It looks like 2006 will be a make-or-break year for anyone who wants to stop the juggernaut of British neo-liberalism. The year has already got off to a bad start with the coup in the Lib Dems and now it appears that Cameron has decided that tuition fees will now stay under a Conservative government.
Two events will, I feel, be crucial. Firstly, there will be a leadership election in the Liberal Democrats. If Menzies Campbell (the favored candidate of the Lib Dem right) or Mark Oaten (a younger right winger)were to win then this may lead to an exodus of members and voters, disgusted at the way that the right wing Westminster MPs have junked both their leader and possibly many of their policies. Secondly, I feel that the government's education reform bill will be a crucial litmus test for Blair's authority in the Labour party. Unfortunately, Cameron's support for the bill means that it will probably get through, even with a huge rebellion. However, if dozens of Labour MPs rebel despite the expected (but probably quite minor) concessions that government will make it will seriously call into question Blair's authority as leader and may even lead to MPs starting to question the whole Blair/Brown neo-liberal project.
If things go badly in both the Labour party and the Lib Dems then I think that the idea of creating a new party will become relevant again. The last attempt to set up a party to the left of Labour was the Socialist Alliance which broke apart after the SWP went off to form a fan club for George Galloway (see elsewhere on the blog). However, I feel that a broader party may become feasible as dissent is squeezed even further in both the Labour party and the Lib Dems. I have always thought that a new party would come from the trade unions but with the advent of larger, even more bureaucratic trade unions, I don't think that they will move untill they see a better alternative. That certainly is the experience of people who have tried similar initiatives in New Zealand, Australia and the US.
The new party should be set up on five basic principles in order to keep it as broad as possible. These should be:
1.) Defending and extending state provision of public services financed by progressive taxation.
2.) Opposition to US unilateralism and support for a democratic foreign policy.
3.) A fairer electoral system.
4.) Defence of civil rights and secularism.
5.) More rights for workers and trade unions.
A good name for this party would be Commonwealth, the name of both the left wing party that stood against the Tories during the war and the English republic in the time of Cromwell.