Time To Become Visionary

After the very mild loosening of the lock down restrictions announced yesterday I saw many people on the left threatening essentially strike action. Stating; "people can't go back to work, it's not safe enough! we must organise resistance". Being against the lock down my first response was to chastise them. However, that got me thinking. "Back to work" is never going to appeal to people on the left. It sounds too much like the status quo, and people on the left generally aren't happy with that. They want something better. Some progress.

This ain't anything new of course. It's the standard dichotomy in politics. Conservatives want to conserve. The left want revolutionary change. It's quite easy to forget this though when you find yourself entrenched on one side of an argument. As I've found myself on this lock down issue.

So I'm now thinking that as I continue my organic political schema I need to make sure I offer a vision. So that it isn't just simply a defence of our all important rights and freedoms. It'll be hard to marry both impulses though.

Labour Losing Muslims

Also, given that I'm planning on stealing left-leaning Labour voters it's perhaps worth mentioning this article I came across yesterday.

Over 100 mosques threaten to boycott Labour over Kashmir

Obviously I'm no expert on the Kashmir situation. So I have no real idea where the blame lies - it seems complicated. Perhaps I should buck my ideas up and actually do some research. Either way though I only share it as it looks like a harbinger of something I feared would happen were Labour to go the Starmer "centre ground" route. They've already lost a chunk of the working class vote thanks to Brexit - as per the election. Now with Starmer leader they're potentially disenfranchising the socialist Corbyn-left block. The Muslim and the black vote are the two other big block votes that Labour have always taken for granted.

I started worrying about the Muslim vote back in the summer of last year when we had the issue in Birmingham over the teaching of LGBT+ sex ed in schools. I remember watching Jess Philips argue quite assertively with some Muslim protesters and thinking at the time "this potentially will push Muslims away from Labour".

(Jess Philips debating protesters last May)

Of course, the saving grace back then was Corbyn, who has always been very publicly on the side of Muslims. So there wasn't an imminent danger of that back then. However, now he's gone it's a more real prospect. The question then is, where will this huge Muslim vote go if it does become estranged from Labour?

(My tweet from last year, pointing this out

- ignore the silly avatar and name xD)

I do think this is an important thing to consider though when it comes to the overall social cohesion of the UK. Excluding groups by simply taking them for granted, whether it be white working classes or Muslim voters, creates a huge groundswell for alternative parties. Ideally it will lead to good parties, but there's always the danger it can lead to problematic parties. For example, with the white working class vote you could give the Brexit Party as a good example, and the BNP as a bad example. The disenfranchisement can go in both directions.