Red Pepper's Election Blues

Mixed feelings from Sedgefield

Interview with Derek Cattell from the Reg Keys Campaign

Reg Keys came to Sedgefield to unseat Tony Blair for the lies that took his son and other British soldiers to war and tragic death in Iraq. He came a respectable 4^th with 10% of the vote but Blair increased his majority.

Did you achieve what you set out to do or are you disappointed with the result?

"We are obviously pleased with the general picture - despite the predictions, Iraq became a key election issue and has given Blair and New Labour a bloody nose across the country. Unfortunately, we didn't give Blair a bloody nose in Sedgefield and there are mixed feelings in the camp about the result. Winning was always going to be a tall order, but we did believe that Reg could seriously embarrass Blair and put a major dent in both his majority and standing within the country."

"Given everything this Prime Minister has done, I think its fair to say that we expected more than 10% and we are pretty angry with the other parties for not standing aside. We met with the Tories and they asked Reg to stand down - the Lib Dems never even replied to our request for a meeting. Unfortunately, we also couldn't quite work as well as we had wanted with Sedgefield Against the War, who never really endorsed Reg."

"But when you look at where we started from - an ordinary man with no party and limited resources taking on the full force of Labour Party machinery and the government - and then look at the media coverage we got on the issues of Iraq, deceit and British military deaths, the public support and so on, then I think we did a great job and it was definitely worth the effort."

Did Reg Keys manage to speak with Tony Blair?

"Oh no, there was none of that. But there was this incredible moment during Reg's speech at the count, when he was making the point about the 88 British soldiers who have been killed in Iraq and he turned directly to the Prime Minister and said that 'some people don't know how many British soldiers have been killed there'. That was powerful stuff."

What reception did you get on the streets of Sedgefield?

">"Reg's campaign received a lot of goodwill from the locals but it didn't translate into votes. Unfortunately, a funny thing happens to Labour voters when they find themselves alone in a voting booth - decades of tradition and allegiance suddenly bear down on them and they just can't vote for anything else. But what our campaign did achieve - for the first time in ages - was to force the Labour Party to actually campaign in Sedgefield and do the work on the ground instead of taking these voters for granted."

"The general support we received from the people of this country and across the world was quite inspiring. Up in Sedgefield, we had 50 people on any one day knocking the doors, canvassing and leafleting, people who had come from all over the country at their own expense. We had a team of volunteer telephone canvassers in London. We even had one person ring us up and offer to do telephone canvassing from America at their own expense!"

Do you think the experience of Iraq, the anti-war movement and now this election has changed Reg's own political views at all?

"When Reg first appeared as this angry, grieving father, a lot of people were cautious and even a little suspicious of him. Prior to Tom's [his son's] death, Reg had believed Blair on Iraq and WMD and had proudly sent his son off to what he believed was a just war. Reg has also been quite open about the fact that he has voted for all three parties in the past. I think it is now very clear that Reg has had a very sharp and rapid political education, and his views on a lot of things have changed."

What’s next for Reg Keys?

"Reg intends to carry on campaigning and building up Military Families Against the War, which he founded. He will continue to pursue the legal action against Tony Blair and the British government on the illegality of the Iraq war, and is still trying to get a proper coroner's inquest into the death of his son. I don't think you have heard the last of Reg Keys." SH

Read Rock producer and ambient music legend Brian Eno's article in Red Pepper on Reg Keys’s Sedgefield challenge.

The big picture – fragmentation and the case for PR

Labour looks like winning on 36% of the vote – the lowest share of the vote for a winning party in the modern era. Between them, the two leading parties look like gaining less than 70% of the vote, unprecedented in the post-war period. The Lib Dems had their best result since the 1920s, fuelled by large swings in some key constituencies where anti-war tactical voting (Hornsey) and student votes (Manchester Withington) played a role.

The bigger picture should also look at the remarkable 8% taken by 'others' - smaller parties and independent candidates. Abstentions are still very high too: turnout is only up around 2% on its record low of 2001, standing now at just over 60%. This shift can largely be accounted for by the rise of postal voting.

High levels of abstention and the rise of smaller parties are not unusual to the UK. A similar pattern has been seen elsewhere in Western Europe in recent years. Major parties have been haemorrhaging support, as their vote is fragmented across a whole range of smaller parties. The most notable instance of this is probably in France, where far left and far right have both recorded large gains in national elections. There are important political reasons for this fragmentation: with major parties converging on a neoliberal economic model, there are no longer serious political disputes 'at the centre', which means that the losers from that system are left looking for another home. This doesn't mean, of course, that these discontents will be expressed as renewed strength for the left.

