Introduction.
All around the world, nations are rising against their corrupt governments - some of whom have been in power for decades - but without any clear direction other than to remove the incompetent criminals that rule over them. They instinctively “know” it is time for change, but have no real idea what should be put in its place. We are also seeing signs of this unrest and dissent in Britain, but up until now, no one has offered a clear, workable ideology to challenge the old ways.

The English Radicals feel we can offer that ideology, one that can curtail the power that the old national parties have over us, one that returns decision making to more local levels in a controlled and phased transition, for the good of the people in that constituency, and not a handful of corrupt politicians hundreds of miles away.

If we want to avoid the terrible scenes playing out around the world – from the streets of Greece, Tunisia and Syria, to the ordinary people being beaten by police in American cities for exercising their democratic right to protest - it will involve ordinary people making a small commitment, one that will take up very little time and effort, and would cost nothing. We are asking people to consider becoming part of a new movement with a simple goal – to break the stranglehold that the big national parties currently have over us.

Proposal:
To set up a new, non-party movement with the intention of challenging the national parties that make up the British government. This has the working title name of the National Voters Union (NVU). We feel there is massive potential in terms of disenchanted groups from which to recruit, ranging from struggling pensioners to the young unemployed. We would welcome interest from all the Home Nations – even though our focus has always been England, it would strengthen all our hands for NVU branches to spring up in Wales and Scotland, as it would weaken the authority of the British government even more effectively.

Strategy: to weaken the big national parties at all levels.

Tactics: to encourage the public to boycott the big national parties at election times, and vote instead for local parties and independents. We are keen to re-introduce the concept of Chartism to the English public, and encourage debate about a future written constitution – which needs to be decided by the public, and not politicians. As the NVU grows and gets known, we would encourage local parties and independent candidates to contact us – if they make a commitment to include our policy ideas in their election material, we can in turn provide support for their election campaign.

The name, National Voters Union, is simple and unambiguous, with an intentional hint of confrontation about it – people are frustrated with big national parties and our guess is that they are about ready to support an organisation that has a plan for bringing them down to size, especially if they are not expected to make any big personal commitments or financial contributions. The only commitment the NVU would ask from its members is to NOT vote for the large national parties, and to vote FOR locals or independents.

The trade unions lost their power over the years as Britain's workforce saw its jobs “outsourced” (sent abroad) to lands of cheap labour, which resulted in a drastic decline in union membership. It is unlikely that any government would dare to try and disenfranchise voters the way they destroyed our industry, so there is little prospect of a similar decline in the voter base.

The NVU feel we should play the British government at their own game – let's “outsource” our votes to anyone but the big national parties: as things stand, the big parties tell us what policies we can have, when it should be us telling them. We get a poor deal from them, and we owe them nothing but a good hiding.

To avoid the cult of personality that we see in most organisations, we would like the NVU to adopt a flat management structure, with local spokesmen acting as representatives and selected democratically by their local members. It would not be a party itself, nor is there any intention of it becoming one. Any financial contributions should be voluntary, with branches run on mutual lines – we don't visualise large overheads, as much can be done by volunteers and via the internet/social media.

As the NVU is an ERA idea, we would be happy to provide a paid-for website to act as a central rallying point for the various NVU branches around the country. This would also be an ideal project for our members to become active in, now we are out of party politics and back to our real roots of campaigning for radical change. An NVU has the potential to grow into an alternative force in English/British politics as a counterweight to the big party machines. An NVU could be an instrumental catalyst in destroying any national party already showing signs of weakness, and diminish the influence of the others by securing stronger local powers.

Conclusion:
We are under no illusions regarding the NVU idea, it is ambitious - but it represents a “do-able”, radical solution with regards to providing a low cost political alternative to the big party cartel. It could do for the ordinary voter what trade union representation did for ordinary workers – give us a voice, and the political muscle to back up that voice until it is listened to.

 


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