Political parties

[Kevin McCarthy’s opponents have come from various factions of the Republican party © Jose Luis Magana/AP]

This being prompted by the piece at reference 1.

Government by political parties is the choice of much of the world, with much of that much operating a more or less peaceful system of multiple political parties, either operating by themselves - as, for example, in the UK or the US - or in coalitions - as, for example, in much of Europe. With part of the deal being that all power corrupts and so no one party should be in power for too long. A system brought to its present pitch in this country in the course of the nineteenth century. Centuries before that, parties were called factions and cliques and were thought by many to be unpatriotic.

In both the UK and the US parties are very cohesive, so if you are in the party you stick to the party line - whatever that might be - and you do not cross party lines when voting in parliament - whatever form that might take. Which can get a bit sticky when you have two dominant parties with roughly equal numbers of seats in parliament. When the voters, in their wisdom, have not given a clear mandate to either of them.

So here in the UK, this meant that the Labour Party voted against every Brexit deal that Prime Minister May was able to cook up, leaving the outcome to the mercy of fringe - and not so fringe - elements in the Conservative Party. There might have been a better outcome for the country had the Labour Party supported what was, from its point of view, the least bad option on the table, rather than just voting against everything, in the vain hope of toppling the Conservative Party, forcing and then winning a general election.

While today in the US, I read that the Democrats are voting against every Republican on offer as Speaker of the House, leaving that outcome to the mercy of fringe elements in the Republican Party - some of which, to UK eyes, look very fringe indeed. The Democrats are not open, it seems, to doing some kind of a deal on the matter, despite the option of a Democratic Speaker not being not being anywhere near the table. They, like our own Labour Party, would rather make trouble than move on.

Now while it is true that the party system has a lot going for it, I think that shenanigans of this sort are not helpful. And, taken to extremes, open the door to populists, autocrats and worse.

References

Reference 1: House at impasse as McCarthy fails to clinch Speaker post after six ballots: Trump’s plea for Republican party unity fails to break stalemate with proceedings set to continue for a third day - Lauren Fedor, Financial Times - 2023.

Reference 2: https://joseluismagana.com/about.html. Some entertaining shots to be found under the entertainment tab.