(Photo: Christopher Combe Photography, 'Yorkshire Sunset', Some Rights Reserved, CC BY 2.0)
This article is a slightly rushed response to the election but builds on some of the ideas that developed in conversation with regionalist and community activists during and before the election campaign itself. The actual election results (see below) should force a fundamental re-think by many activists, particularly but not exclusively, within the English Left. A few months ago I sketched out some thoughts in an article called ‘Resources for an English Socialism’ for Soundings magazine. Much of the ideas in that article are still very relevant and form a dialogue with the ideas developed by Labour’s Jon Cruddas. It’s a tragedy that few if any of Jon’s ideas were not adopted by Labour in its disastrous election campaign. My own message is that we need to build a progressive alliance in England – with allies in Scotland and Wales – that is based around radical democracy of the sort first promoted by the Chartists back in the 1830s and 1840s and their co-operative and ‘ethical socialist’ succesors and made relevant for 21st century Britain. It means changing how we ‘do’ our politics, learning lessons from local community activists as well as campaigners elsewhere around the world, such as Podemos in Spain and ‘CommonWealth’ activists in the USA.
