Labour wins when it is the future

This year has been a year of displacement activity for Labour. 2011 must be the year that it realises the scale of its electoral, political, and philosophical defeat and finally articulates a different future. Let’s recap briefly. The year started off with a botched attempt to make amends for failing to hold a leadership election the previous Summer. It was too late and so failed.

Labour-rose Within a few short breaths the election campaign was underway. It never got off the starting blocks. That Labour staffers were celebrating a paltry 29 per cent – the party’s second worst showing in living memory – on the morning of Friday May 7th shows how utterly hopeless the cause had become.

Labour was then- mistakenly- thrust into a leadership election before it had any time for reflection. This was the third displacement activity. Ed Miliband had a bit more verve and freshness than his rivals and deservedly won. The contest itself had no context. There was no analysis of Labour’s predicament or the challenges that it faced. Those things were left unsaid.

No sooner had the leadership contest finished but the final displacement activity set in. The Spending Review and the cuts- most particularly those that affecting higher education and students – became the final diversion of 2010.

And so the campaign goes on. Is this what people mean by perpetual campaigning? Rather like a grieving widow, the Labour party is keeping itself occupied. Surely at some point it will have to face its loss?

Meanwhile, the coalition (Tory-led!) has defined Labour’s recent past for it. In this framing Labour was profligate, economically incompetent, and authoritarian. Just saying ‘no we weren’t’ mixed with frenetic and exhausting activity won’t be enough. And if Labour thinks a Republican opposition strategy of ignoring the past while digging your heels in will work then it will have another thing coming.

There is no UK equivalent of the Senate super-majority and the left has no Glenn Beck etc backed by a multi-million dollar message machine. In fact, the reverse is the case.

Labour is not going to stop the coalition in the short term. They may grab the odd straggling gazelle- Vince Cable looks fair game- and provoke the odd u-turn and that will feel good. Civil society might slow it- and the likes of False Economy are more than capable of mobilising dissent. The politics of reform may weigh too heavily as all sorts of unintended consequences take hold- keep a close eye on the NHS.

The harsh truth, however, is that no matter how uncomfortable they are with many of the coalition’s policies, as things stand people want David Cameron as their Prime Minister. If there were an election tomorrow, he would become leader of a majority Government. The fact that the Liberal Democrats would be wiped off the electoral map is scant consolation.

Labour needs a policy review for sure and it has one. What it doesn’t have is a vision in which the review can sit. What this means is that there is a risk that the party will end up with spring freshly washed clothes without a washing line to hang them on. They will remain damp and become musty in time.

The greatest dramas turn on events that shift everything from one state to another. Politics is a dramatic pursuit where the weakest players pretend it is a rational enterprise. Cameron is prime minister because he a sense of the dramatic and the bold. His play changing event happened on May 7th; Labour became mere extras at that precise moment. Leadership sprang from apparent defeat.

Ed Miliband must, in time, respond with a similar sense of drama. He has so far sought to reconnect the Labour party to the lost leadership of John Smith. It was a noble and moral leadership and would have almost certainly still have returned Labour to power in 1997.

However, it was Tony Blair who was the first leader since Harold Wilson (Mark I) to make Labour a party of the future once more. Three Labour leaders have won majorities in the party’s history. Each of these majorities was secured on the basis of Labour cast as the party of a bright and optimistic future (not the party of being nice and fair!)

So this is less a prediction than a plea but 2011 must be the year when Labour ceases the restless displacement activity. It should have stopped in 2010. It didn’t. It should have stopped in 2009. It didn’t. Quickly though, it must then spring forward with a different vision: of an economy that provides good jobs in new creative services and industry; that re-defines public value and values for the post-austerity age; and makes real the promise of the Big Society as a new citizenship that tangibly improves communities and lives.

