Understanding defeat
Peter Hoskin 2:48pm
With the government spin machine heating up lines about "difficult circumstances," it's worth heading over to Progress for a levelheaded Labour response to their defeat in Norwich North. The author is Paul Richards - Hazel Blears' former SpAd - and he sets out five lessons for the party, starting with "Let's stop shooting ourselves in both feet," and ending on a sublime note with, "We are not characters in Monty Python and the Holy Grail." The standout lesson, though, is the third:
One thing that many Labour figures may be pondering is whether it's worth pleading with Ian Gibson to return as their candidate for the general election. Not only does a lot of "on the ground" testimony suggest that he'd have picked up more votes, but you wonder whether Labour's vote was depressed as a direct result of his suspect treatment at the hands of the party hierarchy. Either way, you suspect Gibson wouldn't accept any offer now."Lesson three: it wasn't all about the expenses scandal. It would be convenient to dismiss our defeat in Norwich North as the electorate taking their revenge for the expenses scandal. But that doesn't stack up. If the voters were motivated by revenge, why have they elected a Tory MP? Why reject a Labour candidate who isn't implicated in the expenses row because he isn't an MP? Why did so many tell pollsters that they would have voted for Ian Gibson if he'd stood as an independent? Why haven't the independent candidates such as Craig Murray broken through? The harsh truth for Labour is that a previously safe Labour seat has become a Tory seat in this by-election because people have switched their support from Labour to Tory, as they did in Crewe & Nantwich, well before the expenses scandal. That means a more sober analysis is needed of Labour's message, policies, and popular appeal. Instead of defenestrating Labour MPs, perhaps the NEC could lead such an analysis in time for conference?"
Previous
Cjamesk
July 24th, 2009 3:09pm Report this comment"Either way, you suspect Gibson wouldn't accept any offer now."
And the electorate would see straight through it too.
Vulture
July 24th, 2009 3:10pm Report this commentWhy are you guys at the ranch always so anxious to pull Liebour's chesnuts out of the fire? Who gives a stuff for Progress's analysis, or if/ whether Gibson will stand again? Only one thing is crystal clear : the country is terminally hacked off with Bruin, and the entire lying, cheating, incompetent, spiteful, malicious and stupid Liebour crew. For true Tories there should be one reaction to Norwich : go out and buy the Bolly and toast the coming immolation of the worst Prime Minister of all time and (hopefully) the demise as a significant electoral force of his ghastly, disastrous, useless apology for a party. In other words: rejoice! rejoice!!
(And as an extra bonus, UKIP beat the sanctimonious Greens).
ken from glos
July 24th, 2009 3:14pm Report this commentI read the whole article by Paul Richards.Very good indeed.
Blears Spad! If Brown had any sense he would appoint him as his Spad.
Please do your usuual and ignore this advice Mr Brown.
Jez
July 24th, 2009 3:18pm Report this commentThe old Right (Con/UKIP/BNP) combined totalled 18,600
All the rest combined;
(NuLab Left / Liberal / Green / Independant / waster) totalled 15,777
Twelve years of the Nulab disaster.
I think the above by-election results speak for themselves.
pete-s
July 24th, 2009 3:19pm Report this commentThe comments by Paul Richard are very honest. I especially liked Lesson 5. Is this a allegorical like tale where the Black Knight is really McDoom. If I am correct are the knives beginning to be sharpened.
Trumpeter Lanfried
July 24th, 2009 3:21pm Report this commentDamn fool comment by BBC's political correspondent two minutes into World at One: 'The Tories must be breathing a sigh of relief ... For Labour it's bad, but not that bad.'
In fairness, the coverage later in the programme was less biased.
Pete Hoskin
July 24th, 2009 3:21pm Report this commentVulture: erm, I don't think that highlighting a post about how (contrary to government spin) Labour's dire election result wasn't just down to expenses quite counts as pulling "Liebour's chesnuts out of the fire"...
Bruce, UK
July 24th, 2009 3:27pm Report this commentBet he would - a peerage.
Barman at The Red Lion, Whitehall
July 24th, 2009 3:50pm Report this comment"We are not characters in Monty Python and the Holy Grail."
Ha, ha, ha...
McDoom as The Black Knight! - I will never be able to watch that film again without picturing Bruin in that role.
Vulture
July 24th, 2009 3:55pm Report this comment@ Pete
I just think you guys pay too much heed to Liebour navel gazing and not enough to pointing out just what a nightmareish disaster this Govt has become. Why should we care about Progress since ( for all their criticism) their bottom line - and that goes for your other Liebour darlings like Field and Purnell - is that they STILL back this appalling
Government that has dragged this country to the brink of the abyss. That's all.
Victor, NW Kent
July 24th, 2009 3:56pm Report this commentPerhaps Paul Richard could also enlighten us - he raised the matter of much delayed Glasgow by-election - Why is this area one of the most blighted and benighted constituencies in Britain after a century of Labour representation? Is there a lesson there for the deprived classes - give up on Labour?
