Tag: Party

Your front-page story tells us that there is “£50m backing for new party to ‘break mould’ of UK politics”, (News). I suggest that the new party should have just two policies at the election: first, to cancel Brexit, then to enact a new voting system and call another general election. Judy Mason Admington, Warwickshire The way to beat malaria I was interested to read Robin McKie’s article about the resistant strain of malaria in Pailin, Cambodia (“Could a remote town in Cambodia spark the next great malaria epidemic?”, Focus). I was born and grew up in Cambodia and have been living in the UK for the past 12 years. Education is the key to combating malaria. Colin Richards Spark Bridge, Cumbria The potential’s the thing While the cost of auditioning for drama schools is certainly one barrier to more inclusion, concentrating on this alone will not bring about the changes that both the schools and the industry clearly want (“Way too ‘privileged’: drama schools urged to cut their audition fees”, News). Groundbreaking schemes such as Open Door are introducing schools to many terrific candidates who previously felt that a place in a good school was out of their grasp; there is a real desire to change the demographic once and for all. A public health model of type 2 diabetes wouldn’t ignore the political economy and social determinants of health, so why should one related to knife crime? A public health model of knife crime will only work if it addresses fundamental income inequality and its link to the drug economy. Unfortunately, being obese is becoming increasingly normal.

It sought to “break the mould” of British politics but failed to break through, winning only 23 seats in the 1983 general election. It provides examples of how elections to the House of Commons have played out for three kinds of party with less than one-third of the vote: those that attract broadly similar levels of support in different areas; those that have a similar level of appeal in most places, but manage to build up extra support in particular constituencies; and those that are particularly popular in some areas, and unpopular in others. As section 1 of the table shows, the Liberal-SDP Alliance’s failure in 1983 was a straightforward product of our first-past-the-post voting system. Other parties with evenly spread support have done as badly, or even worse: only nine years earlier, the Liberals had won 20% of the vote but just 14 seats. From winning almost 70% of the seats with 42% of the vote in 2010, it crashed to 24% of the vote and just one seat in 2015. However, a party can have only modest support, but can still enjoy a good conversion rate if its support is sufficiently concentrated – such as the Lib Dems in Scotland in 2010, and Plaid Cymru in Wales last year. This is because it could attract voters who are dissatisfied with one or both of the traditional parties, and such voters are found almost everywhere, especially when (as now, and as in the early 1980s) both main parties vacate the centre ground. But different voters have very different ideas of what it means to be in the centre. Paradoxically, this “failure” enabled them to win millions of voters nationwide from time to time – but in broadly similar numbers in all kinds of constituency. Above 35%, it will almost certainly be one of the two biggest parties at Westminster.

Jeremy Corbyn has apologised for what he called “pockets of antisemitism” in his party, after Jewish leaders called for a solidarity protest outside parliament on Monday evening to warn the Labour leadership that “enough is enough”. “We are campaigning to increase support and confidence in Labour among Jewish people in the UK”. Enough is enough,” they said, calling on “members of our community and all those who oppose antisemitism” to gather in Parliament Square as Labour MPs meet. Several Labour MPs have said they would like to hear an explanation from Corbyn directly, after Facebook posts emerged in which he appeared to show his support for an antisemitic mural in 2012. The statement said the mural was “offensive, used antisemitic imagery, which has no place in our society, and it is right that it was removed”. A later statement from Corbyn added: “I sincerely regret that I did not look more closely at the image I was commenting on.” But Sunday’s statement from Jewish leaders condemned Corbyn’s response as “far too little, far too late”. She said: “It fails to understand on any level the hurt and anguish felt about antisemitism.” But Watson defended Corbyn on Sunday, saying he had expressed deep regret and apologised. Watson said: “I’m very, very sorry that people feel hurt by this and that’s why I think it’s right that Jeremy has expressed regret for it. He said that he didn’t see the mural, he was talking about free expression and I think now that he has seen the mural, he’s right to say that it was right not just to be removed but that he expresses deep regret for the offence caused by the mural.” Starmer said the image was “antisemitic and we need to be absolutely clear about that”. He said: “The most important thing is that the Labour party keeps on saying that antisemitism has no place in our party, in our communities or in our society, and we’ve got to have zero tolerance.

(CNN)As Republicans face a potential Democratic wave in this year's midterm elections, Republican Sen. Jeff Flake argued Thursday that his party "might not deserve to lead" given its support for President Donald Trump. "If we are going to cloister ourselves in the alternative truth of an erratic leader, if we are going to refuse to live in a world that everyone else lives in ... then my party might not deserve to lead," the Arizona senator said in a speech at the National Press Club. Flake argued that "as we are discovering ... there is no damage like the damage that a president can do." He's delivered major speeches on the Senate floor targeting Trump and wrote a book blasting his own party for enabling Trump's success. "We have become strangers to ourselves." His biggest complaints against Trump involve the President's attacks on the media, his track record of telling falsehoods and what Flake describes as dysfunctional leadership from the White House. Flake has repeatedly said he's not ruling out the idea of a presidential run, though it's not in his current plans. "I think that could turn and will turn and must turn. It would be a tough challenge for anyone to take, and I just hope someone does it." He told a small group of Republicans he was prepared to spend $10 million on defeating Flake in the primary, and he publicly offered support on Twitter for one of Flake's GOP challengers last year when it appeared Flake would run for re-election.