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April 07, 2005

Press Update - 07/04/05

For those of you that hate people who spoil the endings of things, look away now.

There is in reality no “correct� answer to the problem of how to punish New Labour without punishing the British people, let alone how to elect a Labour government with a small enough majority to encourage pressure for a change of political direction. The fact that vast swathes of public opinion effectively now have no voice inside the main parties demonstrates that the political system isn't working - and the Iraq war has made that crisis of representation much sharper. A two-party system can only function if both main parties are broad coalitions. By moving Labour so far to the right while silencing those on his left, Blair has made that impossible. The battle inside Labour for a change of direction will have to begin the day after the election - or the current process of political and electoral disintegration may become unstoppable.

That was the last paragraph in Seumas Milne’s piece in the Guardian. The rest of the article just does the old journalistic trick of taking you there in a thousand words – giving you something to occupy your time while you sit around outside Clapham Junction for 20 minutes due to the daily dose of signalling problems.

Showing once again the triumph of professionalism over flippant quippery (is that even a word?) Peter Facey from the New Politics Network has had another letter published about the state of our democracy. It is written in partnership with Ron Bailey from another ‘Friend of Make Votes Count’ Charter 88.

Posted by pauldavies on April 07, 2005