A hundred years of wasted votes, cast in hope, met by despair.
R King
July 24th, 2009 3:57pm Report this commentDo you really think Gorgon Clown will take advice?
Did Winston Churchill need advice?
Lance Grundy
July 24th, 2009 4:01pm Report this comment@Vulture
"...go out and buy the Bolly..."
A pre-'97 vintage, of course.
Sheila
July 24th, 2009 4:01pm Report this commentQuite. There has been a seismic change over the last few years that we saw with the election of the two BNP candidates. The white working class have realised once and for all that Labour is not their ally.
Paul Richards probably can't bring himself to say that because - like the rest of Labour - it's his job to hide the radicalism that has seen such a vicious assault on the indigenous population. But it's over.
All you have to do to understand New Labour's real agenda is not look at a prospectus but look out the window: welcome to the Third World. Now get to work so you can keep paying for this immigrant clientele to breed you out of existence.
There's no need for any analysis from Richards. The radical agenda has gone to plan: and Britain and Labour must reap the poisonous effects for decades ahead.
What a mess.
Raffles
July 24th, 2009 4:01pm Report this commentJez, as has been pointed out on these pages many times, theer is nothing very Right Wing about the BNP. They are clearly an extreme Left wing party.
Bocephus
July 24th, 2009 4:05pm Report this commentThis was not a bad result for Labour. According to Nick Robinson this was all David Cameron's fault for campaigning to win the seat. It turns out that running a good campaign is now a sign of weakness not success.
It now appears a victory can only be seen as such if you take the voters for granted, treat them with contempt and they still vote for you.
johnny come lately.
July 24th, 2009 4:15pm Report this commentTories, Do not get above yourselves.
The flu pandemic!! will help the Labour Party to defer the General Election until, at least, 2011.
Under a new leader that will give them time to redeem themselves.
What if,say, Mandleson, reverting to plain Mr, took the leadership of the labour party?
Although a europhile, as Prime Minister,he acknowledged that the British people have not had a voice and called a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty? ( He would, of course, be calling for ratification.)
What if he recalled our troops from Afghanistan?
What if he restored Grammar Schools?
What if he dismantled a majority of quango's?
What if he 'stole' all the conservative Party clothes, on the Bank of England etc and Iain Duncan Smith's, Broken Society suggestions.?
What if he brought back National Service?
Mandleson is head and shoulders above most senior politicians. He can jump from one side of the fence to the other, to his advantage.
If he was to be the leader and to do half the suggestions, I reckon he would walk the next General Election in September 2011!
Tories, Do not get too cocky!
AndyLeeds
July 24th, 2009 4:23pm Report this commentJez, BNP are a Left of Centre political party. Their appeal is strong in Labour areas, not really in Tory areas where it tends to be UKIP.
Alf Tupper C.R.O.F.
July 24th, 2009 5:07pm Report this commentSheila.
Very well said and thank you for reminding the house - amid the background noise that the MSM exercise themselves about - that the massive issue concerning the electorate now, is immigration and its debilitating effect on this nation.
Paul B
July 24th, 2009 5:25pm Report this commentI would be a millionaire if I looked back at all the what ifs in my life. What if the world ends tomorrow, what if Brown discovers a personality, what if you stop talking bow locks and stop daydreaming
The Oncoming Storm
July 24th, 2009 5:33pm Report this commentjohnny, I think there is more chance of Ian Paisley being the next Pope than of any of those things happening!!!
David Steel
July 24th, 2009 5:35pm Report this comment"Go back to your constituencies and prepare for government!"
JohnAnt
July 24th, 2009 6:35pm Report this commentInteresting to hear some Labourapparatchiknik on the Radio 4 PM prog muttering something about Gibson maybe having a chance at the next election.
If he stands as the Lab candidate, he may well win. In fact, if he stood as an Independent, he might win. He seems to be liked locally for his constituency work.
JohnAnt
July 24th, 2009 6:37pm Report this comment"We are not characters in Monty Python and the Holy Grail."
Unwise of him to say this - I immediately had a vision of Peter Mandelson singing 'Look on the sunny side of life.'
Except that of course, it'd be difficult to see Mandy as the Good Thief.
drakes drum
July 24th, 2009 6:50pm Report this commentReuter news flash:
IAN PAISLEY is to be the next Pope. Or he will become Saint Ian of Belfast. The patron saint
of quiet people.
Florence Nightingale
July 26th, 2009 7:56pm Report this commentThe BNP are strong in Labour areas because it is the working classes who are seeing their lives being blighted and their communities destroyed by mass immigration.
Put a few Somali/Afghani 'asylum seekers' in Hampstead,Henley or Esher and you will be amazed at how quickly the BNP will increase the size of their vote among traditional Conservative voters!
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