Do not under-value the decency of John Smith. Equally, do not forget that Labour wins when it is the future. 2011 must become the year when Labour is finally honest about its recent past and then with a sense of drama and panache, it imagines and articulates the different future that it can create and turns it into a poetic conviction. The alternative is a third year of frenetic displacement activity. Surely now is the time to move on?

http://twitter.com/anthonypainter/status/17530775436005376 Anthony Painter

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter
http://twitter.com/charliebeckett/status/17532398866538496 Charlie Beckett

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future http://bit.ly/f4fE2b <very good, but the Q is how to move on.
http://twitter.com/walshaw4hdngly/status/17533247911100416 Neil Walshaw

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter V good analysis #Walshaw4Hdngly
http://twitter.com/shamikdas/status/17534265004662784 Shamik Das

Gr8 piece by Anthony —> RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter http://myloc.me/fyJR1
http://twitter.com/shamikdas/status/17534287804891136 Shamik Das

Gr8 piece by Anthony —> RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter http://myloc.me/fyJUY
http://twitter.com/misscampbell/status/17534885992341505 Jane Phillips

RT @shamikdas: Gr8 piece by Anthony —> RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter …
http://billyblofeld.wordpress.com Billy Blofeld

“Labour was profligate, economically incompetent, and authoritarian.”

Labour was all these things and also an illegal war monger.

Labour’s displacement activity will continue until it decides to confront the truth.
Anon E Mouse

The lunacy continues it appears. Labour lost the election, along with 5 million voters using an election campaign written by Ed Miliband.

The same man had the unions cheating in their literature (my missus is in Unison and the literature had his picture in the outer plastic bag it was delivered in) to get him elected – by a majority of just 1.3%.

He isn’t supported by a majority of Labour MP’s and is simply a dud.

You know it Anthony Painter and the public knows it. The rose coloured glasses you’re wearing serve only to remind the electorate just how out of touch the Labour Party is and until that ditherer is gone and his brother or Alan Johnson is in place you’d better get used to opposition…
http://twitter.com/olszewskilab/status/17543346553626624 Richard Olszewski

RT @shamikdas: Gr8 piece by Anthony —> RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter …
http://eoin-clarke.blogspot.com/ Éoin Clarke

Polling data helps us make some sense of som eof this.

In the 19 polls polls before Tony Blair left, reds averaged 31% in the polls. excluding NI, at the recent GE reds got 30% in the poll. Gordon Brown lost us roughly a million votes from 2005-10 helped of course by the year or two Blair hung around.

Now this is fairly simple. Where did the 4 million go before that>? Where did the 4 million go before Gordon Brown took over? Where did the 4 million go before the credit crunch? Anyone who blames this on the credit crunch or Brown are misguided. Reds got 258 MPs in May. It was a prety good showing. The best they could have hoped for was about 290 in my view.. So Big Gordy cost us 30+ seats.

Beforehand there were three crucial developments that switched red voters off. When the EU expanded to include 10 new countries including Poland, Labour failed appallingly to manage the immigration. They should have set a cap per postcode of foreigners. That way you make the posh southern areas should some of the social serivces burden. They should have incentivised the migrants to move up to Scotland where human resoruces were needed… They failed to do this, and they paid the price. the WWC stayed at home.

The breach of Trust that occurred when Socialists in the UK developed a penchant for bombing Muslims, has cost the Labour PArty dear. I have always been immensely roud of the pacifist stance reds had adopted in the past. The creation of India in 1948 was a high point for Atlee’s admin. We are not like that. How we let Blair take us to war will never become clear in my mind.

The third mistake I think is the “choice” agenda. There is precious little evidence that the ordinary public want all this choice that is being rammed down their throat. Give them a comprehensive school, a bog standard hospital, and a public housing scheme. There was that many acronyms for schools and hospitals created under Blair, I lost sight of them…

If it wasnt a beacon this, or a foundation that, or a primary the other… The culmination of this so called choice was the creation of Academies and the expansion through PFI. That has never been what Labour is about.

If reds can fix these three problems, they might get back into government.
anyleftiwonder

And will we get drama and panache with Ed Miliband ? I don’t think so.
http://twitter.com/dpjhodges/status/17544186500751360 Dan Hodges

@anthonypainter "as things stand people want Cameron as their Prime Minister". The truth hurts – http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 – great piece.
http://twitter.com/drkmj/status/17546795475279872 DrKMJ

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter
http://twitter.com/hitchinengland/status/17547574483353600 Hitchin England

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter
http://twitter.com/trakgalvis/status/17548271215976448 Trakgalvis

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter
http://twitter.com/slasheduk/status/17552415884578817 SlashedUK

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter
Anon E Mouse

Éoin Clarke – Everything you say may be true except where you state Tony Blair “hung around” completely rewrites history.

