Your Party Cambridge meets amidst turmoil at the top while Trials of Democracy returns

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They meet at the Mill Road Centre on 20 Sept 2025 from around 4pm. On the wider issues, have a listen to Ash Sarkar on Newsagents here

Pictured: The trials of democracy in Cambridge – which has new events coming up!

See the details here – it’s also accessible online. Timings means it clashes with multiple other things starting with the Future of Cambridge Science Park which starts at 10am along with several community events in my part of the city. By the time it gets to 4pm I’ll have been on my third event so will be a zombie by that time to do anything useful in terms of reporting. So I hope someone else will do the honours on the community reporting front. (Looking at you Ozzie to do a vlogpost!)

Politics-watchers joking about far-left splits – history repeating itself

Some of you will have seen the farcical scenes and the headlines stemming from them – and the social media lampooning mainly from those within and/or sympathetic to The Labour Party leadership and also anyone who went through university and became familiar with far-left paper sellers from the various established left-wing groups, the Socialist Workers’ Party being the most prominent of them.

In previous times, chances are I’d have joined in the bunfight. But not today. Because what happened in central London last weekend more than alarmed me. And if that continues to grow, then that will mean as Alex Andreou describes in eloquent detail here, some very real changes in day-to-day routines. Some political commentators and bloggers (myself included) have wondered openly whether The Greens will be the ultimate beneficiaries of this. But that has been countered by others who have (quite understandably) stated that the challenge we face following last weekend are bigger than all of us put together. ‘We can’t afford for you to f–k up like this!’

“Why the splits?”

Ash Sarkar summarised it brilliantly in an interview on NewsAgents here in the intro segment. I can’t really add to that. (The intro is taken from the segment that starts around 11mins in).

In terms of my owne experiences over the decades, this is what I sort of recall. I first became aware of politics to the left of Labour during my second year at university when I shared a flat in central Hove with a postgraduate who was an activist with what was the expelled Militant Tendency of the Labour Party that went onto become the Socialist Party – a rival to the SWP. They formed a brief electoral alliance with other small groups in the 2001 general election under the Socialist Alliance brand – and someone has kept that webpage going ever since!

This was also a time in Brighton where within the environmental movement where there were lots of activists who for want of another term did not like being told what to do by a top-down central committee. That same year, The Schnews collective published a pamphlet giving naive students like me a crash course in how ‘front’ organisations are established and function – using the Globalise Resistance group, briefly prominent in the left-wing anti-globalisation movement as a case study. (The online and printed versions have the illustrations via the top of the page here)

Above: By Schnews in Brighton (2001), p7. New to campaigning, but who do you get involved with?

One group was prominent at inserting itself in the media narrative as the sort of ‘official spokespeople’ of the protesters. And this was something that many of their critics took exception to. Hence the production of the pamphlet.

Above: By Schnews in Brighton (2001), p18.

History shows that every so often the different groups will put their differences aside and unite, before collapsing into intense disagreement. I’ve seen it happen repeatedly over the past quarter of a centrally both nationally and much closer to home. What has happened with YourParty nationally therefore does not come as a surprise to those familiar with the activities of leftwing protest movements in England.

The Cambridge branch of Your Party launches – and one councillor signed up at the start

Cllr Dave Baigent (Ind – Romsey) has been a Labour councillor for over a decade (I was at the count when he got elected because me and Puffles had an interest in the result in Coleridge ward next door back in 2014, so I’m showing my age!). He’s been a trade unionist and Labour member for even longer (see more of his background in the Cambs News here). That’s not something to throw away lightly.

Hence why I was slightly surprised when he announced his resignation from Labour. But he wasn’t alone locally in leaving the party. Several dozen people joined him in signing this letter, and at the last count over 700 have shown an interest in their FB page.

Which is why the meeting on Saturday (now ‘later today’ as it has gone midnight!) is ever so important for a whole host of campaigners – especially those new to politics and campaigning.

“Why are you not going?”

Apart from maintaining my independence from all political parties (I refuse to joint political parties on principle – taking the oft-misquoted Groucho Marx line that any political party that would have a crazy fool like me as a member is not one that I’d care to join!) if I’m not going to sign up for it then I shouldn’t really be in the room. In times gone by I’d be turning up to the opening of an envelope or a front door and live-tweeting about it. A decade later and time has moved on.

Furthermore, my lack of mobility these days means that I’m more productive concentrating on community-related events and when asked, pointing people to where they can find existing groups and organisations that may interest them. Talking of which, The Trials of Democracy project has a number of events coming up in early October in Cambridge.

The events are

And on what democracy means to different people in and around Cambridge? Have a look at the playlist here

I was offered a slot but declined it – mainly on the grounds that I’ve got nothing new or enlightening to say, and that it’s more important that newer and younger faces make use of the platform. (If you know anyone who may want to feature – especially if they don’t have any grey hair like me, drop Menagerie Theatre a line!)

If you are interested in the longer term future of Cambridge, and on what happens at the local democracy meetings where decisions are made, feel free to: