(08 May 2021, 12:12 am)mb134 wrote No sympathy for any of them. Any sort of independent thinking or reading would tell folk that voting for this current Conservative party is a mistake - yet here we are.
Equally, the very left of the Labour party need to get some perspective. Hartlepool would have been Tory in 2019 if not for UKIP splitting the vote. Corbyn was never going to be accepted by the general population in a third GE given his performance in the previous two against *shocking* opposition, and its about time people realised that.
The current political landscape of those on the far left/right constantly shouting the loudest is getting rather tiresome, to the point I - and many people I know - are getting more disinterested in politics by the day. The lack of any sort of nuance, critical thinking, or educated opinion makes any sort of discourse beyond laborious.
Its quite easy to play the blame game with Corbyn, but the Labour results since 1997 follow a downward trend. 2017 was the exception, where the Party gained a vote share similar to that which resulted in a comfortable majority in 2001.
To blame the 'very left' of the Labour Party is quite naïve. Labour started to lose the Midlands, Wales, Scotland and the North East again from 2005. Further losses in 2010, followed by 40 seats lost in Scotland in 2015 (thanks largely to the decision to side with the Tories in the indyref vote), although others picked up due to the Liberal Democrat vote collapsing.
In the North East in particular, and in working class people’s minds, Labour is associated with either facilitating it or not fighting the deindustrialisation and almost abandonment of the region. Its why Ben Houchen for example has faired so well in the Tees Valley; because people feel that he is delivering things that they want and that they deserve. Labour had the opportunity to do that since 1997, but largely failed to deliver. It's also why the Labour Party's opposition to (or stance on) Brexit was disastrous, with the 2019 results reflecting that. People felt that something they wanted (and needed) was being taken away against their will.