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Compass Decides: tactical voting in the general election
Over the last week we gave our members the decision as to whether Compass should advocate tactical voting in the forthcoming general election. For some the issue is obvious, a matter they have practised themselves for years. But for others, such a move hits hard against strongly held party loyalties. We do however have a very clear result.
The result of the ballot is that 72% (467) of members backed the call for tactical voting with only 14% (93) against. There were 14% (90) abstentions/spoilt papers. This is the biggest return we have ever had on an internal ballot - if you're not yet a member of Compass and would like a vote next time and a full say in the organisation: then join now.
This means that Compass is now calling on every progressive voter to back the Labour candidate wherever Labour can win. But if Labour stands no chance against the Tory candidate it makes sense that the best placed progressive candidate is backed by every progressive voter.
To help inform your decision we have produced a key marginal seats information table based on the 2005 general election results, so that in each marginal you can make an informed decision as to who the best placed progressive candidate is. Click here to download it.
The key issue now is denying the Tories outright power, but in doing so recognising that power is likely to be shared. However much the parties have converged on the same space, and however much people have been disappointed by Labour in government, clear differences still exist between progressives and the Tories. Clearly the best hope of progressive politics, of something better than this, lies first in keeping the Tories out. Only then can we start the process of building a new politics in which greater equality, sustainability and democracy take us on the journey to the good society.
In the last week of the campaign new mood music has to be created in which a progressive alliance can come together to keep alive the possibility of a progressive century. If we are now in an era of three party politics then the party that fails to build a partnership condemns itself to the wilderness. As well as emphasising policies to get its core vote out, like interest rate caps, uprating the minimum wage, a living wage for public sector workers and the fact that the state still matters, Labour must show it is ready to deal with a hung parliament and now willing to have a referendum on a a more proportional voting system than just AV.
Compass will continue to ensure it is our members that make the big calls - and there will no doubt be more ballots in the future. We know some will be disappointed with the result and we understand why. Compass sees the Labour Party as a necessary but insufficient vehicle in the creation of the good society. We know the progressive alliance we seek means working inside and outside of Labour - with all the creative tensions that position entails. Sometimes we will be too Labour for some tastes, other times not Labour enough - but it is the ability to be inside and out that gives us our strength. Bear with us, it is the right course.
Over the coming weeks and months there are likely to be more tough decisions Compass is going to face. But now all that matters is to turn out the progressive vote and avoid the divisions that gave the Tories power throughout the 1980s. If we can stop them winning they will implode for a generation. In a post crash world this is an election the centre-left should and must win. Use your vote wisely and campaign as never before to get others to do the same. Britain does need change - but it doesn't need the same old Tories.
Want to write an article like this? If you’re a Compass member you can submit your own articles and start your own debates on the Compass debates member’s section, an autonomous space for our members to initiate debate and discuss ideas.
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Comments
on 07 May 2010, 7:44:43 PM
on 07 May 2010, 7:43:14 PM
The Tories only hit 36% of the vote. With how universally unpopular New Labour had been, this was not a good performance. Labour and Lib Dems together beat 50%. Okay, we can get all cute and draw fine lines between points of political purity, but since the Tories are the unchangeable snake, the first priority must be in beating them. The context should be social democratic, not market fundamentalist.
Labour lost so much support in the North West, North East and in Yorkshire and Humber. Will the Party see the errror of its ways? Can the votes lost be won again; is it arrogant and anachronistic to consider them only on loan to the Tories?
The one bright-spot, as somebody else has mentioned, is that the BNP did very poorly; and Farage crashed, of course.
The fear now is what the Tories will be able to make of the situation: Try to govern; be obstructed at some point; have the Tory press denounce the opposition as just luddite throw-backs; the people (sheep) who have been given the lead to vote Tory now flock to them.
