Urban75 Home About Offline BrixtonBuzz Contact

Change UK: Chuka Umunna resigns from Labour party and launches Independent Group

All That Is Solid ...: Bye Bye Change UK

Congratulations to Anna Soubry, now undisputed supremo of Change UK. After a successful EU election campaign where they, *checks notes*, swept the board with three per cent of the vote she can look forward to filling up the centre ground of politics alongside, um, "Iron" Mike Gapes, Ann Coffey, Chris Leslie, Joan Ryan, and, and ... what happened to the other six? Trumping all news, including Trump's visit, the departure of six Change UK MPs is all left Twitter and the internet can think about. What then are the grounds for the split?

Properly principled reasons, of course. Continuity CHUK have interpreted the EU elections as a vista bursting with opportunity, despite the Greens and the Liberal Democrats cleaning up. The splitters, ostensibly led by Chuka (you can take the Chuka out the CHUK), think this is nonsense and want to go back to being independent MPs. That is office holders without responsibilities to anyone but themselves. Nothing to do with the LibDems' success and thinking they are now a better bet, nothing at all. But the tensions were present before the EU poll - one wing, six of them, thought an alliance with the LibDems would be super handy whereas the minority, five, fancied it as a party building exercise. An exercise where, um, ordinary punters still cant join. And simmering in the background were the rival leadership ambitions of Chuka and Chris Leslie. Thank the fates we will never know the dreariness of a Change UK leadership contest.

The unfolding of the Change UK debacle is/was interesting because it proved itself a textbook exercise in how not to run a party. Their legion of failures are the stuff of legend, and they still can't help it. Now, as the clock chimes midnight on their miserable enterprise, Gapesy announces the "party" is moving to a membership structure, tacking on at the end "we have councillors too!". Pathetic. You should have capitalised on the novelty of your launch and started the party then you absolute amateurs.

Split or no split, the stars were not aligning for Change UK anyway. After the EU election results, on the pro-EU side of things the big winner, of course, were the LibDems. The very party the CHUK-ups wanted absolutely nothing to do with from the outset of their project. And why were they able to capitalise while Soubz's shrinking band could not? Party name recognition helped, though there isn't a single LibDem parliamentarian who is a household name. Not even cuddly Uncle Vince. More significant for the yellow party was a clear campaign, a straightforward but ever so risque slogan, and a mass membership of seasoned activists. Yes, a mass membership. A machine of about a hundred thousand people that doles out leaflets and knocks on doors, not a ghastly clique of stuck-up notables. The LibDems, along with the Greens, were able to counter the Brexit Party's populism with a polarised message of their own. It meant Labour was found wanting and got duly humbled, and CHUK sidelined to the tinges. I mean fringes.

Does this mean centrist politics is back and the conceit justifying the original split from Labour was nevertheless right? It all depends on what happens next with Brexit, but it is worth pointing out two things. First, while politics appears a million miles away from the polarisation of the 2017 general election the movements and conflicts underpinning that result are still there. For Labour's part, the coherence of its vote may have dropped away for now but the shift to a new class politics foments unseen and out of mind of most politicians, their courtiers, and the professional punditry. Part and parcel of this are the crap jobs, the low-to-no prospects, the housing crisis, and climate threats that the Tories are presiding over. With other concerns in play in a future general election, the LibDems will find it hard to capitalise on the Brexit advantage they have now.

The second depends on what happens with the Tory leadership election. I've lost count of the occasions I've written about the long-term decline/existential crisis of the Conservative Party. If the leadership is won by someone who centrism can learn to love (Jeremy Hunt? Michael Gove?), then the LibDems have got their work cut out. If, however, it's someone like Johnson who, despite his fluffy leadership launch video, is pitching toward no deal to rebuild May's voter coalition and neutralise Farage, then the space on the centre right opens. Some of that LibDem EU vote came from the Tories, and as by-election after by-election has shown these last couple of years, they're more likely to take votes and seats from the blues than the reds. And the further the Tories go down a Faragist road, the more ground they're likely to cede the LibDems. And then all kinds of interesting things might happen. The start of this decade we saw a centre right convergence on the Tories' terms with the Coalition Government. If they go off and chase right wing populism, it is possible a new centre right might be born, albeit under LibDem hegemony.

