People
The New Party News

News from the New Party

News Highlights

The 2010 General Election
Stop playing Scrooge Darling, we need tax cuts now
Government risks civil unrest over pensions
New Party sympathises with expenses backlash MPs
Miliband's carbon solution is to export employment during recession
New Party disappointed by CO2 advert adjudication delays
This year Christmas dinner will cost you £36million, if you are quick
IPPR plans would cause higher numbers to jump from UK Titanic
Stealth tax ‘shooting galleries’ creating killer roads
New Party slams 'perverse' lessons in domestic violence
UK needs to wake up and end this economic 'Greek tragedy'
New corruption figures highlight Kelly's Westminster failure
Queen's Speech a matter of the 'government's new clothes'
Labour's nuclear 'dithering' will have UK scrabbling in the dark, New Party leader tells nuclear heartland
YouTube debut for New Party following Politics Show appearance
Stop Westminster Council's bike rider robbery before it spreads nationwide
New Party calls for BBC to end its 'discrimination' of smaller political parties
New Party praises ASA for investigating 'sickening' carbon advert
Time to unburden 10 million low earners of income tax
'Orwellian' C02 advert prompts New Party call for withdrawal
Richard Vass' letter to the national press
Red Tape has left thousands across Britain jobless
Who are the real progressives?
Memories of '76
The reactionary left
The Democratic Imperative
Socialism for shoppers
Spivocracy in action
Precisely
The abdication of leadership
Rebuilding communities
The loser tendency
The United Nations: what moral authority?
How to banish cynicism
The Chancellor's iron grip - on power
British politics: Is it dead yet?

Monday, November 10, 2008

Walking the walk

If the effectiveness of an election campaign is a reasonable basis on which to choose the most powerful elected position on Earth, then there is no doubt that Barack Obama is the rightful winner.  America wanted change, and Barack Obama clearly and dramatically personifies that change.  There is a certain ambiguity in the attention paid to the fact that Obama is the first non-white president of the United States.   The idea that Americans should have voted for Obama on account of his skin colour is outrageous - but the elation that many African Americans and others feel on account of his election is entirely understandable.  It should not matter that Barack Obama is black - however it does matter precisely because he is the first black man to hold the office of President of the United States. 

However, now the job of winning the election is done, the job of leading the United States and the free world beckons.  Barack Obama has talked the talk - now it's time to walk the walk.  It is a truism to state that the world is a dangerous place.  9/11 demonstrated just how dangerous it can be.  However, the world has moved on and the dangers we face now are subtly different from the dangers of the last seven years.  The resurgence of an increasingly belligerent Russia and the economic dynamism - even in these times - of China add a different dimension to the geopolitical scene.  Al Qaeda and radical Islamism have not gone away, but there are other dangers which may come to pose an even greater threat.

Barack Obama enjoys a massive amount of public support both in his own country and around the world.  Seven years ago, in the wake of 9/11, his predecessor enjoyed similar goodwill.  Unfortunately, George W. Bush was unable to capitalise on this support in the longer term.  We must hope that Barack Obama has the ability to make wise choices, and to take the world along with him in making them.