LPUK and The Zeitgeist

The outrage over MPs' expenses has brought into sharp relief what a few of us have felt for quite some time - that our elected overlords are grossly corrupt and out for themselves. And this isn't a problem just for the government - as DK points out, the silence of the opposition speaks volumes. They have had their snouts in the trough, just as much as the government has. Our MPs aren't in power to serve the people. They are they to pursue their personal hobby horses; they are in power to carve out their vainglorious historical legacies; they are in power to line their own pockets. 

So we are at a point in time when the public's contempt for the political class is at an all time high. No party in the Commons can exploit what is going on; they've all been at it, and the few good MPs are the exception rather than the rule. So we are at a point where one party stands aside from the troughing that we have seen from MPs. One party that was actually partially created because of the troughing of MPs. I think LPUK have been handed a gift wrapped moment in history - and I hope they rise to the occasion. 

I don't quite know how they (well, we) could exploit the zeitgeist, although as an armchair political observer, I have some pretty good ideas. From an intellectual point of view, it will be very interesting to see how the party responds to what has happened. There have been other examples in political history where a party has been given an open goal (such as the SDP-Liberal Alliance in 1983 being given a Labour party left wing enough to incorporate Leon Trotsky) and have dropped the ball. It would be great to see a minor party riding the wave, and taking this opportunity to seize the moment and drastically increase their visibility.

And on an emotional level as well I'd like to see LPUK grabbing this opportunity and making the most of it. Not just because I am a member, but because the sorry debacle of MPs' expenses has shown more than ever that there is a crying need for a party that will stand against the status quo, and both articulate and do what is right. LPUK is morally right; let's hope they/it/we can seize this opportunity and make the most of it as a spring board to getting the message that there is another way out there.