How does Labour expect to attract the poor, the young and the disenfranchised, whose votes, if they were mobilised, would guarantee power for a progressive party? How does it propose, while trapped within Tory framing like a bee behind a window, to ignite a passionate re-engagement of the kind we have seen in Scotland? Its appeal is negative: we are neither the Tories nor the party the Tories say we are.
For inspiration, progressive voters must look elsewhere. Yes, the other parties have their flaws. While Labour appears to know the price of everything and the value of nothing, the Greens have the opposite problem. But hiding behind their tongue-tied leader are dozens of inspiring and transformative ideas that have far greater potential to inflame public passions than Labour’s dismal offerings. The same can be said of both Plaid Cymru and the SNP.
I understand the danger of letting the Conservatives and their gleeful cruelties back in. I accept the argument for supporting Labour in the 16 constituencies in which a strong Green swing could hand the seat to the Conservatives or the Liberal Democrats. These are Brighton Kemptown; Cambridge; City of Chester; Ealing Central and Acton; Halesowen and Rowley Regis; Hornsey and Wood Green; Hove; Morecambe and Lunesdale; Plymouth Sutton and Devonport; Pudsey; Sheffield Hallam; South Swindon; Southampton Itchen; Watford; Wirral West and Worcester. But if you live anywhere else, you can vote – without fear of punishment by our ridiculous electoral system – for the party that inspires you.