Change UK are superfluous to all this. Their moment was their launch and they blew it. Their stupidity effectively ensured they sidelined themselves. But even they have served, even they have made something of a contribution to British politics. It has forced a section of centrism to come to terms with the real conditions of its existence, and will shortly be packing them off to the LibDems and, chortle, the reselection mandatory for its parliamentarians. It has told recalcitrant Labour MPs in no uncertain terms that life outside the party is bruising and, gasp, might involve them having to do things (badly) for themselves, and then failing. And its encouraged more people to think about politics in terms of the forces that shape it, rather than the petty politicians who personify it. By providing an education in how not to do politics, CHUK's car crash career has helpfully pointed to how we should, and must, think about it.
Click to expand...
 
Think it's about time Change UK just united with the Lib Dems. They've tried and failed as the recent EU elections show and the resignation of several of their MPs.

Then there could be a real focus on building an effective, pro-EU centrist party that can stand up to the rising tide of nationalism and populism.
 
Benjy1992 said:
Think it's about time Change UK just united with the Lib Dems. They've tried and failed as the recent EU elections show and the resignation of several of their MPs.

Then there could be a real focus on building an effective, pro-EU centrist party that can stand up to the rising tide of nationalism and populism.
Click to expand...
if at first you don't succeed, split and try again
 
Benjy1992 said:
Think it's about time Change UK just united with the Lib Dems. They've tried and failed as the recent EU elections show and the resignation of several of their MPs.

Then there could be a real focus on building an effective, pro-EU centrist party that can stand up to the rising tide of nationalism and populism.
Click to expand...
Yes defo, the obvious answer to nationalism and populism is a political movement that says let's just do the last 40 years again :thumbs:
 
Everything’s a bit tumultuous at the moment so I’d not read too much into the polls, a GE would focus minds a bit more and likely change things. One effect is that it will be harder to chose a team if you want to vote tactically, we’ve moved quite a bit away from vote Labour here or vote Lib Dem here to beat the scum, maybe even less certain who the ‘scum’ is now in some places (don’t think it was the tories last night).
 
Dogsauce said:
Everything’s a bit tumultuous at the moment so I’d not read too much into the polls, a GE would focus minds a bit more and likely change things. One effect is that it will be harder to chose a team if you want to vote tactically, we’ve moved quite a bit away from vote Labour here or vote Lib Dem here to beat the scum, maybe even less certain who the ‘scum’ is now in some places (don’t think it was the tories last night).
Click to expand...
don't fool yourself, they're all scum
 
Soubry still wishes he hadn't chucked it in

Change UK: Chuka Umunna's exit a 'serious mistake', says Anna Soubry
Chuka Umunna made a "serious mistake" in leaving Change UK, the party's new leader Anna Soubry has said... ...Ms Soubry said it was the MP for Streatham's departure that would be most keenly felt. "I will always be more sad than you can imagine that Chuka is not with us," she told the Guardian. "I think he's a man of huge ability and talents, and I think he has made a very serious mistake."
Click to expand...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Similar threads

hitmouse
Unions and Labour
Replies
20
Views
1K
Fedayn
Fedayn
tim
Anyone worried about the UK becoming a one party state?
2
Replies
54
Views
3K
Kid_Eternity
Kid_Eternity
Buddy Bradley
How long before we get a proper Tory-style sleaze gaffe from Labour?
Replies
0
Views
224
Buddy Bradley
Buddy Bradley
Humberto
Home Building Labour guff
Replies
10
Views
497
SpookyFrank
SpookyFrank
frogwoman
Jas Athwal - Labour MP owns several London flats full of ants and black mould
Replies
14
Views
942
PR1Berske
PR1Berske
Back
Top Bottom