• Contact
  • About
  • Authors
DONATE
NEWSLETTER SIGN UP
  • Login
Central Bylines
  • Home
  • News
    • All
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Transport
    • World
    Bruce Kent at a Stop Trident rally

    Bruce Kent (1929 – 2022) – a personal view

    Factory

    Cutting emissions from construction and automotive materials by a third

    child labour

    World losing fight to end child labour

    Protester and injunction

    Jesus wept: meet Mark Coleman, retired vicar and Just Stop Oil activist

    Cotton mill

    Gardens of the revolution: Fashion revolution at the Chelsea flower show

    Flowers

    This writer’s life: a diary. Part 3: Garden blessings

    Vigil for Visas

    Vigil for Visas: delays in issuing visas to refugees from the war in Ukraine cause misery and fear

    The motherland calls

    Your Deed Is Immortal: Russia’s obsession with her WWII past and her war against Ukraine

    Air pollution

    Deadline extended for Government’s air pollution consultation

    Trending Tags

    • Johnson
    • Ukraine Conflict
    • Brexit
    • Education
    • Environment
    • Health
    • Transport
    • World
  • Politics
    Patriotism in the UK

    Johnson isn’t a patriot, he’s a pariah

    Return to imperial measures

    The return of imperial measurements?

    Gun Control

    ‘Gun Free Zone’ (a ‘Found’ poem, extracted from Trump’s NRA conference speech in Houston, a few days later)

    Statue of a bishop

    Johnson can’t govern so he lies instead

    Fraud and government schemes

    Fraud and government schemes

    East midlands greatest hits

    East Midlands Conservative greatest hits, Spring 2022

    Voting

    Boris Johnson won’t remove himself – we all have to help

    Anti-rascism protest

    Anti-racism campaigners in Stoke-on-Trent demand change

    Johnson

    Johnson’s Rwanda asylum scheme draws praise from fascists

    Trending Tags

    • Levelling up
  • Opinion
    Adobe stock licensed image by Jorm S

    Freedom and conservatism

    This work is from the National Child Labor Committee collection at the Library of Congress. According to the library, there are no known copyright restrictions on the use of this work.

    Reflections on Boris Johnson’s ‘high skill, high wage future’ speech. Fashion – Fix up, look smart! 

    Adobe Stock licensed image by motortion

    Reflections on Boris Johnson’s ‘high skill, high wage future’ speech: the invisible half of the population

    Official United Kingdom Parliamentary photographs 2020 Tom Randall (politician) - CC-BY-3.0

    Why do people become MPs?

    Image by Central Bylines Team - derived from eligible Creative Commons sources

    Gaslighting an electorate – the moral bankruptcy of Edward Leigh 

    Adobe Stock licensed: Gibberish
by egokhan

    Lucy Allan talks gibberish

    Image by Number 10 for flickr licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

    Red wall voters to Johnson: in the name of God, go!

    Say no to the elections bill

    Say no to the Elections Bill

    Trending Tags

    • Lifestyle
      • All
      • Art
      • Books
      • Dance
      • Festivals
      • Fun & Games
      • Movies
      • Music
      • Poetry
      • Sport
      • Theatre
      • TV
      Image by author

      Anne Boleyn

      Portrait of William Byrd by The Trustees of the British Museum ©, licensed by CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

      William Byrd – “a Father of Musick”

      Waverly community garden

      Launch of Better Together Community Garden in Clayton

      Illustration by AB Wyze

      Here I’m sat

      Liverpool in Paris

      Gun Control

      ‘Gun Free Zone’ (a ‘Found’ poem, extracted from Trump’s NRA conference speech in Houston, a few days later)

      Bally Gill, David Morrissey, James Graham and Joanne Froggatt - sherwood cast

      Sherwood: what lies beneath?

      O'Rourke

      O’Rourke

      Fighter,Pilots,Cockpit,View,Under,Cloudy,Blue,Sky

      Top Gun, I feel the need…..

