The skipped over people of real Britain

by Kevin Meagher

There’s a space in British politics that no one wants to occupy at the moment.

If you’re sensible and moderate, perhaps even old-fashioned in your outlook, in favour of traditional marriage, say, or concerned about the pace of change in society, maybe disapproving of mass immigration and not particularly enthused by the growth of identity politics, then there’s not really anywhere for you to go, politically, these days.

In previous times, many of you backed Labour, as your family did before you, but they’re all career politicians these days aren’t they? Self-serving PC loonies.

You can’t understand why Jeremy Corbyn won’t wear a tie or makes such a fuss about singing the National Anthem.

You don’t live in central London. You’re from one of those towns in the north and midlands that people in London have heard of, but aren’t quite sure where they are.

You don’t own an Apple Mac. You can’t taste the difference between Guatemalan and Colombian coffee beans. You voted to leave the European Union and you don’t regret it one tiny bit.

You want to buy British and be proud of your country. You like your politicians in suits. You wonder why we can’t just jail or expel Muslim fanatics who hate us.

You drink lager or real ale, not craft beer. If you go out for a meal, it’s to a Harvester pub, not a bijou Vietnamese canteen.

You’ve started shopping in Aldi and Lidl these past few years. You think climate change is overblown. Overseas aid is misspent and the benefits system is a soft touch.

You would like to go on holiday abroad, but nine million people like you don’t even have a passport. You aren’t a member of a trade union. They only represent cushy public sector idlers these days don’t they?

Technically, you have your own business. At least you’re self-employed.  Which really means you scrape together a wage each week and have zero job security. Save for a pension? Don’t make me laugh.

You would like your kids to stay on after school, but think university is a waste of time if you stack up all that debt and have no job at the end of it.

If your car breaks down, you worry how you’ll pay to fix it. There’s no tube stop to the call centre or warehouse on the business park in the provincial town where you work.

No-one’s interested in you and your problems, at least that’s how it feels.

Nick Clegg called you ‘alarm clock Britain’, but he was a dead loss wasn’t he? Propping up Cameron for a cushy life.

Then there’s that Tory, Halfon, who talks about ‘blue collar Conservatism’. But the toffs have never been bothered about people like you.

You couldn’t understand why Labour picked the wrong Miliband; the one who didn’t sign his own sons’ birth certificates and couldn’t even eat a bacon sarnie properly.

You’ve flirted with UKIP these past few years. They’re the only ones bothered about immigration and stupid EU rules and all that waste.

As ballot papers go out for the Labour leadership election and after weeks of hustings, does it feel as though these are the people the party is talking about or talking to?

They’re often referred to as the ‘left behind’ people, at odds with the modern world.

But they’re not. They enjoy their lives. They understand what community means. They know right from wrong. They just know when politicians aren’t interested in them.

They will still vote to spend more on public services, but they also hate waste, scroungers and do-gooding liberals. They want an easier life and to know their elderly relatives and kids will be alright and worry that they won’t be.

They are the ‘skipped over’ people.

The conveniently forgotten. Written out of the script. The sorts that Emily Thornberry wouldn’t want to live next door to.

They are the people New Labour took for granted and the the Corbynistas simply ignore. They hold unfashionable views. They laugh at the wrong jokes. Read the wrong newspapers.

They are economically nationalist and believe in fairness, not equality. They are social conservatives who are still ‘live and let live’ as long as you don’t shove your alternative lifestyle down their throats.

They are the bedrock of any winning coalition that Labour will ever put together.

Eventually, the party is going to have to speak to these people and for them. They are the ordinary men and women of this country who either vote Labour, or who used to, and the party needs them if it ever wants to govern again.

There aren’t enough hipsters, ethnics, students, middle-class lefties, LGBT-ers, feminists and public sector types to get Labour over the winning line. No rainbow coalition that avoids speaking for real Britain will ever win.

It’s very simple: the sooner Labour sees that, the sooner it gets back in the game.

But the longer it ignores them, the greater the chance of them finding a new permanent home.

Kevin Meagher is associate editor of Uncut


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49 Responses to “The skipped over people of real Britain”

  1. Mark Livingston says:

    Will Kevin Meagher’s right to vote in the Labour leadership contest be withdrawn because he used the term “loonies”? Keep it comradely, I say!

  2. Tafia says:

    These are the people who will flock to UKIP if Labour doesn’t drop this fantasy of EU-Ref 2.

    And even you are over-simplifying these people. You are making them out to be not very bright, not very well educated. Lumpen in other words. Some of them are very well qualified. Some own highly succesful businesses. Many work in the public sector (and resent the stupid one day ‘common purpose’ propaganda brain-washing seminars they are sent on).

