by Samuel Dale
The reaction of some parts of the left to an emphatic Conservative victory has been shameful and embarrassing.
There were anti-austerity protests in London (along with some rioting and vandalism) on the 70th anniversary of VE Day. “Fuck Tory scum” graffiti was sprawled over a Whitehall monument to women of the Second World War.
Parts of Facebook and Twitter has exploded with pure hatred about a Tory victory. There was the viral image of a garden centre owner who said he would charge Tory voters 10% more on all their purchases while Ukip votes were not welcome.
Can you imagine the fury if there was a similar sign outside a garden centre banning Labour voters? Is the Conservative brand so toxic that it has become the only socially acceptable form of discrimination? The only allowable thought crime?
I have seen a number of social media posts and remarks from people who now refuse to be friends with anyone who voted Conservative.
One Conservative voting friend explains how he was berated down the phone by another friend when he explained he had voted Tory. He said he the party was more in line with his own personal interests and this provoked venom.
Another friend who has always voted Labour in the past but just couldn’t choose Miliband this time has been forced to lie about her vote.
“I voted Tory and I feel like I have great reasons but I haven’t admitted it to anyone,” she says. “It’s amazing how angry everyone is. People don’t ask me who I voted for – everyone assumes I voted Labour they don’t even ask. It’s terrifying that people think only evil people can vote Tory and that there’s no way anyone they associate themselves with would.”
Another friend text me: “How come everyone is saying goodbye to the NHS because of David Cameron?”
I told her the Conservative policies of a seven day doctor service and an extra £8bn a year spending by the end of the parliament. But that they were not properly funded and some had fears that the Conservative don’t really believe in the NHS despite their strong insistence they do.
“I thought so, I have just been reading his manifesto and was wondering how saying that was even justified,” she said. “It’s weird seeing people’s reactions.”
Lying isn’t justified. Neither is questioning Cameron’s love for his late disabled son, Ivan, just because he chooses to explain how it has influenced his politics. Another disgusting smear we see all too often when trying to damage the Tories on the NHS.
Is it anyone wonder millions of people are so ashamed of voting Tory that they wouldn’t even privately admit it to pollsters?
The 12 million people who voted Conservative look at parts of the left, including Labour supporters, and are bemused to see themselves called selfish scum or racist. They literally do not recognise the way they are caricatured.
The rage-filled left secretly want the Conservatives to win so they can complain for the next five years and shake their fists at the nasty Tories. They see traitors everywhere and blame their inability to persuade others on anyone but themselves.
Former Labour general secretary Peter Watt, in an article republished on this site last week, talked about the arrogance of the left denouncing anyone who doesn’t fit with our “rigid moral code”. He couldn’t have said it any better.
Most in the Labour party are appalled at the reaction of a few fruitcakes on the left and see little association with the mainstream party.
Well, fairly or not it does taint the mainstream party so let’s condemn it whenever we get the chance.
And we should look at ourselves too. I’ve been quick to brand Ukip a racist party based on Nigel Farage comments about not wanting to live next door to Romanians or that he would abolish race relations laws among other slurs.
If there is racism then let’s call it racism but the vast majority of nearly four million Ukip voters are not racist. They simply have a different view and by shrilly denouncing them all as racists en bloc we are not going to win them back. And it’s not fair.
Of course I am disappointed by the defeat but Britain comprehensively rejected Labour. Let’s think about why that is rather than blame the voters for the crazy idea of “false consciousness”.
There is lots of the Tory agenda to oppose. Repealing the Human Rights Act, flirting with EU exit, tacitly backing fox hunting, lack of action on exploitative zero hours contracts or spraying around welfare cuts because it is politically easy. And much else besides.
But the left can do that without slipping into the type of grievance culture associated with Ukip and the SNP. Otherwise Labour will quickly come to be seen as Britain’s truly nasty party.
Sam Dale is a financial and political journalist
Tags: austerity, extremism, general election 2015, Labour defeat, Samuel Dale, VE Day
This is the third election on the trot that Labour has polled below 10 million despite the electoral base increasing in size and the percentage turnout increasing in each one as well. (Blair, Brown and now Miliband. New Labour, Traditional Labour, Revisionist Labour.)
