A Labour of Love: Parties and Politics

Today I made a political decision, I chose to part with my hard earn cash and become a member of the Labour Party. I have a keen and active interest in politics but have never been drawn to either of the two main parties in the past, some bad judgements and uninspiring ideas on both sides had shifted me to consider other options. I had voted for the Liberal Democrats during my student days in the 2010 election but felt let down by Clegg's backtracking on promises and spineless pandering to Cameron when they went into a collation so from then on, I backed Green all the way.

There are 3 parties that share in my values; the Greens, Women's Equality Party and the more recently considered Labour. In an ideal world, the UK would have a voting system based on proportional representation and there would be an option for multi party membership so I wouldn't be choosing a single party officially. This is not possible for now but it can and will change, I am sure. I’ll be covering in my next post how changing our current First Past The Post system could make a huge difference to us here in the UK and what the parties and public can do to make this happen. The Greens and Women's Equality Party (WEP) are growing parties and I will continue to support them in the values I share with them; however I won’t be joining them officially for now as my values do not begin or end with their dominant issues. The WEP still need better representation of their members and to address intersectionality more because at the moment they feel like the face of white feminism. Nimco Ali seems to be the only visible member in the WEP representing that diversity and that is not good enough, it will become tokenism if they are not careful.

I suppose I could have continued as I am without membership and split my support between parties I feel most aligned with during the elections but I started considering them all more seriously when I questioned which party closest represented the widest variety of issues and had the most cross overs. My values are not restrained to black and white; they are not singular or have one more dominant than the other but social justice and equality is something all encompassing for my values, or as near to that as possible. I feel that a Labour party under the leadership of Jeremy Corbyn and his manifesto has offered the closest to that. My Labour journey to this point has gone from an initial aim to tactical vote, to being moved by the most humane manifesto probably ever written in the UK and the activist behind it, to throwing my full support behind them. I'd rather trust an imperfect but well intentioned politician who thinks beyond themselves than one who seeks power and wealth for the few at any cost. So here I am today, willing to invest in being part of that change.

Hx