I’m not a member of a political party at the moment, though obviously I have been in the past.
Here’s the policies that would be to the fore in the kind of political party that I would like to see and which would get me back into making a more active engagement in politics:
- A burning desire to reduce absolute poverty across the United Kingdom
- An ambition to reduce relative inequality across the country.
- A narrative that focuses more on justice than nationhood.
- A reforming zeal for the institutions of government – House of Lords, PR and the EU Parliament to begin with but not limited to these.
- A localism that seeks to put power in the hands of local communities.
- An internationalism that seeks to redeem colonialism by unashamedly promoting progressive values (equality of men and women, LGBT rights, anti-corruption, anti-bribery) as it seeks to trade with the world.
- An ability to articulate what freedom for the individual means in a digital age.
- An acceptance that social security is here for the good of us all.
- A celebration of the relative peace and prosperity that the European Union has brought to a once warring continent
- A stable, mixed-mode economy.
- A secure National Health Service.
- Disestablishment of national churches
Sounds like what Liberalism used to be about. Perhaps we should be engaged in the rebuilding of it. Like minded people do need to work together on great projects.
Sounds like the Green Party to me – for all that they’re pro-independence it’s a means to an end, not an end in itself.
I’ve now been contacted by someone saying it sounds like the Labour party, someone saying it sounds like the Greens and someone saying it sounds like liberalism.
I suppose that’s inevitable – barring some specifics like disestablishment they’re principles shared by most middle class lefties, and we probably tend to project them onto the parties we support.
What you are suggesting is nothing more than ” The Common Good For All”.
I think that yes – that is the middle class left leaning agenda. If all like minded people joined one party we might have a better chance of getting somewhere.
Did you write the SNP manifesto?