He didn’t hang around – he was elected on a “Full third term” ticket by the electorate in this country – for anybody voting Labour at that election, party politics were thrown out of the window.

Gordon Brown wasn’t even elected by his own party let alone the public. Apart from his financial incompetence and tribalism – he employed a man, Damian McBride, to smear David Cameron the week his disabled son died for goodness sake and his wish for state control made him unelectable.

And Labour couldn’t/wouldn’t see it. You’re still doing it now calling him “Big Gordy” instead of “That tw*t who wrecked the Labour Party”. Which he was. He is a bullying dishonest thug according to Peter Mandelson amongst others.

ID Cards, PFI, 10p Tax, 90 days detention are all sideshows. The elephant in the room now is Ed Miliband – while he is Labour leader the party will remain in opposition.
Matthew Bond

This argument is unconvincing. It ignores the fact that Labour has caught up in the polls and appears to have a slight lead. Given that polls are the best evidence we have about the public mood why is AP so convinced the Tories would win a new election or that the public want Cam to be PM? Of course Labour should prepare itself for government but at this point in the political cycle it does not seem to be doing worse than most successful oppositions. After all, Cam never set out a clear vision. His Big Society plea was vague and didn’t connect with the voters. So I agree work needs to be done but that does not mean we need to overestimate the power of this government nor should we start hand wringing about our prospects.
BenM

AnonEMouse is getting carried away.

The elephant in the room now is Ed Miliband – while he is Labour leader the party will remain in opposition.

I know Tories would love this to be true, but it isn’t.

Labour is now the ONLY party of opposition. That has been much of the driver behind its ascendancy in the polls since the election.

That and the disposal of Gordon Brown.

Ed Miliband is right to take a little time – not too much though – to develop the policies required to stiffen the support the Party receives in current polling.

Ed only needs to consider that David cameron had 4 years to do this and still failed to win an outright majority despite facing possibly the worst Prime Minister this side of World War 2.

- Labour are broadly more correct on the economy than the coalition, which next year’s economic stats will ram home.
- The Tory NHS reforms are half baked and highly damaging and any route back to power must provide robust opposition to them and it must champion the clear success of Labour’s management between 1997 and 2010.
- Ed should provide a break from the maddening knee jerk abuse of civil liberties that grew out of Blair’s premiership
- And Ed should provide principled support to the Yes camp in the AV referendum.
Anon E Mouse

BenM – I recall people just like you who said the same things about Gordon Brown and they were as wrong then as you are now. Miliband is useless.

The ascendancy in the polls is nothing – no real honeymoon for Ed Miliband because he’s a dud and if someone can’t get a lead under these conditions of cuts then they must be dead.

What the Labour Party do not do is get rid of useless leaders – Kinnock, Foot, Brown spring to mind and it will cost them.

You can say blah this blah that but the fact is Ed Miliband is a loser. Now Tony Blair – there was a leader.

Keep dreaming BenM but you know I’m right. Even Labour Uncut published this article: http://labour-uncut.co.uk/2010/12/21/the-left-is-losing-its-marbles/

He knows BenM. So do you but you won’t admit it…
http://twitter.com/altgovuk/status/17568042879819776 AltGovUK

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter
BenM

AnonEMouse

Now Tony Blair – there was a leader.

And look what happened!

To be fair, I voted DavidM Anon, for many of the reasons you cite. But it’s more than a little premature to write Ed off as “a loser” particularly when he hasn’t yet gone through an election cycle.

We’ll get first indications in January I guess, when the Oldham and Saddleworth by election is held. Then the May council elections and AV referendum.

By June then we’ll get a good pointer as to whether your hubris is misplaced or not (I think it will be – events will overtake and consume this coalition).
william

Labour should ignore the next general election, which it has already lost by ‘electing’ as leader somebody the electorate will never see as a PM.Rather,it needs to use the 10 years in opposition to come up with policies of real economic competence,and proposals to improve the lot of the bottom 20 percent that do not involve a lifetime on benefit.The Danish tax system of high VAT, low income tax, would be a start.
http://twitter.com/maczar12/status/17595713525387264 Maureen Czarnecki

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future http://bit.ly/f4fE2b
http://twitter.com/anthonypainter/status/17598485343772672 Anthony Painter

I've got a few things off my chest about Labour's last 18 months and thought about where it might head now here: http://bit.ly/dVTOvE
BenM

@9 – So improve the lot of the bottom 20% by jacking up a tax – VAT – which clobbers them the hardest and allow the wealthy off the hook by lowering income tax?

