What is the point of the Independent Group?

I do not see what the now eight Labour MPs who have left their party hope or want to achieve. They all want a second referendum, but they would have a slightly better chance of achieving if they continued to take the Labour whip. 

Under the British first past the post system I do not see how they have much of a chance. I know the Liberal Democrats won plenty of seats for almost twenty years and finally held the balance of power but that was after decades of being a tiny rump of fewer than ten MPs, which is what they are now. The two party system is much less hard to crack than it was before 1997 but no party has done it since Labour in 1924. 

The Parliamentary Party should have declared UDI and chosen its own leader without asking the party members, who are members because they pay £3 for membership, with the caveat that they say they support the party’s principles .



I thought of joining the Labour Party to vote for the leader but decided I could not lie. I know one UKIP man who joined to vote for Corbyn to sabotage the party. That did not turn out as he hoped.  I shall join the Tory party whose principles I think I do support. At any rate I strongly support Toryism, which is not quite the same thing. Which is not at all the same thing. 

Of course only MPs should vote for party leaders, for so many obvious reasons. There are good arguments for referendums and I wish we had lots of them but none for letting anyone who joins a political party vote on its leader. Which reminds me to call up the Conservative Party and enroll myself.

From today's Times:

The trouble with forming a new party is it becomes “the repository of people’s hopes”, says Mike Thomas, one of the Labour MPs who defected to the SDP in 1981. “I lost count of the number of times I was congratulated for wanting to reintroduce capital punishment, end abortion, stop immigration, leave the EU and other alleged policies,” he says.

Abortion is now accepted by the majority in Great Britain and even the Republic of Ireland, though not in Northern Ireland, but the other policies have the merit of being popular and sound more interesting than any policies I expect from the Independent Group, though I have never been in favour of the death penalty, after weighing the evidence in favour and against. 

I wonder if Nigel Farage's party will appeal to more voters than the Independent Group. There seems much more of an obvious space for his party.