--- Richard Baker <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > With the disclaimer that I have no hard evidence > supporting anything I'm > about to say and I'm certainly not an expert on the > Labour Party, I > think that the rank and file of the Labour Party is > indeed more extreme > than the leadership. Here's how I see that working. > The Labour Party > has about 400,000 members (compared with about > 325,000 Conservative > members; I couldn't find statistics for the Liberal > Democrats but I > suspect they're a similar size), and these people > are, by > self-selection, among the most socialist people in > the country. The > electorate in Britain, however, is significantly > less socialist than > the party membership, so to be elected the Labour > Party needs to put up > candidates who are less extreme than the average > party member (often by > quite a large margin). > > Furthermore, I think that quite a lot of long-term > Labour > members are moderately unhappy that they have to > support people like > Blair, but they know from long experience during the > 1980s and 1990s > that the only way to win national elections is to > have such leaders - > and that's much better than losing elections. (I > also think that the > electorate in the UK has become much less socialist > quite rapidly in > the last twenty years but the party membership > changes more slowly and > so isn't keeping up.) > > Rich, who knows Labour supporters who say things
OK, we have a British/American problem, which is entirely my fault, because one of my first ever Brin-L posts was on this subject entirely. In the US, the "rank-and-file" of the Democratic party would be committed Democratic voters. That would account for, oh, 15 million or so people. Similarly for the rank and file of the Republican party. Party membership is not a big deal here. Like a dumbass, however, I forgot that British parties are a much more serious affair. Damn. Anyways, yes, okay, what you're saying makes sense to me entirely. Let me rephrase the question: Do you feel that _compared to the electorate_ that voted (overwhelmingly) for Labour in the last election that Labour MPs are very much more "Old Labour"? Not party members, but ordinary everyday voters? Thanks. Gautam __________________________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Tax Center - forms, calculators, tips, more http://taxes.yahoo.com/ _______________________________________________ http://www.mccmedia.com/mailman/listinfo/brin-l
