How will Your Party fare at next general election?

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Hi Diogenes,

Welcome to openDemocracy's weekly reader comments round-up. We receive so many carefully considered messages about our work that it seems a shame to keep them to ourselves. Send us your thoughts for next week's round-up by replying directly to any of our emails or commenting on our articles or Instagram posts.

These comments are edited for clarity, accuracy and length, and aren't necessarily a reflection of openDemocracy's editorial position.

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Re: Hope amid chaos: Inside Your Party's inaugural conference

This whole conference was comedy gold! It says something that comedic excerpts of 'speeches' by some clearly very wacky individuals get vastly more hits on YouTube than anything Jeremy Corbyn said. –Paul_Libertarian via our website

Nah, they've buggered it. Until this summer, I was still keeping faith in Jeremy Corbyn, despite the endless and inexplicable delays in launching a new party (it should have happened the day after Keir Starmer was elected leader of the Labour Party). But since then, those involved in Your Party appear to have been repeatedly sabotaging themselves. Can they not see the importance of the present moment and hold their shit together for ten minutes?

This party's task was to unite everyone on the left. They have, in effect, done that; it's now very clear that the only meaningful opposition is the Green Party. I'm not sure I trust the Greens, and would have preferred something built, above all, on socialism, but they are now the only game in town. Every instance of feuding between Corbyn and his on-off allies only emphasises that further.

Your Party could have been amazing. But over the past six months, its leaders have proven they are not fit to be involved in politics, and the most constructive thing everyone associated with it can do now is retire. Get out of the way and support the Greens. –Bobbins123 via our website

I would suggest that what the left needs has already arrived, and it's not another party.

I have long felt that parties are the problem; they become tribal, exclusive or messianic – and the British left's history of splitting and splintering is dismal. We don't need a new old party – even if it starts well, it will become mired in the nitty gritty of packing meetings, establishing a line and othering some who should be comrades.

I would strongly suggest that anyone who wants to work across divides to build a better society needs to look no further than Majority, a new left-wing organisation by former North-of-Tyne mayor Jamie Driscoll, which does political education, supports positions that most people can get behind and runs hustings to agree who is the most likely progressive to win. Instead of wasting time on fighting about being a new, new party or a new, old party or anything else, Majority is just getting on with it, building alliances and practising what it preaches.

I think it is much more in tune with the times and has more chance of success – success measured by getting free thinking, sceptical people into parliament who, with the aid of the people who mobilised to get them in can start to bring about real change. –Holistic.Political.Economy via our website

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Re: With UK politics in flux, Your Party may well surprise you yet

Were there really two Your Party conferences? I don't think so. The "mainstream/legacy media" certainly had a lot to say about the shambolic run-up to the conference, and the way Corbynism was rooted out by the attendees, but so did many of the (very many) left-oriented "independent" media outlets.

There's a common theme to much of the response, as anyone familiar with Life of Brian can tell you. The left is riddled with factions, all claiming to represent the true way to freedom, democracy, and luxury for all, without a clue about the consequences of their policies.

Various groups call for Parliament to be replaced with a 'People's Assembly' – ignoring the obvious questions about how people should be elected to this – and for the punitive taxation of the ultra-wealthy (or filthy rich, if you prefer), who can, of course, choose to take their money and their business elsewhere. Meanwhile, the Labour Party itself is more concerned with clinging to power as part of the established order of things. That's why people are flocking to Reform, which isn't seen as being in a cosy clinch with the establishment.

It will be interesting to see how the newly empowered Your Party membership will work with the party's MPs, including the three 'Independent Alliance' MPs who appear more motivated by foreign affairs than the establishment of an inclusive, socialist paradise in the UK. That's going to give the news media – of all flavours – something to talk about for a while. –sa.nagba.imuru via our website

Re: Weekly Poll: Will Your Party be a serious challenger at the 2029 general election?

Absolutely no idea, things everywhere in the world are so unpredictable and different from anything I've known before. I'm 74 and beginning to realise that I won't be around for ever, but I anguish about the lives my son and daughter will have, never mind my grandchildren. I only hope that it won't be worse than 1984! –M Calvert via email

Making sure that Reform UK gets nowhere near government eclipses all other political activity. I resigned from the Labour Party because of Corbyn's stance on the EU, NATO and Russia; my advice as someone who travelled extensively behind the Iron Curtain during the period of Russian hegemony is not to be tempted by parties claiming that aggression and imperialism will stop if we speak to Vladimir Putin nicely. It won't. –Marcus via email

Your Party won't be able to mount a realistic challenge to our collapsed democracy because the various factions within the party are already repeating the same self-destruction we lived through in the 1970s. Not impressed so far. We need a broad church which means being willing to have some policies which you may not support. For the greater good. –Jon via email

I fervently hope so, but realistically no, as the big donations will head in an entirely opposing direction. I do believe in the common sense of the 'every person' in the UK, if only they hear and can add their voice. But this is the crux – with the media lined up against commonsense, it is unlikely. Do I believe in miracles? Hesitantly, with the right groundswell, absolutely.

The worse outcome is probable, dilution by fringe parties leading to outright victory for Totalitarianism. –Tony via email

I certainly hope so, but very much fear it will crash and burn. When people are saying they want a different kind of politics, they mean in the policies, not the way the party organises itself. People say they want change but actually, they find change very hard. We are habit-forming creatures. I feel that abandoning the role of a party leader in favour of a governing Central Executive Committee is a risk; this new left-wing party is looking to change something that doesn't need changing.

I feared they would come up with a joint leadership plan, but I wasn't expecting something so much worse than my worst fears. I only think this will reach other disciples, not the non-believers who make up the majority. Most people have no higher education. I am doubtful this will work. I expect there to be more public spats. –Jane Peryer via email

Re: The quiet crisis at the heart of British democracy

Before the 1997 Labour victory, PR was on the agenda. It was quietly dropped by the party's leadership once they won a huge majority in the Commons. The same happened last year. Labour, which claims to be the party for the people, seems determined not to let the people have the representation they want and deserve. Ironically, a sensible PR system would have reined in the Conservatives, who, like Labour, have often governed with a minority of votes but a majority of seats. Both put party before people. But there is hope. If nothing is done, we might well have a Reform government next – that prospect just might focus attention on the benefits of PR. –sa.nagba.imuru via our website