Labour’s victory will arise from the humiliating end of Tory Brexit and a decent offer to ‘left-behind’ communities
Paul Mason.
Paul Mason may have something here. What do we think?
Theresa May can let tower blocks burn, deport black British pensioners to Jamaica, make an almighty cock-up of the Brexit negotiations, and 35 per cent of the English public will still, happily vote for her.
Corbyn can be smeared by the right wing press as a Czech spy, a Russian stooge an IRA sympathiser or a closet anti-semite – but it makes little difference: a solid 35 per cent-plus of the electorate wants a left wing Labour government and understands that much of the tabloid media is peddling lies or distortions.
Between now and the general election, the Brexit process will either collapse or be concluded. The electorate that votes for the next parliament will know whether Theresa May’s giant bluff – refusing to say what form of exit Britain wants, in the hope that Europe will hand something to her on a plate – has worked or not.
I doubt it will work. Instead it looks likely that parliament – via the Commons and the Lords – will instruct May to seek a deal keeping Britain inside the customs union. Then, either May’s government would then fall, or we’d see civil war inside the cabinet. As a Labour supporter, for me that can’t come soon enough.
To win the next election decisively, Labour needs to win exactly in areas where the Ukip vote has shifted to the Conservatives: places like Walsall, Nuneaton and Derby. Such areas are often described as “pro-Brexit” areas – but it’s more complicated than that.
In left-behind, de-industrialised areas, Brexit was simply an expression of wider social attitudes: unsettled by high inward migration, turned-off by the cosmopolitan lifestyle of big cities, apt to call middle class people “luvvies” – as the Sun does every day – proud of their industrial past and determinedly patriotic.
Labour must offer the left-behind communities of Britain a comprehensive plan for economic revival. It must say: life in the 21st century will be cosmopolitan, hi-tech, global and socially liberal and we will plug your community into that life, through education, training and inward investment.
Source: Labour’s route to victory is to win in areas where Ukip has faded away
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Hell’s Bells! I find myself in agreement :)
I think you are deluded and choose to be blindsided and edit out what you do not want to see.
The current position is not good for either Conservative or Labour both are battling within and have no clear policies, cohesion or agenda everyone can get behind and trust.
As for this Socialist blinkered appeal to the masses, appeal to the community. There is no such thing. People are individual and will think for themselves. Within families ethnics, social backgrounds there will be some for corbyn and socialism, there will be some who are conservative because of their values and ideals, and middle class may be split between right Labour and Corbyn, greens and LibDems and soft local conservative
The feedback on the streets and feeling from normal everyday working class people is Corbyn is not to be trusted and is a mess.
So lets not be blindsided and within our own echo chamber where we do not hear anything else.
Corbyn may need a 3rd Wave but he has lost some in last few weeks on top of those who already said they would not vote for him from the traditional Labour supporters and those left confused and irritatted with all the in fighting mixed messages and accusations of anti semitism etc. Despite the truth and evidence that has still stuck.
It is not up for grabs and not in the bag and is way off.
I think you’ll find the feedback on the streets has been fed by a biased mass media and has nothing to do with the abilities of Mr Corbyn.
I don’t know how you work out that he has “lost some” in the last few weeks. Look at the election results – 1,000 more seats won by Labour than the Conservatives. Gains everywhere.
Labour has to stop balming exogenous factors. Just admit that, at this crucial election which could have brought the Tories down, you stuffed up totally. At this rate you will soon be unelectable and I and millions like me will be desolate.
Stuffed up totally? What, by winning more than 1,000 seats more than the Tories?
By making gains when, even with the support of former UKIP voters, the Tories made losses?
Please, explain why you think Labour has done badly.
Sigh, living in the “desolate north” it’s easy to see that the London-centric commentariat have no idea. We’ve had 40 yeears of being offered ‘intergration, jobs, liberal cosmopolitism’ and a dribbling of funds, mostly from the EU. All we got was more neo-liberalism, Starbucks and an extra McDonalds. The damage to the outer regions of the so-called United Kingdom would now cost trillions to replace.
