good read:
Alistair Campbell on why Labour lost so many MPs in this election.
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/alastair-campbell-on-labour-failure-at-general-election-1-6425405
QUOTE:
...
I [Campbell] detected some warmth and pockets of massive enthusiasm for Corbyn - but in key battlegrounds these were dwarfed by the doubts of so many people that he had what it took to be prime minister.
These were not people likely to turn out at rallies and chant his name, or the name of any other politician. They were neither ideological right nor ideological left. Many of them, dare I say it given the Corbynistas helped turn the name of Labour's most successful leader into a swear word, voted for New Labour and, even if they didn't, saw Tony Blair as a strong leader and a capable prime minister in a way they struggled to see Corbyn.
That truth - which has been evident for some time and was merely briefly camouflaged by Labour's better than expected result in 2017 - lay at the heart of Johnson's determination to get his winter election the moment he took over from May. Why on earth the Liberal Democrats and the SNP chose to fall into his trap, thus ramping the pressure on Corbyn to do likewise, is beyond me. To do so as the support for a People's Vote in the last parliament was growing not receding was equally baffling.
The commentators will now queue to say what a great campaigner Johnson is, how the simplicity of 'Take Back Control' was matched by the simplicity of 'Get Brexit Done', and the message delivered with such consistency that it won the day. But a message only connects if it is rooted in reality, and if your opponents let you get away with it. You need both of those things to win with it.
That it is not rooted in reality will become apparent quickly enough. With his majority, Johnson can get Brexit done to the extent that he can pass his withdrawal agreement. But then the really tricky stuff starts, as we seek to negotiate the detailed exit with the EU, and trade deals with others such as the US, at a time when our negotiation leverage on both fronts is weaker than ever. However, it was the letting him get away with it by his opponents that helped him deliver that message, ramped of course by the Brexit Lie Machine newspapers, a handicap to Corbyn that I do not minimise, not least for the influence they have in the framing of the campaign by the broadcasters. But precisely because Johnson wanted to talk about Brexit at every turn, Labour wanted to avoid the subject.
There were two parts to the Johnson message - get Brexit done and then focus on the things that really matter to people. Only by demolishing the first were Labour likely to get the hearing they needed on the second. Labour appeared to view Brexit as a tactical inconvenience, rather than the defining issue of our time. How else to explain the near- invisibility of Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry, shadow Brexit secretary and shadow foreign secretary respectively?
The answer, of course, may be that Labour knew that truth about Corbyn, and in some ways were less focused on doing what was needed to win the general election than on what would follow in the wake of defeat, so perhaps wanted to keep possible leadership rivals out of the picture, and instead promote true believers Rebecca Long-Bailey, Richard Burgon, Laura Pidcock, the chosen few. It did not help win over those who needed to be won.
Alistair Campbell on why Labour lost so many MPs in this election.
https://www.theneweuropean.co.uk/top-stories/alastair-campbell-on-labour-failure-at-general-election-1-6425405
QUOTE:
...
I [Campbell] detected some warmth and pockets of massive enthusiasm for Corbyn - but in key battlegrounds these were dwarfed by the doubts of so many people that he had what it took to be prime minister.
These were not people likely to turn out at rallies and chant his name, or the name of any other politician. They were neither ideological right nor ideological left. Many of them, dare I say it given the Corbynistas helped turn the name of Labour's most successful leader into a swear word, voted for New Labour and, even if they didn't, saw Tony Blair as a strong leader and a capable prime minister in a way they struggled to see Corbyn.
That truth - which has been evident for some time and was merely briefly camouflaged by Labour's better than expected result in 2017 - lay at the heart of Johnson's determination to get his winter election the moment he took over from May. Why on earth the Liberal Democrats and the SNP chose to fall into his trap, thus ramping the pressure on Corbyn to do likewise, is beyond me. To do so as the support for a People's Vote in the last parliament was growing not receding was equally baffling.
The commentators will now queue to say what a great campaigner Johnson is, how the simplicity of 'Take Back Control' was matched by the simplicity of 'Get Brexit Done', and the message delivered with such consistency that it won the day. But a message only connects if it is rooted in reality, and if your opponents let you get away with it. You need both of those things to win with it.
That it is not rooted in reality will become apparent quickly enough. With his majority, Johnson can get Brexit done to the extent that he can pass his withdrawal agreement. But then the really tricky stuff starts, as we seek to negotiate the detailed exit with the EU, and trade deals with others such as the US, at a time when our negotiation leverage on both fronts is weaker than ever. However, it was the letting him get away with it by his opponents that helped him deliver that message, ramped of course by the Brexit Lie Machine newspapers, a handicap to Corbyn that I do not minimise, not least for the influence they have in the framing of the campaign by the broadcasters. But precisely because Johnson wanted to talk about Brexit at every turn, Labour wanted to avoid the subject.
There were two parts to the Johnson message - get Brexit done and then focus on the things that really matter to people. Only by demolishing the first were Labour likely to get the hearing they needed on the second. Labour appeared to view Brexit as a tactical inconvenience, rather than the defining issue of our time. How else to explain the near- invisibility of Keir Starmer and Emily Thornberry, shadow Brexit secretary and shadow foreign secretary respectively?
The answer, of course, may be that Labour knew that truth about Corbyn, and in some ways were less focused on doing what was needed to win the general election than on what would follow in the wake of defeat, so perhaps wanted to keep possible leadership rivals out of the picture, and instead promote true believers Rebecca Long-Bailey, Richard Burgon, Laura Pidcock, the chosen few. It did not help win over those who needed to be won.
