Assemble
“Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper.” – Zarah Sultana
London Economic reports: “Zarah Sultana has quit Labour to form a new party with Jeremy Corbyn. The Coventry South MP revealed other Independent MPs would also be joining the new party, led by her and the former Labour leader. Since losing the Labour whip a year ago, she currently sits in the Commons as an Independent.”
A recent poll by More in Common revealed a new left political party could secure 10 per cent of the vote, primarily taking votes from both Labour and the Greens.”
Yesterday Politico reported that the left-wing grouping of independents in the Commons (Inc Corbyn) has been “formalising its operation lately, hiring staff to work for the group rather than individual MPs and debating how to go about potentially becoming a proper party.” They’re discussing a name (Assemble?)
Sultana said: “Today, after 14 years, I’m resigning from the Labour Party. Jeremy Corbyn and I will co-lead the founding of a new party, with other Independent MPs, campaigners and activists across the country.”
“Westminster is broken but the real crisis is deeper. Just 50 families now own more wealth than half the UK population. Poverty is growing, inequality is obscene and the two-party system offers nothing but managed decline and broken promises.”
She’s not wrong is she?
Yesterday the academic David Wearing wrote: “If the British left has a future, it’s in a reboot for the 2020s-2030s which identifies, invests in and elevates the UK equivalents of AOC, Ilhan Omar and Zohran Mamdani. Any hint of relitigating 2015-19 for the umpteenth time is something to be strenuously avoided.”
He’s right, and the immediate challenge for Assemble will be to avoid being, or being portrayed as being a Corbyn 2.0 party, which would have some, but limited appeal. There is a thirst for something much more expansive, which doesn’t depend on the anti-charisma. I think it would also be a mistake to try and breathe life into the corpse of the Labour party, or frame it as Real Labour, Old Labour, True Labour…just go.
Some of the previous obstacles for a genuinely radical left party have disappeared in recent years. The idea of a ‘genuine Labour alternative’ waiting in the wings that requires loyalty has gone; the tactic of smearing anyone critical of Israel with antisemitism has been rendered absurd; and the idea of a political landscape dominated by two dominant parties has been smashed. The electorate in England is febrile, volatile and desperate.
The new party may emerge from the Westminster Independent Alliance which includes four other independent MPs who all beat Labour candidates and MPs over the party’s position on Gaza. It’s unclear yet, though last year, Corbyn addressed a meeting to prepare for a leftwing political party named Collective which was attended by a number of former independent candidates.
excellent, well done Zara and JC. I do hope they have socialist and not Labour in their new name
Yes!
Plenty “BritNats” on the so-called “Left” don’t forget …
Hopefully the tipping point that leads to a lightbulb moment for the vast majority of people in Scotland…..everyone, left, right and centre is declaring Westminster broken!
Another party gaining traction will only make it easier for the elite’s to choose and fund and win absolute power in a first past the post system.
The frustration with no representation will continue and lead to destructive conflict.
In Scotland we can choose a different path. An Independent government designed to give everyone a voice through proportional representation where the best outcomes for its citizens are delivered via constructive conflict, collaboration and consensus.
I laughed…..
Just as we thought sectarian politics (like Northern Ireland) was in decline, Sultana reminds us as many of the global majority MP’s we have in Westminster that sectarianism is on the rise. Of course, we already have the “Gaza” party, where the Islamists are flexing their muscle openly. I have been hoping for a new Party of Islam to be formed. I guess the “Gaza” Party
Labour’s incompetence is amply demonstrated in everything they do, and now it’s clear that they are trying to ride both horses at the same time (Islamism and Critical Social Justice based globalism), they were close to falling off!
Sultana, like e.g. Dawn Butler, Diane Abbot, Naz Shah, Clive Lewis, et al are nothing more than race baiters. Their Anglophobia and oikophobia have become so blatant, that an increasing number of non-white British are speaking out against their divisive madness. Many can be found in organisations like “Don’t Divide Us” or “Equiano Project”.
The laughable bit is that Corbyn knew nothing about setting up this new party.
The current establishment order is breaking down, having shoved DEI, gender ID politics, and globalism down the throats of the British people for so long, they now realise that they cannot hold onto the reins of power for much longer. Expanding authoritarianism through stifling freedom of expression, cancel culture, obsession with a mythical “Far-right”, mis-information, dis-information, failing to stop mass-immigration, or to acknowledge the failure of this globalist experiment means that there is little the establishment can do to stop the slide into civil unrest and conflict.
Reform UK is a direct reaction to this decades-long ideological experiment, and is the only hope of the nation to head off sectarian strife and conflict. By listening to the people – all the people, Reform will endeavour to restore a fairer, open, safe and prosperous nation.
