Internet Meeting held on Monday 17th May 2021
Five people were present.
Was it a resounding victory for Tories last week? See Martin Kettle’s article in the Guardian. Incumbents had done well. Some of the electorate might be voting against what appears to be in their best interests. Can you be a successful opposition in a crisis? Thatcher and Falklands for example. How well is Labour engaging with their traditional voters? Brexit is still a big issue for many Leave voters, even if we think they were/are misled. It is a strong emotional reaction. Johnson delivered Brexit. Voting Tory reinforces their Leave vote. Any flaws in the deal are not seen or if they are “it doesn’t matter”. He may be a bit of a liar “but he’s our liar.” There is an emotional connection to their ‘man’. Starmer comes over as a bit dull in comparison think many in the Red Wall. But so does Drakeford and he did well. We thought it was too early to judge Starmer. Will Johnson go before the next election? It is not the job he thought it was. He is certainly accident prone, but many forgive him – he’s an unusual politician as is Trump. Will Starmer be around for next election? We looked at Blair’s analysis in the New Statesman – he used the phrase of traditional Labour voters as being ‘socially authoritarian’. Anecdotally, an example was given of trade unionists and counsellors in Barnsley being very uncomfortable/hostile with a proposed liberal penal approach in the 1970’s based on academic research – the audience of solid Labour people sounded like Priti Patel on steroids! Issues around crime and immigration or homelessness seem to be viewed very differently now. Blair was saying that Labour will die if they don’t change significantly. Some Labour politicians have done well e.g. Lisa Nandy in Wigan. She communicates impressively and seems to show she cares about her constituents.
We then turned our attention to the topic of a radical alliance. Do Labour need to change the rules so we/they can speak to other parties. Is the question ‘Who has the best chance of winning’ ? We had examples of tactical voting on an informal level e.g. Sheffield Hallam – the priority was to defeat the Tory. We need to co-operate and Labour probably need some humility. Is it easier to do it in local elections? Deep seated view that one needs to offer a candidate to the electorate – they need to have the opportunity to vote for a particular party. If a party did not put up a candidate in a number of seats might it rebound? In Hartlepool in 2017 the right were divided. To understand Hartlepool we should remember the number of votes the Brexit Party got in 2019 – presumably if they had not been there that constituency would have gone blue in 2019 and there might not have been the current fuss as Brexit voters went Tory and some Labour voters stayed at home. The radical parties can coalesce around radical policies.
Is there a deep emotional positive reaction in parts of Labour to Jeremy Corbyn (some MPs some talk of Labour suffering from Long Corbyn).
We will join the main group on 21.6.21, unless any guidelines or restrictions point us in another direction.