Liverpool Politics

[Keith B]

Are Liverpool politics generally left leaning? Seems like many of the Evertonians I follow on twitter are labour-left, wondering if that is indicative of the city itself.

 

I'm a lefty myself, but not the type that wants to debate it here...just wanted ask the question and not debate the politics themselves.

[Guest millwallforever]

I have not followed politics in Liverpool for at least a decade, but Liverpool has traditionally had a strong leftist presence. Check out the United Socialist Party, admittedly no political heavyweight, but still an illustration of how seriously some of these people take their politics.

 

Being socially disadvantaged tends to drive people to the political left - or in some sad cases to the extreme right or silly parties like the UKIP.

 

Here is a good book:

 

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Militant-Liverpool-A-City-Edge/dp/1846318637/ref=sr_1_53?ie=UTF8&qid=1412241564&sr=8-53&keywords=liverpool+social+history%C2%A0

 

To answer your question: yes, politics in Liverpool is generally left-leaning, provided you consider the Labour Party to be left-wing, which I don't. These traitors to the Left were exposed in the following documentary:

 

http://vimeo.com/75784765

 

 

 

Are Liverpool politics generally left leaning? Seems like many of the Evertonians I follow on twitter are labour-left, wondering if that is indicative of the city itself.

 

I'm a lefty myself, but not the type that wants to debate it here...just wanted ask the question and not debate the politics themselves.

Edited November 30, 2014 by millwallforever

[MikeO]

Are Liverpool politics generally left leaning? Seems like many of the Evertonians I follow on twitter are labour-left, wondering if that is indicative of the city itself.

 

I'm a lefty myself, but not the type that wants to debate it here...just wanted ask the question and not debate the politics themselves.

 

Very much so, like the majority of the old industialised (mostly north) regions of the counrty.

 

Problem is, as Millwall alludes to, that there are no real mainstream left wing parties here any more so they have to vote for the lesser evil (if they vote at all). Reality is that the Liberal Democrats have been the most left wing party in recent years but they've screwed themselves with most by going into coalition with the Tories.

[Keith B]

 

Very much so, like the majority of the old industialised (mostly north) regions of the counrty.

 

Problem is, as Millwall alludes to, that there are no real mainstream left wing parties here any more so they have to vote for the lesser evil (if they vote at all). Reality is that the Liberal Democrats have been the most left wing party in recent years but they've screwed themselves with most by going into coalition with the Tories.

 

We have the same general problem in the US. The leftists are not represented by the "left" party, the Democrats. To my knowledge, there is no real leftish movement in the US, despite the general popularity of leftish positions.

 

Thanks for the responses. Makes me think that supporting Everton was a great decision.

[rubecula]

It is a difficult question to ask really, well the answer is difficult. We had Derek Hatton and his cronies at one time who were voted in and they did a lot of damage I think it is more accurate (in general) to say that the majority of voters in Liverpool are not rightist. Although that may be beginning to change a bit in recent times.

[markjazzbassist]

 

We have the same general problem in the US. The leftists are not represented by the "left" party, the Democrats. To my knowledge, there is no real leftish movement in the US, despite the general popularity of leftish positions.

 

Thanks for the responses. Makes me think that supporting Everton was a great decision.

Agreed Keith. I am far left border line socialist (or maybe full fledged socialist I'm still working through it all) here in the states. Democrats are more like center and republicans right and tea party far right. The only 2 "left" politicians are Bernie sanders the Vermont senator who is independent (longest serving no party senator) and Elizabeth warren from Massachusetts.

 

Bernie is my hero, very outspoken, doesn't give a shit who he offends (comes with not being tied to a party), and is just a regular guy (friend in Vermont sees him eating at local diners all the time)

Edited December 1, 2014 by markjazzbassist

[Guest millwallforever]

I think it is more accurate (in general) to say that the majority of voters in Liverpool are not rightist. Although that may be beginning to change a bit in recent times.

Excellent observation. I have been living on the continent for quite some time now, and I have observed with considerable consternation how socialist strongholds have fallen to the Christian Democrats and populist parties of the right. We live in a deideologised age where feel good factor and personalities count for much more than political issues of pressing importance. Some historians label this alarming trend as Bonapartism; an essentially dictatorial current at the heart of democracy. The voters have been made to relinquish their right to exercise political influence, and they seem to be quite unaware of the tragedy unfolding.

 

Oswald Spengler's prophetic words:

 

 

"The scattered sheets of the Age of Enlightenment transformed them-

selves into "the Press" a term of most significant anonymity. Now the

press campaign appears as the prolongation or the preparation of war by

other means, and in the course of the nineteenth century the strategy of outpost

fights, feints, surprises, assaults, is developed to such a degree that a war may

be lost ere the first shot is fired because the Press has won it meantime.

 

To-day we live so cowed under the bombardment of this intellectual artillery

that hardly anyone can attain to the inward detachment that is required for a

clear view of the monstrous drama. The will-to-power operating under a pure

democratic disguise has finished off its masterpiece so well that the object's

sense of freedom is actually flattered by the most thorough-going enslavement

that has ever existed. The liberal bourgeois mind is proud of the abolition of

censorship, the last restraint, while the dictator of the press Northcliffe!

keeps the slave-gang of his readers under the whip of his leading articles,

telegrams, and pictures. Democracy has by its newspaper completely expelled the book

from the mental life of the people. The book-world, with its profusion of stand-

points that compelled thought to select and criticize, is now a real possession

only for a few. The people reads the one paper, "its" paper, which forces

itself through the front doors by millions daily, spellbinds the intellect from

morning to night, drives the book into oblivion by its more engaging layout,

and if one or another specimen of a book does emerge into visibility, forestalls

and eliminates its possible effects by " reviewing" it.

 

What is truth ? For the multitude, that which it continually reads and hears.

A forlorn little drop may settle somewhere and collect grounds on which to

determine "the truth" but what it obtains is just its truth. The other, the

public truth of the moment, which alone matters for effects and successes in

the fact-world, is to-day a product of the Press. What the Press wills, is true.

Its commanders evoke, transform, interchange truths. Three weeks of press

work, and the truth is acknowledged by everybody."

Edited December 1, 2014 by millwallforever

[Paul 1300]

I am working class, grew up working class, most of the people I know are working class. But I live in a very safe Tory seat, I would say that the Majority of the people that live in my constituency are working class, with low incomes with high Mortgages and Low wages (when compared with London) but most of the stupid bastards vote Tory or Liberal, and I can't beleive UKIP have just got in down the road in clacton. Why .

 

I think its a southern thing, this area of North Essex has not had Major industrialization like London and the North and is mostly rural The biggest employer Paxman deisels shut years ago, but they don't believe in Labour, when I explain that they represent the working man, they still believe in the Tories.