just read this great response to hilary wainwright's who will Represent us? by simon tormey (i'm sure i've heard that name before...) wainwrights' piece was the usual startlingly original lefty appeal for a new party to unite us all, and tormey's reply is a great rejection of the whole idea of representation. whilst i have a few reservations about his rather rosy view of chavez, who appears to be more than a little guilty of acting as a representative (i.e. subverting the desires of venezuelans for his own purposes), but all the same, tormey has picked up on something that many of this blog's leftist detractors don't seem to have:-

Similarly, the new politics of the ‘left’ in Britain will be a complete irrelevance if it is does not see that the desire for autonomy and self-definition is not something that can be corralled into a political party, which is altogether too rigid and boring a format for individuals with plans and projects of their own. What we need, and increasingly, what is being created, are spaces in which the anger and disillusionment we feel can be channelled into productive and effective resistances against incorporation into the schemes of the politicians, benign, ‘progressive’ or otherwise.