What is a Paper Candidate? The definition in Wikipedia is sufficient (see it as this link), though I balk at accepting the alternative name for it given there – a ‘no-hope candidate’. In becoming a paper candidate, I have no hope to win a seat but the act itself seems an expression of massive and tangible hope – that asserts that what we call ‘political reality’ in a state governed, or lacking governance n the case of the Tory local and national governments of the past, by indirect democratic machinery is not the ‘be-all’ and ‘end-all’ of the purpose of having a political analysis and political principle. We feel that to put your name above the parapet merely to show that the consensus currently is wrong headed is an act of massive hope, but hope rather than significance. The point is that it affirms that realpolitik state is only a thin and inadequate expression of political realities – that when push comes to shove, the powers that be in our Western societies organises governance through democracy only when it appears to go their way, and will abandon it if democracy becomes inconvenient or a barrier to them. Their watchwords for convenience -are the that any party that effectively qualifies the aim of economic growth at all costs will be its enemy for growth is the watchword of the interests of the few over the many. The most naked expression of this was in the political lightweight, Liz Truss. The real power-brokers in contrast argue, mainly in private, that this is not the case – that wealth and power trickle down from their eminence, but that is the symbol of a patriarchal capitalism with an age-related enlarged prostrate peeing on those below it.
Yesterday, Geoff, my husband and I signed the papers needed to become a paper candidate for the Green Party. Neither of us want to bear political power personally and that is another reason for not accepting the ‘no-hope’ label.
Our hope is that the word Green, in being on a ballot paper and attached to names indicating real lives (long onies in our cases) will at least show that not everyone is willing to accept the nastiness which supposes that the problems of our nation stem from immigration and communal regulation of private finance and desire for the accumulation of personal power. There is no doubt that the current labour government has done all it can to pander exactly to the latter notions – it just does it surreptitiously, so that its followers can hold on to a shred of personal dignity just by choosing not to hear or reflect on those facts. Better than Tories certainly ! However, in fact this is so only marginally. In terms of issues like global warming, ecological breakdown and social and global justice, the current government has pushed this margin further than Tories ever dared, just as dis the Blair government in health by introducing the Private Finance Initiative.
‘Drill, Baby, Drill’ from Trump is both laughable but also tragic, but no less is the Labour equivalent in the mouth of Keir Starmer (the Sir ought to be optional) ‘Build, Baby, Build’. At one level this government mouths platitudes about Grenfell Tower while hastening the weakening of any building regulation NOT IN THE PUBLIC EYE. This is why and how Grenfell Tower was built – as a gamble on multiple lives and using eco-unfriendly material. These are national issues but also not ones without a local aspect. Below is the view from our study window – once over a green field site – now reminiscent of the building of the Pyramids at Giza. The site by the way reserves a green space – but not because there is a need for green in people’s lives in the view of Persimmon or the local council but because it is the site of an old coal mine pit shaft leading to tunnels beneath. The estate built – none of the homes at affordable prices – deserves the name ‘Sinkhole-Ready Gardens’.
But I have neither the energy nor will to hold power in these things. Neither has my hubby. The little we can do is to put our name where it is attached to something counter to the prevailing trend in social-and-economic governance. Giving a name is a little act. It asks no action from me – in campaigning even for there will be no local literature for us (though lots no doubt from the Fascist Reform Part), but it is my name (and Geoff’s. Of course, that is not to say, did miracles happen – they don’t but let’s imagine – I would not serve. I most definitely would with all the power in me. But that is not my hope or point. Arthur Miller gave the name Proctor to the hero in his play The Crucible. Proctor means Guardian – guardian of values – and though the following is about not writing your name to lies – allegorically not signing up to McCarthyism in the neurotic USA of his time, this quote is apposite to why I do give my name to what I believe – nay I know – to be a truth:
Because it is my name! Because I cannot have another in my life! Because I lie and sign myself to lies! Because I am not worth the dust on the feet of them that hang! How may I live without my name? I have given you my soul; leave me my name!
The truth and beauty can have my name and soul, whilst the many succumb to lies – at least for now. These lies are either the gross ones of Fascist parties (and indeed Tories) or the ones that hold back the truth for a while (a while that extends and extends) as the current Labour leadership believes. If it can watch the murder of innocents in Gaza and believe NOW is NOT THE TIME to act, it will easily gamble the future of our world to ecological devastation and the machinery of species extinction.
The papers can’t go in until the 21st of this month but they are signed (WITH OUR NAMES!) Let’s see.
With love
Steven xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx
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