Why I am re-joining the Labour Party

By Jake Wilde

I left the Labour Party on 1 January this year. I deliberately didn’t make a big deal out of it. Why would anyone be interested after all? Today I will complete my application to re-join the party. And the reason for this post is to declare that I know what I am doing. Like the precursor to any Last Will & Testament if you like…

I don’t want there to be any misunderstanding about my reasons for re-joining. I know that the current leadership of the Labour Party consists of the very worst people in this country’s political society. They hold views that are racist, dehumanising and abhorrent to the vast majority of decent people. They have no interest in improving the lives of the majority of their fellow man, and only interest in the punishment and degradation of those they hate. Some of the people they have attracted to the party have no place in public discourse and should be returned to the misogynistic, antisemitic, conspiracy-laden corner of the internet from whence they came.

When I originally joined the Labour Party it was as a show of support for their commitment to the removal of Saddam Hussein. While so-called socialists were leaving a party that was seeking to liberate people suffering under fascism I joined. I was, and remain, relatively ambivalent about the individual domestic policies of the party of that era. The general overarching desire to improve the wealth, health, education and opportunities of everybody is inherently a Labour Party principle. New Labour delivered on that principle so, even if individual policies left me underwhelmed, that was all that mattered. That is what the Labour Party should be; not dogmatically fixed to policies but guided by principles. The Labour Party were running the country in broadly the right way, sufficiently enough for me to continue to vote for them, but not enthusing me enough to join. Until Iraq.

Bringing Saddam Hussein to justice showed the world that you couldn’t murder your own people by the thousands without consequence. That you couldn’t threaten to annihilate democratic states without consequence. That you couldn’t be a fascist dictator without consequence.

Without doubt enabling the transformation of Iraq into a democratic country is one the United Kingdom’s greatest achievements since World War Two. I say that to be clear about my position. I deliberately say it ahead of the publication of the Chilcot Report. I have no doubts that mistakes were made but I know that the guiding principle was right, and fundamentally in keeping with the principles of both the Labour Party and what guides us as citizens of a western liberal democracy.

Although it is pure coincidence I am also conscious that I am re-joining on the United States’ Independence Day. The United States path to freedom should be the inspiration for the left, yet it is not. The documents that Americans hold dear – the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights – these should be our aspiration.

The current leadership of the Labour Party prefer to look to a different revolution and to different sacred texts. They prefer to celebrate executions of children and a philosophy that turns man into nothing more than a worker ant. In a democracy there is nothing to celebrate about the 1917 Russian Revolution.

My decision to re-join is based upon my belief that the Labour Party has it within itself to govern this country again, to manage both the political discourse and economy of the UK, so that neither collapse into disaster. I know that in order to get from where we are now to where we need to be that I have to help and remove this repellent group of people from both the leadership and the membership of the Labour Party.

And finally I know that Gloria De Piero is right, inspirationally so, when she says:

By signing up you can help choose a leader who recognises that the Labour Party was founded to be a Party of Government and implement policies to improve the lives of working people. A party of protest doesn’t help a single person.

Labour will win again when we get back in touch with voters and are true to Labour’s timeless values. At the heart of those values is that people, from whatever background, have a fair crack at getting on in life. Helping people from ordinary backgrounds get on in life is at the heart of my Labour Party.

I think it’s what you want the Labour Party to be too.

Please help us to get back to those values.

Don’t delay, Become a Labour member today.

 

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