Michael White and Seumas Milne in London
ARTHUR SCARGILL, leader of the newly formed Socialist Labour Party (SLP) in
the United Kingdom, has opened a new phase in
the guerrilla war which small parties are threatening to wage against the Labour- Conservative hegemony at the coming general election. When the SLP was finally given its formal May Day launch, Scargill hinted that he may stand for election.
Given the unpopularity of the Tories under Prime Minister John Major and the unease on the left about Labour leader Tony Blair’s leadership, the surprise is that David versus Goliath politics has taken so long to re- emerge after Margaret Thatcher’s charismatic grip on British politics was replaced by pragmatic muddle.
The prolonged political crisis of the 1970s led to the rise of Scottish and Welsh nationalist parties, a surge of Trotskyite activism in and beyond Labour’s ranks and, briefly in 1974, a boost for the fascist National Front.
Little was heard from Tory MPs about the need for electoral reform and proportional representation once Thatcher was firmly in charge. And the greatest breakaway of all, the ex-Labour Socialist Democratic Party, ended in merger with the Liberals.
But in the 1990s electoral reform talk has returned on both left and right, with disaffected MPs and activists predicting splits and realignment in both major parties after the next election.
Scargill has long been a supporter of prop- ortional representation and is anti-European, like Sir James Goldsmith, from whom he does not expect financial support. Just as the Goldsmith-funded Referendum Party is sizing up prominent Tory MPs to take on, members of Scargill’s SLP have already decided to challenge Blair in his Sedgefield constituency and the shadow employment secretary, Michael Meacher, in Oldham West.
Meanwhile, Harrods owner Mohamed al-Fayed may emulate another philanthropic tradition in the grocery trade, that of the Sainsbury family, whose good causes have long included discreet help for political think-tanks.
Al-Fayed is looking for young people to run an independent institute to examine options for constitutional reform. He will provide the “seed corn”. Options range from a slimmed-down monarchy and reformed House of Lords to a Bill of Rights and Freedom of Information Act.