Economics of the madhouse.
http://twitter.com/trakgalvis/status/17611325001699330 Trakgalvis

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter
http://danieljfrost.blogspot.com Daniel

“The Danish tax system of high VAT, low income tax, would be a start.”

You mean the highest income tax in the world, surely? And a higher corporation tax?

I agree with this blog. Labour will only win if it embraces innovation and the future- we need to recognise the importance of the Internet and technology, and Ed Miliband would not be unwise to portray himself as a ‘geek leader’ IMO.

And anyone blaming Brown for the failure of the New Labour project needs to get their head checked!
william

Calm down Ben M.The Danish system works because the lower paid pay NO income tax. The wealthy, as you call it, end up paying a far higher rate of VAT.Their tax system has hardly produced an impoverished nation.
http://twitter.com/commsabilities/status/17620469276479489 Jo Ann Sweeney

RT @anthonypainter: I've got a few things off my chest about Labour's last 18 months and where it might head now http://bit.ly/dVTOvE
http://twitter.com/jgunson1989/status/17624448471408640 Jonathan Gunson

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter
http://twitter.com/hitchinengland/status/17627171887517696 Hitchin England

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter
http://danieljfrost.blogspot.com Daniel

http://danieljfrost.blogspot.com/2010/12/labour-and-digital-future.html

Here are my ideas on just how we should do this =]
Mr. Sensible

Mr Mouse I’m afraid we have been there before.

I think the Lib Dems are helping Labour a bit…

Matthew I agree, add to that the fact that the Tories failed to win an overall majority from 20 points ahead in the polls. I think we now know why…
Chris

@Eoin Clarke

Very interesting and intelligent analysis, as you demonstrate with the figures the narrative that after Blair went Labour went down the toilet is total bollocks. In his book, Blair attempts to back up this narrative by claiming 2005 was the election Labour would never lose – conveniently forgetting he had to dump Milburn and his entire campaign strategy at the start of the election. And instead spend almost the entire election with Brown at his side.

@Boring mouse

Yawn, your endless parroting of the same old tory attack lines is growing ever so tiresome. You’re like the fat, ugly, bald bloke who sits at the bar all afternoon who knows nothing yet having an opinion on everything and believes he is always right. Its a pity this site is polluted with your pathetic comments.

“The same man had the unions cheating in their literature”

Everything the unions did was within the rules of the contest.

“(my missus is in Unison and the literature had his picture in the outer plastic bag it was delivered in) to get him elected”

The unison ballot pack was extremely fair to all candidates, it had all their pictures in the outer envelope. It went beyond what was called for in Labour Party rules and provided exactly the same amount of extra space in its Labour leader supplement.

” – by a majority of just 1.3%.”

In terms of individual votes Ed got 30,000 more than David, Ed has the biggest electoral mandate of a Labour leader in modern times – no block votes or coronations.
http://twitter.com/barnabylane/status/17764987745345536 Barnaby Lane

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future http://bit.ly/f4fE2b
http://twitter.com/benlyons1/status/17769368049950721 Ben Lyons

Must read @anthonypainter article on @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future http://bit.ly/f4fE2b
http://twitter.com/trakgalvis/status/17775324548825088 Trakgalvis

RT @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future: http://bit.ly/fQX9X4 by @AnthonyPainter
Anon E Mouse

Chris – Remind me. How many more INDIVIDUALS, eligible to cast a vote, did so for this dithering useless Son of Brown?

Some eligible to could have several votes ad you well know Chris.

You represent the exact reason Labour is going to spend years in opposition. Tribal. Dishonest. Delusional. Smearing. Perhaps snorting coke yourself like Tom Baldwin – you must certainly be doing something to believe the rubbish you post.

Next you’ll be telling me you can see Ed Miliband elected as Prime Minister. People used to say that about Gordon Brown as well you know. Not many mind you!

Have a nice Christmas Chris…
BenM

@AnonEMouse

Credit crunch, Gordon Brown and still Cameron failed to win a majority.

