Cruddas suggests major parties might cease to exist in a decade

The Conservative (formerly Tory) and Liberal Democrat (formerly Whig) parties have both survived for three and a half centuries since coming into being during the reign of Charles II, as the two sides of the question of whether James II should have been excluded from the throne because of his catholic beliefs.

The Labour party is a comparative newcomer at 115 years old.

Given the resilience all three have shown, the idea that one or more of them might not exist in ten years time seems strange.

But that is what Labour MP Jon Cruddas has suggested - a remark which was of course reported in the media as his suggesting that Labour might disintegrate within that time frame.

(Honestly, was he surprised?)

Asked whether the Labour Party might "not exist" within ten years, Mr Cruddas, replied: “Yes, yes.”

“There is no safe ground for any orthodox parties and the stakes could be high potentially. They could just disintegrate in real time. And I include in that the party that I represent."

Do I think that the scenario he describes is likely? No.

Is it possible? Of course.

The state of politics is so febrile at the moment that nothing can be ruled out.

There is a Telegraph article on Cruddas's comments at

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11473827/Miliband-aide-Labour-could-be-extinct-in-a-decade.html

which also includes an account of one of Labour's latest attempts to make this a reality by proposing badly-thought-through and disastrous schemes.

Any party which doesn't want to risk falling apart in the next few years would be well advised to ask itself, "are we in touch with the views and concerns of voters ?"

And the honest answer is that all the parties including new ones like UKIP could do an awful lot better, 

Comments

Jim said…
Just my opinion but I think over the next few years or maybe decades there will be a great shift in UK politics. Not just parties but the system in general. Less and less people are turning out to vote, and I think minority governments and or coalitions will become more the norm. The more players there are the more difficult it is for 1 party to obtain an absolute majority.
Also things are different these days with access to information only a mouse click away, people are no longer dependent on the daily newspapers or what a television station decides is the news this week. People can find information which makes it ever more difficult to "bend the truth" un-noticed.

A recent example would be the chancellor announcing that the deficit has been halved, by changing the measure to gdp rather than the amount. It was quickly noticed. Another would be labours idea that spending is down to 30's levels. which of course is not the case as is easily found out by anyone who cares to look into it.

As I say i think there will be a major change, and the calls for direct democracy will become ever louder. Unless people feel their vote will make a difference they are tending not to bother voting. A classic example was of course the turnout in the Scottish Referendum, it was high because people felt their own vote would make a difference, it was also noted that the options were always moving so the SNP's loss was actually exactly what they were campaining for in the first place (devolution max).

Once there is a move to direct democracy i dont think it will be the end of the political party as such, but the days of political party rule are numbered.
8:42 am
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