This is a massive oversimplification of a very complex political situation and a piece of writing that lacks your usual finesse. You write excellently about American politics but less so about the nuances of British life and our social strata
Firstly The Labour Party did not officially back Brexit and there are valid reasons for that — your entire article is premised on the fact that the hard left wanted Brexit. There are valid arguments why the left might not want an elected super-state, but those are by the by. Had the Labour Party backed Brexit completely then the country would’ve exited the EU at the first juncture when Theresa May negotiated her deal. The Labour Party backed a particular type of Brexit that was more aligned with the EU on workers rights and other trade union ideals.
The problem that the Labour Party had (and still has) is that it is three parties held together to form one party. If the UK were to transition away from the First Past the Post system of election and into the more democratic and fair proportional representation system they would quickly separate out.
The first section of the labour party is the socially conservative voter, they are nationalist, traditionalist, monarchists and working class. They don’t vote Tory because historically the Tories have smashed their communities. They’re in the North and midlands in predominantly white communities. When unhappy with the Labour Party, they defect to the right wing and nationalist parties
The second section is the ‘liberal’ metropolitan voter. They’re broadly globalists, eschew tradition and they are middle class. They generally live in large university cities with a mixed populaton. They don’t vote Tory because of their political ideologies. When they are unhappy with the Labour Party they defect to the Liberal democrats — they aren’t that different.
The third section is the youth-quake under Momentum, they are part of a surge of young political activists that Jeremy Corbyn brought into the party after it left the centre ground in 2015. They are joined by those on the hard ideological left who have been in the political wilderness for years.
These three groups are entirely incompatible with each other. Going into this latest election, they couldn’t agree a strategy and instead presented a fudge. The Conservatives meanwhile formed a tacit alliance with the Brexit Party — and Labour voters that swung towards nationalism were instructed to vote Tory. Many of them did for the first time. I think they will regret it. If I was going to propose a slogan for the Labour Party at the red wall it would be ‘Vote Boris, get Trump’ — as that is the likely outcome of a hard Brexit and access to UK markets for American firms.
What happened in essence, that first section of the Labour Party didn’t vote overwhelmingly red as they usually do. There was a swing but not a complete meltdown of the Labour Party in that area. Unfortunately, a swing in those seats has a disproportionate effect on the national result because of the First Past the Post System.
So we have a hard-right Tory Government because it had a good slogan and made an election about a single issue that mattered to a subsection of Labour voters in key marginals. Democratic systems in 21st Century UK allows for a hard right government to ascend to power by a predominantly left-of-centre electorate. Labour did not lose many voters in its second or third groups— they simply all live too close together to matter that much. More importantly they are still committed to the ideologies of the left without being rabid communists or zombies.
Now those two groups have a choice. They will have to break away and form different parties, move the party back to the centre ground to win back the middle class traditional voter, or push for electoral reform — all whilst hamstrung by a huge Tory majority. It won’t be easy, but it will be done.
As for Corbyn. He has moved the entire political conversation to the left. The most extreme socially right wing Government since Thatcher have been forced to end austerity and financially undo the problems they helped create. Corbyn is a protest politician and whether or not you agree with him — he has changed the face of politics in the UK for the next thirty to forty years. There are now hundreds of thousands of politically engaged voters who will continue to move the country to the left. You can lose the battle and still win the war.
And so…
That is a more complex analysis than shouting CORBYN DID IT at the top of your voice and accusing everyone on the left of being brainless zombie Stalinists. Politics is complicated — writing an article article attacking Momentum using hyperbole and inflammatory rhetoric illustrates that intolerance breeds intolerance.
More complexity, more informed nuance, less righteous anger and you will find a more appreciative audience. For people who want to read more….
