It was Labour’s right-wing which lost us the election. Yes, let’s undergo the analysis and the reanalysis. Call in the psephologists, the strategists, the tacticians, the organisers, the principles, the back room staff, the spin doctors, the foot soldiers.  Let’s hold the inquest, have the debate, search our souls.

But at the end of the day, any assessment of Labour’s election defeat must return to the same place. Labour lost because it moved too far to the right.

Overly simplistic? Possibly. It is fashionable to say that the notion of ‘left’ and ‘right’ is out of date. Or at least it became an outmoded concept amongst ultra-modernising Labour ministers justifying their bold forays into uncharted Thatcherite territory. When it came to terrorising the party and the public with nightmarish visions of the  dark days of the eighties, the same simplistic left/right definition did just fine. (more…)