There’s a message and a trend there.
What a truly awful article.
Makes the mistake of telling me what I think and then criticising me for it.
There were anti-austerity protests in London (along with some rioting and vandalism)
I fought in the riots of Northern Ireland in the 1970’s. Believe me, you haven’t had riots here on the mainland between then and now. Just piss-ant feeble excuses for looting. Although Broad Farm came close it must be admitted.
I spent 8 years in The Labour Party (1975-83) & I cant see that much has changed. The “fruitcakes” have always been a major strand of Labour thought, they control most of the major Unions for a start.
The Left has always been smug and nasty. The essential difference is that the Left thinks the Right is wicked and evil, the Right tends to think of the Left as mistaken and ill-informed.
It’s ultimately to do with faith in human nature. Broadly, folk on the right take humanity and society as they are and folk on the left feel that both are perfectible – and, given the clear and obvious correctness of their views, can’t understand how other folk could possibly bring themselves not to agree, unless they are inherently wicked.
I keep Bees. I am a member of a beekeeping forum.
We had a post about “Fox hunting conservatives ” which you can read here..
http://tinyurl.com/okcwth8
The poster called people “morons” and “clowns” and suggested people who do it should be “removed from society”..
Even the Labour supporters thought he was OTT..
Say no more.. (And yes I am Madasafish” there as well.)
Honestly, Labour really does have to look at the image it presents to the outside world, and these type of people are no friends of us. Action must be taken against them They simply confirm to the public that Labour are the Party of only the10% and not a One Nation Party of the hardworking struggling squeezed middle.
a bit less bleeding heart socialism and a bit more realism would help from members.
For example:There is definitely a problem over immigration, and the boat people and the people cheating their way into Britain and Europe, and all Labour can do is make excuses for them. I say if you are so concerned then charter some boats and bring the millions that want to come over here and give them a home.
Australia is sending illegals back and so are Malaysia and Indonesia.
Whatever the UN Convention says, these people don’t actually have a right to force themselves on us, just because they want a better life. There are legal ways of applying for immigration to another country.
There’s is a false view that ,the Press backing the Tories, including, the Standard and Undepedent, some how convinced the public, that it was a lie we didn’t have an economic strategy,
In 1992 The Tory press getting many a legal writ from labour, both the Sun, (Charles Clarke to Mckenzie) and the Tories retracting, after admitting they leaked the surname of Jennifer, her ear not being treated on the NHS, to the Telegraph,
Although some of the student type people who joined labour in the last 5 years, can’t believe the amount of blairites, taking to the TV to denounce Ed now, are looking in in disgust, may have put on social media, the Tories are fascists, and some maybe branch secretaries at their local parties ETC, I hardly think these wallies represent the party,it reminds me of Kivungstine be Linda bellow,saying if the Tories win in 973 they’d gas the poor,round up political opponents, they disagreed with. Those people had power in the party, not now
There’s is a false view that ,the Press backing the Tories, including, the Standard and Undepedent, some how convinced the public, that it was a lie we didn’t have an economic strategy,
In 1992 The Tory press getting many a legal writ from labour, both the Sun, (Charles Clarke to Mckenzie) and the Tories retracting, after admitting they leaked the surname of Jennifer, her ear not being treated on the NHS, to the Telegraph,
Although some of the student type people who joined labour in the last 5 years, can’t believe the amount of blairites, taking to the TV to denounce Ed now, are looking in in disgust, may have put on social media, the Tories are fascists, and some maybe branch secretaries at their local parties ETC, I hardly think these wallies represent the party,it reminds me of livingstone and Linda bellos,saying if the Tories win in 1983 they’d gas the poor,round up political opponents, and imprison they disagreed with. Those people had power in the party, not now
You have to smile at articles like this..