      Trending Tags

        • Dance
        • Food
        • Music
        • Poetry
        • Recipes
        • Sport
      • Business
        • All
        • Economy
        • Technology
        • Trade
        cloudy beer

        UK’s first cloudy beer

        Cost of living crisis

        Crisis? What crisis? The cost of living crisis and political responses

        Adobe Stock licensed image by hanohiki

        Bad news for Newark: 110 jobs lost as town’s top employer withdraws to the EU 

        Promotion image from Colleague Box website

        Pandemic start-up success story hampered by Brexit barriers

        Image licensed by Pixabay

        Information is power: its loss can be devastating

        Photo by Matt Bango on StockSnap

        Hassle in High Peak: Robert Largan’s solar farm shenanigans

        Adobe Stock licensed - image by blackday

        British Gas-lighting a nation: how energy companies are exploiting their customers with increased prices

        circular economy

        Reflections on Boris Johnson’s ‘high skill, high wage future’ speech

        Dog wrapped in a blanket, luckily he does not have to pay the bill.

        Fuel bills and service blunders as energy prices start to bite

        Trending Tags

        • Levelling up
        • Economy
        • Technology
      • Region
        • All
        • East Midlands
        • West Midlands
        Image by Number 10 used under CC2 - Prime Minister Boris Johnson met Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on 10 October 2019 to discuss the UK's Brexit proposals.

        The Northern Ireland protocol

        Waverly community garden

        Launch of Better Together Community Garden in Clayton

        Rent seeking

        A ‘high skill, high wage future’? Rentier Capitalism: who owns the future?

        Liverpool in Paris

        Mark Serwotka

        Trades Unionists demand action on the cost of living crisis at rally in Stoke-on-Trent

        East midlands greatest hits

        East Midlands Conservative greatest hits, Spring 2022

        Allens Cross Community Centre

        St Bart’s Pantry, open for business!

        women in power 2

        Women in power

        Vera Brittain plaque

        Midlands blue plaques part 1: Vera Brittain in Buxton

        Trending Tags

          • East Midlands
          • West Midlands
        • Events
        No Result
        View All Result
        • Home
        • News
          • All
          • Brexit
          • Education
          • Environment
          • Health
          • Transport
          • World
          Bruce Kent at a Stop Trident rally

          Bruce Kent (1929 – 2022) – a personal view

          Factory

          Cutting emissions from construction and automotive materials by a third

          child labour

          World losing fight to end child labour

          Protester and injunction

          Jesus wept: meet Mark Coleman, retired vicar and Just Stop Oil activist

          Cotton mill

          Gardens of the revolution: Fashion revolution at the Chelsea flower show

          Flowers

          This writer’s life: a diary. Part 3: Garden blessings

          Vigil for Visas

          Vigil for Visas: delays in issuing visas to refugees from the war in Ukraine cause misery and fear

          The motherland calls

          Your Deed Is Immortal: Russia’s obsession with her WWII past and her war against Ukraine

          Air pollution

          Deadline extended for Government’s air pollution consultation

          Trending Tags

          • Johnson
          • Ukraine Conflict
          • Brexit
          • Education
          • Environment
          • Health
          • Transport
          • World
        • Politics
          Patriotism in the UK

          Johnson isn’t a patriot, he’s a pariah

          Return to imperial measures

          The return of imperial measurements?

          Gun Control

          ‘Gun Free Zone’ (a ‘Found’ poem, extracted from Trump’s NRA conference speech in Houston, a few days later)

          Statue of a bishop

          Johnson can’t govern so he lies instead

          Fraud and government schemes

          Fraud and government schemes

          East midlands greatest hits

          East Midlands Conservative greatest hits, Spring 2022

          Voting

          Boris Johnson won’t remove himself – we all have to help

          Anti-rascism protest

          Anti-racism campaigners in Stoke-on-Trent demand change

          Johnson

          Johnson’s Rwanda asylum scheme draws praise from fascists

          Trending Tags

          • Levelling up
        • Opinion
          Adobe stock licensed image by Jorm S

          Freedom and conservatism

          This work is from the National Child Labor Committee collection at the Library of Congress. According to the library, there are no known copyright restrictions on the use of this work.

          Reflections on Boris Johnson’s ‘high skill, high wage future’ speech. Fashion – Fix up, look smart! 

          Adobe Stock licensed image by motortion

          Reflections on Boris Johnson’s ‘high skill, high wage future’ speech: the invisible half of the population

          Official United Kingdom Parliamentary photographs 2020 Tom Randall (politician) - CC-BY-3.0

          Why do people become MPs?

