by John Clarke
We’re at that moment when Wile E Coyote has just missed the Road Runner again, run off the cliff and is now standing on thin air.
Labour seems happy when it’s flapping around on thin air. We’re good at it.
Old Labour, soft left Labour and New Labour have all failed and will fail again.
A Labour leader peddling any these old approaches will lose in 2020.
As things stand, to get a working majority in 2020 the best route is to win over 110 seats directly from the Tories in England.
Does anyone have any sense that Labour is capable of doing this? As it stands, I’m not so sure.
The Labour party has contributed to creating a politics that leaves people on the outside. That uses language that people don’t like or understand. That values systems over people’s lived experience, stunts over reality, simplistic messages rather than real engagement.
It’s a politics divorced from the lives of people.
We are completely unable to speak to people’s concerns about immigration. We are completely mistrusted on welfare reform. We’re not seen as being able to create a strong economy that works for everyone. No one knows what we stand for.
To top it all off we can’t speak to England. Those wondering why Labour are doing so badly in England may want to ponder a point made by Lord Glasman last year. It’s not that England dislikes Labour. It’s that England thinks Labour dislikes them.
