Recipe For Success
Andrew Rawnsley wrote an excellent piece for The Observer at the weekend in which he reviewed Jeremy Corbyn's 'recipe' for electoral success.
And he was spot on with his comments about Scotland where the Labour Party has all but disappeared as an effective political force.
"Let’s start in Scotland. If the Corbyn formula for electoral success is reliable, this is where Labour’s recovery ought to have begun. Just last year, he declared that Scotland was his “top priority”. You will also remember that it was his contention that moving to the left of the SNP was the way to mobilise new support and to woo back voters who had abandoned Labour for the nationalists. Kezia Dugdale, Labour’s leader in Scotland, loyally put that thesis to the test by pledging higher rates of income tax, more spending on public services and opposing the renewal of the nuclear deterrent. She offered Dr Corbyn’s magical potion to Scots and they spat it out. Labour has crashed to its worst result in Scotland since 1910. It has been supplanted by a resurgent Scottish Conservative party successfully bidding for the support of centrist, pro-union voters. The Tories, not Labour, will now be the principal party of opposition, a role given additional importance because the SNP just fell short of securing a majority. If there is a way back for Labour in Scotland, the evidence of these elections is that the route recommended by Mr Corbyn is not it."
http://www.theguardian.com/global/commentisfree/2016/may/08/jeremy-corbyn-local-election-results-labour-leadership
Dr Corbyn’s elixir for electoral success will kill only the patient
By Andrew Rawnsley - The Observer
Labour’s awful showing last Thursday was the worst performance by a new opposition leader in half a century
Labour’s awful showing last Thursday was the worst performance by a new opposition leader in half a century
Ballot boxes arrive at a count centre in north London. Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images
During his brilliant campaign for the Labour leadership – and in large part explaining why he won it – Jeremy Corbyn offered a magic potion to his party. He beguiled its members with the idea that he had formulated a “new politics” which would be played to entirely different and wonderfully better rules than the old politics. Labour would no longer treat electoral contests as a struggle won or lost by the party most effective at building a broad-based coalition of support. That disgraceful way of seeking power was for unprincipled sell-outs such as Clem Attlee, Harold Wilson and Tony Blair. Labour would no longer compete for the centre ground. It would instead tap a hidden reservoir of support from the many millions of people who had failed to support the party in the past because it had never offered them an authentically left-wing programme. Inspired by the pied piper of Islington, these folk would be roused to the polls and victory would follow. This was the Corbyn formula for electoral success.
During his brilliant campaign for the Labour leadership – and in large part explaining why he won it – Jeremy Corbyn offered a magic potion to his party. He beguiled its members with the idea that he had formulated a “new politics” which would be played to entirely different and wonderfully better rules than the old politics. Labour would no longer treat electoral contests as a struggle won or lost by the party most effective at building a broad-based coalition of support. That disgraceful way of seeking power was for unprincipled sell-outs such as Clem Attlee, Harold Wilson and Tony Blair. Labour would no longer compete for the centre ground. It would instead tap a hidden reservoir of support from the many millions of people who had failed to support the party in the past because it had never offered them an authentically left-wing programme. Inspired by the pied piper of Islington, these folk would be roused to the polls and victory would follow. This was the Corbyn formula for electoral success.