          Image by Central Bylines Team - derived from eligible Creative Commons sources

          Gaslighting an electorate – the moral bankruptcy of Edward Leigh 

          Adobe Stock licensed: Gibberish
by egokhan

          Lucy Allan talks gibberish

          Image by Number 10 for flickr licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

          Red wall voters to Johnson: in the name of God, go!

          Say no to the elections bill

          Say no to the Elections Bill

          Trending Tags

          • Lifestyle
            • All
            • Art
            • Books
            • Dance
            • Festivals
            • Fun & Games
            • Movies
            • Music
            • Poetry
            • Sport
            • Theatre
            • TV
            Image by author

            Anne Boleyn

            Portrait of William Byrd by The Trustees of the British Museum ©, licensed by CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

            William Byrd – “a Father of Musick”

            Waverly community garden

            Launch of Better Together Community Garden in Clayton

            Illustration by AB Wyze

            Here I’m sat

            Liverpool in Paris

            Gun Control

            ‘Gun Free Zone’ (a ‘Found’ poem, extracted from Trump’s NRA conference speech in Houston, a few days later)

            Bally Gill, David Morrissey, James Graham and Joanne Froggatt - sherwood cast

            Sherwood: what lies beneath?

            O'Rourke

            O’Rourke

            Fighter,Pilots,Cockpit,View,Under,Cloudy,Blue,Sky

            Top Gun, I feel the need…..

            Trending Tags

              • Dance
              • Food
              • Music
              • Poetry
              • Recipes
              • Sport
            • Business
              • All
              • Economy
              • Technology
              • Trade
              cloudy beer

              UK’s first cloudy beer

              Cost of living crisis

              Crisis? What crisis? The cost of living crisis and political responses

              Adobe Stock licensed image by hanohiki

              Bad news for Newark: 110 jobs lost as town’s top employer withdraws to the EU 

              Promotion image from Colleague Box website

              Pandemic start-up success story hampered by Brexit barriers

              Image licensed by Pixabay

              Information is power: its loss can be devastating

              Photo by Matt Bango on StockSnap

              Hassle in High Peak: Robert Largan’s solar farm shenanigans

              Adobe Stock licensed - image by blackday

              British Gas-lighting a nation: how energy companies are exploiting their customers with increased prices

              circular economy

              Reflections on Boris Johnson’s ‘high skill, high wage future’ speech

              Dog wrapped in a blanket, luckily he does not have to pay the bill.

              Fuel bills and service blunders as energy prices start to bite

              Trending Tags

              • Levelling up
              • Economy
              • Technology
            • Region
              • All
              • East Midlands
              • West Midlands
              Image by Number 10 used under CC2 - Prime Minister Boris Johnson met Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on 10 October 2019 to discuss the UK's Brexit proposals.

              The Northern Ireland protocol

              Waverly community garden

              Launch of Better Together Community Garden in Clayton

              Rent seeking

              A ‘high skill, high wage future’? Rentier Capitalism: who owns the future?

              Liverpool in Paris

              Mark Serwotka

              Trades Unionists demand action on the cost of living crisis at rally in Stoke-on-Trent

              East midlands greatest hits

              East Midlands Conservative greatest hits, Spring 2022

              Allens Cross Community Centre

              St Bart’s Pantry, open for business!

              women in power 2

              Women in power

              Vera Brittain plaque

              Midlands blue plaques part 1: Vera Brittain in Buxton

              Trending Tags

                • East Midlands
                • West Midlands
              • Events
              No Result
              View All Result
              Central Bylines
              No Result
              View All Result
              Home Politics

              Why the Electoral Reform Movement Needs Nigel Farage

              We need to stop being noble, or wasting time countering opposition claims, and instead start spreading our own message. ‘Fight dirty’ to win.

              Stewart TolleybyStewart Tolley
              12-03-2021 12:14
              in Politics, UK
              Photo by Elliott Stallion on Unsplash

              Photo by Elliott Stallion on Unsplash

              Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
              ADVERTISEMENT

              Like many of my fellow Britons, I love a good pub quiz. I think back fondly to the pre-pandemic era when I was able to see my friends weekly for a chance to name obscure capital cities or try and eke out a song title from listening to music over a crackly speaker system. My pub quiz got each of its teams to host on a random rota system, which meant you got some unique rounds each week. In the summer of 2015 my team was chosen and seeing as it coincided with the General Election, I decided to do a politics round.

