My favourite Labour supporting blogger, Sunny Hundal (left), has decided to join the Labour Party for a number of reasons that, I’m sure, make perfect sense to him in his own head. If you’re interested, his profoundly unmoving post on the subject is here.
This appears to have tickled my interest: Why would anyone want to join a political party?
I left the Liberal Democrats at the beginning of this year and all I really appear to have lost is the ability to not win Lib Dem Voice’s Blog of the Year award, or feature in Iain Dale’s list of Lib Dem blogs… boo hoo! Party membership (well, of Labour or the Conservatives) does have advantages for political bloggers who want attention. Perhaps Sunny can expect more appearances on the BBC as the representative of Labour’s Grassroots, which isn’t bad work if he can get it.
After all, the official job of the political blogosphere is for people to dress up in party colours and throw their own turds at each other until they each die of old age, but not before teaching this important and critically useful skill to the next generation. People want to see what the real nutters and crazies are like when they’re not media trained and not watching what they say. Every post is a mini, magical car crash and we’re all ghoulishly waiting for the next one.
Sunny can now join this wonderful game. Good for him.
But the biggest scam people fall for when they join a party is this idea that they can ‘change it from the inside’ which is a very cute idea but is essentially very much like buying a lottery ticket in order to stimulate the economy with the millions you’ll win.
Take the Liberal Democrats, for example. Here’s a party in which members are actually able to vote on stuff and set the party policy… but wait! First you need to be a voting rep, which is a gift from the local party. If you’re one of the lucky chosen few then you’re still just one vote. Power? It’s nothing of the sort.
That, however, is the most democratic of the main parties. Labour? You don’t even get that.
The only real power anyone in Labour or affiliate organisations really has is the power to give it money, then shut up while their betters use that money to ignore them and their crazy ideas and do exactly what the marketing people tell them.
Q: At which point does the opinion of the chumps who bankroll the whole business come into “how to reach A, B and C in the most cost effective way possible?”
A: Ha. Haha. You’re funny.
No, what you’re really buying with your hard earned/easily sponged money is the ability to change from saying, “they” to “we” and suddenly have your opinion discounted by the ‘not we’ as party political nonsense that isn’t worth a damn.
Joy!
But, all joking and cynicism aside… gosh darn it, knowing all the good that the Party will accomplish with that £10 you paid to join brings a warm fuzzy glow to your heart, doesn’t it?