Clegg says that the largest single party gets to go first in trying to form a workable government. What about the social democratic hears split across Labour and Lib Dem voters, that is larger than the market fundamentalist heart amongst Tory voters? Have not the Lib Dems bleated about PR? They could not just give it away so cheaply in return for a seat at the table?
To yous who have rejoined the Labour Party... full respect like, but how will you wrest democratic control from the party hierarchy centralisers?
on 07 May 2010, 7:38:57 PM
on 07 May 2010, 5:22:58 PM
on 07 May 2010, 5:20:30 PM
on 07 May 2010, 5:10:24 PM
on 07 May 2010, 3:46:53 PM
Only the Belgian Secret Service can stop us now.
on 07 May 2010, 3:17:18 PM
John Cryer
Katy Clark
John McDonnell
Jeremy Corbyn
Kelvin Hopkins
Mike Wood
Ronnie Campbell
Martin Caton
Paul Flynn
Nia Griffith
David Hamilton
David Heyes
Ian Lavery
Michael Meacher
Austin Mitchell
Linda Riordan
Mike Skinner
on 07 May 2010, 11:15:07 AM
Whatever the outcome of the inevitable period of haggling and horsetrading to come, this result shows that Compass got it right in calling for tactical voting and an anti-tory progressive consensus. And we may even get real constitutional change out the end....
on 07 May 2010, 11:08:41 AM
No a bad result in my book.
on 07 May 2010, 9:10:49 AM
Blair/Brown love things American the welfare reforms, New Deal,Pathways to work, workfare are all American, all labour did was take them remove the bits they did not like and put it forward, of course the bits they dumped were the best parts for a disabled person.
This was really my last vote, I shall not bother anymore unless the voting regime changes, and if brown now stays in power god help us all.
on 07 May 2010, 9:04:59 AM
I'm merely describng it, not advocating it.
on 07 May 2010, 8:11:27 AM
I think Brown has a real problem convincing the nation that two failed parties, Newlabour and Lib-Dems, should govern together. It may be the best outcome in terms of policy, especially if Clegg stands tough; but it would be very "Unbritish"..and would reveal how hypocritical his pronouncements on "Britishness" were. But I have never had any expectations of him.
Real losers ? The Media. It was, in my view, an appalling mistake to make these elections American. The debates were trivialising, and gave the media a chance to simply make things up, like "Cleggmania", which simply werent true. I cannot understand the media obsession with wanting to model Britain on the immaturity and dishonesty of the US electoral system. We have a great democratic tradition, and the media want us to ditch that for disney and big macs. I think my friend Stan would agree with me on this.
on 07 May 2010, 1:33:56 AM
Everyone is saying it's all over for Labour.
And I cannot say it's unexpected labour in the past four years or three years under brown have been a night mare.
We are told that in the future labour will need to renew it's self, have these idiots not learned anything, this country does not need two Tory parties it needs a party which is Tory and one which is socialist.
As for the liberals it looks like they will gain a swing but not to many seats.
But at 1.20 again we are told it's over for labour
on 06 May 2010, 10:23:54 AM
on 05 May 2010, 10:34:56 AM
Lee ; People can learn to walk and chew gum at the same time.
**************************************************************
In this case, not an apt analogue. A better way to characterise it is whether you can walk and suck your big toe at the same time. I think you are, if you are very lucky, left with hopping. That is how I see the left within Labour that is fighting to get Brown and Mandelsohn re-elected.
Of course, anything is possible, and being a dedicated life-long Real-Labour supporter, I would be delighted if it worked. I am just pretty sure it wont...the left in Labour has been making speeches, rebelling, and taking positions ever since Blair raped the party, and I dont see that they have made any visible dent on the armour of Blairism within which Newlabour is clothed. So why should it be any different for the next ten years ? If you can explain to me the reasons to be optimistic, I can try to change my views. I ask this often, and all I ever receive are statements of ideology and excerpts from the credo.
