2020 Labour - What's gone wrong

I’ve been watching the Labour party leadership race in 2020 and have become confused as various prospective candidates and supporters argue over the direction to take Labour in. 

The debate seems to be able to swing in different directions because Labour has lost its meaning to itself and therefore many others. 

Some hold onto the past and Labours routes formed out of the trade unions. Others seem to think that has all been solved now, or doesn't appeal to enough voters to win an election.

So what went wrong at the 2019 election?  This is multifaceted but here is my take: -

1. Jeremy Corbyn is a man of principle and conscience of passionate and caring. Consultative and inclusive. He is not aggressive and didn’t have the charisma to carry any assertiveness. He appeared too tolerant, abdicating leadership in favour of democracy. This is too simplistic but; you only need civil servants to implement actions if all decisions are made by the collective. Over the years leading up to the 2019 election little seemed to be done to fight back at the right-wing press. Was it some naïve belief that the truth would win out? By time of the election Jeremy’s reputation was a horror story. 


2. The coup, anti-Semitism and public infighting. This showed a lack of leadership too. Not Jeremy’s style but to kick out people who didn’t follow the rules would have sent a message. Better out than festering within. As it was these stories just kept on adding to the reason not to vote Labour. If eventually you’ve decided you are not going to vote Labour where do you go? 


3. Brexit. Leaving the EU was something that Jeremy had wanted. He and others, thought it was undemocratic and too bureaucratic. However, when the referendum came along, reality came home. The consequences of leaving were far worse than staying. But again, the drip, drip propaganda of the right-wing press was imbedded in the consciousness of people. Life was hard, jobs were gone, bananas were straight and it was all the fault of the EU and immigrants. The time to listen and do something was when Mrs Duffy confronted Gordon Brown in 2010. She said, what many felt, not necessarily the truth, but their truth. The Labour leader was condescending and eventually called her a bigot.


4. What does Labour stand for? There was and is no simple message. Everyone thinks they understand what a Business is and therefore think they understand what the Tories stand for. Labour is for; workers, woman, LGBT, disabled, ethnic minorities, immigrants, refugees, elderly, education, NHS, nationalisation, social housing. The message is complicated and confusing. If workers are unfairly exploited I don’t care if they are female, LGBT or any of the other groupings, they are a worker and Labour must support them. If they are a business owner and exploiting their workers, I don’t care if they are elderly or disabled they are wrong and Labour should oppose them.  We need a simple message and not a piecemeal one that the opposition can pull apart bit by bit. When Boris was asked what “Get Brexit Done” meant he faffed and repeated “Get Brexit Done”. Everyone understood it even if they didn’t know what it meant. “For The Many, Not The Few” was slight longer a little divisive but nevertheless relatively simple. However, when Jeremy was asked what it meant he would try to explain some of the facets, get interrupted, leaving the audience confused and less confident that they knew what it (and therefore Labour) meant.  


5. Policies where a felt like a wish list. They may have been costed and doable but they were too diverse and too many. Ensuring everybody has affordable broadband is a plausible. Promising free broadband was incredible and unnecessary. The cost advantage of nationalising infrastructure was not made clear enough. Too many industries were mentioned. I for one wondered where all the new (presumably lower paid) CEO’s were coming from. Labour was in their own bubble and unable to see how it looked from the outside.

Whoever gets elected uniting the party is a common goal. I think it will need the centerists or the left-wing to issue a "put up and shut up or clear off" if Labour is going to rebuild and stand a chance of winning an election. It's been quite cathartic putting my thoughts down.