Labour leadership mess? Here’s my plan. Leave Harriet Harman in charge for 2 years to let things settle, and see how the aspiring long term leaders do in their shadow roles. Possible contenders then have plenty of time to think about the implications for their families etc. The leadership election can take place in 2017. By that time too we’ll know more about who the Tories will fear the most. Nothing to be lost – a new leader in 2017 still has 2-3 years to build momentum with the public. If Labour rushes into this – and finds itself lumbered with another weak leader – then the 2020 election is lost before the end of this year! With 5 year fixed terms, we have the chance to plan properly without needing to fear a snap election.
Some say it’s too late, and that the process will have to grind to a conclusion even if we have weak and untested candidates. Poppycock! I say it’s never too late or too early to change your mind – if you need to. Ask Chuka.
I think this cancer of hate took hold at the same time as Mr Kinnock was waging his battle against the very hard left. In my opinion, the Labour party needs a leader who will defeat the hate-mongers just as Mr Kinnock defeated that other faction.
Mr Kinnock won his battle, but the poison was left behind. The Labour party’s fight against Thatcherism is remembered with pride, I’m sure. But we need to remember also that that fight was intensified – distorted – by the very hard left that Mr Kinnock was, himself, trying to defeat.
These people weren’t out to defeat a particular government’s policies, or even to bring down a particular government – they were out to bring down the principle of democratic government. The Labour party & the Trades Unions were useful tools. Happily Mr Kinnock won his battle.
During that time, people believed they were expressing righteous anger, and hatred & violence became (for them) socially acceptable. So hatred gained legitimacy in the party.
Institutionalised hatred in the party was not the fault of Mrs Thatcher. It was the response of a Labour party under the influence of revolutionaries that inflicted the self-harm.
Not unnaturally, that era caused an identification in the eyes of ordinary people between violent protest and the Labour party. Mr Blair managed to disconnect that identification, and the public responded.
Obviously Mr Blair went too far away from Labour’s core values and his whole approach became anathema for much of the present party. We know now, anyway, that the hatred had merely been kept out of the public eye, not genuinely defused.
Hatred & active spite towards people who didn’t vote for you? That means hatred & active spite towards people whose votes you’ll be seeking at up-coming elections. Does that make sense to anyone? Ever heard of customer relations management?
Do we want people’s votes? Or do we prefer merely to indulge our hatred for them?
>AnneJGP
“Ever heard of customer relations management?”
If you win safe seats with no effort for decade after decade as in Scotland- you get lazy. You don’t need to have voter lists or activists. You don’t need to work for your constituents. You just sit back, employ your family and rake in the money. Thta’s the real reason why Scottish Labou was wiped out..
And in England, you pursue a core vote strategym you ignore what voters say they want and give them wht you want.
Customer Relations Managaement? When you think business is your enemy, you are not going to learn anything from them. Businesses have to SELL to customers. A customer is someone who ultimately calls the shots. And customer satisfaction is key.
Labour is run bsically by a bunch of wealthy, self centred like minded people living in London. They live near to eaCh other, go to the same dinner parties and read the same papers. The idea that they might have to give the voters whtat they want is unthinkable. See the referendum (opposed), immigration curbs (opposed), and “bigots”.Why, that would be admitting they are wrong..The voters are of course wrong..
Finally CRM requires hard work. Read the accounts of the hours worked by the opposing election teams by Lynton Crosby.. Guess which teams started earlier and finished later? Not Labour..
With chuka throwing in the towel its a walkover for andy burnham with fat tom as dep .
Labour uncut should just help tone and pete count their money.Yesterdays ideas.
AnneJGP, most of the people blogging those nasty Tories, ought to be ousted, spite winning the election, weren’t even born, when kinnock took on Militant
I wonder what Russell brand makes of it all?
Guess what Sam? This is how Labour in Scotland (and the tories and the glib-dumbs) have behaved toward the SNP ever since 1974. My wife is a gnat so – surprise surprise – we don’t always quite agree on things political, but I know that if she was known to be a gnat she would not have got her current job and I know that that’s been the case in a number of local authorities (by no means all of them) for decades. We can call the gnats tartan tories and tribalists, but which party is it that forms local authority coalitions with the tories just to keep the gnats out?
