I think there is something going on here, I think the Tories are scared of Corbyn and this is their defence mechanism, to make fun of him and Labour. When your policies are crap and you've finally got someone in opposition who is shouting from the rooftops that we should spend more money on the NHS than saving a bank then you're going to be worried.
The funny thing is the response of Corbyn's "Tory lite" co-candidates. They're all running scared of him as well. Because he has the audacity to properly oppose the Tories. Austerity is the policy that will define this generation, we need someone that will properly oppose it.
People think immigration is the policy that will define this generation but that's actually the policy that thinks it defines every generation but doesn't define any of them.
The government are pushing through their austerity policies so we need an opposition to that and we need someone that gives those people who don't want austerity a voice. Labour currently don't and herein lies the problem with politics in the UK and many countries around the world.
Traditionally we had our parties who stood for their various classes and sections of society, some parties like Labour stood for a number of unions etc...
Now you have traditional Labour voters who will still only vote Labour because they're stuck in that mindset, Tories the same, Lib Dems etc. We have various parties that come along as knock off forgeries of "the big three", they'll attract a few but we're only ever looking at Labour or Tories being the major party in government. I say major party as obviously in the last government we had a coalition between the LD and Tories, the latter were clearly running the show.
Herein is where I think the problem lies and this is why Corbyn's popularity in the leadership race is so interesting.
This may seem to be slightly conspiracy theorist but I don't think it matters who gets into the power, I think the decision has already been made.
Labour are no longer the Labour of old, they're slightly to the left of what the Tories are, who, by the way, are not quite as conservative as they used to be and neither party quite does exactly what it says on the tin anymore. Isn't it time we did away with the old party system and listened to what the people really think? More on this later.
On Wednesday evening I heard on the radio a guy, a devout Tory voter who was running a campaign backing Corbyn. As I said earlier the reason for this is because the Tories will deem him as unelectable and therefore they're a shoe in for victory in the next election.
This, as I said earlier is the problem with politics in the UK. No wonder so many people are turned off by politics if there are a large number of people have already decided who they're voting for five years before the election takes place.
I don't even know what I'm having for dinner tomorrow (chortle) let alone who I'm voting for in five years time. The guy I heard on the radio was delighted at receiving such media attention, he'd registered three times as a member of the Labour Party so that he could vote for Corbyn. Two of the registrations came under him, he used his real name for the first and his middle name for the second. The third registration came under his wive's name so I guess he could just say it's her that voted.
It'd be interesting if you tried a similar thing with the Tory party. You could put forward a policy where it was outlawed for party members to snort coke off a prostitutes body but then we'd be looking for a new chancellor of the exchequer.
The question needs to be asked is if this is legal. Would anyone know for sure, I'd be interested to know. But now more to my point.
Isn't the old party system old and outdated? It's even worse in the States, they only have two parties. Is that the law or can they have more? Can they have say five parties/candidates but no-one bothers because they know they won't get any votes to make it worth doing? In their General Election you vote for the person you want to run the country, nothing else matters.
Back to the UK this is what I think we should do.
First off when we have a general election we're actually having two elections. We should be only having one but we actually have two. The one we should be having is who you elect as your MP, the additional one that we shouldn't be having is we elect who we want as PM. There's a little bit of a conflict going on here, what if I like what my Labour candidate is saying but I want the Greens in as a party? You can reverse that scenario if you like but I feel the Greens being I power is just as realistic as Labour right now so does it matter?
Those two votes should be split for a start. You vote for who you want as your MP on one card and on the other you vote for who you want as "the party in power".
Now here's what I think we should do with the party system. The person who wants to be say PM should build his team from the ground up. This is the best way of finding out what each candidate wants.
They start advertising and then hiring the people they want to run each of the government departments. I say "hiring" but the money would come out of the treasury and they wouldn't be paid until they got into power and started working for the electorate.
I think the person who is Health Secretary should have a history in health, the Education Secretary should have a history in in education etc. I'm pretty sure you could work this down to every government department although I do seem to be hearing a new previously unheard of government department every week but I reckon it could work, or at least could be looked at.
I can see a lot of people saying "but wouldn't that mean that the person that ran a campaign would need to be rich?" What, opposed to now, you mean?
Anyway no, the money could say come from the treasury. You appeal to them, tell them how much you'd need, show them your workings out etc, maybe receive sponsorship but that would lead to corruption possibly?
You choose who you want in your cabinet and then with them you write your manifesto. Your MP has no allegiance to the party in power so has no reason to cover up any indescrepencies but they also have no affiliation to anyone else so no reason not to work with them, I see that side of things work. Obviously your MP would have his own opinions on way things should be done so may be swaying things and be more responsive to one party over another but that should be too much of a problem.
This is all beer mat politics, it's something I've thought about for a while but not shared too widely. No doubt there are gaping holes but it was going through my mind and so I thought I'd share it.
What do people think? Leave a comment below, or Twitter, Facebook, graffiti my front door......
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