Skipper

If you go back a century and consider, had you been living then which of the political movements knocking around then would become mainstream, I wonder what most people would have chosen? Liberalism in its headline form was entering its slow decline, (though with a small 'l' it has never really gone away thank goodness). But 'socialism' muat have seemed to have about as much chance as 'anarchism'; not that the former survived moere than afew decades before reality dliuted its prescriptions into something, as Ed Miliband is discovering, hard to grasp.

Martin Kettle writes an an interesting piece todayabout the political fringe. Are our monolthic partiesbeginning to fragment as they are in Germany? Certainly support for them is in sharp decline. Is 'Respect' the shape of things to come? I still hope Caroline Lucas will be that shape but I fear, despite the excellence of the Green party's message, the crisis of the environment will only be recognised once it's far too late. If the SDP, a party for which ivoted in 1983, could not make a breakthrough, with its huge initial support, then Respect, with its eccentric, flawed though charismatic one man band, has no chance.

Perhaps, as in Germany the radical
Pirate Party, born in Sweden, will help shape our future. What do Pirtae parties stand for? Well, they believe in civil rights, free sharing of online data and freepublic services. Maybe this sounds a bit thin for a party of the future, but it seems like a good start.