Sunny Hundal, over at my favourite blog, Liberal Conspiracy, has always given the impression of wanting to be Britain’s answer to Markos Moulitsas Zúniga, the founder of DailyKos – the leader of an online grassroots of progressive political activists. Not quite there yet though, it seems.

Unfortunately for Sunny, Markos’ success came from running the leading anti-Government blog whilst at the same time being equally critical of the DNC and the sorts of candidates they were selecting (like Hilary Clinton with dubious records on Iraq) and wanting to get fresh faced people like Obama selected instead (with good track records on Iraq). Liberal Conspiracy, on the other hand, rarely has anything new to say or anything interesting to bring to political debate. It’s the same old, “The state should do this!!!” concept repeated ad-infinitum, convinced the failure of the left is due to the specific implementations or the personalities of their leaders.

Wrong. All that fretting and worrying about policy is such a complete waste of time. I’ve heard it over and over on Labour Home, I’ve heard it over and over on Labour List and it’s been done to death on Liberal Conspiracy. All of them looking for the new idea, the new brilliant policy that’s going to somehow going to reinvent the left, bringing together the benefits of redistribution and a monolithic public sector without economic stagnation, unemployment, crushing of innovation, a welfare subculture, Government enabled Monopoly corporations and all this without the authoritarianism and ‘unfortunate’ need to take as much wealth as possible from as many sources as possible to pay for all these adventures and ideas.

In short, there’s no way to ‘reinvent’ this crap. It’s a flawed, morally bankrupt premise that depends on people being willing to allow the state to decide who wins and who loses – shafting one group in order to boost another. It amazes me that people still believe it’s possible to make this hideous faith system work in the real world without experiencing exactly the same outcomes over and over again.

So while DailyKos is community generated and focused on real action that people can take, Liberal Conspiracy is a collaborative blog desperate to figure out ways of ‘reinventing’ the failed ideology of Social Democracy.

DailyKos was a successful campaigning tool not because of policies and ideas, but because they threw their full weight behind what they knew to be a highly attractive candidate for grassroots Democrats – Barack Obama.  So it’s not a new Democratic Party in terms of policy. It’s a new Democratic Party in terms of presentation.

I’ve long argued that the Left doesn’t need reinventing: The malaise of the Labour Party and the left in general has come not from a failure of ideas, but complete lack of that kind of charismatic leader that can blag the British people into renewing their subscription to “Marxist Bollocks Monthly” Brown’s complete lack of charisma and ability to communicate exposes the emptiness of the ideology underneath. There’s nothing there, at all, and without the pretty smile and handsome charm of a true Progressive Leader, this ugly truth is left naked for all to see. Long may Brown continue in his role.

If Liberal Conspiracy really wants to reinvigorate the Left, all it needs to do is find that charismatic new leader. If you want power Sunny, it’s yours – just find the leader, that’s it, and embrace the inner Authoritarian and spank your Command Economy monkey to your heart’s content. Just don’t pretend you’re achieving anything else.

Turns out I’m not actually registered to vote. Oh well. Can’t say I’m not more than just a little relieved at being excused from having to go do a duty vote for the Lib Dems or, actually, gasp, consider who else I might vote for.

Truth is no matter how the elections turn out, it’ll be politicians that win. Some lucky people are about to get a very well paying job on the public purse for which there’s no scrutiny, no expectations and no accountability.

I decided to do some digging around to remind myself what MEPs are for. I’d looked it up before but clearly it hadn’t stuck. Worrying.

Turns out there’s a European Parliament, and it has the power to amend, reject or approve legislation. The legislation appears to come from the Council of Ministers (aka the ‘Consilium’ … very “His Dark Materials”-esque) which is where Ministers from each state turn up and propose things – for example, British Ministers go to the EU and demand that Emails and Internet records should be monitored. The Consilium passes this to the European Parliament, it gets debated, approved and then becomes law. Back at home a statutory instrument is drafted that makes the EEC directive law here and, magic, the British Government ‘have no choice’ but to implement this legislation, however they personally might feel about out, the poor things. The EU gets the blame, and the Government gets to spy on people’s internet activity.

Within the various political areas where the EU has authority, they can do anything, it seems.

