Wednesday 26 February 2020

Labour defeat -- Brexit or antisemitism?

In the increasingly 'spiky' contest for Labour leadership, Brexit finally emerged as an issue, says the Graun:

Sir Keir Starmer came under sustained fire from Rebecca Long-Bailey and Lisa Nandy over what the latter called Labour’s “tone deaf” approach to Brexit, which they said helped contribute to December’s crushing election loss....
Long-Bailey implicitly [a Guardian speciality this] condemned Starmer’s Commons-based tactics against Theresa May’s minority government, saying: “Unfortunately, we focused a lot on what was happening within Westminster, and didn’t convey what we were trying to do to our community. And that led to a lack of trust. “It took so many other things down with it. So in the election, when we should have been talking about jobs, aspiration, industry, what the future will look like, we were talking about Brexit and trying to justify our position, which was confusing.”...
Nandy said Labour’s problem with Brexit was that it “took all the wrong lessons from what the public were trying to tell us”....“Brexit was a real problem for us, it was the straw that broke the camel’s back. And the reason it was a problem was because our response was so utterly tone-deaf.”

Of course, Starmer (who will probably win) still doesn't get it, or rather chooses not to:

Condemning what he said was a narrative that argued that if it had not been for Brexit it “would have all been fine” in the election, Starmer said: “If we go down that route we are heading straight towards defeat in the next general election, because that’s not an honest analysis.”...Starmer, who as shadow Brexit secretary spearheaded the policy, said that during his many visits to constituencies over the campaign other issues came up, such as a lack of trust in Corbyn and worries over antisemitism in Labour....Corbyn’s leadership was the number one issue on the doorstep, as well as what he called “manifesto overload”.

None of the candidates are discussing the real issues though, but happily the Graunid is on the case:

A sustainable vagina [there are single-use ones?] revolution is under way. But beware homemade tampons
I can see why people are drawn to crocheted menstrual products – the mainstream options are far from perfect. But the trend still makes me scream with dismay

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