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On the @LabourTogether report on the 2019 election. https://www.labourtogether.uk/review
Firstly, it is much more nuanced than the headlines will have you believe. It rightly calls for reflection. One way of reflecting would include looking at places which bucked the trend. It doesn't. 1/9
Firstly, it is much more nuanced than the headlines will have you believe. It rightly calls for reflection. One way of reflecting would include looking at places which bucked the trend. It doesn't. 1/9
Here on the IoW, we were one of the 12 constituencies where Labour's vote rose. We submitted lengthy contributions explaining that to this review. I wrote three blogs setting it out in detail: https://disidealist.wordpress.com/2019/12/16/notes-from-the-cult-it-was-the-campaign-wot-didnt-won-it/
Yet I knew even while submitting that we were awkward. 2/9
Yet I knew even while submitting that we were awkward. 2/9
In 2017 at Conference I heard people saying our new votes were urban, BAME, graduate etc. But that wasn't the IoW, where we doubled our vote. I said this in a meeting & was met with blank looks. We didn't fit the narrative, so were just ignored. 3/9
In 2019, we again increased our vote. Again defying a multi-front campaign against not just the Tories with a Brexit angle, but the Greens, who targeted the seat from a Remain angle. Both outspent us by 100%.
The IoW is still not filled with urban, young BAME graduates! 4/9
The IoW is still not filled with urban, young BAME graduates! 4/9
It's not unreasonable, I think, to hope that an investigation which emphasises the need for reflection and the importance of a good campaign (especially online), might have included even a tiny amount of interest in a place which bucked every national trend. 5/9
This is the section on the places which saw increases. If you think this describes the Island, you've never had half a sausage with Bob Seely here.
We still don't fit the narrative, so we've been ignored. Yet our experience might help inform the future the report seeks. 6/9
We still don't fit the narrative, so we've been ignored. Yet our experience might help inform the future the report seeks. 6/9
After the election, our candidate @RichardQuigle18 and I thought that people in Labour Central might be interested in our vote. After I wrote the blog, some individual CLPs contacted us, which was great. But there has been no interest whatsoever from the national party. None. 7/9
Ironically, it was the online campaign in the constituency of a commissioner of this report which was in part the inspiration for this blog https://disidealist.wordpress.com/2019/12/16/notes-from-the-cult-it-was-the-campaign-wot-didnt-won-it/ as it prompted me to start looking in detail at the woeful campaigning efforts in much of the "red wall". 8/9
Reflection involves understanding failure *AND* success - especially where that success is so rare and bucks a trend. The report doesn't do that. It's *much* stronger on the past than the future.
We remain happy to share our experience. Even if it doesn't fit the narrative. 9/9
We remain happy to share our experience. Even if it doesn't fit the narrative. 9/9