    What they are is ‘proper’ Labour. Labour as it used to be. The Labour that delivered the NHS and pensions and massive housing programmes.

    They want skilled jobs. Pay rates high enough so they aren’t having to rely on state top-ups. Extra pay for working bank holidays and nights and weekends (now virtually non existant in the private sector.)

    Council housing availability on the scale of the 1950’s and 1960’s. Full time work with proper contracts.

    Idle bastards who are milking the system given short shrift and a kick up the arse – you don’t have a right to sit on benefits while you wait for a job that you fancy. If you are fit, you do any work available. You can find the job you want later.

    Their future in their own communities – not having to disperse just to find even menial work.

    Politicians who always put British interests first and foremost all the time over everything.

    A Police Force (Force not Service) who actually enforce the law and a Court system that takes dangerous people off the streets and wage war on drugs and gangs that are destroying their estates. Pride in our Armed Forces (even if the politicians are misusing them).

    An education system that puts the main emphasis on the 3Rs and not the rubbish kids spend half their time on – such as being taught about gay sex when they aren’t even 10 years old and haven’t even started wanking yet FFS.

    An NHS that delivers the basics quickly and efficiently and not wastes money on bigger tits, smaller tits, IVF for pensioners and single women and bloody art works for the corridors, offices and grounds along with management conferences in the caribbean..

    Councils that keep the streets clean and empty the bins every week and not get involved wasting money on diversity shite and other middle class bollocks.

    Politicians who will put their foot down with immigration and tell them straight – you come here to work and to be like us and you damn well integrate or we will send you back – this is not the desert and we don’t care about your traditions and sensitivities.

    And the laws of this country made in this country, for this country to protect the people of this country above all others.

    And any politician who can’t or won’t deliver that serves no purpose in their eyes.

    And they are right.

    (PS The wrong Miliband wasn’t chosen. They are both the wrong person.)

  3. Chris Bryson says:

    Very True, but we are not activists we are just ordinary voters we don’t do dogma, we don’t want to return to the days of ” Red Robbo”, profligate local councils increasing council tax to fund PC minority organisations, and having to wait 12 months for a telephone to be installed by a nationalised organisation with no concept of customer service
    But to the Labour party after it has gone through its cathartic convulsions and deselected those sensible MP’s who actually work for their constituents in favour of the hard left we don’t matter.

  4. madasafish says:

    “It’s very simple: the sooner Labour sees that, the sooner it gets back in the game.”

    Well that is going to be VERY difficult.

    A Labour MP – murdered in horrible circumstances – is virtually hailed as a saint . Her role in life? To support ordinary people – living outside the UK – who are refugees. (Thi s is not a criticism of her personally).

    A Labour MP and Shadow Minister makes remarks about white people which would be abhorrent if made about black people.

    A Labour MP and Shadow Minister advocates killing of his former Opponents.

    The Leader of the Opposition openly supports terrorist organisations.

    And so on.

    Decades of work in store.

    People have long memories..I still remember Michael Foot after 30 odd years.. a shambles.. And his image is brought to life when the Leader of the Labour Party speaks. A new generation of voters is learning the same lessons. It took 15 years for Labour to be electable.

    So think 2035?

  5. Mark C says:

    >> The conveniently forgotten.

    Not by Aaron Banks they’re not.

  6. paul barker says:

    Certainly the sort of people you describe make up a big chunk of Britain, 30-40% I would have said. But why do you think that they are any more real than me ? It seems to me that you are talking about conservatives & they already have several Parties to vote for, why would you want them to vote for a mainstream, Centre-Left Party ? Why would they ?

  7. Scott says:

    Blimey, what an excellent article.
    There are truths in there for all political persuasions.
    I hope the “Skipped Over” find a home & voice, wherever it may be.

  8. E.L.James says:

    What a well written piece!! I must admit I was almost persuaded by the sentiment of the article.
    Sadly though, I think it completely misses the point. Take for example the part about ‘zero job security’. Jeremy Corbyn has highlighted on more than one occasion, a vision to address this very issue. Jeremy and Owen have both set out plans to make university education more affordable rendering your point concerning tuition fees potentially null and void.
    Additionally, the points regarding international aid and the ‘scroungers’ culture serve only to highlight the naivety of many so called ‘skipped’ over people. What I mean by this is that our media/government are happy to have traditionalists blame the ‘scroungers’ for the financial issues we currently face. This unfortunately creates a convenient smoke screen for some of the tax avoiding corporations who refuse to pay their dues to our society.
    Lastly, I feel the type of person who feels that climate change is overblown, overseas aid is misspent and the benefits system is a soft touch, needs to wake up from world ignorance, buy an impartial book or two and read better media sources.
    By the way, I’m not a hipster, ethnic minority, student, middle-class lefty, LGBT-er, feminist or public sector type. I also, do not read the guardian or any other bias motivated publication and guess what…..I still believe in Labour, now more than ever.

