Respect’s Burst Balloon
Posted by jonathanfryer on Saturday, 8th May, 2010
One of the stories of the general election that has got somewhat lost under the radar in all the speculation about post-election deals is the collapse of the Respect party. My earstwhile opponent in Poplar & Limehouse, George Galloway, was confidently predicting that Respect would come out of the elections with three MPs. But the actual result was zero. Zilch. Even the rather impressive Salma Yaqoob failed to make a breakthough in Birmingham. George himself came third and bottled out of coming to the election declaration. So much for all the pizazz and bombast of the Respect bus that blasted the street of our bprough for days on end. His counterpart in Bethnal Green & Bow (George’s old seat) also came third, behind the Liberal Democrats. Most striking of all, Respect managed to elect just one councillor in Tower Hamlets (the Council George said they were going to seize from Labour). Not one got elected in Newham (which is now a truly One Party State; every single councillor is Labour). Respect was behind the petition to get a directly-elected Mayor in Tower Hamlets, which will reportedly trigger an election in October this year. Will they put up George, or is he soiled goods? Will they put up a candidate at all, now their balloon has been burst?
Jonathan Fryer 
Paul H said
You don’t say but I infer that you think the collapse of the Respect vote is a good thing. Someone who stands for new politics and a fairer electoral system might be expected to feel at least ambivalent about this. Opposition to the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq was expressed in massive mobilisations in 2003. Those continuing military adventures, as successes, have turned out badly. Yet opposition was only reflected imperfectly by the major parties, and there are a rash of other issues (housing, poverty, inequality, privatisation, the bursting of the credit bubble) where the major parties including the Lib Dems are very close together. Minority parties have always found it difficult to make a breakthrough in our parliamentary system, and the Lib Dems’ experience in this election writes this large, even if you end up in government. There is a whole body of opinion unrepresented.
I don’t like Galloway and didn’t like the foundation of Respect. All the same all this looks like closing down alternatives, and a disincentive to participation.
jonathanfryer said
Yes, I do think the collapse of the Respect vote was a good thing, Paul, mainly because in Tower Hamlets Respect often acted as a divisive force (especially George Galloway), whereas what the borough needs is greater cooperation on vital issues such as better social and community cohesion. I am not opposed to small parties per se by any means. I think it is healthy that the Greens managed to get one MP this time, fo example, despite Britain’s slanted election system. There were actually 10 different candidates in Poplar & Limehouse this time (though no BNP, interestingly), but only one campaigned negatively and made some really unpleasant personal attacks on the sitting MP.