What happened? How Labour lost the Election.

Much has been said and written post the General Election. This analysis says it all, and points to tough times ahead. I would question why the Labour Party and the Green Party are opposing one another. For the sake of the planet we need to be united in opposition.

Kayla writes..

“If anyone is still trying to make sense of wtf happened in the GE here is my take on it:

As a political analyst and historian (I literally have to keep repeating this like an arrogant twat cos my credentials just keep being dismissed as an opinion and frankly I’m sick of it) I really think remainers need to read and consider it and learn from it:

I see centrists blaming corbyns unpopularity not realising their toxic reaction to his leadership was a huge contributory factor towards that.

They stop at his unpopularity without probing further. It makes sense that they would oppose him due to differing political views and Corbyn’s EU posturing but why would a man of principle (check his voting record as an MP) that’s always been on the right side of history fighting for the working classes be so despised by them? The clue is in the question. The establishment were terrified of him coming to power as it would spell real change (for the better or for the worse depending on your perspective) in terms of the balance of power between the corporatocracy and the people and mark the end of a blind acceptance of Israeli foreign policy and that could not be tolerated.

Cue the RWP, CA and Russian bots to lead the most cynical smear campaign in history. Even the MSM played their part more subtly failing to scrutinise both parties in the same way giving more air time to Labour critics, not highlighting the policies and reporting verbatum on sheer Tory bullshit.

I promise you now, if Labour elect anyone as dedicated to the working class and vulnerable people and taking on power in the pursuit of fairness and equality as he was and as incorruptible as he was they’d be demonised in exactly the same way to ensure the masses don’t realise he’s the guy fighting their corner.

Antisemitism was an issue but again I think the way it was reported was most damaging and given there’s more antisemitic views in the Conservative party it doesn’t quite add up. In all honesty though it was the Labour leave vote that was lost and, given their acceptance of Johnsons racism and propensity for somewhat bigoted views I don’t think antisemitism was a key factor. At most it may have stopped some centre right Tories from switching but given the scale of the haemorrhage of Labour leave it wouldn’t have mattered.

This election was lost in the Labour heartlands. Again understandable. The same people that fell for the emotional hope of regaining a sense of pride and power via patriotism and Brext had their emotions played with again – Boris will deliver their Brexit dream andCorbyn’s sold them out and is a traitor to their ‘engerlund sympathising with terrorists’ (pretty sure if they knew history they too might understand why the catholics want a Reunited – or a United, as the press like to put it- Ireland.) It seems explaining someone can empathise with a cause if not the means is too much for many folk to comprehend. Despite the fact he’s won numerous peace prizes and is an advocate of pacifism.

Many in the centre will blame Corbyn, but the guy tried to find a middle ground to bridge the gap between essentially more educated, affluent Labour voters that support the party due to its principles, but were ardent remainers, and traditional Labour voters that these days essentially support the party as its encultured within them but they’ve never considered why. These people felt disregarded by New Labour and have felt ignored in favour of the metropolitan membership and educated commentators (me included) that tried to tell them what to think. We presented evidence, facts, tried to make them understand brexit wasn’t the answer and what they were really upset about was the decline of their towns, hopes, pride and power. It doesn’t matter that it’s true, that is irrelevant because psychologically they feel patronised and even more disempowered when spoken to like that. They don’t want evidence or even truths they just want to keep things as simple as possible and feel like their vote counts. Boris used soundbites and kept it digestible, the fact that its bullshit doesn’t matter cos he’s given them hope again.

I did feel the announcements on all the perceived freebies was poor strategy for a party that has to shake the erroneous image of being fiscally incompetent. It was too easy for the opposition and the Right wing press to make out they were offering magic unicorns especially when the public doesn’t understand government budgets are not household budgets. The fact 160 plus economists backed it makes limited reassurance if the press is not on your side. Simple slogans about investing money into local towns to get our country back would’ve faired much better I feel juxtaposed with sinister ads linking the tories to death and decay. Corbyn’s Labour was too principled for that but in these desperate, angry, hate fuelled dog eat dog times it cost them dearly.

On a final point Swinson should go down history as the arrogant chump that ushered in fascism. Her refusal to work with Corbyn and form a caretaker government when Johnson had suffered 6 out 6 defeats as the new PM and was on the ropes and her acceptance of the call for the GE when a people’s vote was imminent has led to this utter fuck fest and I will NEVER forgive her for letting her blind ambition unwittingly destroy democracy.

Where do we go from here? Fascism is at the door, constituencies boundaries will be changed making it harder to oust them, pg 48 of the manifesto pertains to dictatorial powers. This is all very much in keeping with the end of the Weimar Republic which is unsurprising given that the real winner of this election was Steve Bannon, Johnson is simply a puppet, a puppet that had a secret meeting with him just before becoming PM. If you’ve never heard of Mr Bannon and want to feel even worse than you already do look up scruffy Adolf. Johnsons a narcissist, Bannon is an ideologue and together with the machiavellian sociopath Cummings you’ve got the darkest triad this country has ever had in power đŸ˜­

The Labour Party itself, the Liberals and the Greens need to reconcile their partisan differences and recognise how dangerous, powerful, potent and amoral their common enemy is. They need to understand we live in a post-truth society where facts are irrelevant. The Tories know that most people aren’t interested in understanding the complex reasons behind situations and just want things simple and relatable. They know that most folks vote emotionally not rationally and they play on the emotions of fear and division. All the non fascist parties must stop blaming each other and preach not just a unified message of hope, investment and love but also make it clear who is to blame for the misery of the working class decaying Northern towns and whip up some of that anger towards the charlatans that are now in power. They need to fight fire with fire if they ever want to claw back government from a party that will use every dirty trick in the book to hang on to power.”

4 thoughts on “What happened? How Labour lost the Election.

  1. This is very wise. it’s certainly ”pick yourself up, dust yourself off” time. The problem I have is that, as a 68-year old, I am so disgusted by my generation, the majority of whom evidently voted for Brexit and for this new government. When I think of my four grandchildren and their jeopardised futures, and that we will be dead and gone while their children are still trying to pick up the pieces, I am very, very angry and I don’t think I could politely deal with a Tory voter of my age group. I’ll have to get through Christmas and New Year and maybe then I’ll be able to think more rationally and more helpfully…

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  2. I really think the author needs to calm down. I remember in my left-wing youth there were people who shouted ‘fascist’ at Edward Heath, a ‘moderate globalist’ if ever there was one.

    Boris isn’t a fascist, he’s a believer in Boris. And the misery of working class Brits everywhere, not just in the North, is completely down to Blair’s Labour Party, who allowed a huge expansion of the labour force in 2005 when even Germany kept transitional controls on A8 (Eastern Europe) workers.

    When my son left school and started looking for work around 2011 he found a two-tier workforce everywhere he went – people who were in place before 2005/6 and people who weren’t. The older workers were on higher wage rates – all of the new ones were on minimum wage and most of them were on zero hour contracts. Why should employers have to pay any more, or offer permanent em-ployment, when there were more people than jobs?

    He came back from his (zero-hour agency) work at a famous multinational one day and told me he’d spent most of his shift trying to persuade one of his colleagues not to commit suicide.

    The guy was 37 years old. He’d been on minimum-wage zero hour work for the last six years. He could only afford to live in a bedsit, and his girlfriend had just binned him. “What have I got to live for?” he asked my son.

    Once upon a time, people like that were who the Labour Party was for. Not any more.

    There are a hell of a lot more young people struggling with low pay in the UK than there are developing websites in Berlin or mountain guiding in the Alps.

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