              I managed to get hold of the election manifestos from the main parties  – Conservative, Labour, Lib Dem, Green and UKIP—running in that election and quoted a policy from each. The teams then had to guess which party that policy belonged to. Question 10 was: Which party wants to ‘campaign for a new, proportional voting system that delivers a Parliament truly reflective of the number of votes cast, while retaining a constituency link’?

              I would be surprised if you could get it. The answer was UKIP and not a single team got that question correct.  No one associates UKIP or the Brexit party with electoral reform yet it has been fairly consistent in its advocacy of it (although it should not be too surprising that people don’t get it as these populist parties have always been geared more towards dog whistle politics on Europe and immigration). Unlike the Lib Dems, UKIP never made electoral reform front and centre of its campaign; the above policy was buried on page 57 of their manifesto. Only political geeks like me would have taken the trouble to find it.

              I do not agree with Nigel Farage on almost anything, yet this is the one policy where our Venn diagrams intersect. Farage maddens people on the liberal left/centre (like me) because he is one of the best at blowing that political dog whistle, overly simplifying complex things and blaming easy scapegoats. Yet that is also why UKIP did so well in the 2015 general election, winning – or more accurately retaining –  a seat. Farage very nearly pulled off the same feat in South Thanet, coming within about 3,000 votes.

              What if we could put some of that bluster and the same rhetorical talents that have done so much damage to this country to good use, namely to finally end the first past the post voting system forever. The same system that saw the Conservatives win an 80 seat majority with under 50% of the vote, stopping any hope of a second referendum despite this being the will of the voters.

              Farage has recently resigned from his embryonic Reform UK party. I propose we invite him to become the joint President of a new movement – along with a more traditional metropolitan liberal – dedicated to ending the antiquated First Past the Post system and introducing proportional representation.  Firstly it is a policy he agrees with, so he will put the effort in, secondly he is used to leading a single issue cause and knows how to hammer home a message and thirdly he reaches parts of the country other politicians can’t.

              This last one point is the most important and to see the evidence, you only need to look at the failed AV referendum campaign in 2011.  Despite being a majoritarian system, rather than a proportional one, the system put to a referendum in the first full year of the coalition government was an improvement. UKIP supported the change although many wanted to actually go further and hold out for AV+.

              During that campaign I do not ever remember seeing a UKIP figure being used by the official Yes To Fairer Votes campaign, which was as usual stuffed full of metropolitan luvvies, celebrities and trendy politicians. As much as you may like Eddie Izzard, she probably already had your vote.  It was always the conservative shires that needed to be won over, the golf club bores and Colonel Blimps who are naturally hostile to change. If I was leading the campaign, Nigel Farage would probably have never been off the TV, teaming him up with the metropolitans and therefore balancing the overwhelming liberal flavour of the message. it would have been good to see him tear down Tories in the same way he does the left.


              More from Central Bylines

              • Block Party‘
              • The great assembly
              • Play GoViral! A great way to spread fake news

              As we have learnt to our cost in the referendum, the simpler the message the better. As lying or spreading disinformation don’t seem to matter, we need to stop being noble (which will likely mean losing), or wasting time countering opposition claims, and instead start spreading our own message.  ‘Fight dirty’ to win.

              In 2011 the NO to AV campaign did two things that were smart if not always in good taste. Firstly it used fake news cleverly (very reminiscent of the infamous  ‘350 million to the NHS’ slogan) with the image of a baby and the message  ‘she needs a maternity unit not an alternative voting system’,  directly linking the cost of the referendum to the emotional pull of the NHS. The YES campaign tried to make a complex link between making MPs work harder to get re-elected, which was firstly almost as inaccurate but also fell flat. Farage would no doubt have connected better using colourful language and ‘telling It like it is’ to the campaign’s advantage.

              The second more important thing was that the NO campaign used its spokespeople better. I don’t think I saw a Conservative face during the campaign or certainly not on their own. The NO campaign knew that big beasts like John Prescott and David Blunkett would reach out to those crucial labour voters who were a key demographic to their eventual win and every single debate or appearance seemed to be from some old Labour dinosaur committed to retaining the corrupt duopoly of First Past the Post.

