Jonathan Freedland is surely right: Labour’s best hope, now that the electorate appears to have decided that “change” matters* and dismissed Labour’s pretensions to offer that change, is to maximise its core vote in the hope of avoiding an electoral meltdown that would, say, leave them with fewer than 200 seats in the new parliament.
If Labour aren’t quite the walking dead the Tories were in 1997 that’s because of the current constituency boundaries, not because there’s any more life in the Labour campaign. Nevertheless the prospect that Labour’s vote could fall to 25% of the vote must be considered a real one and Labour’s team, when anyone bothers to pay attention to what they’re doing, seem to have the resigned air of men who’ve made their peace with their lord and now await the executioner’s axe.
There are signs too that the movement is preparing other options. Compass, the left-wing campaigning group, are asking
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