would it be better if labour trully represented the left and the tory's the right like they used to?

Question

at least we could have some proper ideological debates that way instead of the parties trying to vote grab based on the latest opinion poll. what do you think?

Answer 1

The transformation in politics is part of the "star" and celebrity system, and the astronomic increase in earnings of people in the public eye, and CEOs, sportsmen, actors, top lawyers and doctors -- and in the USA university presidents and name professors.

There's power but no money in socialism.

We don't yet know what Bush promised Blair to get the UK involved in the swamp of Iraq. But my guess it was access to great wealth after he retires. Everyone remembers that immediately after leaving office, Reagan got a $2 million honorarium (in the days when $2 mill counted as real money) for giving a couple of anodyne speeches in Japan.

Money comes from the City, from financial services, from Other People's Money, and from mass industry.

Do I need to connect the dots? Even as the Democrats and Republicans have moved apart from the center, they have kept their eyes clearly on the syllogism: power equals money; politics yields power; ergo . . . They are apart only on the irrelevant, on issues where Americans vote against interest: abortion (and unsaid: contraception), school prayer, gay marriage, flag burning, Willie Horton, emasculation of the bankruptcy law. And watch the dynamics over the matters of the Last Crusade, the shrinking middle class amd the depreciation of the dollar (or, in the alternative, interest rates so high that those on fixed incomes and those with adjustable-rate mortgages (far less common in the US than the UK), higher local taxes (as the Feds pull out of financing state programs). And inflation.

The UK is linked to the USA in ways it can never be linked within the EU/EEA/Switzerland. In common with the USA, the labour movement has shrunk and lost power, influence and support as industry moved its physical plant to China.

I could go on; and I could bring into the equation my own fields of public and private international law, and the growth of the statute book to narrow the discretion of judges, the establishment of the European Communities Act 1972 and the Human Rights Act 1998 as proxies for a United Kingdom Constitution. And the reaffirmation of Rousseau's 18th Century observation

"The English people believes itself to be free; it is gravely mistaken; it is free only during election of members of parliament; as soon as the members are elected, the people is enslaved; it is nothing. In the brief moment of its freedom, the English people makes such a use of that freedom that it deserves to lose it."

With the growth of party discipline in the USA, the power of the party whip, and the threat of impoverishing and excluding those who dare to vote on conscience, the US Congress is becoming like the UK Parliament.

And for Britain, the last of the true socialists are in the European Parliament, which is another story; and a failed attempt to break the democratic deficit in Europe.

But I fear that I digress.

Answer 2

The latest opinion polls, or more correctly, the voiced opinions of the people, is the carrot to the political donkeys seeking our votes for their ambitions.
This is good, they are fighting in the same areas because they want power, and they know the only way they can get it is to offer us what we want.
Labour learnt about the people from the Conservative government, and the Conservatives are learning from Labour, bit by bit they are getting closer to us, and we are getting closer to each other.
Previously it was opposites, there were always more losers than winners.
All we need now is a fair voting system, so that most of our votes count towards something.
No I don't think the old left and right was better.

Answer 3

The left is still alive but the old social democratic left (can you really tell the difference between a right wing and left wing social democrat?) has collapsed. But these old Labourites are fond of saying of saying the left is dead - that's because they were never really comfortable with real socialist politics in the first place. And now they have been found out. They say they want to change the world but they don't want to rock the boat. There are heaps of these hypocrites around - Ben Elton, Mick Hucknall, Bono.
They are entirely dishonest - at least the old Tories don't pretend they're something they're not. Lenin was right - in the end, the social democrats will always betray the working class.

Answer 4

It's become a matter of personality rather than policies. The media have to take the blame for promoting the seedy side of journalism. All I care about is the economy followed by green issues to work with the world we live in instead of against. I could'nt give a rat's *** what politicians do in their spare time, who they sleep with or what they look like, as long as they're not fleecing us.

Answer 5

Labour have just poached the Conservative arguments - but what they say and what they do are not one and the same. They still just Tax and Spend. They haven't got any sense at all.

Answer 6

Labour politicians represent only their own self interests.

Answer 7

i think the ideas of the left have died. therefore doing as you suggest would mean the demise of labour.