I joined the Labour Party on 13 December 2014.. In the five years since then, I’ve campaigned in three general elections, all three of which Labour has lost. I distinctly remember seeing “Conservatives Largest Party” flash up at 10pm on the 7th of May 2015 and thinking “oh god.” It was a feeling I knew I never wanted to feel again. But…
A few months ago, I found myself debating with some politically like-minded friends whether or not religion could be ‘compatible’ with socialism. The broad consensus went something like this: individual religious belief is fine, provided it’s confined to the private sphere, some of the great socialists of history were also people of deep faith, but ‘Organised Religion’ –– like, say,…
It’s the night before Christmas, and Jasper, sick of Labour losing yet another election, joins the Conservative Party. However, at home, he is visited by Joe, the King of Soft Left Twitter, who sends him three groups of ghosts from the past, present and future of British and global politics in an effort to change his ways. Will Jasper come back to…
One of Jeremy Corbyn’s claimed greatest achievements was seeing off the European trend of decline in mainstream social democratic parties. With a party now positioned to remain in opposition for a decade, it seems as if the phenomenon better known as Pasokification – in short, the rapid decline of centre-left parties and the rise of a populist right – though mainly viral…
As a Corbyn fan, second referendum remainer and a member of the metropolitan elite (whether real or imagined), I am bracing for the incoming tide of blame after the result last week. In the last couple of days I have felt painful and true sadness like never before. Before this gets washed away with the introspection to come, I want to remember…
Jasper sits down with freelance political campaigns strategist @mandeldril to diagnose what went wrong with Labour’s election campaign, ranging from the manifesto presentation to the lack of message discipline. Plus, Joe gives a call to arms for the left and argues that activists must embrace community organising in the wake of the election defeat. iTunes Link
Tony Blair opens the foreword to Phillip Gould’s The Unfinished Revolution with a piece of advice for the Labour party: “Start with an honest analysis of why you are in opposition”. It is a demand that moderates never cease to make of the membership, and it feels brutally necessary now. It is impossible to understate how bad Labour’s defeat was. In every…
Over the next six months (and sadly, possibly longer) a lot of people are going to write a lot of ‘takes’ on why Labour lost this election. Judging by the stack that have already been written less than a week after the election, these takes will mostly be single-minded, arguing that one particular factor was the sole reason behind the Labour Party’s…
