Originally Posted by
jon1959
The main criticism of the 2019 Labour Manifesto that I have seen through polls is that it was overloaded. Individual policies were mainly popular. That was even more true in 2017. In fact the Tory Manifesto (although very light on detail) adopted a lot of 2010 and 2015 Labour pledges - along with the general move away from the cult of austerity. The 3 main problems with the 2019 Labour campaign were too many pledges (in part made possible because the Tories were making their own un-costed promises up on the hoof), Corbyn himself (an older, less energetic and much more slandered figure than in 2017) and a garbled Brexit position. On top of that the Tories caught up in the social media war and they had a leader that is somehow teflon where May was toxic.
Brexit was the main problem!
However, the political debate has moved a long way from the end of Brown/Blair or even Milliband. Corbyn and those around him have blown up the centre-right consensus and made possible what was impossible only 10 years ago. They failed - and that must not be downplayed - but they did a lot of things I want the new Labour leader to build on. Long-Bailey will probably do that. Starmer claims he will (and has doubled down on that with his 10 pledges), Nandy seems to be enjoying trashing the last 5 years and shows no interest in preserving the good stuff. She is a mixture of Blairite Labour and post Brexit populism - the freshness is attractive but the contents of the package less so.