Originally Posted by
doc
Let's get back to the start and the man to blame for the shit storm that is Brexit, Cameron! He only promised the referendum to try and shut up the right wing nutcases in his own party and in UKIP. Then, instead of negotiating the basis of our exit from the EU and presenting that in a remain or leave vote, as per current Labour policy, he just went for a straight forward yes/no vote on staying so the electorate had no idea what a leave vote would mean. As many of our government agencies have been integrated with those of Europe for the best part of 50 years we will have an awful lot of negotiating to do and also be faced with the task and expense of setting up new government agencies unless we agree to continue to be regulated by Europe's which would set off the Brexiteers again. In addition, products would still have to be manufactured to EU standards to be sold in the EU.
Re the election, I am horrified how many Labour voters in the North, especially those in former mining communities, allowed the Tories to get in after how Maggie treated the North in the 80s. I remember donating tins of food at school so that it could be passed on to the families of striking miners, I remember 3.5 million people on the dole thanks to the destruction of traditional industries with no economic plan by the Tories to replace them, I remember Heseltine being put in charge of the managed decline of one of our great cities, Liverpool, I remember sky high interest rates after Black Wednesday. The EU did more to help the deprived communities in the North than any Tory government ever did yet sheeple believed the Mail, Sun and Express etc whose owners had a vested interest in the UK leaving the EU i.e. the prevention of single individuals having too much control of the media (Murdoch must have been crapping himself about that).
I am an active Labour member and after Milliband quit believed we should have stepped slightly to the left to regain our traditional working class vote, not the huge running jump we took instead in putting Corbyn in charge, backed by his mates at Momentum, the new Militant in my eyes. The amount of far left people that started to turn up at meetings and who were quite disruptive at times started to increase. Luckily, in my CLP, the Blairites remained in control but new rules forced through at conference in my opinion were put in place so that it would be possible for a few well organised people from Momentum to take over a CLP. Now I actually agree with quite a few of Corbyn's policies e.g. renationalisation of the railways, gas, electric and water as I think it is needed for green/environmental reasons and that national infrastructure is too important to be left in the control of big business. However, what the Corbynites forgot is that that you can have all the principles and well-meaning progressive policies you can come up with, but unless you have the leader who can get "Mondeo Man" to buy into it and vote you into power they are worthless. Corbyn is not that leader. Neither is Abbot, McDonnell or any other of the far left cabal in the PLP. Even if labour did have that leader they would be constantly attacked by the predominantly right wing press. What lost Labour seats was not a switch to the Tories, who didn't massively increase their vote in Wigan, Makerfield and Leigh, but voters either refusing to vote for a Corbyn lead party or defecting to the Brexit party. Luckily Lisa Nandy and Yvonne Fovargue survived in Wigan and Makerfield due to having large majorities and the split in the leave vote caused by the Brexit party. Sadly Jo Platt in Leigh lost her seat.
Where does Labour go now? Well Corbyn has to go and the party get a new more media friendly leader from the centre left. The new leader will also have to get a grip on Momentum in much the same way Kinnock got a grip on Militant (Lansbury, the Momentum leader is a fruitcake). Who are the likely leaders? Well with Burnham being out of the picture for the time being my list of candidates would be Lisa Nandy, Yvette Cooper, Stephen Kinnock, Hilary Benn or Dan Jarvis.