Though Cowards Flinch

Twenty-six candidates are today contesting the Haltemprice and Howden by-election: Christian independents, the National Front, hang ‘em and flog ‘em candidates and the usual assortment of Raving Loonies, Militant Elvises and even a Miss Great Britain. Yet Martin Bell curses them all for daring to take some attention away from David Davis’ precious, principled, non-partisan stand on civil liberties – because god forbid that every corner of the spectrum be fairly treated by the media.

“[Davis] has made real headway despite the travesty of the Representation of the People Act, which requires journalists, and especially broadcasters, to treat an established and serious politician more or less on a par with the candidates of the Monster Raving Loony party and the Church of the Militant Elvis.”

I’ve actually been looking in to some of the policies of the fringe groups – like the Miss Great Britain Party for example. I’d be unlikely to support them as they represent the worst half of Tory demagoguery (abolish stamp tax, exemptions from inheritance tax) though they have some pretty good ideas (an increase in basic income tax for the exceptionally well off). Regardless of this, they deserve to have their views aired. Unlike most people, they’ve bothered to get active in politics.

Martin Bell’s snobbery is therefore rather unjustified. As for the groups he specifically mentions, such as the Monster Raving Loony Party and the Church of the Militant Elvis, well who can forget the Loonies embarrassing the SDP back in the 1980s? These joke political parties may not be something we can get on board with – nevertheless they show more civic engagement than the average Labour, Tory or Lib Dem voter – and the chance for a harmless protest vote is always there.

Personally I’m supporting the Socialist Equality Party in Haltemprice and Howden. Horrible little Trotskyist sectarians they may be (the SEP is the British section of the International Committee of the Fourth International), with a totally tendentious take on the facts of Labour Left opposition to the government, but at least they’re prepared to slate Davis for his hypocritical denunciation of anti-terror laws whilst having never bothered to vote on many of them.

As has been well discussed, that particular trick, of large swathes of the Conservative Party not bothering to show up for votes on terror laws, is a tactic to make the Conservatives seem more liberal than they actually are whilst simultaneously allowing Labour to pass laws which the Tories would normally support. I don’t see Labour and the Liberal Democrats pointing that out – so the media should absolutely have to report on those parties which are prepared to, regardless of how fringe they are.

The only exception, as any of my normal readers will appreciate, is where fascist political groups are concerned. Speaking of which, the recent by-election seems to be showing up the internal divisions of the BNP. Nationalist websites are thrumming with rumours that  in the absence or weakness of Nick Griffin, Simon Darby may be running the party. The BNP are thought to be neglecting the H&H by-election so as not to highlight the splits between members in the north of England and the leadership.

None of which takes away from the narrow-mindedness of people like Martin Bell who think there is no place for minority parties in British politics and who think that British journalists should escape actually having to be open and honest in their reporting. It doesn’t always work out that way, whatever the Representation of the People Act might say, but at least groups like the various fringe socialist parties should be reported on. They represent ideas, however splintered and bastardised – and a discussion of ideas is what democracy is supposed to be about.

Martin Bell’s icon in this election, David Davis, would probably agree – after all, isn’t that discussion of ideas the whole reason he triggered this by-election in the first place?