Labour’s shrinking C2 and DE vote

Labour’s shrinking C2 and DE vote: http://bit.ly/azPhdd – More on @Ed_Miliband’s analysis of why Labour lost on @leftfootfwd

RT @shamikdas: Labour’s shrinking C2 and DE vote: http://bit.ly/azPhdd – More on @Ed_Miliband’s analysis of why Labour lost on @leftfootfwd

What do AB, C1, C2 and DE mean?

Shamik – These figures will change if the coalition cuts are as bad as they are alleged they will be. If the cut’s hit the poor they will vote Labour again.

Myself? I smell a rat and do not believe the cuts will be as bad as they say and I think the tax take will also increase faster than expected.

Labours shrinking C2 and DE vote: http://bit.ly/azPhdd – More on @Ed_Milibands analysis of why Labour lost via @leftfootfwd

Does it say something about the British mentality that we don't go from class A to B to C to D but from D to C. . . http://ow.ly/2qe0c

[...] More… [...]

Who cares anymore, the next time I will vote will be a show of hands on whether I go to heaven or hell, so long as Blair goes first and then I’ll go the other way.

Mr Mouse

Surely not, the right wing upper middle class establishment working with the Treasury and the BoE to wave a shroud in a very energetic manner?

Consequently are wrong and you were right.

Wrong — The cuts will hurt no matter what happens, the ConDemNation are all fully paid up members of the Dog Boiling agenda. Any extra money will be tax cuts not spending increases, sorry smaller reductions compared to today’s budgets.

Right, but not now — Before the nihilistic / sado masochistic cuts put forward by Sniffy then there was good chance fo a growth and tax rebound. AD had fully bought into the re-balancing agenda, public sector squeeze when approprite not slash and burn just for the sake of it.

It will be beyond irony if Sniffy misses out on the recovery because of his wilful destruction of the public sector. I fear someone is about to experience a second dimension to his economic education, unfortunately at a horrible cost not only to his political reputation but also to the employment prospects of millions of British workers.

He is a muppet economically, out of his depth to a frightening degree.

You were warned but like millions of others you would rather have a severe thrashing from one of your betters than a balanced recovery from a party who wore a donkey jacket in your lifetime.

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour’s shrinking C2 and DE vote: http://bit.ly/azPhdd – More on @Ed_Miliband’s analysis of why Labour lost

Ed Miliband had my vote already, but I thought his Fabians essay was cleverly pitched as a warning to supposedly ‘pragmatic’ New Labour types that the election-winning strategy is now also the option that’s more in line with the Labour party’s core values: calling openly for the rich to pay a fairer share, talking about tackling inequality, promoting fair pay and dignity in work etc.

I like the fact that he’s a geek with statistics to back up his pitch; Diane Abbott worries me with all her assurances that she’s not an intellectual, disparaging remarks about geeks, promises to save us from policy wonks etc. Give me someone who believes in policymaking that’s evidence-based as well as values-led.

Fat Bloke on Tour – So you think I’m right or wrong?

Personally I just think it’s all hype and the “cuts” will be through natural wastage and the economy, now that last useless bunch are out, will improve better than expected and the coalition will ride in on a white steed in a couple of years time.

So far the polls do not show any harm to the Tories – their stats have improved and obviously so did Labour’s once they dumped that unelected useless Gordon Brown – the Lib Dems will turn round as things go on and anyone but Abbott will be elected Labour leader.

It’s been a long time since anyone in the Labour Party wore a donkey jacket btw – you need to move on big man…

Mr Mouse

I fear you and your public sector / publically funded extended family are in for a bit of a shock.

The cuts are real, they will hurt and they will cause economic catastrophe.

In time with the addition of some wisdom, humility and a little understanding you will come to the view that GB got it right about the global credit crunch and the work needed to generate a recovery.

Dave the Rave, Sniffy and all the Orange Bookers on the other hand are just following a class based agenda based on slash and burn for the public sector.