Labour is currently working through a process of painful reflection and renewal.

The Tories haven’t even started yet – but they’re the ones whose voters are dying off fastest.
http://twitter.com/jonnymedland/status/17871777879293953 Jonny Medland

RT @BenLyons1: Must read @anthonypainter article on @leftfootfwd: Labour wins when it is the future http://bit.ly/f4fE2b
Anon E Mouse

BenM – Labour have elected the wrong man and the Labour members just can’t face the truth. All these cuts and Labour are still within 2 points on YouGov – no bounce with the new Labour leader.

And this so called “renewal” is just hogwash. By employing the millionaire coke snorting New Labour suck arse – Tom Baldwin – shows nothing has changed.

If the coalition collapsed Labour could’t afford to fund an election anyway but the leader is a dud and needs to be ditched soonest.

The type of person that believes Ed Miliband will ever be a Prime Minister is the type who actually voted for Gordon Brown. And next election, much as I wish it were not so, the Tories will storm it….
http://eoin-clarke.blogspot.com/ Éoin Clarke

Chris,

Thanks, for your kind words- much appreciated

Daniel,

I’ll go take a look at some of your ideas…
http://liberalconspiracy.org/2010/12/23/labour-needs-to-rediscover-campaigning-not-just-vision-a-reply-to-anthony-painter/ Labour needs to rediscover campaigning, not just vision: a reply to Anthony Painter | Liberal Conspiracy

[...] Painter by Don Paskini December 23, 2010 at 3:10 pm Anthony Painter has an article on Left Foot Forward, which argues that Labour has spent the last year engaged in “displacement activity”, [...]
Chris

@Boring mouse

“How many more INDIVIDUALS, eligible to cast a vote, did so for this dithering useless Son of Brown?”

I told you already, 30,000, some people had more than one vote in the different parts of the electoral college but that cut both ways. Ed won a significant majority in the affiliates section but only large minorities in the MPs and Members sections. This implies that Ed won a lot of individual political levy payer votes to make up for any advantage David had from more support among the people most likely to have more than one vote, MPs and Labour members.

“You represent the exact reason Labour is going to spend years in opposition. Tribal. Dishonest. Delusional. Smearing. Perhaps snorting coke yourself like Tom Baldwin – you must certainly be doing something to believe the rubbish you post.”

What pathetic nonsense you pathetic moron. As ever you arguments are incoherent rants that show you up for the tory press officer you really are.

“Next you’ll be telling me you can see Ed Miliband elected as Prime Minister. People used to say that about Gordon Brown as well you know. Not many mind you!”

Ermmmm, dickhead, Brown did become Prime Minister as you regularly remind everybody in the boring drivel that you puke into the comment box under every article.
mel

Ed Milliband has no presence on screen and completely lacks any gravitas. In the modern TV age this is important as the effect of the TV debates during the last election have shown. Maybe, he will improve but I can’t see it. His brother has gravitas and that comes across clearly on screen.
I am sure local labour party members continue to work hard and I do not want to criticise them. I do think that the Labour party needs to reshape the way in works. It needs to be more accessible to ordinary people. It needs to develop the internet as a means of getting people involved in labour party activities. It needs to build itself amongst the youth. It needs to be involved in campaigns.
A major defense of the NHS is a must. It is close to breaking point now. Any further cuts will without doubt cause the service to deteriorate rapidly.
william

Chris, please calm down.Anon E Mouse does have some points, even if he is actually a liason officer for the Russian embassy.First,the party is bust, and could not finance a general election.Second, even the non political John Ward at the Slog reminds everybody of EM’s electoral score.Third,that rather intelligent piece on Labour Uncut is actually the mirror image of Conservative HQ in 1975, and we all know what happened later, after a complete rethink by our opponents.
http://bloodworthweb.blogspot.com/ James Bloodworth

Labour? Are they even still going? Havn’t heard much from them in a while. Their leader’s a bit, um, underwhelming isn’t he?
matthew fox

@ Chris

Do you know any other tunes?, because I have that song before.
Anon E Mouse

William – Great line about the Russian embassy :-}

Chris – Read my lips. INDIVIDUALS you moron, not votes. We know about that countess toff Harriet Harman, educated at the same school as the chancellor and her numerous votes – amazed her husband got through the “All women shortlist” but hey.

