Quote Originally Posted by jon1959 View Post
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.
Good read.

There is a lot to build on. I accept that Corbyn wasn't that popular in the end, a man destroyed by his own dithering as well as by the media. That doesn't mean his policies weren't popular.

There's one thing I like about RLB - she has an ability to show how her politics is a positive thing. I think that's huge. All too often people are swayed by simplicities, not manifestos or policies. "Get Brexit Done" won the Tories the election. Labour should have gone with "Boris - have you thought about this?". Trump had Make America Great. Perhaps that was the 3-word location code when he stood in his bathroom with morning glory.