Wednesday 20 February 2019

The Independent Group

I'm writing this on Wednesday evening, 20th February, with the newly formed The Independent Group (TIG) standing at 11 MPs, so this may well have grown by the time you read it.

From the outset I must declare my background, I supported the SDP in the Crosby By-Election in 1981, indeed I helped with leaflet printing and folding for that vote, however I later joined the Labour Party in the early 1990s, voted for Blair and Prescot to be Leader and Deputy, and was standing in Downing Street on a wonderful May morning in 1997 when Tony Blair arrived as our new PM.  However I became increasingly disillusioned with Labour after 2010, see Corbyn as a totally unsuitable man to lead the party or be in government and left the party to join the Liberal Democrats a couple of years ago.  I'm not an active member however, and I won't agree with the LibDems on all their policies but they are closer to my views on most things, especially on the disaster of Brexit.

Another thing I have become disillusioned with is the tribal pantomime we see in the House of Commons, Prime Ministers Questions especially is grotesque, no questions are every truly answered and the atmosphere is toxic.  I have always believed that the majority of people in this country are "small "c" conservatives with a social conscience".  And with the move to the right and left by the two main parties, there is a huge voting space in the centre which has no-one speaking for it.  Watching MPs on various political TV programmes it is infuriating that none of them seem to be able to answer a straight question, or they are blatantly economical with the truth.

I really believe there is a vacancy in the centre ground crying out for leadership and something to vote for.  I was therefore pleased to see 8 Labour MPs stand forward yesterday and even more so to see 3 Conservatives join them today.  There will be many areas which these 11 people disagree on, but importantly many more where they can find common ground, and Brexit is uppermost in that list.

Commentators have been eager to find out what TIG stands for, what are its policies, but this is only day 2 and so it is understandable that these details are not yet in place.  I am thinking however of why are they being pushed into building a similar model to the frankly rotten system we have now?  Why aren't we thinking wider, thinking outside the box.  What is wrong with not actually having a formal party?  How about having a vibrant, diverse coalition of independent, local MPs, elected to represent their own constituencies first and foremost, but who can cooperate on the big issues of the day to form a cohesive governing executive?  There would be no whipping system on the government benches, and the government would have to find consensus within TIG to get legislation passed.  Would that be such a bind, actually having to put effort in to persuade, not threaten, MPs to vote through any Bill.

These are early days, and with politics in upheaval it is anyone's guess what happens next, but with Brexit looming over us we do not have the luxury of time.

Watch this space indeed.

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