One alternative to the current system would be to make enforcement of EU directives and rules voluntary. Of course, that would be ‘unfair’ and give an advantage to the countries that opt-out. But what of the EU as a whole, this paradise of worker’s rights, clean water and controlled substances? How do we compete with China, India or America when we’re collectively agreeing to make the EU the most expensive and difficult place on earth to do any kind of business what-so-ever?

It’s easy to see why most libertarians consider the downsides of EU membership (more regulations and taxes) outweight the benefits of a “Free” trade zone and see pulling out of this union to be the only way to prevent Britain being dragged down, as they inevitably will be, with the rest of the EU. There will be consequences for withdrawal, that’s for certain: Expect a great wall of protectionism against British trade and people. That’d be bad. There’d also be the loss of a contrarian and difficult voice within the EU, leaving it even more strongly dominated by Social Democratic politicians across Europe.

There’s also something inherently grating about rich EU countries subsidising the poor EU countries, a sort of intra-national redistribution. I cannot stand people getting something which they have not earned.

I’d like to think it would be possible for Britain to reform the EU, to remake it into something else, something that will bring prosperity and wealth to Europe, but alas I am extremely pessimistic about this. A few British MEPs do not have this sort of power.

The first step might be to start shining a light on the activities of the Consilium (what are British ministers proposing and approving over there?) and how are our MEPs voting? Is this the fault of our media, or the EU? When you look at EU documents they are so impossibly complex that they make British legislation look like it’s writing in a formal, conversational style. Secrecy through obfuscation and needless complexity?

Either way, until there’s some real transparency and accountability brought to bear the only winners of the EU Elections are politicians and bureaucrats and this bohemoth political entity providing employment for the same. I’m glad I can’t vote this time.

#5 – We still have a Private Sector

Hurray for evil Capitalists doing things for profit. It may be a shrinking part of the economy, but it still manages to pay for itself and the entire public sector. Try not to think too hard about what could be done with all that money if that wasn’t the case – you’ll only upset yourself

#4 – The Internet is still Free

Sure, as an unregulated, untaxed system allowing full and uncontrolled access to pretty much anything and everything – the ultimate in lassez faire frameworks for communications and trade – it’s hard to believe, really, that it’s being tolerated at all. For now, however, it’s still Free. Just.

#3 – Labour are nearly gone

Back with you! Back to the wilderness to have a good, hard long think about the evils of populism, the stupidity of authoritarianism and the value of civil liberties you evil, lying twats.

#2 – The Battle in the UK, 2009, is not Communists Versus Fascists

Seriously with a choice like that I hope I do get dragged off and shot. Hard to believe it’s not actually that long ago when this was reality for some in Europe. Gah. Away with the lot of ye!

#1 – The Leader of the UK Fascist Movement is a Bug-Eyed Loser

Hitler was shouty and charismatic, able to inspire and motivate people into actually going off and killing, which is why he’s history’s number one villian. Griffin, on the other hand, odious turd that he is, continues to give the impression of a McDonald’s Duty Manager or a used car salesman. Nationalism and Socialism, probably my two least favourite ideologies, munged together and represented by this guy? I’m sorry, I just can’t bring myself to be scared.

Nick Clegg’s gone on a PR rampage (the ‘public relations’ kind) with a clever wheeze of demanding MPs give up their Summer Holiday to find the time to fix the expenses crisis.

One of the suggestions is abolishing the House of Lords to be replaced with an elected senate. I have mixed feelings about this – obviously as a retirement home for former MPs and a holiday camp for big donors it’s fairly squallid.

Yet, at the same time, the Lords have been crucial in blocking the very worst of the Government’s anti-Civil Liberties legislation. “Don’t worry, it’ll never get past the Lords” has been the most reassuring 8 words on the political lexicon for a number of years now.

I quite like the idea of the Lords as a chamber immune to the temptation of populism for easy election victories.  Imagine if, right now, Labour had full control of both Houses. 96 days detention, with Labour Senators joining in in the dash for ‘anti-terrorist’ votes? I dread to think.

If we must have an elected second chamber, political parties must be banned from it. Of course, I’m yet to be convinced that making the second chamber elected won’t just fill it full of politicians anyway.

I return to a subject I glossed over a week ago – the rather unfortunate choice of the Houses of Parliament in the banner of Labourhome’s redesign. I still think, symbolically, it’s the wrong imagery sending the wrong message.

Alex Hilton replied: