The era of political labels has ended

I loathe labels but used to be described – indeed described myself – as a socialist. Perhaps as a result of having been conceived at a conference of sex-pest Gerry Healy’s Socialist Labour League (SLL) in Morecambe, then christened (or rather, named – my family are atheist) Mark after Marx, I never had much doubt about which side I hung.

My father’s family were working class, Methodist, union-organising, tenant association-running, pro-Suffragette, anti-bomb. Many of my happiest childhood memories were being taken on marches against nukes, apartheid and vivisection. Even now my father struggles with the concept that not all Conservatives are fundamentally evil. My mother’s family were more extreme: my nan was an Irish Republican, and even now my mum’s father remains a Stalinist.

I always dressed to the Left then, and in many ways, I still do. Anti-racist, pro-equality, against rampant Capitalism even though I’m not sure of a better alternative. However I’ve always had a wide streak of pragmatism running through the rock of this core belief: that uncontrolled immigration might not yet be practical.