The fact is that dithering prat, the useless Ed Miliband, has no hope of ever being elected as PM and Labour supporters have elected a dud and they know it. And so do you Chrissy boy and that’s what’s annoying you.

So please calm down Bugger Lugs.

It’s going to be at least 10 years before government for Labour is even a possibility. The way you’re going you’ll have had a heart attack by then and in this season of goodwill to all men (even New Labour lickspittles like yourself) I’d hate it if that happened.

Merry Christmas Bugger Lugs xxx
Chris

@Boring tory party troll mouse

Yawn, why bother re-posting tory press releases? Its boring.

“Read my lips. INDIVIDUALS you moron, not votes.”

It cuts both ways shithead. Ed got 119,405 individual votes in the affiliates section, the number of people with more than one vote is tiny compared with that as those people were mainly MPs.

“And so do you Chrissy boy and that’s what’s annoying you.”

No, what is annoying me is that paid tory party trolls, who have been caught red handed copy and pasting directly from tory party press releases, are polluting this blog with propaganda.

@william

“Chris, please calm down.”

Anybody who replies to your strange and rambling comments you tell to calm down – are you Micheal Winner?

“Anon E Mouse does have some points”

Yeh, he does have some points but they’re always the same points repeated ad nauseum usually bearing no relation to the article he is commenting on.

“First,the party is bust, and could not finance a general election.Second, even the non political John Ward at the Slog reminds everybody of EM’s electoral score.Third,that rather intelligent piece on Labour Uncut is actually the mirror image of Conservative HQ in 1975, and we all know what happened later, after a complete rethink by our opponents.”

Nope, you’re talking in riddles again. But you seem to have at least taken my advice to use the space bar occasionally, try it after full stops and your comments will seem, syntactically at least, less retarded.
Anon E Mouse

Chris – Will you please calm down. You are getting upset about a party that won’t have a sniff of power for at least ten years.

The public in this country are not going to forget Gordon Brown in a hurry – especially with the constant reminder that is Ed Miliband.

The man is a useless dud and you and all the readers know it. As with the last Labour leader, who people on this blog are still excusing, the fact is he has no chance if being PM – especially now he has employed a multi millionaire coke head smear merchant as a spin master.

New Labour is dead. Long live New Labour. Long time in opposition ahead…
Chris

@boring tory troll mousey

Yawn, don’t you get bored re-posting the same thing over and over again? Repeating the same lines then saying your always right is hardly constructing a coherent argument. Still if you are really a middle aged computer repair man barely earning the NMW I suppose it figures you’d have some sort of retardation.
Anon E Mouse

Chris – Regardless of how often I post the same thing doesn’t make it untrue.

(When did I say I was a computer repair man? I said I put software on machines on a 13 minute cycle. I work with embedded controllers)

Anyway so far you have failed to show how many (watch the next word now) Individuals voted for the lame duck. NOT votes Chrissy boy. We know they’re rigged.

Well Bugger Lugs?
William Campbell

This ia bang on. I worked in govt as a SpAd, and my name here is a nom de plume. Most of the current ‘campaigns’ are Potemkin villages anyway – bit of Twitter, bit of media coverage, and a bit of pointing to self-inflicted coalition errors. The shadow cabinet elections played a big part in this – Shadow Ministers had to go straight into campaign mode again to impress their colleagues.

We need a new message, new policies and a new means of reaching and engaging with voters, all based on an understanding of what went right and wrong. Maybe we need an amnesty, a Truth and Reconciliation Commission, where senior figures can confess their ‘sins’? Instead of this, every other ex-Minister and SpAd has poured his or her guts out to Anthony Seldon, Steve Richards and the other authors who have written books on the Brown period, which is fine for beltway chat but not for the wider task.
Richard

On a one man one vote basis, Ed Miliband won by a country mile of 30 000. Tough shit mickey mouse.
Anon E Mouse

Richard – The only thing that’s Mickey Mouse is Ed Miliband’s leadership. That’s why the Labour MP’s voted for his brother and it’s why he has a snowball in hell’s chance of ever being Prime Minister. He’s just too weird.

Anyway where did you get the figure of 30000 from?

Previously you have invented wars this country never had and now you’re inventing votes that dithering dud never got…