Are You Now Or Have You Ever Been...?

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...a member of a political party?

― Tom, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was a member of the Labour party from 1991 til 1995. Disillusionment kicked in after that.

― Pete, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I say this because I got my party card from the Lib Dems this morning. This is the second time I've been a member of the Lib Dems - I was from 1991-1992 - I got free membership in return for canvassing for them in the winter before the 92 election (a fat lot of good that did). This time I applied one morning via the website and had completely forgotten about it until this morning.

― Tom, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

In college I got endlessly badgered by the Socialist Worker party. Being of a riotous bent, some of us had organised protest marches across town and that to protest against student fees/our student union who'd been screwing us about. And then the bluddy SWP came along with their loudhailers and copies of The Socialist Worker and did bugger all apart from lurk around bugging people to sign up to their precious party ALL DAY. And sold a few papers which I doubt anyone ever read. Disillusioned with them pretty much instantly.

― Sarah, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I don't think they'd have me in any of those "proper" political parties. And I can't think of what a great contribution I'd make to one apart from lining a few more pockets.

― Sarah, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Oh, so you'll open that kind of mail...

― Pete, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A-ha, Pete! No! It was an envelope saying "Lib Dems" with "Your Party Card is enclosed" printed on it. It's great when organisations are so understanding of my mail policies.

― Tom, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I think I might have been in CND for a year or so. On the other hand, given my "come friendly bombs and fall on me" stance, I might just have hung with a buncha CNDers during that time. One of them was the brother of the drummer in New Model Army.

― mark s, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i find it so difficult to identify myself with a political group. at college there was a small "left" group but they were so ineffectual and contradictory (this was the 80s) that I had to leave. I once suggested a speaker from the fabian society (fabian = left wing and intelligent) but was told they were too right wing. hmph.

I'd like to consider the SWP thing in theory, but in practice, there's something about SWP memebers that irks me. maybe just a coincidence. In Mark Steel's recent book he makes it sound OK. Anyone else read that?

― Alan Trewartha, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I can't really see the point unless you want to become really involved (obviously tom has a secret plan to become an mp or something). Because I have only been able to vote approaching a year, I get loads of party mail (not from Labour though because they don't stand a chance round here) and filling in their surveys annoys me...I'm not really sure why I bother to, to be honest.

― Bill, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Become an MP with a huge trough of IL* postings a google away? Yeah right.

― Tom, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i think mark steel is a fool: on the night of the london mayoral elections, i saw him bested and floored by a nameless telly-bimbo airhead (and lose his tempoer somewhat, which made him look even more useless)

also he recently appeared on NEVER MIND THE BUZZCOCKS

i know several swp-ers, inc. two quite "important" ones, ie they have written books (they are hackney near-neighbours: i have oft-times — well twice — seen paul foot dropping in for tea). as ppl i pretty much like them, but i think the gap between their hopes and intentions and their tactical-strategic instincts is super-vast

― mark s, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

he certainly makes a fool of himself at times, but he's no fool in the fuller sense. i miss his guardian stuff.

― Alan Trewartha, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was a member of the Labour Party for a couple years in the mid-90s, mostly because my dad bullied me into it ("If the Tories win again it will be all your fault.") When someone from the party came around a while later to ask why I hadn't renewed my membership, my list of complaints was long and varied indeed. I've been a member of CND twice, I think (mid '80s and late '80s), and some anti-apartheid things back in the day. Now my only affiliation is to the NUJ. Oh, and Alan, don't join a Trotskyite party, not unless you've got a bad haircut and annoying habits already. It's funny, once you get away from a university campus you can go years without noticing that the SWP still exists.

― Mark Morris, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

do you? he only has one joke device! i fink he's a poor writer (repetitive and unimaginative) and a LOUSY political thinker — his balkans war stuff probably sent more people pro-war than vice versa (no way to prove this, obviously)

― mark s, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was in the Lego club for a long time. Bacame a master builder (yes, I have the badge to prove it). Lego is and was one of the most perfect forms of democracy. You could follow the rules or build whatever the hell you like, and no one mind...unless you broke the golden rule.