Reform UK will be doing a something like a factory reset on a smart phone. It will clear out the viruses and malware, the bugs in the applications and operating system that has turned the smart phone into the unreliable and unsafe device it had become. We will repeal or amend most of Blair’s anti-British legislation, sovereignty sell-out, gift of power of the civil service and quangos, and all the other destructive things the elites have been inflicted on one of the best nations that has ever existed. These will be deleted and replaced with adaptive and open politics, which will include referenda and and other more democratic forms of governance.
Reform aims to stop the globalist predilection for imposing it’s will on the rest of the world, will resist foreign wars, although will carry a big stick for the safety of the British people. Reform will do what all our governments should have been doing: focus on, and prioritise the British people. Britain is not the asylum sanctuary of the world. It is not the vassal of an authoritarian non-democratic EU, nor that of the United Stated. It is not the whipping boy of a Critical Race Theory driven intelligentsia in the UK or from afar.
The key words, are ” Family, Community and Country”. They are accompanied by words and concepts such as: fairness, openness, common-sense, responsibility, freedom of speech, prosperity for all, innovation, etc. These are many of qualities our nation has lost during the recent years of Neo-Marxist and globalism imposed by the elites.
I know I will be piled on for what I have written here. That’s OK. As a supporter of free speech, I expect to be criticised and challenged, as you must expect to be for your beliefs. I ask you to apply critical thinking, and to avoid dishonest memes and tropes. You may be surprised that I don’t take offence at other people’s opinions of me. I have received so much of it, that even the most vile insults hardly registers anymore. However, I do reserve the right to challenge those who would try to silence or cancel me with blatant lies or twisted ideology.
Many people who used to tell me in private that they agree with what I say are now beginning to say so more openly. There is more light at the end of the very dark tunnel we’ve been in for such a long time.
Reading Bella Caledonia has given me quite an insight of the thinking and language of people whose views are more establishment-like than mine. I thank you.
Were the recent Neo-Marxist years under Keir Starmer or Rishi Sunak or Liz Truss or Boris Johnson or Theresa May?
Stevie H – when you say that people agree with you I do not doubt you because in my experience majority of people when faced by someone with strong opinions tend to say they agree not because they really do but because it is quickest way to stop the conversation and get rid off you!
Nice try. I would say that most people are afraid of the critical social justice warriors, who use Far-Woke legislation to suppress free speech. I don’t care who tries to report me for say the “wrong” words. Bring it on.
I think you may belong to a mindset that actually wants civil unrest and conflict. And like most more radical nationalists, see the collapse of society round every corner. The reality is of course very different.
You say Reform are listening to the people – all the people (a very dubious claim), but are you SteveH?
You say ‘Sultana, like e.g. Dawn Butler, Diane Abbot, Naz Shah, Clive Lewis, et al are nothing more than race baiters. Their Anglophobia and oikophobia have become so blatant . . .’ and then later talk about applying ‘critical thinking, and to avoid dishonest memes and tropes . . . blatant lies or twisted ideology’. To many, your first statement is literally an example of the second: dishonest memes and tropes. What is the actual evidence for their race baiting and Anglophobia and what is ‘oikophobia’? What is this ‘twisted’ ideology? A twisting of what?
I don’t expect any answers as in fact, you do not listen, let alone ‘challenge’ and ‘debate’, so this is rhetorical as is pretty much any response. You state something then invariably cut and run, refusing to address any of the even genuine and serious questions asked of your posts.
It’s precisely because I don’t want civil unrest that I speak out. I have been on the receiving end of riots. I have seen the results of extreme violence.
I have lived in two divided cities. I have seen the horror of sectarianism. I have seen the results of Islamist violence at first hand.
The obsessive reference to the “far-right” is a sham to cover up more extreme ideologically driven politics of the establishment globalists.
What is “far-right”? Who are the “far-right”?
Who actually has the power, and how are they using it?
Do you take the view that perhaps the current form of one-person, one-vote is wrong because the working class non-graduates may choose the “wrong” political representatives?
Word Salad Steve!
@SteveH, yet ‘Family, Community and Country’ are the three things you’ve told us you spent most of your life fleeing, to enjoy Good Times With Hard Men as an globalist mercenary for anti-democratic regimes.
I watched a documentary on Sophie Scholl which recounted the reactions of university students to Gauleiter Paul Giesler’s drunken 1943 speech which your comments reminded me of, frothing against the educated elite while promoting a peculiar form of ‘family values’ and militarism:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Giesler
I mean, the British Empire which you venerate was the real globalist experiment, that explains why so many of its subjects (indoctrinated in Anglo-British history, language, culture, religion while their own was disparaged or eradicated) came here, often by invitation to staff essential services, or poached for their skills, or served during wartime.
