More United will raise funds for candidates that support a core set of progressive principles
Paddy Ashdown has announced the formation of a new cross-party progressive platform, More United.
Speaking on the Andrew Marr show this morning, Ashdown said that the movement is for people who ‘hate to see our country dragged away to the extremes’ and ‘want a means, not necessarily through a political party to express their views.’
More United — its name taken from the late Jo Cox’s maiden speech in parliament —will use crowdfunding to provide financial support to progressive candidates from across the party space, with a view to ‘creating a new centre of political gravity in the UK.’
The movements core principles are:
- A fair, modern, efficient market based economy that closes the gap between rich and poor and supports strong public services
- A modern democracy that empowers citizens, rather than politicians
- A green economy that protects the environment and works to reverse climate change
- An open and tolerant society where diversity is celebrated in all its forms
- A United Kingdom that welcomes immigration, international co-operation and a close relationship with the EU
Ashdown also made clear that if a second EU referendum were to be held, More United would campaign against Brexit.
More United has not begun fundraising yet, but is inviting supporters to join. According to Ashdown, if more than 25,000 people have signed up by September, they will launch the next phase.
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15 Responses to “Ashdown launches new progressive political platform”
Robert Bowerman
Its not Blairite, in fact very far from it – Blair had no beliefs or morals – he just had an amalgam of Focus Group outputs that were aimed to deliver one thing only, power, raw political power of being in office. Thus he would say whatever to took to get elected. Once in office, as we all learned from bitter experience, all earlier promises meant nothing and he was the autocrat to decide what he did next. He did not even believe in listening to the cabinet, let alone to the people. Only his opinion mattered, and that was a careful scheming, a careful balancing of forces to give him the advantage overall to get elected and reelected. The trouble with the Gang of 174 in the Labour party today is that they share Blair’s moral compass that the only thing that matters is getting elected.
Frank Barber
The core principles would have my full support
Nic
Sounds great – I’ve signed up. However I don’t think having Paddy Ashdown as pre-eminent spokesman is a good branding move for a cross-party movement.
Dave Watts
I was initially quite exited by this, it sounded interesting, then I went to the website. Disappointment
There are some general principles that, with some caveats, I can mostly support but there is one, and only one, specific policy statement and that is that the UK should either stay in or rejoin the EU.
So they want to “unite” by specifically excluding about half the population.
They are not what they claim to be at all. They are just a Pro-EU lobbying group.
I am bitterly disappointed that a real opportunity has been missed.
Vivienne Peters
Very interested. Very worried about lack of opposition to government and no viable alternative to Conseratism. Vote Stay!! Still feeling humiliated at UK choosing to leave EU.