Il me paraît que tout acte porte en lui-même sa justification.
It seems to me that every act carries within itself its justification.
André Breton
The most likely “alternative” to the current Cameron government is an Ed Miliband government.
I don’t entertain this possibility with glee, and I also don’t bother to weigh in on who I think should rule the UK as it is outside my interest in US-led international relations. However, a good word can be said about the character of Ed Miliband and it should, at least, inform people’s thoughts on how they will vote in the general election.
Comedian Russell Brand interviews Ed Miliband. Brand made no secret that he wanted to hear a mutinous stance against the banks and economic elite from Miliband, but Miliband defended the Labour Party’s more centrist approach to economics.
Seldom is there reason to cheer for any political figure, but many people’s thinking in the UK will be based either on their negative impressions of Cameron or their negative impressions of Miliband. There is no reason to expect that people will cast their ballots based on positive impressions, since all is doom and gloom in the UK. This much was expressed clearly in the way Scots voted against independence based upon scaremongering, and the way that all current media speculation ahead of the general election revolves around talking about who is worse. To a certain degree, they’re right. Britain has voted based on optimism in the past and we created bloodthirsty, dangerous monsters like Tony Blair.
Less known political parties have grabbed my personal attention. I have little time for the Green Party because of its Luddite affections, which I as a technoprogressive futurist believe to be based upon fallacies. That leaves me to be mostly sympathetic either to the Pirate Party – on account of their pro-WikiLeaks, anti-copyright, pro-Internet platform I find to be very up to date with the Twenty-First Century – or the new Transhumanist Party UK recently created by Amon Twyman.
Join the fledgling new Transhumanist Party UK for a futuristic alternative politics.
I have thought about getting involved in party politics in the past, and considered applying for membership in the Pirate Party, but due to my continuous involvement in both governmental and charity work, I felt that donor status to any political party might be a no go area professionally. According to the codes and laws on both civil servants and civil society bodies, they have to be impartial. The same can’t be used to tell me to stop blogging, since blogging doesn’t place me in any organization or in the position of donating to any political cause, falls within my right to freedom of speech, and is limited to specific posts and their content that can cease at any moment rather than being some kind of position.
The sordid backstory of British Labour politics allowing the rise of Tony Blair, however, may be a sign of something good to come from the Labour Party, if for no other reason than to avoid a repeat of history.
Even considering everything Labour say still trying to sanitize Blair, I believe Miliband personally knows how discredited Blair is as a politician and that Miliband knows how to avoid repeating Blair’s unfortunate legacy. The overall impression I have gained of Ed Miliband, from reading his behavior in the media, is that he would not want to be another Tony Blair. The interview he did with Russell Brand wasn’t very informative in its content, but the fact he bothered with it at all gives some insight into Ed Miliband’s character that I had never seen before.
Ed Miliband is more engaged with the youth and with the consensus existing on the Internet – the blogosphere – than Cameron. This definitely improves my assessment of Miliband and he flattens Cameron in any contest over who would be more responsive to public opinion. The Conservatives would like to use these impressions to say Miliband is a weak figure, but I believe this will backfire on them. People just don’t want a “strong” leader, because that word too often belies arrogance and bellicosity – traits Cameron has in abundance – rather than better ability.
For me, Ed Miliband’s “big mistake” was the following tweet.
When a serious figure like Tony Blair warns UK national interest is threatened by a Tory 2nd term, people from all parties should take note.
— Ed Miliband (@Ed_Miliband) April 7, 2015
A “poof” moment when his credibility disappeared, for many to the political left. but I think he can be forgiven for it. Tony Blair isn’t a “serious figure” but a discredited and broken man. If the current political leadership of Britain, in both major parties, had any sense of justice, Tony Blair would be behind bars. He is the greatest embarrassment to Britain in the eyes of the international community today. His impudence to talk to the public of the “UK national interest”, like he would know anything about after the Iraq debacle, it is basically offensive.
And yet, I believe this single tweet by Miliband can be forgiven. Miliband may have associated himself with the discredited Blair government here for many, but for me it was only a tweet. I believe there’s a vote to be cast for Miliband for the most unlikely reason imaginable – his weakness. Yes, that very thing the Conservatives want to use against him.
My impression now, is that an @Ed_Miliband government might be fairly responsive to civil society and the #Internet. #Milibrand #Labour
— Harry Bentham (@hjbentham) April 29, 2015
Miliband is very likely to be elastic to the demands of civil society, public opinion, and so forth. Such a leader would inadvertently make the UK a more functional democracy, at least for a while. And if people are disappointed in him, they can always drift further towards the more radical democratic left in the future, because Labour could always be replaced by a left that is more in the Podemos or Syriza category in the future if it ultimately fails the test of standing up for the public interest. The best outcome of the election would be a Labour victory, but a slim one. Miliband should come to office but it should not be made easy for him.
He should feel as if he is walking a tightrope, with great pressure exerted by the public on him to do the will of the people, even after the day of his election victory. Such ongoing pressure on the shoulders of a politician of questionable popularity and questionable character could make him work like Cincinnatus, devoted solely to his public work and not serving narrow interests or behaving in an arrogant fashion that betrays the trust the public placed in him. That is, at least, a possibility worth considering.
Accepting the End of Nations: a collection of my emphatic political theses on the erosion of the state’s legitimacy, which I believe will inevitably lead to increasing insecurity, incapacity to preserve borders and the law, and eventual replacement of national identity with supranational identity. It is not happily that I predict these things, but through dispassionate recognition of inevitable social and political trends.
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