Party Vibe

Unfortunately labour has abandoned so many of its core socialist principles whilst the current Tory party has actually shifted leftwards (similar to its stance in the early 1970s pre-Thatcho) so its hardly surprising this happens.

also the areas you mention have recently become surprisingly prosperous (at least before the recession) and are doing better than some parts of London – the North has done a very good job of wrestling away work from the South and East, particularly frontline office work what can’t be easily outsourced to foreign lands or causes a backlash due to language barriers and racism (think of insurance call centres etc).

having lived through the last lot of tory governments I don’t think its just “protest votes”,
Once people have a bit of extra cash in their pockets they want to hold on to it (especially if they feel it is under threat) and many feel that the Tories are the best party for business.

greens and socialists are unpopular because people think they will have to pay extra taxes for stuff what they don’t agree with or they are “soft on criminals”…

at present its not even that bad – when I was boothys age living in South London the BNP didn’t win council seats, they paraded the streets in military uniform in broad daylight and attacked anyone what was non-white

also they infiltrated the normally left wing unionised Royal Mail in some areas and if someone had a foreign sounding name all their post would be delivered torn in half (more chilling as it also meant they obviously knew that persons home address)

left wing activists regularly used to get petrol through the letter box and matches thrown in, to the point the met told them to take up their inside carpets and remove flammable stuff from the hallway so the petrol would burn out harmlessly on a concrete floor

they even infiltrated some parts of the rave scene and tried to destroy it!

at least if a rise in race related violence occurs in places where BNP councillors are it sticks out like a sore thumb and shows them for what they are, whereas 17 years ago this was explained away as “normal criminality amongst the working classes”

nah the only progress in British society has been technological progress and maybe a grudging increase in freedom of speech/expression which could be rolled back at any time

deep down the social mindsets have not changed in this country since the 1940s/1950s, particularly some peoples belief in defined social and racial divisions and the supremacy of private enterprise and private property…

I was reading some article by George Orwell from 1944 and it was just as relevant today..

this is the paradox though, the left values “free speech” and is often against strict leadership and hierarchies so it always tends to fail when put up against more disciplined opponents from the right wing where everyone knows their place and unites against a common leader.

the (British) Greens have moved from being a middle class hippy party with strong links to the British landed gentry to a social democratic party, but on one side they are still seen as too radical by the bulk of people, particularly their “soft on crime and drugs” stance, on another the amount of middle class rich supporters makes the working classes slightly suspicious of them.

For instance, there are loads of green supporters in the countryside bit between where I live and where josh and damo live but they are all middle aged yoghurt weavers, nearly households led by women in their fifties with grown up children, big country houses where they grow all their own produce etc… many aren’t even locals but have come here from London etc…