Member-only story
Change UK — rebranded Thatcherism?
ChUK’s latest ‘manifesto’ reveals a surprisingly right-wing ideology for what claims to be a centrist party.
Over the weekend of 11 May the Change UK (ChUK) Party released a pamphlet — which is the closest thing they’ve produced so far to a manifesto. It’s confused and as bland as their menu icon logo, but has some worrying and somewhat questionable core principles. Any Labour remainer — or for that matter any voter — should think twice before voting for them in the upcoming or any election.
Surprisingly, for what claims to be a centrist party not governed by ideology, it has a repeated emphasis on militarism, the pre-eminent importance of free enterprise, and a view on individual vs. social responsibility that is Thatcherism in its purest form.
From the start the document name-checks Jeremy Corbyn but not ‘the leader of the Conservative Party’ or the Prime Minister. In common with much of the right-wing press, it seeks to identify the Labour Party as one man, who curiously simultaneously dictates his personal view on policy to the whole party whilst failing to lead. It cannot attack the party policy or structure, it wants to paint the picture that the labour leader and the party policy do not command the overwhelming support of ordinary members.