If all Corbynite Labour is going to offer is a slight variation of the existing thing, then expect to get a robust F.U. just like happened with Brexit. An offer of jobs means nothing. Work for many is now permanent enslavement into poverty. The people round here don’t just want a job, they want meaningful work. Another BooHoo or Amazon slave labour camp will not cut it, even though our local Labour council think it’s the beesknees, blighting the countryside.
The Consciousness of Sheep wrote an interesting blog on the relationship between the neglected regions, Brexit and EU aid
http://consciousnessofsheep.co.uk/2018/05/04/politics-through-a-different-lens/
Paul Mason I thought knew better. The degredation of nearly 40 years of neo-liberalism cannot be fixed with sticking plaster politics. The Labour manifesto was great, but most Labour MPs are closet neo-liberals of the Blairite faction – they need whipping into shape or replacing too. And Corybn and McDonald need to clearly plan out how their remedies for the neglect of the regions is going to work pretty much instantly. We couldn’t afford to wait 2 years for a peer-review of the failings of UC for example, it needs to be changed, and DWP forceably changed in attitude, on day one of a Corybn government.
Radical investments, like a UBI, would need to be brought in within months, not after a 6 year beyond-your-term-of-office study.
Nothing less than a radical redistribution of existing wealth in a structured permanent way will win over the “desolate north” (although that term covers much of England now all over). And it has to work in a way that is good for the people here, not the corporate offices in London, Shanghai, Moscow and Riyadh.
Do not dress up a slight variation of more of the same as cosmopolitan, plugged-in, liberal, or whatever the latest buzz word is. Paul Mason is part right, but not emphatic enough.
“… comprehensive plan for economic revival. ”
Revival implies getting back to a once active state. Any plan has to be better than that, not harking back to some past ideal (which probably never existed anyway). On top of that it has to be radical, thorough, all encompassing, ie “no one gets left behind” as the SEALs say. And it has to be unbreakable, in other words, the neo-liberals cannot come back 10 years later and undo it all with another boom-&-bust cycle. Experience round here shows at current levels of “care” it takes 15 years to undo the ravages of previous recession, so just as the town is getting back on it’s feet, the next programmed crash comes in and undoes all the effort.
On top of this, it has to be sustainable. Corybnite Labour might be saying a lot of the right things, but they still follow unlimited economic growth as a thing – on a finite planet this is suicide.
As the Dark Mountain Project says, we don’t want a new way of doing the same old thing, we want new things to do.
Paul I agree to an extent, but it’s not 35% of the English public vote Tory, it’s been just 24% at the last two GE’s. [34% of the turnout, 23 % of the Electorate]
At present we have 15.8m that do not vote and Labour’s vote has increased, as has it’s membership. This is probably the reason Tories want ID, used to force people away from voting. I rejected ID back in the 90’s, it’s a form of Occupied Germany type of policing [cash grabbing] I wont be getting ID.
Labour need to sort their party out, they have far too many neo-cons pushing their own agenda. If Corbyn does get in, he’ll never be able to make any laws, especially what he’s promised, with this shower still in residence; https://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/these-are-the-184-labour-mps-who-didn-t-vote-against-the-tories-welfare-bill-10404831.html
Although I agree with Paul Mason’s views re. a new approach to the apparent “left-behind” communities. it occurs to me that existing Labour policies are attractive to such places already. Surely, our housing policies , involving more construction including genuinely affordable homes as well as expanding the social housing sector, would appeal to people in so-called “Brexit” areas, regardless of how they voted 18 months ago. Not to mention our policies on taxation and dealing with tax avoidance and “offshore ” tax havens. Protecting the NHS and increasing the number of annual holidays also counts in our favour, regardless of which way the EU vote went in any particular locality.
The point is to have active local Party members who are willing to publicise these initiatives so that local voters are not left to rely on tabloid newspapers for information about our policies.
Though I wonder if “Brexit” will really be the deciding factor behind peoples votes in the next General Election.
I totally agree. Apart from London and the SE, the rest of the country that made this country’s wealth, has been left to stagnate.
The EEF and manufacturing leaders are already calling for a strategic plan to invest and increase productivity, Labour should seize on this and start to work with them in opposition for this bunch of clowns will not.
It will provide a platform for government by a proper socialist party looking to help everyone.