I really didn’t want to be writing this. At the very least I was hoping to have a Kremlinological geek out over possible coalition combinations. But no. The worst came to pass. Not only were the Conservatives the largest party, but contrary to everything I’ve written about them this last two-and-a-half years they scraped the […]
Posts Tagged ‘Political Strategy’
On the centre ground and the politics of aspiration
May 11th, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Tony Blair’s enduring, if banal, insight is that parties win elections from the centre ground. Labour has to be where most of the voters are in order to win seats enough to govern. While in one sense true, in another the centre ground is a many legged beast. And each body segment has its own […]
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Blairite propaganda that “Miliband paid price for lurch to left” is nonsense
May 10th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.It’s already being said by the Blairite rump that Labour lost because Ed Miliband took the party to the left. The fact is that the New Labour governments were well to the right of the vast majority of Labour supporters, and clearly needed correction, but let that pass. This last-ditch attempt to re-launch the manifestly […]
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The SNP offered hope, the Tories spread fear and loathing
May 10th, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.We now know what happened, but why did it happen? How was it that an election campaign characterised by two different approaches, one upbeat, one defeated-looking; one that had momentum and enthusiasm and the other little more than desperate personal attacks, climaxed as it did? The result, which was unexpectedly very bad for Labour, is going to […]
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Voting Labour is a necessary act in helping our movement get its act together
May 7th, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.Of course I’m voting Labour. I am an active party member of five years standing. I’ve spent the bulk of my activism this year working in marginal seats (mainly Stafford). And there’s the small matter of 261 posts on this here blog that have obsessed over the party’s twists and turns since back before I […]
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The big downside of this election
May 5th, 2015 by Michael Meacher.Apart from the narrowness in the polling between the two main parties, the other dramatic characteristic of this election is the number of people who are profoundly disgruntled and deep-down angry at the Establishment, in which they include Labour as well as the Tories, and are likely either not to vote at all or to […]
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The new sectarian politics of Scotland and the demise of working class unity
Apr 30th, 2015 by Jon Lansman.Yesterday, canvasing the streets of Stevenston in North Ayrshire, a former Labour voter told me that the only way forward was for Scottish Labour and the SNP to merge. He meant it not as advice but as explanation of why he could not vote Labour. Some are hostile to Labour, others just confused. And even many of those […]
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The Tory party’s tartan trauma
Apr 22nd, 2015 by Phil Burton-Cartledge.There’s not much left the Tories can do to turn the polls in their favour. Attacking Ed Miliband personally hasn’t worked, and the more it’s done the more credible he appears. Neither has spraying around the cash in what, at best, can only be described as a series of fiscally incontinent pledges. With the momentum appearing to cohere […]
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Who are you calling a Red Tory?
Mar 29th, 2015 by Ben Sellers.There’s a glorious and comforting myth doing the rounds on the left. It’s like warm milk and honey to those who like their politics black and white, with little or no space for any grey. It goes a bit like this: the Labour left offered no opposition to Blairism north and south of the Border. […]
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Blue Labour and the Church of England: on class, ethnicity and politics
Feb 26th, 2015 by David Pavett.The recent pastoral letter of the Church of England bishops (Who is my neighbour?) is an effort to inject ethical considerations into a pre-election process in which they are seen to be in short supply. Jon Cruddas, head of the Labour policy review, wrote an article in the Guardian welcoming the letter in glowing and […]
