To describe the outcome as a disaster for Labour is not an exaggeration. But to describe it as a calamity is. In spite of everything Corbyn received 10.2 million votes, which was better than Milliband 1n 2015, Brown in 2010 and even Blair in 2005. This supports the Labour claim that their manifesto was popular. It was. The strategic thinking of taking back utilities into public ownership, rebooting the economy with a green industrial revolution and restoring proper funding to public services and local government, all this was good.
But the tactical use of the advantage it gave over the austerity tainted Tories, was destroyed by muddled thinking, inept presentation and the irreconcilable ambiguities of their Brexit position. Maybe there is evidence to show it worked well to protect its support in the sunny south and even gained Putney, but in the dark forests of discontent in the old industrial heartlands to the north, regarded by Labour as its bedrock in England, Scotland having gone altogether, it cut no ice at all. And it was through those supposedly impenetrable thickets from which Labour activists sent urgent pleas and warnings, that the full force of the Tory attack came. The result was a rout. The worst seat tally since the 1930s, although in votes not that bad. But where the votes were needed, they went elsewhere or stayed at home.
The problem was not Corbyn, although the shine of his appeal to the young burned less brightly, nor was it the radical manifesto. Nor actually was it Brexit. It was the way all three issues were handled. First Corbyn. By sitting on the fence over issues like how he would vote in a referendum and appearing reluctant over anti-semitism apologies, he and his advisers allowed the Tory press to brand him as a threat to everyone and everything.
Next the manifesto. It was silly to include meddling with the City and the structure of corporations. Maybe in government do that, but you have to get there first. Stuff like that is far too complicated for the doorstep, but wonderful ammunition for opponents. Nationalising public utilities, stopping outsourcing and funding, properly, public services was plenty. Moreover it was doorstep friendly.
Now for Brexit. In the south, where it is even feasible to take your car through the channel tunnel for a day trip Christmas shopping, nuanced approaches to everything are much in vogue. The further you go north of London, the further you are from Europe. Sophisticated and nuanced degrees of Brexit are good in Canterbury but not in Sedgefield. In reality there are only two options for Brexit, as in the end events will prove. A hard one or stopping it. The Labour option, where you obey the rules but cannot help make them, favoured also by the banished wing of the Tory party, is pointless. When you come to think about it, such a move is plain silly. And northerners are much clearer thinkers than southerners.
Finally there is the general point of the absolute spectacle and international ridicule of parliament going round in circles, unable to move forward on the great issue of our time, stalling on implementing the promise of Brexit. Shock and frustration in the country at large was simply not registering in Westminster, where one cerebral excuse after another was offered for whatever was the latest failed vote, as deadlines came and went. Finally Boris offered a way out. And the Red Wall took it.
So everything played a part in Labour’s humiliation and kicking out Corbyn will not alone be the answer. The root of all of it, including Brexit itself, is New Labour’s abandonment of the working class, to become the pink Thatcherite party of the cocktail left. Any thoughts of moving back to the centre and abandoning the workers again as punishment for backing Boris and it will all be over for Labour. For good.
Labour must understand it is not the natural party of government. There have only ever been three Labour prime ministers elected in their own right with a majority. Attlee, Wilson and Blair. Labour is a reforming movement to confront injustice and champion the needs of the ordinary people when these are ignored by the better off few. Such a time was now. Sadly Labour blew it. But another time is coming. Maybe sooner than we think.