on 04 May 2010, 6:04:32 PM
on 04 May 2010, 4:00:03 PM
on 04 May 2010, 1:45:53 PM
on 04 May 2010, 12:33:15 PM
We must hope that potentially disillusioned Labour voters have already posted their ballot papers, for it seems that Messrs Balls and Hain have all but thrown in the towel two days before the day of the election. Brown has said today that he will go without fuss or struggle. That Labour two days before an election should be in such a state that the PM is asked such a question is one thing: that the PM felt that he could not with political credibility do other than concede to the premise of the question and answer it in its terms as presented, is something just as revealing.
on 04 May 2010, 11:38:54 AM
on 04 May 2010, 10:47:45 AM
There's a parasite called Toxoplasma gondii that colonises the brains of rats, altering their behaviour to attract them to the scent of their predators. The rats seek out cats and get eaten, allowing the parasite to keep circulating. This is New Labour. It has colonised a movement that fought for social justice, distribution and decency, rewired its brain and delivered it to the fat cats who were once its enemies.
Cling on to nurse for fear of something worse. Though she has become crabbed and vicious, though she has usurped our parents, swiped our inheritance, binned our toys and sold the nursery, we must cower behind her skirts for fear of the beasts that prowl beyond. This, in essence, is what Polly Toynbee, Jonathan Freedland, Seumas Milne and Nick Cohen are now telling us to do.
By instructing us, over the years, to heed fears, not hopes, such voices have allowed Labour to abandon everything it once stood for, and hand us, trussed and oven-ready, to big business and the Daily Mail. We'll be trapped like this for ever, in New Labour's Bermuda triangulation, unless we vote for what we believe in rather than just against what we don't.
This paralysing fear has licensed four tragic developments. It has allowed a parliamentary consensus to form that is well to the right of public feeling, alienating voters. It has created space for ideas – such as the creeping privatisation of almost everything – which were unacceptable to previous generations. It has allowed the Conservatives to appeal to moderate swing voters: if there is so little that divides the two parties, such voters figure, can the Tories really be so bad? And it has permitted a once progressive party to form the most rightwing government this country has suffered since 1945.
**********************8
That's great Danny. No one is asking you to become a social liberal. Keep your identity as a socialist by all means. But the situation is that NewLabour have killed the Labour Party and are proving impossible to dislodge. So for the purposes of removing NewLabour from control - the left hae to work with allies like Compass - which means staying civil, positive and friendly.
I know the idea that they might be able to reclaim the party in a way the real left can't is very annoying but politics is about realities.
on 04 May 2010, 9:46:40 AM
Compass are now talking about a 'progressive' alliance a terminology Progress have been using for some time. Social liberals are their obvious immediate allies.There is, of course, nothing wrong with that, but it should surely be overt rather than covert.
It isn't an alliance which I can support, which is why I am no longer a member of Compass. I want an alliance of authentic social democrats, democratic socialists, green socialists and, what I call, socialist democrats. This alliance needs to extend beyond the Labour Party, but the Labour Party will continue to exist. We can't accept that the party will continue to be controlled by New Labour, even in a reconstituted form. What happens next will depend upon the outcome of the general election.
on 04 May 2010, 9:14:32 AM
Is this all we can draw from this incident ? Tea leaf readers could well do a Sherlock Holmes and deduce from this (a) Broon and his fish know they are going to lose; (b) Broon will resign; (c) Broon is trying to manoevre Ed Balls into the leadership stakes. So will Broon be able to pass the flounder to Balls ? Will Balls change his name by deed-poll ? Could the world or UK ever accept "Premier Balls" ? Cn you imagine how many "ANOTHER BALLS-UP" headlines we would get from the Sun ? Could Harriet Harman increase her chances by going onto page three ? Would you be comfortable with a leader stupid enough to get caught by the police for using a mobile while driving ?
Do we no aspirer
Higher ?
