Quote Originally Posted by jon1959 View Post
Not wanting a clash of egos at the top of a new party is delusional? OK.

But you are right that the new party (if it ever happens) cannot adopt a platform that is just made up of the points of agreement amongst the (for now) leading figures.

There would probably be a common position on tax, public ownership and public services, Gaza, aid, internationalism, opposing austerity and poverty. But there are major differences around social policies and I expect ‘trans rights’ to be the place where that kicks off.

That said there is more chance of ‘a new kind of politics’ as Corbyn promised when he became Labour leader - which ended up as ‘policies not personalities’ and him asking questions from the public at PMQs. This is his chance to make it a reality.
Yeah i think it is, as i said politicians go into politics to make the change that they feel strongly about. Inevitably there is going to come a point where someone who feels strongly gets outvoted by the membership or by other prominent folk, what do they do at that point? Ditch the view they have held for years, use the tools at their disposal to change the direction of the party or breakaway again. I mean i cant think of a good example of a successful political party avoiding egos clashing, you could possible cite the lib dems right now but when your job is just to say stuff that feels right, life is simple, their last stint with power during the coalition showed how quickly it can get messy.

The issue with having a manifesto by consensus is a) the above and b) we would find the party adopt positions that are completely incompatible with each other just be because they feel right. For example if you think the governments main priority should be reducing the ratio of fixed monthly costs to salary and one of your main chosen solutions is to build more homes, you cant ignore immigration, whether its high paid or low paid. If you are running a party and the memberships wants cheaper housing and wants to maintain migration, you have a far larger problem to solve.