In the local elections this may, voters will be presented with a new party to vote for; Rotherham Democratic Party. Despite their slogan 'neither Right nor Left', Rotherham Socialists know very well WHO they are, WHERE they're from and WHAT they represent! Neil, SP Rotherham member, goes into more detail. Don't be fooled...
Its all down to luck, or bad luck, to determine where you’re born, and I was born in the very typical northern Rotherham. Throughout my thirty-seven years I’ve seen many changes in Rotherham. Once an industry epicentre that could rival many established industrial cities. Rotherham had both a world leading steel industry and a thriving mining industry, amongst others.
After the decline and decimation of the core vital industries communities began to suffer, and now they’re still yet to recover. As well as an economic void in the borough there was also a political void. As with the national scene, locally, the Labour Party seemed to come across, rightly or wrongly, as detached from the electorate. Just as with the establishment of the Labour Party, the local Labour Party council group had also become another right-wing group.
Hence many in Rotherham unwittingly were seeking political answers, causing an almost perfect storm for a political party to rise.
Its all down to luck, or bad luck, to determine where you’re born, and I was born in the very typical northern Rotherham. Throughout my thirty-seven years I’ve seen many changes in Rotherham. Once an industry epicentre that could rival many established industrial cities. Rotherham had both a world leading steel industry and a thriving mining industry, amongst others.
After the decline and decimation of the core vital industries communities began to suffer, and now they’re still yet to recover. As well as an economic void in the borough there was also a political void. As with the national scene, locally, the Labour Party seemed to come across, rightly or wrongly, as detached from the electorate. Just as with the establishment of the Labour Party, the local Labour Party council group had also become another right-wing group.
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| UKIP v.2021: NEVER LEFT WING!!! |
Hence many in Rotherham unwittingly were seeking political answers, causing an almost perfect storm for a political party to rise.
This void was where
UKIP start to rear its ugly head. The situation
was made much worse when in 2012 The Times catapulted the issue of child
exploitation in town in the national consciousness, resulting in
Rotherham becoming the number one destination for hate tourism, where
over a period of a couple of years we’ll have a visit
from a different far right group every few weeks, we had the full range
of them, Britain First, EDL, National Front, BNP,etc.
With our frequent visits from the far right came one common factor, many on the far right seem to throw their political support behind UKIP, both locally and nationally. UKIP seemed to have become a mainstay in Rotherham, they viewed it as one of their target areas, and they did gather much support. They came second in a parliamentary by-election in 2012, over the years they gain up to elevens seats on the Labour controlled council, to become the opposition in the council chamber.
Rotherham had a storied left-wing history; it had the first Communist Party councillor; many years ago due protest central government had to send in its commissioners (just like in recent years) and many other it’s communities had workers involved in the miners’ strike. But now with the support of UKIP in the town the right-wing was gathering support. UKIP at the time was led by privately educated former banker Nigel Farage, who notoriously said he a favours an US style health care system rather than our own NHS style model. Farage as a mouth piece was often found to be lowering the argument to the anti-immigrant stance. UKIP time after time proved themselves to be not on the wide of the working class, just another face of our usual right wing parties, Tory MPs deflected to and were welcomed with open arms to UKIP.
UKIP were born from a single policy, to leave the EU, after EU referendum seemingly went in their
favour and they were going to get their Brexit, UKIP seemed to implode on itself. Since 2016 they’ve had various underwhelming leaders, each one more to the far right than the one they’re succeeding. They even welcomed Tommy Robinson in to their ranks. After their own implosion Farage founded the Brexit Party, which included the ex-Tory right wing Anne Widdecombe as member and MEP.
In Rotherham the majority of the sitting UKIP councillors did switch to the Brexit Party. My very own local councillor Nigel Simpson was outed in an online Times article for is racist comment which led to him leaving the Brexit Party. It seems that the Brexit Party was UKIP in but name. But in Rotherham there was more trouble brewing for the Brexit Party as locally there was more splintering as some foundered their own party, the Rotherham Democratic Party.
