All New Endeavours Are Precarious

But also, often, precious

On the train to London with my friend Suzanne McEwan c.1981. Will I ever go back there, but as an MP?

I don’t want to stand as an MP. Nor do I want to be an MP.

But I am sick of seeing politicians destroy public services, increase inequality, make laws that benefit their rich and powerful friends, promote militarism and violence in foreign policy, spy on us and take away our freedoms, stifle legitimate dissent, destroy the environment, lie to us, keep secrets from us, and a wealth of other injustices. And since writing to my political representatives never does anything, because most don’t seem to give a shit about the electorate, the only option is to be willing to stand up for my beliefs by putting myself out there.

Maybe that makes me better qualified than millionaire career politicians who only do it as a means of gaining more power, influence, and money.

Still, I am under no illusions. Even the Green Party don’t expect me to win enough votes to become the MP for Dwyfor Meirionnydd. Not because of any personal qualities on my part, or problems with what we stand for, but just based on past votes in each region. They work out where they have the greatest chance of seeing success and focus resources there. Which is totally sensible. I have my fingers crossed for the Green General Election candidates in their four target seats:

• Sian Berry (Brighton Pavilion)

• Carla Denyer (Bristol Central)

• Adrian Ramsay (Waveney Valley)

• Ellie Chowns (North Herefordshire).

I hope we win those, and more! After all, the Greens have been successfully gaining County Councillors for years now.

So, if I am not seen as a key candidate, why stand me at all? It’s because the main parties need to stand a candidate in every region. And they do so because that helps determine the air time they’re given, which is absolutely vital for getting the message across about what we stand for. And so, in the next election, Greens will stand in every constituency.

Personally, I think there’s another important reason. In just about every election since I was nineteen, I have voted Green. I always expect to see a Green candidate, just so I can vote for them. It’s always disappointing when there isn’t a Green standing, since often there’s no difference between the other options from my point of view - none of them represent anything I believe in. So providing that option for the disenfranchised is important. Even when Greens don’t get elected, every vote is a statement that you believe in what they stand for. It keeps the Greens going, seeing that growing support. But it also sends messages to the other parties, telling them that people want a just society. It makes the other politicians take notice, and maybe curb their worst excesses. Whether in the UK or US, people need to stop voting for red and blue, and vote for parties that will actually do good in the world. The only wasted vote is the vote you place in a party you don’t believe in, just to stop another party you don’t believe in from gaining power. That silliness of thinking you can only vote two ways is what keeps red and blue (which are both really conservatives nowadays) in power. Our only hope of positive change is to vote for other options, particularly those that won’t support genocide or persecute journalists. As Caitlin Johnstone said yesterday, “It’s valuable to hold a positive vision of what a truly healthy civilization would look like, because it’s important to be clear on what it is you’re fighting for.”

Policies First

Which reminds me of why it is so important for the Greens to get as much coverage as possible. We need a voice so people realise what we stand for - because they’re often surprised how closely it maps to their own desires!

Many years ago (Friday, 16 May 2014, in fact) I wrote an article on an environmental website about Vote For Policies. The principle is wonderful, and they sum it up best:

“Whose policies would you pick if you didn't know which party they belonged to? Our unique policy comparison survey helps you see which of the main political parties you agree with most, so you can make an informed decision when you vote.”

It's an interesting idea, to forget what you know about political parties. Instead you select things that are important to you, then it matches your preferences up to the policies of the main parties and shows you which have the closest match. It's not connected to a political party, just based on a different way of doing things. The results can often be different from what you expected! According to Channel 4 News “Vote for Policies is an interesting survey based on policies alone - allowing users to find out who they would vote for if the policies were anonymous.”

When I used to speak to people about this, they often found that Green policies were the closest match. They hadn’t realised that beforehand, which is why it’s so important to let people know what Greens stand for.

And so, perhaps I won’t get enough votes to become an MP, and I’ll do some good in other ways. But nothing is predictable. And the next election may surprise people. I think we are all sick and tired of this sham that we call government, and the kind of politicians who see us as irritating subjects, rather than the people they are meant to serve. This has never been clearer than in the way the US and UK continue to arm Israel so it can commit genocide against the Palestinians whose land Israel occupies. The more people learn about the history of the conflict, and how Israel was established by force on land taken from the Palestinians in 1948, and used violence (backed by the US and UK) to implement its apartheid policies ever since … well, the more people realise that our government’s foreign policy is nothing to do with peace, or what we want, but to do with oil, colonising, land, violence, empires, and making the rich richer. The untold billions spent arming Israel as the West’s “land-based aircraft carrier” (as Netanyahu described Israel) in the Middle East could have been spent on transforming the UK and US. We could have had free public transport. The US could have had free healthcare. Instead the billions just keeps pouring into violence that breeds violence. The US alone has given over 150 billion USD to Israel for weapons. I think George Galloway’s victory is proof that people are desperate for change, and to end the injustices that Palestinians and others have endured for so long.

Restricting Democracy

There are many ways that things are rigged by those in power to prevent any changes in the status quo. One example is the first-past-the-post system that gives majority power to parties that didn’t receive a majority mandate. This is what I said in a 2019 article I wrote:

There is a separation of the people governed, and the Government. Governments like to claim that they represent the people, but they rarely do. We just had an election in the UK. The Conservatives now have a majority in parliament, with 56% of the seats. However, only 43% of the people who turned up on election day actually voted for the Conservatives (13,966,565 votes). The UK's election system isn't proportional, which is why the Conservatives got more power than those votes would have meant proportionally. Further, only 67% of the eligible voters actually voted - 31,829,630 people out of 47,587,254 registered voters. So the Conservatives have control of the Government even though they only got 13,966,565 votes out of the 47,587,254 registered voters - which is 27.6%. So, at best, under a third of the registered voters in a country actually voted for the ruling party. In addition, there could have been another 9 million people who should have been allowed to vote, but who weren't registered. Then there are the people who live in this country and are subject to the Government's dictates but aren't allowed to vote (e.g. under 16s). The number of people living in the UK in December 2019 is thought to be 67,698,000. The Conservatives received votes from 13,966,565 of them - that's 19.4%. Both of those mean an even lower popular mandate than 27.6%. So the idea that a Government represents the people or popular will of a country is facetious and misleading. There is a connection, but they are also separate.

Of course, mainstream media will rarely mention such things, as it generally spins things in favour of the current government.

And then there’s the honours for those who do favours to the leading party, such as big donations. And I don’t even want to touch on bribes, backhanders and lobbying today. But whenever you wonder why a government does something that goes against the will of the people, you can imagine it is related to lobbying. Some lobby groups now seem to have almost total control of certain policies, such as AIPAC or the NRA in the US, which explains a lot.

Another issue is the fact that you have to get enough votes when you stand as an MP, otherwise you are fined £500. That’s nothing to rich people. It’s nothing to the big parties, who know they will always get more than 5% of the votes. But it stops poor people from being able to stand, and is one of the ways they are kept out of politics in favour of the super rich. I’ll do a separate post about this at some point. Just note that whenever I have written to conservative politicians, they always defend this fine (but just lie about the reasons for it).

That’s enough from me today. I have a peace vigil to attend.

Promoted by Karl Drinkwater (Green Party) at The Gate, Keppoch Street, Cardiff CF24 3JW.
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