They are all dog boilers now and they are acting accordingly.

Anon – seriously? You think ‘natural wastage’ and economic growth are going to completely eradicate a £150 billion deficit within four years? Exactly what sort of growth figures are you expecting? 10%? 20%?

What’s really funny is that the ‘useless bunch’ you criticise actually agreed with you that growth comes first when it comes to reducing the deficit; hence their commitment to job creation, capital investment (e.g. in new schools) etc. It’s George Osborne who thinks growth won’t get us very far and so we need to cut, cut and cut again, starting now. So your ultra-Brownite view puts you firmly on the Labour side of the argument.

Ash – I don’t believe this coalition will implement the cuts they say they will – Thatcher never did in the early years it was all a perception.

Natural wastage combined with the other measures they propose and an increase in the tax take will work.

What’s your solution Ash? Keep employing people to do the non jobs we see advertised in The Guardian or stop the hand wringing and clear up the mess Gordon Brown left us with?

Fat Bloke On Tour – So am I right or wrong then?

[...] They overwhelmingly thought Labour was too close to bankers at the last election. Polling by both Ed Miliband and Ed Balls has shown that Labour didn’t lose middle-income voters at the last election [...]

Anon -

“Natural wastage combined with the other measures they propose and an increase in the tax take will work.” – How? How fast, roughly, would the economy have to grow for that to happen, and what makes you think it will grow that much faster than anybody else believes possible? Without some sort of economic argument to back it up, this looks like pure wishful thinking.

“What’s your solution Ash? Keep employing people to do the non jobs we see advertised in The Guardian…?” – Hang on a minute – *you’re* the one saying cuts aren’t really necessary because natural wastage and economic growth will eliminate the deficit all by themselves. So I don’t understand why you’re now making the case for cutting spending on ‘non-jobs’ and expecting me to disagree with you. I’m the one who accepts that cuts are necessary, remember?

“I don’t believe this coalition will implement the cuts they say they will – Thatcher never did in the early years it was all a perception.” – Hmm… it’s not that Thatcher didn’t cut spending on particular things (she did), it’s that she didnt manage to cut spending overall. That’s because things like the welfare bill went through the roof due to high unemployment levels etc. So if Osborne doesn’t manage to cut overall spending, that won’t mean he didn’t implement the cuts he said he would; it’ll just mean he ended up spending the money elsewhere. (If you cut unemployment benefit by 50% but have to pay it twice as many people, you haven’t ‘cut spending’ – but you’ve certainly made a ‘cut’ that people will feel.)

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour's shrinking C2 and DE vote http://ow.ly/2qe0c < Backs @Ed_Miliband point to a tee

RT @andy_s_64: RT @leftfootfwd: Labour's shrinking C2 and DE vote http://ow.ly/2qe0c < Backs @Ed_Miliband point to a tee

[...] Often debates about the direction Labour should travel boil down to who Labour actually represents. Ed Miliband has made the point that Labour’s collapse in support amoung the C2′s D’s and [...]

[...] pursue the centrists hasn’t actually worked in practice. Most of those votes lost were at the lower end of the socio-economic spectrum, not middle-class “aspirational” [...]

So, interesting as this is, it misses a crucial bit of information: Where are the votes? Labour can lose a hell of a lot of votes from some urban and northern constituencies and still carry the constituency. Has anyone looked at whether regaining the lost C2 and DE votes would actually translate to a parliamentary majority?

@johnmcternan Hi John. @LeftFootFwd did something on it which links to it http://bit.ly/9wyhmt

[...] the two front-runners, only Ed Miliband is making any serious attempt to address why Labour lost so many votes since 1997. Labour lost 5 million voters, only 1m of which went to the Tories. Who will address [...]

[...] is likely to be seen as encouraging by Labour figures, particularly Ed Miliband, who has announced his intention to regain the 3 million C2 and DE voters who dropped their support for Labour between [...]