I think Lewis, as Compass Poet Laureat, should comment. I am also looking forward to his official Pre-Election Ode !
on 04 May 2010, 8:42:33 AM
on 03 May 2010, 12:20:06 PM
Or have you all short memories of Cruddas telling us to fight the welfare reforms and then not turning up to vote, Or Trickett telling us to fight like hell the 90 day detention then the prick runs off and votes for it.
Then we had compass telling us to give brown a chance let him show us his vision, sadly the gent had no vision, and he has now allowed labour to need to fight to stay in second place.
Compass and labour are two different groups both have no real contact one pretends to be left the other has no pretense at all.
New labour has given the Liberals a life, and it's down to brown.
on 03 May 2010, 11:26:06 AM
It's the only explanation I can see to the extreme hostility to Compass that keeps errupting from the left.
on 03 May 2010, 11:20:10 AM
Richard Wilkinson gets it about right in his New Pepper mini article see (sorry you'll have to google it this won't let me link)
(Not really) surprising to see no mention anywhere here of the analysis in 'Beyond Feelbad Britain' or of the conjuctural analysis in the recent Soundings - but that (as revealed yet again below) is all of a piece with the empiricism of Laour in a country where 'intellectual' is an insult.
on 03 May 2010, 11:08:57 AM
As I recall,the last you made a recommendation Lewis, it was to follow the SDP. Not that I am opposed to an authentic social democracy, but they were.
on 03 May 2010, 10:46:47 AM
if you follow one it will lead you safely over the mountain pass,but the
other hurls you over the abyss.My recommendation is to follow Gavin and Neal,the happy wanderers,and ignore the siren calls of a simple gospel of purified socialism.
on 03 May 2010, 9:52:43 AM
on 03 May 2010, 9:43:43 AM
by all spectrums of the left voting tactically for a hung parliament. Many left wingers now support various parties, due to NewLabour's transition into the Tory Party MK11. In an ideal world we could vote for a real socialist alternative, but at the moment that does not exist. If we try and do this now one thing will happen, a Tory majority. If your comments are correct about Compass, especially regards the USA political scene. Then believe me it will not only be my resignation that they will be getting.
on 03 May 2010, 9:28:20 AM
on 03 May 2010, 9:16:55 AM
on 03 May 2010, 7:56:04 AM
on 03 May 2010, 7:39:29 AM
on 03 May 2010, 12:21:40 AM
on 02 May 2010, 6:43:02 PM
on 02 May 2010, 5:50:25 PM
on 02 May 2010, 5:04:07 PM
by Compass. If anyone blew it try Gordon Brown, and his perception of voters, incompetent ministers being allowed out of the westminster bubble etc. New Labour's betrayal of social democracy from '97 adopting and saving free market capitalism.
Illegal wars, increasing the unequal society, sabotaging PR after it being in the manifesto. Compass in its literature has constantly called for a fairer society based on the social democratic Swedish model. Perhaps if the Labour Party gets back to reality, probably either in opposition or a hung parliament. Then all social democrats will return, even the LRC and its MPs are almost a different party.
Incidently i hope that John McDonnell et al keep their seats. The left is now spread across several parties, lets hope that this coalition can keep out the Tories.
on 02 May 2010, 2:32:26 PM
on 02 May 2010, 1:15:24 PM
on 02 May 2010, 12:01:32 PM
on 02 May 2010, 9:52:21 AM
But let's be fair.
They opposed the Iraq war.
They opposed top up fees.
They fought the Welfare Reform Bills (they propose a much fairer Partial Capability Benefit which is the only hope for the really sick)
All the above were passed with Tory/NewLabour collusion.
So if you feel like moving to a real PR system - then the LibDems aren't a bad choice for a protest vote against Gordon going on and on and on and on and on. He should have been voted out internally in the party but he wasn't. So it has to happen now.
