Two cabinet ministers 'interested in new anti-Brexit party idea' (allegedly)

[T_i_B]

It's silly season, and top of the silly season stories in UK politics right now is James Chapman. A Tory Westminster insider who has split from his former boss David Davis in spectacular fashion. Chapman is currently making all sorts of wild claims on Twitter. https://twitter.com/jameschappers?lang=en Some of his claims are plausible but cannot be substantiated, other claims he makes are downright ludicrous.

The idea of a new centrist party is attractive to some people, but faces a number of obstacles, most notably the fact that we already have a pro EU "centre" party in the Liberal Democrats, and I don't think an unelected bag carrier with a huge ego and a penchant for tweeting incessantly is the man to pull off any kind of Macron-esque feat. Especially when he comes across as being as "post-truth" as any other political reprobate out there.

https://www.theguardian.com/politics/2017/aug/11/two-cabinet-ministers-interested-in-new-anti-brexit-party-james-chapman

A former aide to David Davis and George Osborne claims two serving cabinet ministers have expressed interest in his idea of forming a centrist party aimed at blocking Brexit. James Chapman stepped up his online campaign for a proposed “Democrats” party he has been mounting while on holiday in Greece, saying Brexit signalled the demise of the Conservatives. A number of serving, former and shadow cabinet ministers contacted Chapman after he posted a series of provocative tweets this week, he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

He said: “Two people in the cabinet, a number of people who have been in Conservative cabinets before now – better cabinets, I might say, than the current one – and a number of shadow cabinets ministers have also been in touch. They are not saying they are going to quit their parties, but they are saying they understand that there is an enormous gap in the centre now of British politics.”

Chapman, a former political editor of the Daily Mail who works for the PR firm Bell Pottinger, said the Conservative brand had been so tarnished by Brexit that it would never win a working majority again.

He said Labour and the Conservatives had been taken over by extremists. Appearing alongside the Tory MP and leading Brexiter Jacob Rees-Mogg, Chapman said: “The two main parties have been captured by their fringes, and Jacob is a member of that fringe and he has captured my party and I don’t any longer want to be a part of it.

[Ken Burch]

1. Basically, it sounds like a way to reinvent the SDP and "New Labour"

Same elitism, same subservience to greed with the same pretense that mild social liberalism staying in the EU at all costs makes that not matter. Same willingness to be Churchill on bath salts on foreign policy.

Nice one.

[T_i_B]

3. This can only be refuted with hard evidence

And hard evidence is something that is sorely lacking for this proposal.

There is another issue for any new pro-EU party, which is one currently facing the Liberal Democrats. The issue is the need for a broad platform rather than just harping away about one single issue (it may be an issue that impacts everything else, but all the same, bringing up the EU in a debate about healthcare for example is not a wholly good look).

What would a new party's philosophy actually be? How would they make Britain a better place to live? What is their vision for Britain?

This is the thing that many "centrists" (by 'eck that term gets on my wick) need to grasp.

[LeftishBrit]

2. I think there should be more cross-party collaboration against Brexit and other far-right ideas

Problem with a new party is that, given the British political system, it would just split the anti-Brexit/ anti-Tory/ anti-May vote all the more.

Would be nice to see a couple of Cabinet members resign and rebel, however.

[T_i_B]

4. And another one!

James Chapman's plans for a new centrist party never got off the ground, now it's the turn of The Economist's Berlin Bureau Chief Jeremy Cliffe to come up with a new centrist party, this time called "The Radicals". I follow this chap on Twitter and whilst his analysis of European (especially German) politics is very good, he often doesn't seem to grasp that radical policies need to be for a purpose, not just for the sake of being radical.

https://radicalsuk.com/about/

One of the main political running jokes of 2017 is people launching centrist, pro-European liberal parties, while Liberal Democrats shout "WE'RE OVER HERE".

[Denzil_DC]

5. I saw some of Cliffe's Tweets after the flurry of activity.

There seemed to be some confusion (maybe mine) about whether he was proposing a new party or an extra-parliamentary "movement" of some sort.

There's certainly a need to tap into and channel the rising Remain sentiment out there somehow.

The Lib Dems may have the policies on paper, but they're not even the third largest party at Westminster nowadays (another pro-Remain party is, though not a UK-wide force) and I'm not detecting much impact from their stance, let alone electoral rewards for it.

[T_i_B]

6. It's worth looking at the Liberal Democrats problems...

....and understanding that as damaging as the Lib Dem involvement in the coalition was (especially on tuition fees) that is not the Liberal Democrats only underlying problem.

The need to become known for a platform that looks beyond the EU issue to appeal to people who are not as obsessed by it as myself is a major problem and one that will be an even greater issue for a new centrist party. The need for a coherent underlying philosophy is actually quite important here.

[Denzil_DC]

7. I suspect there'd be more likelihood of an immediate impact

(bearing in mind how short the deadlines to Brexit are) from a single-issue organization that drew together the various voices - business, social issue, ordinary voters/"grassroots" - than an attempt at founding another political party, with the attendant risks of inconvenient vote-splitting.

There's no shortage of prominent figures willing to pop up with some regularity and proclaim about what's going on - from Heseltine to Blair and even grislier - and evidence of some cross-party work in the Commons and Lords, but no co-ordinated messaging. That free-form style can be a strength in certain circumstances (e.g. the semi-plausible deniability it gave some in the Leave camp to distance themselves from claims of others on their side), but I'm not sure that applies now.

[T_i_B]

8. Herding cats...

One of the major failings of the "Stronger In" campaign was it's failure to forge a successful alliance from across the political spectrum.

Part of that was failings from the campaign itself, but also you have large swathes of our society who are less than keen on working with each other, which allows tribalist demagogues to get the upper hand.

[Denzil_DC]

9. Indeed.

It was an odd situation to say the least.

I'd usually expect the status quo to have the upper hand in any proposed change of this magnitude (see Scottish independence referendum). But it was an insuperable uphill task beating back against the many years of anti-EU propaganda.

Add the anti-incumbency and anti-"Establishment" dimension (somehow, figures gone rogue like featherbedded retired investment banker Farage, MP and ex-Etonian London Mayor Boris Johnson and the various multi-millionaires/billionaires dotted around the Leave campaign escaped being tarnished as Establishment) along with truly awful coverage of the issues in the media, and good old-fashioned xenophobia, and the result was less of a surprise.