A NEW political challenge

Thanks to Brian Oosthuysen for voicing my own view that “parties of the centre left should talk to each other as a matter of urgency”.

With the rise of SNP, Labour needs to face the grim truth that there is little chance of its achieving a parliamentary majority for a very long time – and if the Scots do finally and fully separate themselves from the English establishment (which seems likely, and who could blame them?) the situation would be even more dire.

So, if you don’t want to live under a Tory government for the rest of your life, what’s the answer?

For me, the only real hope is some kind of coalition between the progressive arm of the Labour Party (hello, are you still there?), Plaid Cymru, SNP, the Greens and whichever independent MPs feel drawn to the same cause.

It might even include some survivors of the LibDem plane crash.

This isn’t necessarily a short term route to winning a general election but it would at least provide a forum in which to generate policies that could challenge the current attitude of “let’s take resources from those with least and hand them on a silver plate to those who are already very comfortable – and damn the natural environment while we are about it.”

And of course, campaigning for a fairer electoral system needs to be part of it.

(Funny, isn’t it, that Labour never took advantage of its past majorities to square up to that one?) Times are changing.

Better move with them unless you would prefer to become a fossil.

Nigel Westaway

Stroud