After all he's been sticking like a limpet. What ever would he be like if he actually won an election. He'd be there for ever and ever and ever and so would his one man band NewLabour template.
on 02 May 2010, 9:41:21 AM
capitalism cannot - at the end of the day - be reconciled with the interests of working people and that change should be brought about by peaceful and democratic means. Democratic socialists should be generous, non-sectarian and open minded. Many of us were fooled into believing that Compass stood in this tradition. But it doesn't. The Compass project is to fuse non-socialist, liberal and other centrist non-tory political forces. This is an honourable project which they share with many media commentators. But it is not a democratic socialist project. People who share this perspective must now reluctantly leave Compass and we must form a new body of ideas and a new organisation. A large number of leading Labour party members are preparing to leave Compass, including many Labour candidates. There will be statements about this in due course. Soon there will be an announcement of a new organisation. Compass - you blew it for all socialists who believed in you.
on 02 May 2010, 6:01:02 AM
Lee - so what crime was Gramsci guilty of?
******************************************************
Being read by individuals incapable of understanding what he is saying
on 02 May 2010, 5:46:53 AM
on 02 May 2010, 12:32:35 AM
Yeah, yeah. Whatever.... But progressive enough not to bail out the players in a shadow banking system composed of compulsive gamblers incapable of recognizing, let alone computing, systemic risk and thereby saddling the rest of us with that insane debt generated by the very failings of Brown's neo-loony policy of financial de-regulation and encouraging the ultra-loony free-for-all which made London the financial capital where all the activities which weren't allowed under their own countries' laws could be performed perfectly illegally and without any form of effective supervision in this country.
I'm just waiting to hear the wails and moans of the Telegraph, Mail and Times when the Yanks are forced under the pressure of the midterm elections to start extradition proceedings against the very same British bankers that new Labour has gone the final mile to protect from their crimes. Thank God for the American electoral cycle. Now that's progressive. And if that doesn't jog the judicial conscience, and spurs their efforts, nothing will.
on 01 May 2010, 9:36:53 PM
Leeds Labour has supported the bin men in a strike occasioned by the council's wilful distortion of the Equal Pay Act to reduce wages and the LDs have enthusiastically led this manouevre.
I will now cancel my membership of Compass and leave you to your self-inflicted marginalisation.
Gerry Lynch
on 01 May 2010, 8:22:58 PM
"Savage cuts".
'I love Thatcher'.
Cutting benefits and tax credits and eroding further the univeral principle.
Flip-flopping on their 'mansion tax' plan and increasing the threshold to appease the rich.
"Misleading" (IFS) bombast about 'fair' taxes that benefit those on middle-incomes far more than those on low ones.
Delaying Winter Fuel Payments.
Part-privatisation of the Royal Mail.
Scrapping the target of 50% of young people going to university.
Scrapping or at least taking money from the Personal Care At Home Act (care for the elderly).
Cutting 150 MPs.
They'll "make it easier" to convict people in court by allowing the use of "intercept evidence".
and this - for them - comes under "Creating a freeer society"
Their manifesto says they will take steps to ensure "that the BBC does not undermine the viability of other media providers" - did anyone say 'Murdoch'?
Clegg was even in the Tory club at university. (Wouldn't be such a problem if he didn't vehemently deny it when we know it's true)
The bloody 'Orange Book' that advocates bringing the market into every aspect of society including healthcare provision authored by Clegg, Cable, Huhne, Laws and others on the Lib Dem frontbench.
And that to that raft of other policies that are simply daft or have already been implemented by others. The manifesto includes a bunch of nice looking policies that can only be implemented "when resources allow", i.e. not in the the life of the next parliament (which this manifesto is meant to be for) because we'll be concentrating on cutting the debt. The daft inclue that unworkable regional immigration policy - will they rebuild Hadrian's Wall?
Then there are also a mass of vague beauties such as this "Regulate the parking system to remove unfairness" (that's not in the executive summary or anything - it's from the main body).
Yes, of course many of the Lib Dems are good people, but let's not jump to conclusions. There are the neolibs and then the social democrats. What would be best is to split the two and have them go off to their real homes.
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