The lefties: who's got mojo?

Next in my series of discussing members of other political parties I admire I thought I'd take a look at some of the lefties standing at this election. I hate to disappoint any Tories reading but whilst I've met plenty of Tory supporters I like I could not for the life of me put together a similar post about Conservative politicians.

My admiration for George Galloway I'll leave aside for the moment as I know some people find him hard to take and I'll focus on three others that I've discussed less often on this blog.

Eamonn McCann

McCann is standing for People Before Profit in Foyle, a seat he got 12.3% in in 1969, and the last time he stood there he managed to beat the Ulster Unionists.

Eamonn McCann is a long-serving socialist warhorse of the most excellent, humane sort. Having been consistently active in politics in the north of Ireland for decades it's fair to say he's been there and done that, this and the other.

From his involvement in the very early days of the civil rights movement alongside the likes of Bernadette Devlin right up to his acquittal after direct action against multinational arms company Raytheon in 2008 he has been a constant radical presence.

I thought his book Dear God: The Price of Religion in Ireland was absolutely breath taking, hilarious and shocking by turns and his attempts to bring socialist politics to Ireland, free from the debilitating sectarianism that has plagued the country, is much to be admired.

McCann argued in the Sunday Journal: "When market forces drive the poor into destitution, we must roll with the punches. But when hard times discomfit the super-rich, the State weighs in to make a mattress for them stuffed with our money."

Salma Yaqoob

No-one will be surprised to see Ms Yaqoob on my love list. After all I've spoken about her before and even interviewed her a little while back.

Salma is part of the New Left camp site (as opposed to big tent) who has been been willing to back the Greens when appropriate (like last year's Euro elections) and has always been someone who has approached others on the left in an open and thoughtful way.

She has rightly received many admirers from outside of Respect in return. As she said in The Guardian a little while ago; "Labour's mantra on the need to make others more "British", rather than making ourselves less racist, has helped undermine concepts of national identity that celebrate pluralism and diversity."

More importantly she points out that; "On the economy, [Labour, Lib Dems and Tories] have for years embraced and celebrated the neo-liberal free market dogma responsible for record levels of wealth inequality and the worst recession in over fifty years. They are also united on the necessity of vicious cuts as the solution to the crisis and are divided only on the timescale for the implementation of those cuts."

That's why she is an important part of the left alternatives.

Colin Fox

Co-speaker of the Scottish Socialist Party (SSP) Colin Fox has had a hard decade. Or at least it must seem hard having been part of a team that led the SSP to six MSPs and a real chance to hit the big time he had to see it all fall apart and fall back to square one.

However, where lesser mortals would have given up in despair, and certainly if it had happened to me I'd have been trailing stuffing behind me for years, he's made of far better stuff than me and kept ploughing on. After all he was a leading campaigner against the poll tax and had to go through the indignity of the Labour Party so I guess he'd done it all before.

When I interviewed him a little while ago he said that; "The SSP has been in favour of an independent socialist Scotland since our inception ten years ago. We believe that working people in Scotland will be economically, socially, politically and culturally better off if able to control all our revenues and all our own decision making. It is clear to us that if this were the case then Scotland would be a radically different country from the one we live in today. There is no doubt whatsoever that an Independent Scotland would not have sent troops to Iraq or Afghanistan, would not have nuclear weapons stationed on the Clyde, would not have entertained the privatisation of our hospitals and schools and, since a majority here are in favour of a modern democratic republic, we would not have the Queen as our head of state either."

And I rather enjoyed that - but most of all I admire the man's stamina to keep fighting the good fight, regardless of how hard it gets.

Labour: who's a campaign assett?

Following on from my previous post about my fave Lib Dems I thought it would be only fair to do the same, or similar, for Labour. This time I thought I'd go for who I thought was doing a good job in Labour's election battle rather than those I most admire.

This is partly because I've felt that Brown has been swept under the carpet somewhat (leaders' debates excepted of course) and also because Ed Balls is so dismal yet seems to be given the job of fronting the campaign far too often (or not often enough if you're churlish enough to want Labour to do badly, cough, cough).

Also the people I most admire in Labour aren't allowed anywhere near the election campaign.

Mr John Prescott

The only left-wing thing about Prescott (shown here receiving his induction to New Labour) is his accent, which puts him streets ahead of the rest of the cabinet put together.

His other advantage is that he's straight talking and, dare I say it, rather funny. When I heard he was being drafted in to rally the youth vote I have to say it left me utterly non-plussed, however he's pretty good at it.

Prescott is an excellent tweeter for example and has taken to other new media and techno-gizmos in a surprisingly easy way.

Most of all he's one of those Labour politicians who doesn't actually resemble a protocol droid. The more Prescott elbows Balls out of the way the more hard hitting Labour's campaign will be.

Eddie Izzard

When in doubt wheel out an intelligent, much loved personality not particularly known for being a party hack or as a bomber of small children.

