expenses
2. Should the Labour party be renamed the “Labour tribe”?
3. Labour well ahead in (Tory/Labour) marginals – Ipsos MORI
4. Oh dear. Ed Balls reveals his bovine side. Hasn’t he heard the Barking result?
5. Part-time deputy reveals real Tory party

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