    P.S: What’s a public sector idler?? Is that a term used by sensible, moderate traditionalists or did you make it up yourself?? = )

  9. Anon says:

    Mostly true – and like the Millwall supporters “we don’t care”.

    The relationship has broken down – we were part of a marriage, the workers, unions, and Labour, but once shit on things will never be the same.

    Brought up in a union and Labour environment, I now feel the sense of betrayal; Corbyn, Smith, or whatever suit tosses a coin when he/she leaves university and lands on Labour, it makes no difference.

    As the phrase goes, “it’s the end of the road” – Labour are finished, and good riddance.

  10. Having praised you in one post, I must now do the opposite. To attempt to blame Corbyn for the gentrification of the Labour Party is a gross injustice. This was a process started after the war by Morrison and accelerated under Blair. The charges of middle class affectations can be laid at the door of almost all the PLP. Surely the fight inside the party at the moment is over allowing the membership power over the party elite rather than the top-down managerial system that was built up under New Labour.

  11. Dan Blake's the game duiuu says:

    Pure, unadulterated bollocks.

  12. Dan Blake's the game duiuu says:

    Pure, unadulterated bollocks. No, I’ve never posted on this site before. Nor am I likely to do again. I guess you didn’t like my comment.

  13. CD13 says:

    There’s a big group who have many of those opinions. They comprise a lot of Labour voters and quite a few ex-Labour voters who Labour need to win back. They’re unlikely to vote Tory and might well abstain.

    But Jezza isn’t interested and neither is Owen seemingly. Purity over purpose.

  14. Matt says:

    As you correctly identify, the Corbyn Left neither knows nor cares about this huge bloc of voters. The white working class, the old core vote, isn’t trendy or Europhile. It thinks an economic plan that consists of splurging half a trillion pounds of money conjured out of thin air (and most of which, they suspect, will go on benefits) is insane. They don’t waste any time obsessing over the fate of the Palestinians, or transgender toilet rights in North Carolina. They think that all the wailing about imminent catastrophe and a tsunami of racism after the Brexit vote is so much hysterical leftie bollocks.

    These people are up for grabs, and most of them – save for those in old mining communities with a genetic aversion to the Conservatives – can be swept up by Theresa May, if she plays her cards right. She has barely begun to settle into office, and much of the discussion around her leadership naturally centres on the EU negotiations; however, the gossip around grammar schools is amongst the early evidence that she is thinking about these voters, and preparing to make a pitch for them.

    A Conservative Party that can hold on to the 37% of the vote that it won last year – which should be very easy – and win back the right-leaning portion of the Ukip vote now that Brexit has been achieved will already be able to get over the magic 40% threshold: that, in itself, should guarantee a comfortable victory. If it can make a successful pitch to large numbers of alienated Labour voters in the Midlands and North as well, then Mrs May can aim for 45%. Labour, which may not get very far above 25% under Corbyn, would be battered – perhaps down to 170-180 seats in a snap election, or less than that in 2020, with a slightly smaller Commons and factoring in boundary change.

    Labour is currently working very hard indeed to turn its back on the working class, and convert itself into a protest movement consisting mainly of middle class intellectual lefties, leavened with belligerent hardcore Trots. Just as with the trades unions, most of which now dance to the tune of a minority of radical activists, it is turning its back on the people it was founded to support (and, especially since the Leave vote, coming to view them as enemies.) The wider public perception of the party is that it is militant, chaotic, miserable, anti-patriotic, that it hates the UK (and especially England) and most of the people who inhabit it, and has no realistic solutions to peoples’ problems. It is by no means certain either that the situation can be recovered, or that Labour doesn’t have further to fall. The centre-left is in decline all over Northern Europe. The German SPD, for example, is polling down in the low 20s, substantially worse even than Corbyn-led Labour. For now, anyway.

    The moral of this story is that, if you turn your backs on people and treat them like dirt, you’ve no right to complain if they treat you likewise. And nor does Labour have any God-given right to keep existing forever as a party of Government. As, I’m afraid, it is going to discover over the coming years.