You'd feel terrible throwing rotten fruit at Mr Izzard and in his star-turn for Labour he even says right out that Labour haven't been particularly wonderful, but at least they aren't Tories. Honesty runs through him like words through a stick of rock.

However, leaving aside the whole 'there is no alternative' shtick of the LabCon duopoly, Izzard is definitely the kind of person to present an upbeat and fresh face to what could otherwise be a slightly embarrassing 're-elect us for change' campaign.

Harriet Harman

While I've always warmed to Harriet Harman in person I'm well aware that the public and the press are not as keen as they might be about her. However, if Labour do not make more use of Ms Harman there will be a complete absence of experienced female politicians in their election line-up, and no, Sarah Brown definitely does not count.

It's becoming increasingly obvious that this election will be about boring men in suits sniping at each other and, in my opinion, that's not a good look. Labour could do well to try to break it up a little by wheeling out the steely glare of Harriet Harman.

She may be slightly off message at times but at least she's a reminder that Labour used to stand for women's rights and equality. If Gordon really wants to put a bit of mustard on all that fairness talk he'd be well advised to add a few women to his team, and he could do far worse than Harman.


Don't get me wrong, they're all war criminals obviously, and Labour is under no obligation to listen to me on this or anything else - but moving these three further to the front would, in my opinion, give them a stronger election team than the Milibandian Ballsite vacuity they make us put up with sometimes.

Lib Dems: who's the greatest?

I've been meaning to do a post on party politics for a while now about how parties are generally a utilitarian method for promoting politics you agree with rather than ends in themselves, which are deserving of tribal loyalty - but frankly I've not had the time to think about it properly.

So instead I thought I'd do a short series of posts about people in other parties who I rather admire, despite our differing allegiances. It's a bit of a risk but I do think politics needs to grow up a bit, and not just between election campaigns. I don't think I could trust anyone who cannot admire those that they disagree with. Episode One: the Lib Dems.

David Howarth

David Howarth is the sitting MP for Cambridge and I was genuinely saddened when I heard he was going to step down from Parliament at this election, a decision I still don't understand. Perhaps he just didn't enjoy being an MP?

Regardless of this David had a very good personal reputation in Cambridge and is well liked. He's also been an outspoken advocate of civil liberties. He attended the G20 protests and other events and has been extremely outspoken about the behaviour of the police at these demonstrations.

He was also rather good as Lib Dem energy spokesman where he pushed the party towards an anti-nuclear stance and, every time I lobbied him always left frustrated due to his irritating habit of being in total agreement with greens on environmental issues, even when this put him out of step with the rest of his party.

Always very affable and open minded David Howarth has been a real feather in the collective Lib Dem cap and I really do hope that his decision to step down does not signal his retirement from politics altogether.

Shirley Williams

My next pick, coincidentally, stood unsuccessfully for the Cambridge seat in 1987 (coming second), she's also a surprising choice in many ways given my view that the formation of the SDP was criminal irresponsibility that condemned us to many dark years of Thatcher.

However, the irony is that although she left Labour because she thought it was too left-wing (yes kids, there was a time when it was possible to think of Labour as a left-wing party) they are now a long way to her right simply because, politically, she has stood firm by what she always believed as they slithered their way into Thatcherism.

One of the characteristics about her that I really admire is her willingness to tell ordinary voters that they are wrong. There's no PR in her politics, just passion. Even when I disagree with her I happen to think it's extremely admirable when politicians are willing to look a voter in the eye and remark "What a stupid thing to say."

These days that kind of honesty, which has no truck with "narrative" or "framing", is in short supply. All power to her elbow.

Simon Hughes

My last choice continues the Cambridge connection in that he was a member of the Liberal Society at Cambridge University.

More importantly he is someone who is actually on the left of the Lib Dems. Simon Hughes' journey has probably been as personally bruising as it has been politically frustrated.

Intellectually capable and level headed I was reminded of Hughes' talents a little while ago when he was on Newsnight debating how we deal with the BNP with UAF activist Martin Smith. Despite the fact that Smith was attempting to articulate my own position on combating fascism it was impossible to deny that Hughes wiped the floor with him leaving Smith utterly outclassed and floundering.

It says something of the man that Peter Tatchell, who was grievously wronged by Hughes in the 1983 Bermondsey by-election, endorsed his Lib Dem leadership bid, saying "Simon Hughes is the best of the Lib Dem leadership candidates. If I was a party member, he'd get my vote. I want to see a stronger lead on social justice and green issues. Despite his recent drift to the centre, Simon is the contender most likely to move the Liberal Democrats in a progressive direction."

The Lib Dems would be a far more robust and interesting party today had Hughes won that election, but alas, it was not to be.

P.S. obviously you should still vote for Tom Chance in Bermondsey and Old Southwark though.