I agree with AnneJGP and ask once again here as I have asked in other places why is Ken Livingstone still a member of the party? He is the poison leader and sums up everything that is wrong with Labour. After him Len McCluskey and then down to local loony left nut cases.
This article seems to have been written by. Tory apologist. Protests & riots? Wtf do you expect? We’re facing the greatest enemy since Hitler, fighting for our lives. Fuck the Tory scum, & fuck Blue. Labour.
Austeriy – a European perspective…..
http://ec.europa.eu/economy_finance/publications/graphs/2014-08-18_public_spending_eu_en.htm
It may have escaped your attention but these bastards want to scrap Human Rights, next it will belabour camps for the unemployed, gas chambers for the poor..50000 people have died in last 5 yrs due to Tory welfare reforms.IDS lives under24/7 armed guard. What does that tell you?This is not Democracy it is Dictatorship.
R.I.P. DAVID CLAPSON
Landless peasant,gas camps ,if only Ed Miliband had pointed out that the Tories were going to put it in their manifesto
Funny the party you support the greens have said they’ll back Toey Zak Goldsmith for their second choice on the London Mayor contest,
And 07052015′ has it occurred to you that Burnham was a Blairite, and as for Watson after Falkirk, maybe you should change your name to 07053015, as that’ll be the next time labour wins if Watson became deputy.
My my, it appears that my opposite number has decided to keep up the falsehoods pursued during the election campaign. The Tories do not want to scrap human rights, just return primacy over them to the uk courts. The electorate understands this but the hard left keep trying to push the “evil tory” line. The Tories won because people liked what they offered more than what Labour offered just as the lib dems lost because people were offended by the idea that they should always be in government regardless of who wins an election.
Landed Peasant, you’re in the wrong party, you sound like a closet Tory to me. And you wonder why Labour didn’t win.
Landless peasant has Landed peasant said he wondered why labour didn’t win,if you want him To be in the right party, the Tories,then that’s even less votes a left wing party would get, and you wonder why people don’t want left wing socialism
A historical note, Kinnock didnt drive the Far Left out of The Party, simply out of the Constituency section. They moved across to the Unions where the Leadership cant touch them. One of the odd things about Labours ties with The Unions/Co-op is that sanctions only run one way. The only real sanction the Leadership have is the “Nuclear Option” of Disaffiliation.
Labour can do without Tory apologists muckying the waters. They are scum.
As Landless Peasant claims he voted Green, he can hardly speak for Labour…
All parties have a nasty element. I’m a Tory, and there are some people in my party I’d cross the street and keep running to avoid. The nastiness takes different forms – ours are narrow-minded provincial xenophobes, yours are self-righteous thugs – but in both cases the majority are decent and sincere human beings who genuinely believe that the country as a whole would be better off under their preferred party.
I do actually have friends in the Labour Party, and in the LibDems, and – I live in Scotland – in the SNP. Having lived through 1997-2010 wondering if we’d ever be in power again, I know what it’s like to feel you’re permanently on the wrong side of some malign cosmic conspiracy. But I went into this election thinking that from my partisan perspective it wouldn’t be a bad one to lose, and now that we’ve won it I am uncomfortably aware that there are a lot of things that could go wrong. From my side of the fence Conservative hegemony into the indefinite future doesn’t look anything like a done deal, and by implication the Labour Party’s recovery is both realistic and – to a large extent – within its own grasp.
Landless Peasant is the embodiment of everything that is wrong with the swivel-eyed hate-filled left and by association with Labour. The nastiness and bile puts people off, when will this ever sink in I wonder.
I certainly don’t like Harman but I think that the suggestion about her continuing while contenders showed their ability makes much sense.
Frankly I have little faith in any of the contenders to be honest. I have always respected Frank Field enormously but I worry when a ‘sane’ individual such as he can endorse the left-wing candidate in such climes as these.
Any detractors of Labour be they disenchants or frustrated onlookers will be wringing their hands at the potential Corbyn/Watson ticket. The Tories will be praying that such takes place.
You really couldn’t make it up!