Agreed. I don't think Labour could have won this. For sure, it may have been possible for them to prevent a Tory majority but the path to becoming the largest party let alone the majority party was too treacherous even for the most skilled leader.
At the end of it all, you have to say that Labour's historic coalition of wealthy inner city liberals and working class communities was ripped apart by the issue of Brexit. In the former you had the die hard remainers and in the latter, many of whom were die hard leavers. Where the metropolitan liberals grip hard to identity politics, the latter don't really care for it. Squaring middle class identity politics with the politics of millions of working class communities who feel left behind (whilst displaying socially conservative views) is such a tough tough ask.
It's a devastating result for Labour. From such a low base of just 203 seats, it makes an election win in 2025 extremely difficult, nigh on impossible to win outright. No party in modern history has ever come from such a low position in opposition to take the mantle of outright governance in just one election. The job of next Labour leader could very well just be a holding job ala Neil Kinnock. For whoever that person is though, they may well prove to be the most important leader in the party's history.
edit: Also if last night's results didn't awaken people for the desperate need of electoral reform then nothing will.
203 is a very low base and it will be difficult for Labour given that they have lost Scotland.But it's not impossible. Already Johnson's lies are unravelling. Brexit is high stakes stuff.Unchartered territory. It could easily go tits up very quickly. If Johnson tries to leave at the end of January with basically no deal or playing hard ball with the EU, he will be gambling all on a deal with Trump.That puts Trump in the driving seat.
I agree with you on the new leader issue. It has to be somebody strong, very strong. As I said in an earlier post there is no natural candidate leaping out. Problem is that any new leader will have to embrace Brexit and even work with the Tories, or be cooperative to a degree, while being constructively critical.
It's not quite game over for Labour.It will be if they get a weak leader.The membership have to realise the Left have had their go and failed badly,now they need more of a populist centre left figure. They do however have to stop giving the Tory media easy targets. Wouldn't do an any harm to wait, put an interim leader in and hope Johnson starts to screw it up.
« Last Edit: Dec 15, 2019 10:09:32 pm by Harrisimo »
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