1, Labour lost the general election
Clear blue skies warm spring day, recession is over life is good. Why are people angry? Most pundits offer this sort of white noise confused why people are upset. Global recession caused many incomes to decline with no recovery, higher taxes lower public spending. Pay more get less at the same time public services decline. Failing to inform, explain and educate the general public on the consequences of this policy. Pundits ignore biggest economic shock to incomes in modern times, blaming the angry voices on populist politicians. Blaming the symptom not the cause, any different opinion as extreme unable to see biases. Memory loss when comes to this economic shock which has helped cause this pain is striking. Politicians are famous for spinning biases offering false promises to win. Empty promises things would get better for the many and spending cuts would make us rich again.
2, Populist politicians rise at heart of westminster
Various parties have now claimed successes as failures which must be corrected. Every action has consequences, policy decisions taken now have major long term impacts. Fiscal policy choices taken now have reduce incomes reduced future incomes and degraded public services. Delayed the recovery cause massive pain for little to no benefit. Asking the question why voters are angry shows that you don’t understand or listen. Instead voters get politicians who follow the dog whistle listening to the white noise making poor choices instead of helping. Switching issues more regularity than swingers do with lovers. Data that shows voters don’t care about immigration like you think they do. Focus on immigration has more to do with failure when comes fiscal policy over concern on immigration. Small minority do care about it however in areas which have low levels of immigration.
3, Centre ground
Much talk about Labour reclaiming the centre ground. Should avoid upsetting the centre ground follow the Tories. Reality is Tories have upset the centre ground populist with fiscal policy. Centre ground shifts all the time failure to convince voters given us major consequences. Britain set for period of low growth due to it fiscal policy, incomes have not recovered. Centre ground voters suffering the consequences apart from older voters who have benefited in the short term. Keep being told should still follow the Tories because voters have voted for this. Ignoring the consequences that have been explained from various economic institutions. Should not follow the herd blindly but can offer some clues. Labour needs to win over the centre ground in order to win when comes to first past the post. However does not mean we can’t be radical convincing voters that troubles facing the nation matters to them. Obvious examples was Tony Blair, David Cameron with the ‘Debt problem’. Much talk about the SNP being centre left the reality more towards the centre talking radical but being neutral. SNP won over the majority by the stable party which does nothing to rock the boat.
4, Consequences
Voters wanted things to return to normal, voted for stability and improving prospect to return. Politicians are leading voters down a road with even worse growth, worse income prospects. Questions about how long this can last for certain voting groups have benefited at expense of others. Young people often beat economic waves due to time however damage could be permanent. My generation are facing the worse prospects compared to their parents. Parents have voted against giving their children more debt assets but given use worse prospects when comes to income/wealth creation. Likely my generation could see pensions and other benefits disappear. Reality is the current economic troubles are caused by politics could be solved by some simple fiscal policy. Worse still failed to listen to voters instead small minority who wanted this for whatever reason. Failure to convince voters of the truth is leading us down an ugly path. Removing morals for a second the damage done by increasing inequality to growth is massive. Deaths have been linked towards reducing the social welfare safety net.
5, Looking forward
Tories vague vision only has so much fuel left within the tank. Highly unlikely but not impossible that voters are going to accept this new fiscal reality. No overarching desire or support from the general public to see spending decrease even further. Sense of entitlement from taxpayers that expect certain benefits. Decreasing the tax base even further puts serious strain on current taxpayers. Tory party is fighting over the direction of the party, with various wings battling for control. Current rhetoric hints the party may return to 97 fiscal policy. Painting Labour as the source for current economic problems created by Tory policy. Attacking Labour on every image front doing damage to the brand.
6, Listen to people
Labour wants to win needs to listen to voters, convince them concerns matters. Not enough to tell the truth need to listen, connect with people. Truth may not be enough may have to spin couple biases to win favour. Problem here so much distrust towards politicians that going to be hard to pull off. Needs to reconnect with communities and target Tory voters. We can’t afford to target non voters who don’t vote. Can hope to pick them up once we have the voters onboard. SNP was able to pull off that trick in Scotland once for certain wards. Should be a serious push in every area talking to Tories/UKIP. Labour can’t win over small minority but we can win the centre ground support some of these parties gain. Clear message should be directed towards these groups with major vision presented. Every major voting block needs to come back towards Labour. Older voters should listen to concerns convincing them young people matter for own prospects in old age.
7, Message/media management
Key weakness here is Labour lacking a clear message/vision however all united under couple common values. Ed miliband biggest mistake failing get this right early on. Did however connect to various voters with his message at times. Corbyn has followed making the same mistakes for whatever reasoning picking ideology over experience. Talking about Seumas Milne, Labour’s director of communications being unprepared for the role. Watching Corbyn you get the sense he was unprepared for the role. Labour needs to rediscover the dark arts of media management plus spin. Using these tools to amplify your message, New politics has a place to play. Every wing of the party needs to understand this weakness and learn from it. Keep losing due this problem want to win needs solving.
8, Tories are ruthless
Now understand just how ruthless the Tory party can be. Reason why the party has more years in power compared to Labour. Party is ruthless Labour needs to rediscover the ruthless nature that is required for politics. Understand Corbyn wants newer kinder politics does not mean can’t be ruthless with that goal. Many within the party appear to have given up waiting for the perfect moment to strike. Tories spent years building up a message repairing any image done striking once the groundwork was done. We can’t afford to wait for voters to turn against the Tories.
9, Blame Corbyn
Easy to blame past leaders much harder to understand what went wrong. Worse still people attacking him offer no solutions most of the time. May not be natural allies does not mean you can’t give him advice and offer solutions. Blindly aimed attacks only weaken your position. Understand that Corbyn was unprepared for the role however has kept Labour out of populists reach. Corbyn has made mistakes but no worse compared to what we done in the past. Corbyn has been small moral position keeping us from being dragged over the edge. Stability in uncertain times for many members challenging the ideas post 2008. Trying to blame Corbyn for all your woes is not good starting point.
10, Loyalty
Have little to no loyalty towards Corbyn his performance has been what I expected. Backbencher forced to lead who not a leader doing the best he can. Open secret that he was heavily unprepared for the role. However do have strong amount of loyalty towards the Labour party in general due to the shared values. Some people have claimed the party is no longer the party they joined and can’t support him. Labour party is bigger than it leader, Corbyn shares same common values as the party. View Corbyn not as the leader but more the rock keeping us stable. Down to the party to define the direction and find a better leader. Should learn from history replace leaders quicker not before giving them enough time. We must learn that voters offer little to no loyalty to politicians. Seeking to replace leaders once the performance is terrible enough. Party still the same party as 30 years ago due to the share values. Some of you may disagree the values have not changed one bit. Leaving Labour over Corbyn risk the party being corrupted by populist minorities.
Too Long Didn’t Read
Not enough to tell the truth you need to make people believe and trust you. We face many challenges going forward failing to learn from past lessons. Start by listening to concerns understanding the real source. Can start controlling the message getting that message to voters that need to hear it. Need to connect with various voting groups not just couple.
I feel like the only person who shares this sort of thinking right now.