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Will Brown be able to emerge from Blair’s shadow?

Many among the electorate believe that if Gordon Brown succeeds Tony Blair next summer, then he should call a snap election, and ask for a mandate from the British people. However, as everyone knows, and Labour have now admitted, the Party simply doesn’t have the cash to fight another election. In fact it was the immense financial strain of the last election, that got the party onto the financial mess it’s in now - investigations et al.

In a understatement, the Labour party has admitted that it is struggling to service its loans, and is experiencing a “difficult financial year”.

It would be easy to allow Labour’s financial problems to convince us that now is the time for public funds to be given to political parties, but this would be a democratic aberration, which would excuse parties for their part in the creating our culture of political apathy. If political parties are unable to motivate sympathisers to donate, then either they change, or they die. It’s called Darwinism. Look it up.

The main three parties have all migrated to the centre. This is as a result of increasing flatness in the class structure (a large Middle Class), and the reality that the First Past the Post electoral system results in indistinguishable political factions vying for the same voting block. Why would you give money to Labour, other than for a peerage, when it stands for nothing unique? And if the parties are fighting for the same centre ground, canabalising each other’s policies, what is the point of the party system?

If we are serious about motivating participatory democracy, we must embrace Proportional Representation. This would enable marginal groups, who are able to attract interest and members, to break the stagnant hold the big three parties have on the British body politic. This blog genuinely believes that this would increase voter turnout and offer real choice. As coalitions are built, small parties would become relevant and their slight number of parliamentarians would actually have value. Voting for the Greens or UKIP would no longer be a wasted ballot. Maybe this would encourage the big parties to rediscover their ideological direction, and, subsequently, their support.