The Rotherham Democratic Party (RDP) although a new party its seems to be made up of the same old
faces, figuratively and literally. Although without assuming the worse, it is kind of hard to find out their political leaning, are they to the right or to the left, as on their flashy new website on their policy section it just say “All To Be Revealed.”, rather strange as we are less than two months away from local elections they’re planning on contesting. Its all very odd for a political party to have no policies, or no inkling of what they stand for on their website. Strangely one would assume as they use the word democratic in their name they would be at least democratic and show this on their website.
Their social media presence seems to be a wash of posts about what they’re angry about in the community but with no underlying substance, it is basically the Twitter equivalent of two old neighbours moaning over the garden fence. A new recent phenomenon social media is political parties asking for volunteers to stand in local elections, recently as we approach election time I’ve seen the Greens, Tories and the Lib Dems all seek volunteers on Facebook to join their ranks and maybe become a candidate but the Rotherham Democratic Party are the only ones mentioning the potential salary a councillor can have upon election.
With our frequent visits from the far right came one common factor, many on the far right seem to throw their political support behind UKIP, both locally and nationally. UKIP seemed to have become a mainstay in Rotherham, they viewed it as one of their target areas, and they did gather much support. They came second in a parliamentary by-election in 2012, over the years they gain up to elevens seats on the Labour controlled council, to become the opposition in the council chamber.
Rotherham had a storied left-wing history; it had the first Communist Party councillor; many years ago due protest central government had to send in its commissioners (just like in recent years) and many other it’s communities had workers involved in the miners’ strike. But now with the support of UKIP in the town the right-wing was gathering support. UKIP at the time was led by privately educated former banker Nigel Farage, who notoriously said he a favours an US style health care system rather than our own NHS style model. Farage as a mouth piece was often found to be lowering the argument to the anti-immigrant stance. UKIP time after time proved themselves to be not on the wide of the working class, just another face of our usual right wing parties, Tory MPs deflected to and were welcomed with open arms to UKIP.
UKIP were born from a single policy, to leave the EU, after EU referendum seemingly went in their
favour and they were going to get their Brexit, UKIP seemed to implode on itself. Since 2016 they’ve had various underwhelming leaders, each one more to the far right than the one they’re succeeding. They even welcomed Tommy Robinson in to their ranks. After their own implosion Farage founded the Brexit Party, which included the ex-Tory right wing Anne Widdecombe as member and MEP.
In Rotherham the majority of the sitting UKIP councillors did switch to the Brexit Party. My very own local councillor Nigel Simpson was outed in an online Times article for is racist comment which led to him leaving the Brexit Party. It seems that the Brexit Party was UKIP in but name. But in Rotherham there was more trouble brewing for the Brexit Party as locally there was more splintering as some foundered their own party, the Rotherham Democratic Party.
The Rotherham Democratic Party (RDP) although a new party its seems to be made up of the same old
faces, figuratively and literally. Although without assuming the worse, it is kind of hard to find out their political leaning, are they to the right or to the left, as on their flashy new website on their policy section it just say “All To Be Revealed.”, rather strange as we are less than two months away from local elections they’re planning on contesting. Its all very odd for a political party to have no policies, or no inkling of what they stand for on their website. Strangely one would assume as they use the word democratic in their name they would be at least democratic and show this on their website.
Their social media presence seems to be a wash of posts about what they’re angry about in the community but with no underlying substance, it is basically the Twitter equivalent of two old neighbours moaning over the garden fence. A new recent phenomenon social media is political parties asking for volunteers to stand in local elections, recently as we approach election time I’ve seen the Greens, Tories and the Lib Dems all seek volunteers on Facebook to join their ranks and maybe become a candidate but the Rotherham Democratic Party are the only ones mentioning the potential salary a councillor can have upon election.
