Time for change…

Yesterday, the LibDems’ candidate, Sarah Green, won the Chesham+Amersham by-election by a staggering 8,000 votes (overturning a majority of 16,000 at the last election). The Greens were third, behind the Tories, and the Labour Party a disastrous fourth with a paltry 622 votes.
I know Chesham and Amersham from my days when I lived and worked in Buckinghamshire/Oxfordshire. It was seen as a Tory political stronghold… a seat that would ‘always be Tory’.
 
Well, I wrote the following ‘notes’ in my diary just over a week ago…
Despite their frequently appalling mismanagement of the Covid crisis, the UK government is still riding high in the opinion polls. At a time when the Opposition should be ‘making hay’ against a weak Tory government, its message to the electorate is frequently muddled and incoherent. Frankly, as a non-Tory voter, I despair at the prospect of yet another Conservative government (eleven consecutive years and still counting) but, as things stand, that’s what will happen.
Sadly, our political system does not work. Democracy is something of a farce. As things stand, given our ridiculous first-past-the-post electoral process (and where I happen to live), my vote doesn’t count. And, of course, any Party in power certainly won’t want to change a system that ‘works for them’!
 
Labour Party leader, Kier Starmer has come in for a lot of criticism (rightly in my view). As things stand, the pattern of recent years will simply be repeated: Labour loses the election; Labour elects a new leader… then Labour loses the election; Labour elects a new leader…
Something HAS to change.
 
Here in the UK, we’re some three years away from the next general election. In my view, ALL the opposition parties need to come together and form some sort of political alliance (a Rainbow Alliance?). There are lots of intelligent, gifted politicians (of all parties) who have the experience and desire to change things for the ‘common good’, but their voices are lost behind Political Party smokescreens. They count for nothing.
 
In my view, with the next general election taking place in 2024, all opposition parties need to agree that they won’t stand against each other at the next election. Drastic times call for drastic measures… the key objective needs to be to overturn (or at least reduce) the Tory’s current hold on power. It won’t be easy (understatement!), but the opposition parties need to agree which of them fights which seat in 2024 – in other words, a Tory candidate against ONE single opposition party candidate. Such arrangements will be incredibly difficult… local party structures will have to be severely compromised (but it will help maximise resources where they’ll produce most benefit). Crucially, the vital thing is that such compromises will take a little time to agree and organise and so this work needs to be started IMMEDIATELY.
As an important, tangent demonstration of this intent, Kier Starmer should IMMEDIATELY re-model his entire Shadow Cabinet – to incorporate MPs from the LibDems, Greens, SNPs, Plaid Cymru etc alongside Labour members.
But, hey, what do I know?
Photo: image from SkyNews.