― james, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

The Lego Club is surely not a political party or grouping of any kind unless those devious Scandos have plans I am unaware of.

― Tom, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm currently a member of the Labour party...no, wait, come back! I joined in 1996 in a foolhardy attempt to impress a fwend, and I haven't paid my membership fee since. But they won't kick me out! I are wanting to leave, but they won't let me!

― DG, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm a member of Fine Gael, thats our main opposition party over here at the mo. The reason I'm a member is cos my uncle is the leader at the moment.

My parents used to dream of grooming me for a career in politics but I keep telling them I'm not interested in being diplomatic, thats why I'm a journalist. I would love the spin side of politics though.

― Ronan, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A similar thing happened to me. I joined in prolly about 1995 or so and then wanted to leave but they wouldn't let me. I had to send them loads of letters, at first polite and all but gradually getting increasingly irked until finally they released me into the wild where I could run amongst the daisies and be apolitcal. Admittedly, I've not quite got round to running amongst the daisies yet...

― jamesmichaelward, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am a Democrat. Surprise, surprise, surprise.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I have been a Marxist Lenninist in my yoof
I was a member of the Alliance party for years becaause a buddy asked me what i wanted as a christmas gift and i said i wanted to be offended
Now? None

― anthony, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I seem to be a lifetime member of the Socialist Workers Party, despite never having paid them any money. I used to be a member of the Miscellaneous Workers Party until the cunts were having a protest one day that resulted in me being stuck in traffic for 45 minutes, 3 cars back from them.

― toraneko, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Are all the SWPs in difft countries actually in any way related? eg the UK one = routinely described as Trot but actually v.sniffy about this, as T*ny Cliff broke with Trotsky over StateCap and the USSR not being a "degenerated workers' state" as LT insisted: we are "neo-Leninists", they will insist (except for the Luxemburgists, currently in eclipse).

― mark s, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

mark s, re Mark steel

I half agree with you (well a quarter). He is repetitious and does indeed only have the one comedy "trope" which does get on your nerves some. I obviously disagree with you about his political thinking, but then i don't fully agree with Mark Steel either. which brings me back to what I was saying about not really identifying with any political group.

To be honest i'm too mimsy is what it comes down to. One of the usual liberal crowd who wants to do well, but can't say too precisely what it is i do want. A sort of Belle and Sebastian approach to politics.

― Alan Trewartha, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

by political thinking, i don't mean "what MS believes" so much as "how MS connects it up or gets it across", but actually this goes to the core of my disagreement w. the SWP: I think their concept of "party" is totally bonkers (eg leninist democractic centralism basically); and I think their strategies of persuasion are a disaster.

― mark s, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I registered to vote as an undeclared, non-party member. I intend to stick to that registration for the rest of my days.

― Ned Raggett, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

yep - aus labor party, then aus democrats...both are as fucked as any other party.

― Geoff, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

To answer Tom's question, Yes.

As to Mark's q' re the SWP, the US SWP is not related to the UK SWP. UK SWP = SU was capitalist. US SWP = SU is still communist(!). UK SWP used to = US ISO (International Socialist Organization) but they had a spat last year over who got to be the big shot, & they split with the UK taking most of the international sections. UK SWP now playing footsie with french LCR, which used to (then wasn't, then was again, then wasn't again) be with US SWP.

Also, UK SWP != democratic centralist. Rather, = anarchic incohate but nonetheless strictly regimented and commandist. Worst of both worlds, rilly.

Get it? Got it? Good.

― Encyclopedia Sterling, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Don't forget Workers Liberty & Spartacus both Swoppy splinter groups.

― Pete, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I am a registered member of the Donner Party.

― Kris, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

A sort of Belle and Sebastian approach to politics.

Now I have seen it all.

― Tracer Hand, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Spartacus from US SWP. WL from UK SWP. Others abound -- I just listed the info pertaining to Mark's question.

