>> I can't remember where I read it but somebody wrote that it was a mistake
>> to democratise the leadership elections in both main parties. The problem being that the members
>> don't vote the same way as the electorate would, and it is much more likely
>> that 'extremist' leaders will be chosen. Labour voters and Labour members are not the same
Entirely sensible.
For a Labour party to get Labour voters, a Conservative to get Conservative voters and MRLP to get MRLP voters is not difficult
To get into power though you have to work out how to get other party's voters.
What's the point in pursuing "grass roots", "traditional", "pick your favourite buzz phrase" voters? They already vote for you. The trick is to get the ones who do not, without losing the ones who do.
Was Blair the last Labour politician to understand that? Was Blair in fact the last Labour politician with a brain? (Probably not, Starmer seems smart, but there's not many of them)
An article I posted some time ago was based upon the thinking that the biggest barrier preventing Labour getting into power si that they were Labour. And large amount of potentially left leaning voters in the UK are not impressed by Labour, mostly because of it's historical and outdated position. And the fanatical dinosaurs it drags everywhere.
The Conservative party simply do not care what you want, as long as you haven't got the votes to out vote them. That's kind of annoying, means that I don't like them very much, and can only put up with them on the decreasingly rare instance where I agree with them.
The Labour party on the other hand, firmly believes that it *knows* what everybody wants, or at least would want if they were 'enlightened' and that utterly psses me off. If it wasn't for my belief in the Welfare State and the common good, and the fact that any one party system is s***, never mind a one party system consisting of only the Conservatives, then I would happily wipe them from my mind.
Labour working out it needs to stop being so precious and sanctimonious is about as likely as the Conservatives stopping being self-motivated and selfish.
If The Liberals are supposed to be some kind of balance between the two you'd think this would be their time, but rather than being all things to all men they have focussed on being f.all use to anyone.
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