Independents and single issue candidates

Jim Jepps

 

They speak their mind, they're not controlled by party whips or unseen forces... lots of people like the idea of an independent candidate but its a rare case that makes any real waves. Traditionally single issue candidates have been able to muster some support but have rarely been able to break through into more serious territory.

Dotted around the country are a series of independent councillors who have usually broken from one party or another and used the support they had already accumulated to carry over into an electoral win (usually, although not always, at local council level). Some of these independents are actually rather good - for example Lowestoft's Ruth Ford who broke from Labour to the left and has been a consistent campaigner on a whole series of left social democratic issues, with some success (see for instance Nick Bird's recent report Waveney tenants reject sell-off) but such characters are few and far between.

Usually an independent councillor is someone who was just simply unable to get on with the others in their party of choice and has chosen to plough their own furrow - and it is for this reason that independent candidates should only be considered when you know for a fact that they have a good and sound left wing background.

There are of course single issue campaigns that the left thinks are worth supporting and might be worth voting for. But even when one individual representative is worth while you cannot guarantee those they begin to group around them will be worth supporting.

Take Dr Richard Taylor of Independent Kidderminster Health Care Concern. When he was elected to Parliament it was a strong local message over the future of the NHS. But now the group stands for local elections they have had to expand their manifesto well beyond the issue of cuts in health care and there were certainly no guarantees this would be left leaning programme no matter how much socialists might sympathise with the specific plight of the local hospital.

So whilst Taylor says that "There is no doubt that thinking people are fed up with the two main parties because of sleaze, the whipping system and the Iraq war. They are fed up with the Government because of its ruthless forcing through of measures so often against the will of ordinary people, for example top-up fees in education, compulsory ID cards and police force mergers" which is clearly a left leaning perspective the two lead candidates for the local elections have very different priorities

Of six policy priorities three are non descript and the others are

The strength of the single issue candidate is that they often chime in with people's concerns over a specific local / national problem. This strength is also simultaneously its drawback because people can see the single issue candidate as having nothing to say on the other issues, even when they do. What did Martin Bell have to say about renewable energy? Richard Taylor about asylum seekers? It can be difficult to overcome the impression of being a one trick pony.

In Wigan the Community Action Party may be close to taking over the council at this election, despite their historical connection to the left. They've certainly avoided the pitfalls many local independents take of becoming exclusively concerned with all things local - so their website demands the resignation of Blair over the Iraq war for instance.

But it's also clear that their councillors are not hard left fire brands. The clearest local policy statement appears to be that the Council ignores the local people's needs. I'm sure that's true but you'll doubtless find that phrase in Tory, Lib Dem and Labour leaflets up and down the country - it's meaningless without political content to back it up. Coupled with their zero tolerance on crime approach its hard to get over excited about these candidates.

Community Action Party councilors

A similar story is found in Harwich where the excellent Stephen Henderson leads the Harwich Community Representatives Party. An ex-Labour councillor who broke from the party to the left to form his own group on the council which currently has four councillors. But whilst the initiator of the group may be a sound Old Labour figure the others are less clear cut, including ex-Tories and a rag bag of misfits who see the CRP as a non-political way of getting into the council.

So whilst Henderson has all the right instincts on a personal level the group steers well clear of making definitive political statements and so what can a vote for them actually mean? Two fingers up to the big three parties? Surely the left needs something with a little more bite.

 

April 2006

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