  15. Peter Kenny says:

    The real trick is how to do that and keep the ‘hipsters, ethnics, public sector types …’ (I may be wrong but I read a sneer here).

    Let’s be clear it looks like the party without them would be screwed just as much as one without the white working class. Worse maybe because the white working class is a declining demographic whereas the ‘hipsters etc’ are growing.

    There are many millions of those people – how about showing them some respect for their values of openness, modernity, equality, internationalism, sharing, liberty? Or should they just shut up and suck up a load of nativist nonsense?

    For me the only way to build a coalition of these two social currents is radicalism – it means a radical economic programme – housing, jobs, wages as well as a radical social stance.

    Corbyn actually represents the best chance of the party doing this.

  16. Bob says:

    The metropolitan elite of the Labour Party only see the people you describe as ‘voter fodder’ only useful at election time. Unfortunately for the Labour party they have woken up and found alternatives in other parties like UKIP.

    Many if not the vast majority of Labour MPs have little experience outside politics, think tanks or public/charity sectors, all provide a revolving door of reinforcement of attitude and ideas.

    Those outside of that self selecting arrogant group and treat them with deep and increasingly hostile suspicion or outright hate. Look at the work history of someone like Jess Philips MP, worked in the charity sector or Maria Eagle, only two years of work in the private sector and that was as a solicitor. Stephen Kinnock, his history needs no detailing except self entitlement and arrogance. Owen Smith, BBC and a pr man for drugs companies. Andy Burnham, political researcher to SPAD then MP, never worked in the private sector or outside in any real context.

    See a pattern here, these people do not connect with people outside a bubble of like minded souls basically they they don’t understand what is happening in the outside world. They are blind and deaf to real people, do not understand their needs wishes desires hopes or fears.

  17. paul barker says:

    The idea that some parts of Britain are more “Real” than others is an exact parallel to the attitudes currently destroying The Republican Party in The US. All of us deserve equal respect but some voters are attracted to the ideas of The Centre-Left & some arent. This article & many of the comments seem to be about how Labour can get back conservative voters who used to vote fot you because you played up to their prejudices afainst outsiders of various sorts. Labour supporters interested in that project would be more comfortable in UKIP.

  18. DJ says:

    These are people that need to be properly engaged with if Labour has any ambitions of securing a majority however properly engaging and pandering to their views when wrong or speaking about labour supporters as if they’re a different classes of people are not the same thing.

  19. DavidL says:

    Wow.

    One of the most relevant and significant political pieces I have read this year. Spot on.

  20. BorisT says:

    Interesting, but over-simplistic. The problem of finding a way to motivate the nine million is that they do not all have the same view, or even views similar enough to be able to target them effectively.

    They represent the mass of disinterested floating voter. who will vote this way or that way or abstain on a whim. They mistrust the news-media and politicians of all shades to equal degree. They aren’t interested in politics; they just want get on with their jobs and look after their families.

    Unfortunately, this group are the ones that often influence the final outcome of any election. There is no obvious answer to this conundrum, otherwise political parties would have developed strategies to to target them.

  21. james says:

    There are lessons here for Lib Dems too. The real point is to develop imaginative pragmatic policies that have a one nation appeal.

    It could be argued that the europhile liberal left have been over-respected and become the establishment and haven’t brought enough of the people described here along with them.

    Take for example Europe. There’s nothing to suggest Remain was more progressive than Leave. Is it really more progressive to have a partly unregulated free for all migration system that seemed to benefit the liberal left. They have become a special interest group of their own that actually feed off the current migration system to the disbenefit of the poorest workers.

    It’s one thing to want to advance freedom and individuality particularly the non-pecuniary examples – quite another to perpetuate a europhiliac economic model that requires more and more migration and people to be serviced by those at the bottom that require more and more migration and people to service it by those at the bottom that require…..you get the picture.

    Mrs May will be standing on migration targets around an industrial strategy – this won’t be completely altruistic it will also be about breaking into electoral ground for her one nation toryism into Labour areas.

    The big question for Labour and the Lib Dems is – what is your economic plan and how does it inform your migration policy? In short, how many people do you plan living here within one or two generations? And no the answer isn’t `they benefit the economy more than they don’t` (more of a reason to plan the economy to lift up the regions and those at the bottom and also what the upper limit you see living here – 70m, 80m, 90m?) or `it’s racist to ask such questions` (that’s nice how many will you put up in your own house?).

    I was a very loyal Lib Dem voter. Now my vote is up for grabs.

  22. madasafish says:

    I read the above comments with interest.