Given the climate crisis, the nearness of explicit fascism in the not-at-all-democratic USA, the ongoing genocide in the Middle East, can anyone doubt we have reached a global “tipping point”–of which the UK exhibits its own, unmistakable, necrotic symptoms? Long overdue–let us hope it is not too late. But, as ever, it is up to us, the 99%, the commoners, the “salt of the earth,” to seize power while there is still time–and win a world in which we can all not only exist, but live. Good luck, comrades!
You clearly have no idea what real fascism is.
Perhaps you should find out. Try Mussolini’s and Gentile’s 1932 essay on fascism: “The Doctrine of Fascism”.
Please revisit my comment, which includes “nearness to fascism…” You characteristically overreach, sloppy hyperbole larded with rhetoric…do pay attention to what’s actually said, won’t you?
With this new party there is every chance at the next General Election that no party will get more than 25% of vote. Under the archaic FPTP system the number of seats won will be even more of a lottery than usual.
The last GE with Labour winning 2/3rd of seats with 1/3rd of votes cast showed how ridiculous FPTP has become with demise of two party system.
SteveH chucking a turd in a bag out the window and driving off.
“I laughed…” he tell us.
Never any reasoned argument. Never addressing any issue with factual information. Always the insult bingo: “Far Woke”, “Gaza Party”, “Viruses and Malware”, “Graduate Elites”.
This:
“By listening to the people – all the people, Reform will endeavour to restore a fairer, open, safe and prosperous nation.”
FFS Steve! Wake up. Your Reform UK Ltd councillors can’t even be arsed turning up for council meetings. That’s “endeavour” for you.
Something weird about the wild fluctuations in writing style too. Too much copy & paste or reliance on AI?
Can’t we crowd-fund a nice All-White island for SteveH and his Reform UK Ltd voting mates to live in? There would be no trouble. No fighting. Just family values and decency.
Not sure how I feel about this development.
God knows, an actual party of-and-for-the-people is sorely needed. But Corbyn has that pig-headed, purist approach that so many on the left have, and which is such a huge turn-off for many voters.
Sadly there are lots of unhappy, disenfranchised and deluded people who believe that Farage’s Ltd company gives one f**k about ordinary people. They will continue to vote against their own best interests because they think the “enemy” is delivering their Amazon parcel or nursing their elderly relative.
If any party is going to ignite a broad-spectrum of political support and offer genuine improvement in this country it is going to have to tell the truth and have real integrity.
This is a potentially very wealthy country that is being bled dry by extractive and destructive policies that favour a tiny number of vested interests. The evidence for this is our increasingly out-of-control inequality.
This new party needs to offer PR if it wants my vote.
Or ranked-choice voting, which was successfully used in New York City’s recent election, producing its most progressive nominee in memory. Do look into it.
Will do. Thanks.
How long did your optimism last? What depth of thought has gone into this new party, anyway? LAB, CON and ASS bringing up the rear?
I wonder what the new party’s position on independence will be. If it were to support it, or at least support Scotland’s (and Wales’) right to self-determination, it could be a game-changer.
I am pretty sure that the best way of getting Westminster agreement to an independence referendum is by parties supporting the right of Holyrood to call one holding the balance of power at Westminster. If this new party accepts this principle it may help with that aim.
My understanding from the Scottish organiser (who has written for Bella) is that they will be pro independence. I’m trying to get more details and will post on them as I get them.
Keep up your superb coverage and analysis–it goes onto Bluesky as soon as I see it.
Not a chance, LOL. Staggering naivety.
@Editor, where does this crowd stand on the monarchy? Presumably some are republicans unhappy to swear allegiance to the monarch, like Labour MP Clive Lewis, but do they have a collective position (as yet)? I mean, republicanism is pretty much a political touchstone:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Touchstone_(metaphor)
You cannot logically have leftwing royalists.
Hopefully the tipping point that leads to a lightbulb moment for the vast majority of people in Scotland…..everyone, left, right and centre is declaring Westminster broken!
Another party gaining traction will only make it easier for the elite’s to choose and fund and win absolute power in a first past the post system.
The frustration with no representation will continue and lead to destructive conflict.
In Scotland we can choose a different path. An Independent government designed to give everyone a voice through proportional representation where the best outcomes for its citizens are delivered via constructive conflict, collaboration and consensus.
P.S. Choosing a different path = supporting, developing, re-energising, joining and voting for the SNP
why don’t you just pt a bit more effort into supporting the SSP??? they have been around for years, with proven commitment.