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I know y’all think Kier is boring but you know who else is boring? Your average voter. Most voters don’t have elaborate political dreams. They aren’t radicals, they aren’t firebrands. A large chunk of voters only really care about one or two issues.
They want someone they feel they trust because they think that person is on their side. Not many average* voters felt that way about Corbyn. They felt he was overly concerned with things they didn’t understand or care about and had heard too many worrying stories about his past.
There was also the strong perception that he and by extension labour were anti-wealth. A lot of people in the UK have spent decades scratching together some basic security. If your voter base think you’re coming for their one bed in Croydon you have a *serious* problem.
Like it or not he was a liability. There were too many stains on his record. Most weren’t justified and were oversold by the papers but like yes, of course they were. That’s the world we live in. Corbyn did fuck all to try and improve his image with the public.
It’s basic PR. If you want a figurehead to help you sell something, first you do a thorough check to make sure there isn’t anything shady in their past that can be used to distract from your message. You do a risk assessment.
Corbyn came across like he didn’t care and like anyone who had a problem with his past was a dumb-dumb. If you care about your voters you should maybe give a shit that they are being told you are a terrorist sympathiser.
By refusing to engage with these stories, Corbyn didn’t ‘rise above’ he communicated to his base that their opinion of him was irrelevant because he was in the right and therefore held the moral high ground. It came across as contempt.
Journalism in this country is in the fucking gutter but it’s criminally irresponsible for the leader of the opposition to just decide to just opt out. Knowing how to manage the media is your fucking job. It’s like a CEO refusing to learn how to use email.
It’s great that Corbyn mobilised people to get excited about politics but that doesn’t win elections, particularly for the left. To win elections you have to persuade the unexcited, unengaged and the apathetic to go and vote. That’s it. They are the biggest demographic.
Activists are great and you’ll struggle to win without them but you need to play to both galleries. Everyone got super excited about catering to the activist vote and neglected their actual base.
It’s extremely difficult to get most people excited and engaged. Left politics is especially unsuited to that bc we can’t exploit people’s fears & prejudices. Left politics is long term solitions to complicated problems. It’s difficult to soundbite and needs to be sold on trust.
A lot of people need to be reassured into voting labour. They need to feel safe, listened to and represented. On the doorstep I spent more time trying to reassure people about Corbyn than I did talking to them about policy.
There’s a Terry Pratchett quote:
‘They think they want good government and justice for all, Vimes, yet what is it they really crave, deep in their hearts? Only that things go on as normal and tomorrow is pretty much like today.'
‘They think they want good government and justice for all, Vimes, yet what is it they really crave, deep in their hearts? Only that things go on as normal and tomorrow is pretty much like today.'
The most important thing a leader needs to do is reassure people that they are on their side. Most people aren’t policy wonks - you have to sell them the broad strokes. Corbyn didn’t just lose, he lost seats that have voted labour for generations.
Boris won because he reassured people that he was on their side. He didn’t need to be competent, wise, honest or honourable, he just needed to assure people that he was on their side. He didn’t even need to be fighting their corner, it’s the faction that matters.
So yeah, Keir is a bit dull. He’s never been arrested protesting injustice, he probably won’t get a chant. But he’s reassuring. He’s a relatively clean skin (brexit aside), he has minimal skeletons in his closet and he has solid humanitarian credentials.
When you write a story and you’re putting your characters together, a good way to strengthen a protagonist without constantly belabouring their virtues and flaws is to include characters with opposite traits; you tell the reader who someone is by demonstrating what they are not.
Put bluntly Boris did pretty well out of just not being Corbyn. He was a liar but not a terrorist sympathiser*. His racism was couched in blokey humour whereas Corbyn’s was couched in terminology we associate with Nazis. He was bombastic, Corbyn was retiring and off putting.
How will Boris fare next to an articulate, serious and grounded opponent, especially in a time of extreme crisis?
Notes**
-please don’t come at me over whether or not JC was a terrorist sympathiser etc. It matters that he was perceived as such in the public imagination.
-There’s no such thing as the ‘general public’- by that I mean people who don’t follow politics especially closely.
-please don’t come at me over whether or not JC was a terrorist sympathiser etc. It matters that he was perceived as such in the public imagination.
-There’s no such thing as the ‘general public’- by that I mean people who don’t follow politics especially closely.