    The Labour Leadership as it currently stands seems to attract people with nor real experience of managing anything – let alone a political campaign designed to ensure the Party becomes the next Government. (Which means for those who do not understand politics means attracting voters from the 50 odd % who voted UKIP or Conservative at the last GE.
    Fail to do that and Labour will never win a GE. (And anyone who disputes that reality can be safely ignored as they cannot be sums and are micturating into the wind 🙂

    The Opposition to the current Labour Leadership as it currently stands seems to attract people with nor real experience of managing anything – let alone a political campaign designed to ensure the Party becomes the next Government. (Which means for those who do not understand politics means attracting voters from the 50 odd % who voted UKIP or Conservative at the last GE).

    All Labour are currently doing is showing they are unfit to run anything – let alone a Party.

    Of course this may all change. Mrs May may be a total incompetent . The economy may collapse and unemployment double. Or the Tories may decide that without a credible Opposition, they will be both Government and Opposition – as with John Major.

    In my view, Labour needs to go back to deciding whom it exists for. At present it appears to be for benefit claimants, the unemployed, immigrants and those who who are state employed.

    None of these are wealth generators so effectively exist only because other people pay for them. It’s teh “other people” whom Labour need to target.

    At present,. Labour are taregetting the “other people” for taxes to pay for their client base.

    Not a way which is sustainable in any period..

    I would suggest as a start refusing to elect any MP who has not worked for (say) three years in the non public sector.. and excluding from the qualification period any job indirectly or directly dependent on state funding.
    Likely Labour will continue to select as MPs people like Tristram Hunt or Keir Starmer, or Corbyn or Burnham or Benn etc.. it will never happen.

    Tories elect MPs who are out for the betterment of themselves and their voters.. (put simply). Labour MPs are out for themselves and the betterment of non UK voters or people who need voters to be taxed to support them.

    The Party needs a major reset.
    r

  23. MyThreePence says:

    Labour MP’s keep saying publicly that they want to engage with this group of people, but in truth continue to ignore or worse, talk down to them because they do not share their liberal/leftie/loonie views.

    Labour no longer cares or knows how to relate to the ‘people’ they claim to represent.

  24. James says:

    Labour will never be easier to attack at the next General Election, 2020 or before.

    (1) “I’m afraid there is no money left. Kind Regards, Liam Byrne” note still has 2 elections of potency in it.

    (2) The Left media/Labour MPs abuse of traditional English leave voters in the weeks following the 23rd June.

    Attack Adverts in the North like, “Labour’s London Elites say your uneducated bigots, too old, too poor to know what’s best for you.” It’ll hold huge emotional weight. They won’t forget.

    For example, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uGC4Qu_5J7s

  25. Anthony says:

    Doesn’t Blue Labour occupy exactly this territory? Blue Labour would make a killing with these sorts of voters if they could get any air time.

  26. Anne says:

    No I would say not left behind but moving on. I read today that since Teresa May has become PM there are thousands joining the Conservative Party. So my prediction is that the so called left behind will not go to UKIP but to the Conservative Party. The self employed and small business people who have long considered the Labour Party are not representing them. There are also many who are undecided and many more who are totally fed up with this so called anti establishment. JC promised a new kind of politics – he has certainly brought that – a nasty side to politics – name calling, use of bad language , bullying, internet trolling. I am not saying this is all from the JC camp but it was certainly seen in the Scotish Indepdendence referendum and much more notably in the BREXIT. I feel in it not just in politics that this lack of respect and poor social standards is presenting itself but in many public sector jobs – teachers, health worker, and police often experience abuse. Britain was once considered the standard bearer of good manners – sadly this is no longer the case.

  27. madasafish says:

    >Anthony.
    Blue Labour?

    They are Tories – so the nutters say..

  28. Peter Kenny says:

    The idea that some people are more ‘real’ than others is stupid, everybody gets a vote you know, even ‘hipsters’.

    The country is very roughly split in half – half for the Tories/UKIP, half for everyone else. You can clearly win a general election without Tory/UKIP votes because of the FPTP system – currently it seems you need about 36%.

    I think it’s a crap system but there it – leverage it and you win big – Tories in 1983/87, Labour in 1997/2001, SNP in 2015.

    What we’re living through is the fragmentation of the old politics. The Tories are winning because their fragment is currently the biggest. In 1979 Labour list badly on 39% – an amount which would now probably deliver a landslide.

    What I think is a really bad idea is to just ditch your values in a desperate search for votes – what happens to those people you ditch – eg the ‘hipsters’?

