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Rebecca Long-Bailey Should Listen To Patricia Hewitt

Rebecca Long-Bailey is laying out her stall to be Labour leader:

We can take the Labour party back into power. Here’s how
Rebecca Long-Bailey

And:

This election was a historic chance to turn back that tide. But across the country, including in many of the areas hit worst by austerity, we failed. The country was sharply divided by Brexit, and our compromise solution satisfied too few. But we can’t blame Brexit alone, and we must recognise that it’s no good having the right solutions if people don’t believe you can deliver them.

Over the next few months, we must have an honest discussion about why we lost and how we can win. Strategies designed in Westminster were partly to blame, but it’s also true that Labour’s support has been falling in many communities for a decade or more. We must rebuild trust, not only in our party but in the idea that change really is possible. This means we cannot return to the politics of the past. Our transformative agenda is principled and popular, while triangulation and soft pedalling will only take us backwards. There are many lessons to learn from the defeat, but it’s clear we didn’t lose because of our commitments to scrap universal credit, invest in public services or abolish tuition fees.

It’s like reading Owen Jones as filtered through the Amanda Marcotte article production engine, isn’t it?

A useful suggestion would be that Long-Bailey – and others – listen to Patricia Hewitt:

It is obvious from out polling, as well as from the doorstep, that the “London Effect” is now very noticeable. The “loony Labour left” is taking its toll; the gays and lesbians issue is costing us dear among the pensioners, and the fear of extremism and higher rates/taxes is particularly prominent in the Greater London Council area.

Letter to Frank Dobson and other Labour leaders in The Times, 6 Mar, 1987.

OK, it might be that the gay thing is now the trannie one, the fear of taxes isn’t constrained to London. But the basic analysis, that the metropolitan liberals no longer speak for the industrial proletariat is there, no?

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Spike
Spike
4 years ago

I hear predictions that the same will happen in the US – that AOC’s “Squad,” the bold claim to be socialist, and the anti-Kavanaugh gang pursuing impeachment heedless to a complete transfusion of the charges will harden Trump’s support in the heartland and fail to excite the welfare state on the coasts – but it is coming from the same cheerleaders who assured us Trump would not lose the House in 2018.

Bernie G.
Bernie G.
4 years ago

Labour made a conscious decision to ditch their so-called midlands and northern heartlands in favour of the BAME community, metropolitan kids, and the Toynbees of the world – they wrongly assumed the numbers were in their favour. They also doubled down on winning the wimmins’ vote, assuming girls are an homogenous group who would choose to side with a bunch of flakes rather than their father, brother, husband or son.

Chester Draws
Chester Draws
4 years ago

This means we cannot return to the politics of the past.

Except Socialism, I suspect. *That* politics of the past is just fine.

Pcar
Pcar
4 years ago

Listen to Patricia Hewitt?

The Blair cow that destroyed viable NHS Dentistry?
“We consulted with GDC & BDA and Which/CA etc …. and ignored everything they said”

You’re having a laugh Mr Worstall?

Pcar
Pcar
4 years ago

Back in time to the future

Ruth Davidson’s “spend more time with her child” = new LBC Presenter

Do poliicians ever not lie?

Ruth Davidson post GE still pushing for Remain
Co-founder of Lastminute.com says Brexit will be bad for the tech sector – only immigrants can code
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3hWk2gURkl0

Quentin Vole
Quentin Vole
4 years ago
Reply to  Pcar

I can guarantee that Martha Lane-Fox has never written so much as a ‘Hello world’ program. She was in the dot-com boom at the right time and got out at the top – that’s the sum total of her expertise.

Pcar
Pcar
4 years ago
Reply to  Quentin Vole

Agree. My belief too. I thought about writing that, but didn’t. Thanks for doing so

imo She’s like BoJo on Gigabit “Don’t know what it means, but sounds good; here’s £xty Billion of taxpayers money”

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