In Britain up to now, the First Past the Post (FPTP) system has acted as a check upon this fragmentation. When political commentators start to reflect on this, many will no doubt see it as an additional argument in favour of Britain's current electoral system.

The left may be tempted by this argument too. Certainly, squeezing the electoral preferences of the nation into a winner-takes-all model of single member, single vote constituencies does make the electoral rise of far right (as well as far left) more difficult: it is hard to imagine an equivalent to Le Pen breaking through in Britain as has happened in France. But it does not make the rise of far right politics any trickier. This election campaign has seen attacks on immigrants and gypsies, as scapegoats are sought to explain away social discontents. This political strategy, spearheaded by the Conservatives' authoritarian populist campaign, but acquiesced by Labour too, is designed to appeal to an imagined, reactionary core of the British electorate – the 'middle England' voters who populate the marginal seats that the parties know determine their fate in electoral competition. As a result, the political centre has been pushed further to the right during the campaign – and the electoral system, which encourages this kind of pandering to a lowest common denominator, is a part of that big picture.  OR, 7.22am

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Holding on for hospitals

Independent Kidderminster hospital campaigner Richard Taylor has held onto his seat with a 5,000 majority. For more details on the local situation there, see Natasha Grzincic's recent article  in Red Pepper.

The gypsy vote: challenging Michael Howard?

Sylvia Dunn is a Romani gypsy standing against Michael Howard in Folkestone. She told Red Pepper:

"We all know what Michael Howard did when he was Home Secretary, when the Tories passed the Criminal Justice Act which made criminals of gypsies and one parent families. 

"Their approach to gypsies then and now is an incitement to racial hatred. Its made people think they can do anything, its dehumanising us. That’s a slippery road.

"Labour, by contrast, is at least listening and trying to come to some conclusions. We're getting somewhere - for example, through the House of Lords Advisory Committee which I'm a member of. When we actually get to talk to them, they realise that most of our community is hardworking and are taxpayers.

"There's still a long way to go. When we apply for planning permission 80% of our applications are turned down, but the figures are only 20% for the settled community. When it comes to retrospective planning permission, that's done out of need - and the need is desparate.

"When our children are born with no legal place to stay they are born criminals. We keen to get our kids an education so that they can realise their full potential. But there's still a lot of prejudice - even when our girls go for a checkout job they can't even get an interview. We can't let that go on.

"I doubt we'll get much of a vote here in Folkstone, and we've learnt that we could do with better publicity and more canvassers in future. But as long as people don't vote for the Conservatives, that doesn't matter as much. We didn't expect much from this election. But I just wanted to stand on the same platform as Michael Howard and prove to him that he can't shift me.

"In future, we'll encourage youg gypsies to come forward and will try to help them to get elected. Gypsies are becoming more politicised so we'll have quite some support in a few years."

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The candidate in Britain's Guantanamo

Babar Ahmed is standing for the Peace and Progress Party in the London seat of Brent North. Unlike most candidates, he hasn't been out and about on the campaign trail as his bid for election is being conducted from behind the walls of Belmarsh high security prison, dubbed 'Britain's Guantanamo'. We caught up with Uzma Qureshi, his wife and election agent, tonight just after polls closed.

"Babar's candidacy is unique because he is standing purely on issues of justice and human rights. We wanted to use the campaign to raise awareness of his case, and also to raise the profile of these issues so that all candidates in Brent North start to address them. We're saying that a vote for Babar is a vote for justice.

"The responses on the doorstep during the campaign have been generally been positive and many people have been affected by his case.

"Support from the Muslim community has been very good, because many people have been victims of anti-terror laws and feel demonised by them.

"There's also been a lot of support in Tooting, where Babar lives, including a very positive response from the Labour candidate there Sadiq Khan.

"The campaign won't finish even if Babar comes home tomorrow, because the anti-terror measures affect many others. They are principally targeting the British Muslim community.

"These laws have spread a real climate of fear. The statistics speak for themselves with over 700 people arrested so far, but very few convictions. That's a stark difference.