    You need to think about a wide range of people and their needs – Corbynism enables this because of its radicalism – the only Social Current it could never appeal to in any circumstances is the hard right and the rich – who would never vote for a radical Labour Party anyway.

    The underlying motives for the tsunami of ridicule and smears is to demonise the message, hoping it therefore doesn’t get heard.

  29. Mike the Limey says:

    I “skipped over” to UKIP back in 2010 because Labour no longer represents the working man, either politically or morally.
    Since then the Party has headed off downhill at an ever accelerating rate.
    Should it continue in the current direction, then its only destination is oblivion.

  30. Tafia says:

    What I think is a really bad idea is to just ditch your values in a desperate search for votes – what happens to those people you ditch – eg the ‘hipsters’?

    Labour ditched it’s values decades ago. Hence why it has had an n-going identity crisis.

  31. David Walker says:

    @Peter Kenny

    You miss the point though. The hipster is very likely to live in a part of a major city, where the Labour vote may as well be weighed, rather than counted. If the hipster was born in a place like Nuneaton, Telford or Worcester, they will have left there for somewhere like Camden – or they will be at university, again in a place where the Labour MP has a safe majority. It really doesn’t matter if they vote or not.

    Hardly any votes that are cast really matter. However to get the 300k or so that actually do (perhaps less), Labour needs to drag another 3 million or so voters along – voters similar to the one profiled by Kevin Meagher, who do not live in a marginal constituency.

    There will be a few hipsters in somewhere like Nuneaton, but you will probably find them congregating around the same shopping mall bench on voting day and agreeing with each other that they should go and vote (if and when the rain stops).

  32. David Walker says:

    @Peter Kenny

    “You need to think about a wide range of people and their needs – Corbynism enables this because of its radicalism – the only Social Current it could never appeal to in any circumstances is the hard right and the rich – who would never vote for a radical Labour Party anyway.”

    About 98% of the group of people you are talking about are neither hard-right or rich. They are just neither public sector workers or welfare dependents and they are over the age of 30. The age thing is probably the most important.

    Many of the most vocal supporters of Corbyn will be voting Tory, a couple of elections from now. They just don’t have enough grey hairs yet. Don’t worry though, as replacement zealots are currently doing well at school and will be ready to step into the breach in 5-10 years time.

    “The underlying motives for the tsunami of ridicule and smears is to demonise the message, hoping it therefore doesn’t get heard.”

    Labour’s shrill and angry message is being heard loud and clear, by the people it needs to vote for them. The message is “You are racist, stupid, ignorant, mean and bigoted. We hate you and would deny you your right to make a democratic choice if we could get away with it, as people like you are too thick to be allowed to vote.”.

  33. John P Reid says:

    Mark Livingston, the Jeremy fundraising campaign refer to themselves as loony left as a term of endearment, the News on Sunday newspaper called themselves loony left, as they were categorized as that by others and didn’t care

    James , the Tories had a similar sorry note when they left office in 1964′ their chancellor said as such, but they were back in within 5 and a half years

  34. John P Reid says:

    Tony Blair destroyed labour and not what you think,

    The view Tony Blair has destroyed the Labour Party, by his critics is
    often met with, the last election Neil Kinnock fought, he got 34.5% ,the last election Blair fought he got 35.3%’ all be it, on a lower turnout, those who’d been in the party for years, who resigned over Iraq, stopped voting labour in 2005, even though Blair was on his way out, lost MPs who were against Iraq, their seats

    But the reason Blair has destroyed labour, went back to the 2001 election
    After Tony Blair became leader, he liked his predecessors received vitriol from the Tory Press, but come polling day 1997 the Editor of the Daily mail said to his staff, I don’t know how you do it, but on polling day we will be writing articles backing labour today.

    The Mail, spent the 4 years of Blair’s first term attacking him, but Blair’s team, were still trying to get the Mail on side, William Hague had tried to move the Conervative party to the right, and in the Mails words, with Hague new skin head hair cut, he’d tried to portray himself as a football terrace right winger, with views against immigrants, to the point on polling day 2001 the Daily Mail couldn’t bring themselves to say Vote Tory.

    It’s worth noting in the last 51 and a half years, Labour has only won the popular vote in England twice, 1997 & 2001, having won in 1974 and 2005 with less votes in England than the Tories, but more votes in Scotland and Wales,
    As such it maybe a coincidence that labour has only won England the two times since 1966 when the Mail didn’t back the Tories in polling day.

    So here’s the problem for labour , post Brexit of the 4 million people who voted Ukip last time, one million maybe ex libdems, who voted Ukip as the protest vote,
    One million maybe ex Tories and one million and a half maybe ex Labour. (Whether the protest voter goes back to libdem next time, is another matter).

