Labour and free speech
The Labour Party in the UK has rules that state that any member who stands in an election against the labour candidate, or who openly supports a candidate opposing a Labour candidate, is automatically expelled from the party. In the time leading up to the 2005 election, there were letters in the papers alleging that people had received notifications that they had been expelled from the party not even for supporting particular candidates, but for endorsing websites which promoted tactical voting. Most recently, it was suggested that Ken Livingstone, former London mayor and Labour candidate for the mayoral election in 2012, be expelled automatically for supporting Lutfur Rahman, a candidate Labour expelled from the party and who is now standing as an independent. (Update: he was elected with more than 51% of the vote, albeit on a turnout of only 25.6%.
The party’s rules seem to be a throwback to the days when Labour were a working class, socialist party with a mission to redistribute wealth, and standing against the party was to stand in the way of their mission. Labour nowadays does not really have a mission other than, much like any other major party, to gain and then keep power, and there is no earth-shattering reason why a Labour candidate automatically has the right to control every council or parliamentary seat in the country, or why the party has the right to expect every single member to support any candidate it might put up. There is, on the other hand, every reason why people might like to support a promising independent candidate with a long track record and a credible programme over a dull politician of the party’s choosing. There are also trends in the party that are diametrically opposed to others, and some members may see absolutely no virtue in voting for some official candidates, and “he’s Labour” might not cut it.
Such rules make it a disadvantage to join a party in the first place, unless you actually want to become a politician, as you will be required to keep quiet if the party puts up an unsuitable candidate in your ward or constituency. There is no longer any unshakeable moral case for supporting any party regardless of the individual candidate’s own credibility or political stance; the law should be changed so that at least parties cannot silence their members through threats of expulsion to prevent people openly disagreeing with the party’s leadership or the local party machine. We do live in a democracy, not Stalinist Russia.
