Election Reflections

I’m trying to get my thoughts together on the General Election result. We are all devastated not just because we lost but because we know that for the next 5 years life is going to be hell for so many. I don’t want this to sound bitter or like sour grapes either. So many of us tried our best and we are all hurting now. But what we have to do is dust ourselves down and fight again. We may need a break I know I do but we can’t give up because there’s so much at stake.
So what went wrong?

Well from my point of view it was our Brexit position. Of course there were other factors too we and particularly that Jeremy Corbyn has been demonised and smeared like no other Labour leader. Yes no Labour leader has had good press except Blair at certain times. Michael Foot and Neil Kinnock were both treated particularly bad. It goes with the terrain of radically trying to change Society and is a badge of honour in a way. But Corbyn has been accused of being numerous things he’s not with make no mistake the sole purpose of damaging him and Labour electorally. And to some extent it has worked. How much it’s really difficult to say but I don’t think at the moment it’s the main thing to focus on. Because since 2017 we have lost 2 and half million votes. Those people were prepared to vote for us then after 2 years of lies and smears about Corbyn then so what’s changed?

Well that brings me back to Brexit and I think it’s undeniable that it was the major factor in our devastating defeat. It’s so frustrating because we were warned about this earlier in the year with the rise of the Brexit party. Their huge success in the Euro Elections should have been a warning shot across the bow. But too many in the party thought it was just a protest vote and that most would come back to us. They didn’t get how deep the feeling was in parts of the Midlands and North and it was ignored that 70% of our seats voted leave. Well a lot haven’t come back to us and we have a lot of work to do to win them back. I have to say this but some London centric lefties really don’t seem to get it. Some seem to think that working class people who voted Brexit have not only got it wrong but imply they are stupid or racist. So many already felt that they weren’t being listened to and when the referendum came they voted against staying in the EU as a rejection of the neo liberal establishment elite. But 3 and half years later Brexit has stalled and to put it bluntly we have took the blame and we are the ones who have been punished. People who voted Brexit really want it done and some leavers think we have betrayed them. They didn’t want a second referendum they wanted the result of the first carried out.

Before anyone thinks I’m a ardent leaver I voted remain in 2016. But the major difference between the Election 2 years ago and now is that then we said we would honour the result of the referendum, now we were offering a another one. Like it or not people who voted leave didn’t like that, so much so many were even prepared to vote Tory who of course were saying they were going to get Brexit done. So no matter how many great policies we have it was always going to be a major uphill battle to win people over when as they see it they had won the referendum result and we had helped to block it in parliament. Many of us on the left warned about this happening but we lost the battle.

I have to say again as well that certain figures on the London left in their bubble didn’t help with their sneering patronising attitude. And the constant manoeuvring by some to not accept the result of the democratic referendum result has cost us dear. We may have not liked the result in 2016 but we should have accepted the democratic mandate after all that’s what democracy is. This attitude that some show that we know best really doesn’t go down well.

Let’s be honest in some of our heartlands our vote has been going down for a long time way before Corbyn became leader. This has just been the final straw. It was always going to be difficult for us because opinion varies so much around the country. We tried to unite leave and remain but to many our policy was a fudge. I admit I wanted us to adopt this policy at conference myself but only because the other option of us being a full remain party would have been an even bigger disaster for us I believe. That would have been unforgivable to many at least now we have a fighting chance of winning these people back to us. We have had the massive misfortune of having to deal with the Brexit issue at this particular time in history, things could have been so different without it but it’s proven to be such a divisive issue. Hopefully by the next Election it won’t be the issue it is now.
I think Jeremy is right to not rush into going as leader, we have to choose our next leader carefully. It would also be a mistake in my view to back track on our policies or water them down. We have to offer a radical alternative and next time we will be better placed after 5 years of Tory rule hopefully. These are the times for radical Socialist policies because the problems we face as a country and indeed in the world as they are the best solutions to the crisis we face. As I have said before time is running out but we mustn’t give up because of this gigantic setback. We have to learn from this and learn fast. We are all hurting now but the fight goes on. Who’s up for it?