    The referendum also saw people vote who’ve never voted before, who are unlikely to vote Labour due to their Brexit views

    There are voters who voted labour last year, who are pro the EU, dislike Kate Hoey, but have respect for Some brexiters like Frank field, lord glasman, Tom Harris , Christian wolmar who will vote libdem next time, due to Jeremy,

    There are voters who voted labour last year, pro the EU who will hold their nose vote Tory next time due to Jeremy, but have respect for Some brexiters like Frank field, Jon Cryer ,David Owen

    There’s the Ukip voting Sun reading Northern working class Brexiter, who stopped voting labour last year, who have respect for some remainers, Jess Philips, Lisa Nandy, Tristan hunt,(the blue labour vote)

    But even if labour keeps those voters who are current,y thinking of voting Libdem or Tory and managed to get a leader who would get back the blue labour vote, that’s 35% of the vote.

    Now the Tories got 37% of the vote and are likely to get another 4% of their vote they had 10 years ago, who went Ukip, and can return to the Tories, now the referendum is over.

    So labour has to get 43% of the vote, to even get more seats than the Tories, now unless there’s this mythical non voter out there who wants a far left labour government, Labour has to get Daily Mail readers, to increase on the 35% of the vote that’s out there, and Labour has no idea,or no intention how to do it, and it was Tony Blair after 2001 realizing he could win with less than 40% of the vote, that gave up on trying to get Daily Mail readers, to win his third term.

  35. Madasafish says:

    >Peter Kenny
    You need to think about a wide range of people and their needs – Corbynism enables this because of its radicalism – the only Social Current it could never appeal to in any circumstances is the hard right and the rich – who would never vote for a radical Labour Party anyway.”

    You really need to read the Opinion Polls. Or prove your statement by quoting some facts to back up that statement. In the light of every published opinion polls, to say it’s cobblers is the kindest phrase I could use to describe it.

  36. Mike Homfray says:

    Labour will not and cannot represent people with this cocktail of views – they are distinctly right of centre and there is no logical reason why they would opt for any left of centre party

  37. MJH says:

    @Madasafish

    To be fair, getting any Corbynista to read any poll that shows anything other than what they want to see will be a thankless task!

  38. John p Reid says:

    Mike Homfray ,look at the Tories, they were against the state pension free education,the left introduced it,they conceded,moved on in45 they voted against he NHS, labour won the 1950 election,for the Tories to win in1951′ they conceded and moved on, in 1967 they were against labour a Keynesiasm ,yet labour were popular ,despite a few people telling Ted Heath be more right wing he conceded and moved on

    It was the Toey trick to regain power quickly, they accepted the centre ground swing to the left in the 20th century, OK the first term of Thatcherism ,wasn’t accepting the post war cincensus, but that proved unpopular, and at the time the public didn’t know what they were voting for,

    I respect your view that labour must never try to have a leader like Hazel Blears or James Purnell, try to appeal to working class sun readers, or Daily mail middle Englanders,,and unlike the Tories labour hasn’t accepted the public don’t hold their convictions, and just ,chooses new ideals, but don’t be annoyed when there are people in the Labour Party who blame you for losing labour elections, when with some convincing labour can have sun and Mail readers voting for us,and if it takes, getting the likes of Hazel Blears to persuade the city ,that we can be trusted with the economy, there are those of us,who went power and would go for it, don’t say why don’t you just join the Tories,as if you feel, that the views of labour first, or blue labour are Tory views, you don’t understand, while sections of the working class labour voter,

  39. david walsh says:

    You might want to start by looking at Labour Local Government. A pound to a penny that those people living in “places that the London elite have heard of, but couldn’t find on a map” have Labour Councils and Labour Councillors. A councillors life is by its nature day in, day out engagement with your electors – for the simple reason that you live amongst them every day (oh, and BTW, have, every four years, to face mandatory reselection by your ward party if you want to stand again). In my view, as a local elected member, the blending of those two disciplines – the public and the party – can lead to balanced judgements and, in general, politics that resonate with electors. What will be interesting over the next four years is how many new members coming in are prepared to go into this ? If they do, and I hope a lot do, it will be a healthy development. If they don’t then sclerosis will set in even deeper.

