![\"\"](\"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/05\/nigel-farage.jpg\")
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Commenting on the May 1st byelections in England – Could the two party Labour and Tory dominated political system be over?<\/strong><\/a> – Richard Murphy had this to say of rising support <\/span>1<\/sup><\/a><\/span> for Nigel Farage’s far right Reform Party:<\/p>\n I agree, but Professor Murphy goes on to offer a remedy I see as akin to aspirin for cancer:<\/p>\n My response to such arguments is the same as that to British republicans: worthy cause, and I’m all for it. But if you think the root of all that is rotten in our politics is FPTP, or the secretive shenanigans of the House of Windsor, you need to look a lot deeper my friend!”<\/p>\n For a less superficial assessment of the state not only of Britain’s sham democracy but those of the West at large (embracing both first-past-the-post duopolies like Britain and America, and proportional representation in much of Western Europe <\/span>2<\/sup><\/a><\/span> ) I offer that of Chris Hedges in Let’s stop pretending America is a functioning democracy<\/strong><\/a>. With only minor adjustments his words apply across the West at large.<\/p>\n Those who think class rule was shown the door by universal suffrage are much mistaken, while those who believe class rule compatible with meaningful democracy live in cloud cuckoo land.<\/p>\n * * *<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Commenting on the May 1st byelections in England – Could the two party Labour and Tory dominated political system be over? – Richard Murphy had this to say of rising support for Nigel Farage’s far right Reform Party: [Labour and … Read More »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,24],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-145745","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-politics-general","category-politics-uk"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145745","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145745"}],"version-history":[{"count":37,"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145745\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":145789,"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145745\/revisions\/145789"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145745"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145745"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelcityscribblings.uk\/wp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145745"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}[Labour and the Tories] have failed, and let’s be blunt, it is neoliberalism<\/a>\u00a0<\/span>that has failed them. Putting up sock puppets, people who have no opinion, nothing to say, who’ve only learned the party line, who can only repeat the maxims that have been handed down to them by head office, or report the latest text message that they’ve had on what they must say; those people will never endear themselves to an electorate. The electorate has rumbled that that is what they’re being given. They realise that these people have no opinions of their own and no ability to deliver on their behalf because they’re so out of touch with the reality of life, and the consequence is they won’t vote for them …<\/h6>\n
… Reform is the answer to no conceivable political question in UK politics. But when the Tories and Labour, and to a very large degree, the Liberal Democrats have no answers either, and the Green Party still remain out in the wilderness with regard to its economic policy, people are left devoid of political choice.<\/h6>\n
… they’re not voting and won’t again until given a voting system that lets them express their opinion. That is the crisis facing the UK and its democracy, and its governance, and its very future. Without electoral reform, we’re deluding ourselves and heading into a ghastly pit of neo-fascism and actual fascism, which is what Reform represents.<\/h6>\n
Politics is a tawdry carnival act where a constant jockeying by the ruling class dominates the news. The real business of ruling is hidden, carried out by corporate lobbyists who write the legislation, banks that loot the Treasury, the war industry and an oligarchy that determines who gets elected and who does not. It is impossible to vote against the interests of Goldman Sachs, the fossil fuel industry or Raytheon, no matter which party is in office. <\/span>3<\/sup><\/a><\/span><\/h6>\n