Groucho Marxism

Questions and answers on socialism, Marxism, and related topics

Category: UK Politics

  • Confronting the extreme centre

    I often go and sell copies of the Socialist in my local town on a Saturday morning. Most members of the public I meet doing this are very friendly, even if they do not necessarily agree with my politics. So I was somewhat taken aback a couple of weeks ago when my paper-selling comrade and…

  • The need for a new workers’ party

    It should be clear to everyone by now that the UK Labour Party no longer represents the interests of working people. (They should really change the name.) This raises the question of whether the Labour Party has ever truly represented the interests of working people. It certainly represented the interests of working people in the…

  • What’s going on with Your Party?

    The launch of Your Party, the UK’s new left-wing party, is not going very well. On Thursday this week an email went out to potential members inviting them to join the party with a sign-up link, only for another email to be sent out out a few hours later telling everyone to ignore the first…

  • Why did Labour lose so badly in 2019?

    In 2019, the Labour party suffered a humiliating defeat in the UK general election, losing 59 seats, the second-highest loss by any opposition for a century. Many explanations have been put forward for this collapse, but the three most commonly touted are: 1) unpopularity of Jeremy Corbyn and, by extension, the party leadership; 2) the…

  • Is Labour doomed?

    In June last year the Labour Party won a 174-seat majority in the UK general election, the third-best showing in the party’s history and its best since 2001. Fast forward to a little over a year later and the party is in disarray. Recent polling suggests that less than 25% of voters would vote for…

  • Prospects for a new left party

    Last week, Labour MP Zarah Sultana announced she was leaving the party to set up a new left-wing party with Jeremy Corbyn. It’s fair to say that this new party has not got off to the most auspicious start: according to The Times, Corbyn was ‘furious’ that Sultana had gone ahead announced the formation of…

  • How close was Labour to winning in 2017?

    The 2017 UK General Election wasn’t that close in terms of seats: the Conservatives won 317 and Labour 262. This result, along a with Labour’s subsequent and even heavier defeat in 2019, has led many to conclude that a socialist party could never realistically win a General Election in the UK, or that Labour was…