🎉Happy New Year to my followers! 🎉I've put together a Six-Step Comeback Plan for @UKLabour & would appreciate any comments or feedback. We're in a transition period where the future direction of the Party is at stake. We've lost the battle but we can regroup & win the war. 1/
2/ 1⃣REFRAME the narrative. The Labour Party manifesto is not Hard Left; nearly all the policies are in place in other successful European countries. It is an ambitious & necessary plan to redress the extreme inequality across the UK, to kickstart a green industrial revolution &
3/ restore public services after 10yrs of austerity. Easy to paint a shift left after 40yrs of unfettered neoliberalism, as extreme. Yet it's crony capitalism – which has hamstrung our economy with tax breaks for the rich, corporate welfare & tax evasion – that's real extremism.
4/ 2⃣ REBRAND the message. We should play down references to socialism & repackage our economic ethos as ‘compassionate capitalism’. We have to show voters we’re not ‘communists’ or ‘Marxists’, just ordinary people who believe wealth creation comes with responsibility, rewarding
5/ individual success but also benefiting the common good. We should emulate the mixed economy of the Nordic Model: strong welfare policies, excellent public services, strong taxation, while promoting entrepreneurial wealth creation. Our mantra must be ‘Investment Not Austerity’.
6/ 3⃣ RECONNECT with our working-class base. We must regain the trust of our Labour heartlands. The loss of 59 Labour seats is a heavy defeat but understandable due to the decision to renege on respecting the referendum result (52 seats were in Leave-voting areas). This is not a
7/ rejection of the Labour Party or the manifesto per se, & seems to be a one-off event due to Brexit. We'll win these voters back but we must not abandon our popular & transformative policies. Our offer to those neglected regions has to be fully costed & seen to be common sense.
8/ 4⃣REFINE our manifesto. We had too many policies, which overwhelmed voters & allowed critics to dismiss the manifesto as being undeliverable. We must offer a streamlined manifesto consisting of the core policies: green industrial revolution, renationalise key infrastructure;
9/ reverse the privatisation of NHS; build social housing; national investment bank to fund SMEs & regional regeneration; & scrap uni fees. We have to lose the Party of free stuff image & where we do offer taxpayer-funded services, we must loudly proclaim the benefits to society.
10/ 5⃣RE-ENGAGE the electorate through a nationwide campaign of grassroots Labour Party activism. We need to educate the poorer, disaffected voters – some of whom have never voted before – about the power of their vote. By working through our CLPs to help our communities, we can
11/ demonstrate to our constituents what the Labour Party stands for: solidarity & a shared desire to build a better society. Some say Labourism is over, but we'll prove it's thriving. If you donate to a food bank or help at a homeless shelter, wear your Labour badge with pride.
12/ 6⃣REBUILD our relationship with the Establishment. Quite simply, we’re not going to get into power if the Establishment does not want this to happen. This doesn't mean we just accept a Leader that Murdoch has chosen, ie Jess Phillips, but we must get more media savvy. Rather
13/ than fighting against the Establishment, we have to find ways to persuade the powers that be it’s also in their interests to have an economy-revitalising Labour govt. This should be possible, bearing in mind the many positive Financial Times articles praising Labour's plans.
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