Where are they now?
The post-war history of minor parties in UK general elections is a fascinating insight into those issues that outraged, inspired or galvanised small but significant proportions of the British electorate. What is perhaps more fascinating is that by the time the stage came when a minor party could field a significant number of candidates, the issue that drove them had all but disappeared; sublimated into the policy of the main parties, overtaken by social developments, made redundant by world events.
The left has a fractured spectrum that includes:
Communist Party of England (Marxist Leninist) - active in 1974, 6 and 8 candidates in that year
Communist Party of Great Britain - fielded 100 candidates in 1950, but only 10 in 1951 and 6 in 2001
Independent Labour party - 5 candidates in 1945, died in 1970 after fielding just a single candidate
International Marxist Group - active in 1974 but just 3 candidates
Labour Independent Group - 1950 and died shortly thereafter
National Labour Party - 1 candidate in 1959
Red Front - 14 candidates in 1987 saw the back of them
Scottish Militant Labour - 1 candidate in 1992
Scottish Socialist Alliance - 16 candidates in 1997
Scottish Socialist Party - 72 candidates in 2001
Socialist Party - 24 candidates in 1997
Socialist Alliance Party - 98 candidates in 2001
Socialist Labour Party - stood in 1997 and 2001 with 64 and 114 candidates
Socialist Party of Great Britain - active from 1945 to 1974 with 1 or 2 candidates
Workers Party - 8 workers stood in 1997
Workers Revolutionary Party - active from 1974 to 2001 and died; a zenith of 52 candidates stood in 1979.
Needless to say, not a single one of them ever gained a seat. Just a vast desert of empty posturing and lost deposits.
On the far right, the National Front were active from 1970 until 2001; their zenith and nadir like so -
1970 - 10
1974 (Feb) -54
1974 (Oct) - 90
1979 - 303
1983 - 60
1992 - 14
1997 - 6
2001 - 5
The BNP never made up for them. They fielded 57 candidates in 1997 but this was down to 33 by 2001.
And of course the great Referendum Party - 547 candidates standing in 1997 and not a single seat.
Now anyone who reads this blog will know how strongly I feel about political reform, localism and other such issues. But I'm also bright enough to realise that votes for the minor parties are wasted votes. And bright enough to know that within the Conservative tent my voice, however small and faint, is heard. And in the polling booth, my cross may be no bigger than the acorn-sized Oak tree beside it, but together our votes can grow a forest of Oaks enough to float Nelson.
7 comments:
And in the polling booth, my cross may be no bigger than the acorn-sized Oak tree beside it, but together our votes can grow a forest of Oaks enough to float Nelson.
Are you serious ? I mean I take your point and agree ,as I almost always do ,but acorns and Oaks ..I hate to say this but isn`t it a bit Blairy
unless you live in the northern districts where it is a one party labour state, of course.
There any vote is a wasted vote.
The Socialist Party has not been as inactive as your post suggests . It stood in the 1997 elections , the Scottish Elections and the European Elections . I was election agent in the Livingston BY-Election when Robin Cook died in and we stood in 2005.
But granted we have been very much insignificant as a political force
Welcome Alan -
What's on my mind at the moment is that many on the fringe left seem to have come into Tony's tent over the past ten years; will they stay there after he's gone?
Splitters!
You are wrong on several counts.
First the Socialist Party (S.P.G.B.) isn't a part of the "Left" of capitalist politics.It is a revolutionary party and doesn't seek endorsement to gain seats to run a government,Right Left or Centrist in the same way as all the others do.
They specificaly urge people "not" to vote for them if they want someone to run the system for them.They ask voters "not" to "support" them.They make clear Socialism is indistinguishable from Communism as terms to describe a society of ,free access to all the means of living,and production of those means.With genuine common ownership in a classless society without wages or prices to ration access to wealth commonly produced.They insist that this type of society can only be run by people themselves,democratically ,so a vote for the socialist candidate is to be a vote for oneself in the sense that one agrees with this principle of,"no leaders" or "politicians" running things on our behalf.The establishment of the new society has to be the "conscious act of a conscious majority",and not some political "putsch",brought about by trickery of the majority into support of leaders or reformist policies to make the present system palatable.The S.P.G.B. don't even put photos of the candidates on their material,insisting with unusual principle,that it is the "case" they wish people to consider and not the "face" of the candidate in a P.R. exercise.The task of Socialist Party (S.P.G.B.) candidates,currently and they still put up candidates as Alan Johnstone indicated,is presently charged mainly as educative,as to what socialism is,
What is socialism? http://www.worldsocialism.org/articles/what_is_socialism.php
What is capitalism?
http://www.worldsocialism.org/articles/what_is_capitalism.php
to counter the disinformation arising out of Labourism,(governments of reformist and previously with Nationalisation etc.some state-capitalism) Sovietism(dictatorship over the proletariat,populist left style state capitalstic government i.e. Venezuela)
It is no surpise to us when candidates get only a few votes,we are more interested in how many investigate the World Socialist Movement and its companion partes as a result of our electoral and other activity.Perhaps you may wish to check us out for yourself so that you may see how different we are,our Declaration of Principles written in 1904 remain unchanged,how many parties of capitalism,yes the Left as well as the Right, can make such a claim?
http://www.worldsocialism.org/principles.php
These everyday Frequently Asked Questions will enable you to make informed criticisms which we welcome.
http://www.worldsocialism.org/articles/faq.php
Please ask us some questions yourself on the WSM Forum.You are most welcome.
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WSM_Forum/
Yours for Socialism.
Matt Culbert
http://www.worldsocialism.org/spgb
http://socialismoryourmoneyback.blogspot.com/
http://socialistbanner.blogspot.com/
http://socialist-courier.blogspot.com/
Ah, Matt - I bet you do that little bunny-ears thing with your fingers to put "inverted commas" around words as you speak, implying the word has a deeper, darker, more arcane meaning than you have the time to explain, unless the listener has a spare month or two to listen ...
Post a Comment