"We still haven't seen justice after Babar was assaulted during his arrest [in December 2003] and the recent tribunal against the arresting officer was like a mock trial. The police officers who took him were told that Babar was as dangerous as Kamel Bourgas. That's ridiculous and raises serious questions about the police 'intelligence' - Baber has no criminal record, not even so much as a parking ticket or points on his license, and no record of violence at all."  OR

Is texting the new doorstepping?

A few people have already pointed out to me that they've received texts urging them to vote today. Is this widespread? What texts have you received? You can comment on this blog or email us. Guidance from any returning officers on whether this constitutes election publicity would also be gratefully received.

Members of the Labour Party were lucky enough to get an irritating recorded voicemail from John O'Farrell, apparently... I suppose that's 'punishing the warmongers' in a way, if not quite what many on the left originally had in mind.

OR

 

Did you see...

... the UKIP Election Broadcast? It was like a cross between the Channel 4 News spoof ads, a B-List movie and a cable TV sales pitch for insurance. Surely destined to be a cult classic: yodic flying for the 21st century... and about as sophisticated, politically.

I must admit, I also had a guilty giggle at this unfortunate incident regarding the Green Party's broadcast.

And finally, if you still need a laugh after all that, then check out this tongue-in-cheek advice to a certain 'not George Galloway'.  OR

Reg Keys: Blair must be held to account

‘I wish I had no need to stand in Sedgefield against Tony Blair. It was the sight of my son lying in his coffin with 31 bullets in him that made me decide to do it,’ writes Reg Keys in this month's Red Pepper. Keys explains why his campaign to unseat Blair is about accountability: ‘Tony Blair took us into an illegal war and, in effect, made my son and other soldiers into war criminals. Now there has to be accountability. Britain can’t put a catastrophic event like this behind it and just get on with other things.’

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The Tabloid Agenda

Red Smoke billowing from the roof of The Sun's Wapping HQ signalled that Britain's best selling tabloid will tell its readers to vote Labour. The paper likes to claim an influence on the electorate, although many commentators have correctly pointed out that the paper more often follows voting trends than makes them. We need to look beyond the PR stunts, however, to assess the pernicious influence that the tabloids can have on the political debate.

First up, there is the role played by The Sun and other tabloids in setting the political agenda. Time and again in this campaign, immigration has emerged as a central issue of the election as politicians attempt to match the tabloids' ferocious appetite to discuss this 'problem' (a framing of the issue that is rarely challenged). But this is not simply a question of political responses to media agendas - it is also a reflection of the centrality of political marketing to the organisation of the major parties. The  machinery of large PR departments, rabid rebuttal units, etc. is designed to feed off tabloid debate, rather than seeking to engage the general public (or, still less, party members) as active participants in the political process.

Secondly, The Sun and other tabloids play a vital role in 'framing' the way that political issues are discussed. To continue with the example of immigration, this means the familiar narrative of Britain as a 'soft-touch', the articulation of immigration to fears of terror, etc. to the exclusion of debates on the structural factors that influence population movements, such as the impact of neoliberal globalisation on job security and conditions in the Global South.

Instead of watching the smoke, then, we should be looking at how the tabloids create narratives about what kind of Britain we inhabit, and at how the restructuring of political parties adds fuel to their vindictive fires.   OR

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The Palace and the People

As predicted, Tony Blair went to the Palace today to ask the Queen to dissolve Parliament. This archaic ritual may seem a little frivolous, but it is by no means the only power still granted by Royal Prerogative. As Stuart Weir recently wrote in Red Pepper, the prerogative also gave constitutional cover for the bypassing of Parliament in the run up to the Iraq war.

Now that the campaign has officially started, Red Pepper’s election coverage will appear daily on this Blog. We’ll try to remain enthusiastic and cover aspects of the genuine political debate that needs to be had – despite the best efforts of the mainstream parties and media to pitch to a conservative ideal of middle England’s ‘hard-working families’. But the signs don’t look good, and this election could see an even lower turnout than the 59% who bothered to vote in 2001. This is not a sign of apathy, but disappointment at the emptiness of Britain’s institutions.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau, attacking the English model of representative government in 1762, wrote some words that (taken out of context) might serve as a useful reminder to us today: “In a well-ordered city every man flies to the assemblies: under a bad government no one cares to stir a step to get to them, because no one is interested in what happens there, because it is foreseen that the general will will not prevail, and lastly because domestic cares are all-absorbing…. The people of England regards itself as free; but it is grossly mistaken; it is free only during the election of members of parliament. As soon as they are elected, slavery overtakes it, and it is nothing.”    OR

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