No.31 - There is an Earthquake Coming James. Are you Ready?
Dear James,
The tremors have been coming for the last few years. Now the first cracks have appeared in the political firmament beneath your feet. Please do not think that what is happening in the Labour Party is not for you. The appalling scenes in parliament in the last few years are a challenge to every single MP to look to their individual values and decide whether these coincide with those of the party they represent. Today, seven of those individuals have decided to do something about it. I applaud them for their guts. I feel the first small green shoots emerging from our current crisis. The Magnificent Seven have acted.
Except that the ‘Magnificent Seven’ are not particularly magnificent - they are clearly not the most polished or charismatic presenters on the political stage. Yet their very ordinariness is so much more eloquent than the faux charismas of Nigel Farage and Boris Johnson. They have done what I would expect you to do – to have the courage of their convictions. They will, of course, have to suffer the usual putdowns and insults from their one time party and, of course, the sneers from your own party. But don’t be fooled. It is what so many of the voters out here have been craving - the first cracking of the fossilized political system that has so angered and frustrated the voters since 2016.
Because your own party is just as divided as the Labour Party. It operates on exactly the same tribalistic lines as them. Loyalty is everything. The nation comes second - at best - to this slavish tradition. Your ERG, a ‘party within a party’, is still your party. You therefore have a certain responsibility for the mess our country is in. Nevertheless, I’ve checked the list of ERG subscribers and am relieved to say that your name is not, so far, on it.
This gives me some hope and my question to you is the following. How much longer will you and your party continue to harbour this group of wreckers who have single handedly brought our nation to the brink of disaster? Yesterday Honda announced they were closing their Swindon plant with the loss of nearly 3,500 jobs. Last week it was Nissan. The week before it was Ford and Airbus. The list goes on. These major manufacturers in the UK are leaving in droves largely because this endless wrangling caused by the Tory Party civil war has broken the promise that successive UK governments have made to the world. That promise was that the UK was a stable, predictable base within the EU with a huge reservoir of skills and talent and the flexibility needed to maximize their profitability. That promise has been gradually eroded by the warfare in your party until today it lies shattered at the feet of Mrs May.
Earthquakes – as long as they are survivable – can be hugely beneficial. They reorganise the topography of a country to allow that country to sit more comfortably upon its underlying values. Those values have changed in the last thirty years. We are no longer the people of the shires like so many of your party’s membership. The new Britain is open, fair, hospitable and a ‘unicorn-free-zone’, willing to share sovereignty with like minded nations.
James, I hope that when the earthquake hits, you will come down on the right side of the fault line? May I dare to suggest that you might even consider resigning the whip and joining the newly formed Independent Group?
But that would be a dream too far I guess!
More food for thought though?
Kind regards,
BH - Your Concerned Constituent