― Sterling Clover, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

"fat lot of good that did": aksherly 1992 was the year the Lib Dems took Cheltenham and Bath off the Tories, both very big news at the time because high-profile Conservatives were defeated - John Taylor failed to become the first black Tory MP (they're still waiting, no surprise) in Cheltenham and Chris Patten lost Bath - and also because this was a time when it was still assumed that such places (affluent, heritagised yada yada) would inevitably always be Tory. In retrospect, of course, those gains anticipated a decade of Lib Dem advance and Tory decline (the starting point was probably the LDs gaining Eastbourne in the by-election that followed the murder of Ian Gow by the IRA in 1990, even though that seat has been Tory again since '92). Would you have bet on the Tories *ever* losing Winchester or Guildford in the early 90s, Tom?

I prefer not to claim formal allegiance with any political party, because I see myself as an independent left-of-centre thinker and I don't want to be trapped by dogma. I think most people here know what I think, and that I feel closer to the Lib Dems than any other mainstream UK party, but I find it interesting that the most intelligent and informed thinkers on political newsgroups, from what I see of them, are those who don't associate themselves with any one particular party above all others.

― Robin Carmody, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm a libertarian socialist with syndacalist leanings, I'm very shy at parties.

― Ed, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Was briefly member of Leeds NE Labour Party. Am member of Dutch Groen Links 'Green Left' but not at all active.

― stevo, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'd be a Libertarian when I turned 18 if they were more interesting, but as they're not, I won't align myself. The awful thing about NY state is that you can't vote in primaries unless you are a registered Republican or Democrat.

― Maria, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i used to be a member of the green party and i did a whole heap of stupid stuff behind the scenes for them. i left when the policies became more imperialistic and anti-scientific and when they started to become a mere political party.

In reply to the above stuff, trots are the same the world over, even the ones that won't admit they're trots. Lots of the trot parties around the world are affiliated and there are rival affiliations between trot parties that are virtually indistiguishable to outsiders.

― hamish, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I vote Green first because I think the trees and possums are the only things worthy of being saved but I would never be a member of them because I hate all their other policies.

Anyway, I'm a total fascist so no one is ever going to correctly represent my views. I feel abandoned.

― toraneko, Friday, 19 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

haha trees and possums haha. oh are you a foreigner? maybe it wasn't meant to be funny.

― hamish, Saturday, 20 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I refuse to be a member of a political party. I think they can all suck deze nutz.

― Dan Perry, Saturday, 20 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Robin: yes but I was not canvassing in Cheltenham and Bath.

― Tom, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I'm foreign to you, I'm Australian, and we have really cute, tiny, grey possums that should be saved as well as those feral bushy & ring tailed ones.

― toraneko, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

As long as yer not a Republican, and don't aid and abet Republicans ...

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

We don't have republicans. Oh, hang on, yes we do - here they are.

They are the ones that don't want us to be a monarchy anymore. We had a referendum a year or two ago and the monarchy won - it was really strange.

― toraneko, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

They are the ones that don't want us to be a monarchy anymore.

And here it's the reverse ... the slavish followers of King George the Turd.

― Tadeusz Suchodolski, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

i believe the monarchists one because the alternative was a dictatorship.

― hamish, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

I was a member of the Radical Society at my university, but I didn't like how we all had to sit in a circle and contribute something.

― Luke, Sunday, 21 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Sorry for the misunderstanding, Tom. I thought you were referring to the Lib Dems' *national* performance in 1992, rather than their doubtless poor performance in your home constituency which is, IIRC, Mole Valley.

― Robin Carmody, Tuesday, 23 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

no, but I R founding the Fatnick party at next election!

― I R political fatnick, Tuesday, 23 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

Well more local than that actually - the council ward was up for grabs and we thought we could swing it, but the local Tory councillor lived on my street and was very well loved - managed to combine a sentimental green belt environmentalism with strong Thatcherism, two things which play well in Surrey, and she was a sweet old woman too. So no luck.

― Tom, Tuesday, 23 October 2001 00:00 (twenty-four years ago)

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