The long road to the 2019 election result

[Fundoreen]

I think the journey started when the idiot Gordon Brown called that old lady a racist. I wonder where she is now?

[Cliftonite]

He called her a bigot?

[DaveTheRave87]

Good shout but I'd disagree. Gordon was toast before that, he was seen as being too soft on the bankers after the 2008 crash.

For me, Labour started on the road to this result when they picked the wrong Miliband as leader.

[Hereward]

It was the bacon sandwich photocall

[paulrockliffe]

Hereward said:

It was the bacon sandwich photocall

The move away from working class votes towards the Islington set began in 1997. To some extent the outcome of that was inevitable, but it could have been put off a bit longer if Milliband hadn't changed the party rules and the likes of Beckett hadn't put Corbyn on the ballot to appease the party left.

[TTwiggy]

paulrockliffe said:

The move away from working class votes towards the Islington set began in 1997. To some extent the outcome of that was inevitable.

Indeed. Three election wins on the bounce. When did they last win with the 'working class vote'? 1974 (by one seat).

[Supersam83]

Allowing anyone to become a Labour supporter with voting rights for £3.

This caused many Conservatives and Lib Dems to join up and vote for Jeremy Corbyn to be the next leader of the Labour party and started this whole period of opposition and failure.

[anonymous-user]

It was as soon as the public saw Labour for the incompetent Marxists that they are.

When even die-hard Labour voters realise that Labour offers them nothing of value, and that the Conservatives do, it’s game over.

[paulrockliffe]

Supersam83 said:

Allowing anyone to become a Labour supporter with voting rights for £3.

This caused many Conservatives and Lib Dems to join up and vote for Jeremy Corbyn to be the next leader of the Labour party and started this whole period of opposition and failure.

Though at the time we saw that the pre-entryist membership would have elected him anyway. Just as they'll elect someone else that the country won't elect next year.

[easytiger123]

DaveTheRave87 said:

Good shout but I'd disagree. Gordon was toast before that, he was seen as being too soft on the bankers after the 2008 crash.

For me, Labour started on the road to this result when they picked the wrong Miliband as leader.

This. Had they picked David instead of Ed I think the last 5 years would have been radically different.

Cameron only offered an in/out referendum to head off UKIP and because he believed he could trade it away in order to form another coalition government with the LibDems. All the opinion polls in the 2015 GE run-up showed Labour neck and neck or marginally in the lead. Once he got the surprising majority he couldn't help but hold the promised referendum and the rest is history (including Ed Miliband's fateful decision to change the way future Labour leaders were selected).

Had David Miliband been Labour leader I have little doubt they'd have either won the 2015 GE outright or been able to form some kind of coalition government. No referendum, no Brexit, and the magic grandpa would have continued to toil away in obscurity and at this very moment probably be entertaining some terrorists to a nice cream tea featuring his homemade jam.

[rdjohn]

I suppose a key factor is when Politicians took the view that it was no longer necessary to tell the truth - the whole truth.

So, IMHO, the dodgy dossier before going to war in Iraq was something of a turning point.

In Brexit the £350million on the bus was a distortion, as was the Government leaflet suggesting that the cost of Brexit could be £4500 per household. If your backside is already on the floor, it cost you nothing, but your opinion.

The final act was that, despite agreeing to abide by the results beforehand - whatever, Parliament chose to take advantage of a hung Parliament to play absolute silly buggers. May’s deal - bad as it was - was a 52-48 sort of deal.

The final irony is that, if Labour had allowed the Boris deal to pass, they may well have maintained a similar number of seats - instead, in order to appease Starmer, they completely blew it.

[JustALooseScrew]

Supersam83 said:

Allowing anyone to become a Labour supporter with voting rights for £3.

This caused many Conservatives and Lib Dems to join up and vote for Jeremy Corbyn to be the next leader of the Labour party and started this whole period of opposition and failure.

I hear this a lot, and remember it, in fact I considered doing the same.

I wonder though, how many people did it actually bring in?

I've tried to find stats on Labour party membership over that period.

Does anyone have some numbers that show this might have occurred?

[Camoradi]

[JustALooseScrew]

paulrockliffe said:

Though at the time we saw that the pre-entryist membership would have elected him anyway.

I'd like to see numbers on that.
Either way I'm glad to be done with Labour for the next 5 - 10 years, just the vile SNP to deal with next.

(all of the above should be read in your favourite Scottish accent).

[Fundoreen]

JustALooseScrew said:

Supersam83 said:

Allowing anyone to become a Labour supporter with voting rights for £3.

This caused many Conservatives and Lib Dems to join up and vote for Jeremy Corbyn to be the next leader of the Labour party and started this whole period of opposition and failure.

I hear this a lot, and remember it, in fact I considered doing the same.

I wonder though, how many people did it actually bring in?

I've tried to find stats on Labour party membership over that period.

Does anyone have some numbers that show this might have occurred?

Who were the members doing the anti-semetic behaviour? Could they have been people that just joined up to
throw a spanner in the works now and again. No doubt the plan worked too well.

[vaud]

JustALooseScrew said:

I hear this a lot, and remember it, in fact I considered doing the same.

I know quite a few people who are right of centre that did it (or claimed to)