  40. david walsh says:

    You might want to start by looking at Labour Local Government. A pound to a penny that those people living in “places that the London elite have heard of, but couldn’t find on a map” have Labour Councils and Labour Councillors. A councillors life is by its nature day in, day out engagement with your electors – for the simple reason that you live amongst them every day (oh, and BTW, have, every four years, to face mandatory reselection by your ward party if you want to stand again). In my view, as a local elected member, the blending of those two disciplines – the public and the party – can lead to balanced judgements and, in general, politics that resonate with electors. What will be interesting over the next four years is how many new members coming in are prepared to go into this ? If they do, and I hope a lot do, it will be a healthy development. If they don’t then sclerosis will set in even deeper.

  41. Mike Homfray says:

    But John Reid….I couldn’t care less what the label happens to be. I wouldn’t vote for a party which accepts and incorporates the shift to the right. May as well stick with the Tories who are reasonably competent at being conservative.

    I think it is reasonable that there should be a left wing option to vote for. If Labour doesn’t wish to have that role then I wouldn’t vote for them.

  42. john P reid says:

    Mike you assume that, labour would care if you didn’t vote for them, because you didn’t vote labour in 2005 and guess what we won, I know you don’t consider winning important, but those of us who don’t believe a left wing utopia is possible, will continue to criticise you for costing labour votes. even if you don’t care about popularity

  43. Mike Homfray says:

    Wrong again John. I did vote Labour in 2005 rhough with great reluctance – but while I had left the party we were in a marginal before the last boundary change and I decided it was worth voting Labour to keep the Tories out.

    It’s that which I wouldn’t do again. And please note that we list in 2010 and 2015 with very milk and water centrist stances. As a result there are an awful lot of people around who would no longer vote Labour just to keep out the Tories should they revert to the sort of policies you espouse. Certainly enough to mean many seats would not be won.

  44. john p Reid says:

    no we didn’t lose in 215 with milk centrist policies we spent the last 5 years denouncing new labour, saying we’ve got our party back Ed miliband when asked that he may feel the last labour government should have started cutting uicker he said no,we shouldn’t of, it gave the perception that we were anti austerity

    ok you now say you did vote labour in 2005,depite resigning form the party, but we won whout you in the party, now you come back think you can tell others to leave what polices we should have and feel you’ve the right to get others out of the party, you’re spiteful if you say you’re going to leave if the party isn’t as left as you’d hope and, you still feel that if you leave, you’re some how, morally right to use ,your threat of leaving as a way of some how thinking the labour party wants your vote,

    by the way you say wrong again when was I wrong before

  45. Landless Peasant says:

    I will only vote for a Leftwing Labour Party. The so-called ‘skipped over’ people described in this article sound like UKIP voting reactionaries who shouldnt be allowed to play with scissors. Loathesome cretins. Anyone who thinks the Benefit system is a “soft touch”must have beenliving. On a different planet for the past 5 years.Our Social Security system is in tatters, the safety net has been destroyed, and the DWP is a complete shambles.

  46. Landless Peasant says:

    Labour bloody well should be anti-Austerity! It is just a Tory euphemism for dismantling the State.

  47. John P Reid says:

    Landless peasant insulting ex labour voters who went to ukip, you sound like those labour members who 33 years ago couldn’t understand why the working class voted tory

  48. Noel Darlow says:

    I think we need to grasp the bull by the horns here and start talking about the thing everyone is afraid to mention: forced deportation.

    Suppose we round up all the racists, the xenophobes, and the haters and ship them off to an island somewhere far away. The UK will instantly become a kinder, happier country and they can get as Lord of the Flies as they like in a place where the only victims of their inability to act like normal human beings will be each other.

  49. Noel Darlow says:

    Let’s try a thought experiment.

    All the anti-Corbyn MPs will be locked in a room. They will have no access to opinion polls or surveys. Their memories will be selectively and precisely wiped of all information pertaining to the preferences of the electorate. Otherwise they will remain in full control of whatever cognitive abilities they had before they entered the room

    Next, the MPs will be asked to create a list of labour policies on which to fight the next election.

    First, someone asks: what will we do about immigration?

    “If immigration is unpopular we’d know to start making anti-immigration mugs and other table-ware.

    “But what if immigration is popular with the electorate? We’d need to be making pro-immigration dishcloths and table mats!

    This goes on for some time but, with no information about the electorate, it is impossible to reach a conclusion.

    Finally someone pipes up:

    “Look we have no way to know what the electorate wants. We’re just going to have to go with our deepest, heart-felt beliefs and argue passionately for that.”

    MPs with alarmed expressions looked around the room, waiting for someone to speak. An uncomfortable silence descended, occasionally broken by an awkward cough.

    Gradually, one by one, the ugly truth dawned: none of them actually believed in anything.

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