              So as we come up to the 2024 general election and electoral reform again comes up on the horizon, we need to not just win over Sir Keir Starmer, we also need to stop preaching to the choir. Perhaps if the madness of Brexit sees us eventually go back into the EU, Nigel Farage’s legacy may actually end up being a positive one. Perhaps in a later quiz he will be the answer to ‘who successfully led the proportional representation movement in the UK’? and more importantly people would actually know the answer.

              ADVERTISEMENT
              Previous Post

              There’s something about Nadine

              Next Post

              Crossing the red line: when government abuses the goodwill of professionals and volunteers

              Stewart Tolley

              Stewart Tolley

              Related Posts

              Patriotism in the UK
              Politics

              Johnson isn’t a patriot, he’s a pariah

              byMike Stafford
              24 June 2022
              Return to imperial measures
              Politics

              The return of imperial measurements?

              byPippa Musgrave
              17 June 2022
              Gun Control
              Poetry

              ‘Gun Free Zone’ (a ‘Found’ poem, extracted from Trump’s NRA conference speech in Houston, a few days later)

              byLynda Tavakoli
              16 June 2022
              Statue of a bishop
              Politics

              Johnson can’t govern so he lies instead

              byMike Stafford
              8 June 2022
              Fraud and government schemes
              Politics

              Fraud and government schemes

              byPenny Lane
              7 June 2022
              Next Post
              Photo by Nick Fewings on Unsplash

              Crossing the red line: when government abuses the goodwill of professionals and volunteers

              Want to support us?

              Can you help Central Bylines to grow and become more sustainable with a regular donation, no matter how small?  

              DONATE

              Sign up to our newsletter

              If you would like to receive the Central Bylines regular newsletter, straight talking direct to your inbox, click the button below.

              NEWSLETTER

              LATEST

              Image by Number 10 used under CC2 - Prime Minister Boris Johnson met Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on 10 October 2019 to discuss the UK's Brexit proposals.

              The Northern Ireland protocol

              27 June 2022
              Image by author

              Anne Boleyn

              27 June 2022
              Bruce Kent at a Stop Trident rally

              Bruce Kent (1929 – 2022) – a personal view

              27 June 2022
              Portrait of William Byrd by The Trustees of the British Museum ©, licensed by CC BY-NC-SA 4.0

              William Byrd – “a Father of Musick”

              25 June 2022

              MOST READ

              Patriotism in the UK

              Johnson isn’t a patriot, he’s a pariah

              24 June 2022
              Lee Anderson

              Keeping up with Lee Anderson

              21 June 2021
              Bruce Kent at a Stop Trident rally

              Bruce Kent (1929 – 2022) – a personal view

              27 June 2022
              Image by Number 10 used under CC2 - Prime Minister Boris Johnson met Irish Taoiseach Leo Varadkar on 10 October 2019 to discuss the UK's Brexit proposals.

              The Northern Ireland protocol

              27 June 2022

              BROWSE BY TAGS

              Blue Plaques Climate change Community Cost of living crisis Covid Energy Farming Johnson Latest Levelling up My Little Town Rwanda Ukraine Conflict Voting Whistleblower
              Central Bylines

              Central Bylines is a regional online newspaper that supports citizen journalism. Our aim is to publish well-written, fact-based articles and opinion pieces on subjects that are of interest to people in Central England and beyond.



              Learn more about us

              No Result
              View All Result
              • Contact
              • About
              • Donate
              • Privacy policy
              • Bylines network
              • Back Editions
              • Shop

              © 2022 Central Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

              No Result
              View All Result
              • Home
              • News
                • Brexit
                • Education
                • Environment
                • Health
                • Transport
                • World
              • Politics
              • Back in the news
              • Opinion
              • Lifestyle
                • Dance
                • Food
                • Music
                • Poetry
                • Recipes
                • Sport
              • Business
                • Economy
                • Technology
                • Trade
              • Regional Events
              • Donate
              • Newsletter sign up
              • A Cotswold Diary
              • Authors
              • BYLINES NETWORK
              • Contact

              © 2022 Central Bylines. Citizen Journalism | Local & Internationalist

              Welcome Back!

              Login to your account below

              Forgotten Password?

              Retrieve your password

              Please enter your username or email address to reset your password.

              Log In
              X