Labour has lost the election, what now?

Claig, you have some great points and I broadly agree with you although I'm not sure about your solution.

Labour does need to win the "blue belt" southern England vote. There was a Epson why we didn't win enough seats from the Libdems and that is because those people would rather vote Tory.

How do we gain the trust of those people whilst remaining anything vaguely left wing?

At the moment, the largest proportion of the voting public are "on the right". UKIP is not a left wing party, Claig. I know, I know, you like the Peoples Army but their policies are not left wing.

Swinging to the left even more now will not get us elected. No way. If the public is on the right and we come at a further left position, trying to win votes will be harder than shitting a unicorn. We need to be elected, so that we can start the shift back away from the right.

We need to have the discussions about how a left wing party can be trusted with the economy, can make socialist policy economical and viable, that social responsibility can provide a stable economy. This needs to be our core message going forward. How socialist policies can provide real jobs, more money in your pocket for the average working person.

I completely agree now that Labour needs someone from a normal working class background who comes across as strong and intelligent. In fact we need more people actively involved in the party.

Devastating analysis of Ed Miliband by the editor of the New Statesman. He rightly says that the progressives don't appeal to the majority of ordinary people and Middle England and that left wing academic theories are the wrong way to do it. But he doesn't realise that the people are smart enough to know that the Tories do capitalism better than the progressives.

He rightly unserstands how out of touch this left wing groupthink W1A Oxbridge clique is

"Miliband surrounded himself with a small group of like-minded, scholarly, middle-aged men: most notable were Stewart Wood, a former Oxford academic, and Marc Stears, also an academic and an old friend of Miliband’s from Oxford University who wrote many of his speeches.

It created a peculiar kind of group-think. Their meetings had the atmosphere of lofty seminars; but then no one around Miliband had run or set up a business.

Throughout his leadership and encouraged by his supporters, Miliband liked to style himself as an ‘insurgent’, challenging a nefarious establishment: big business, the Press barons, the energy companies.

Some of his positioning was bold and, indeed, courageous — especially when he defied David Cameron and refused to support British strikes against the Assad regime in Syria in 2013.

But it never seemed to dawn on him that he, too, was an emblematically establishment figure. He just happened to be a member of a different establishment from the Prime Minister. That of the liberal metropolitan elite."

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3074177/Messianic-self-belief-little-clue-real-life-searing-verdict-editor-New-Statesman.html

They can never appeal to Middle England unless they offer something substantially different to the Tories - not NHS warriors like Burnham. They need a revolution in the Labour Party, where the working class topple their Oxbridge metropolitan elite, where the Bob Crow's of the future topple the eggheads and academics from Oxford. But it won't happen, their W1A thinkers and their media chums have too strong a grip on the party, so they will remain in the wilderness until they change their politically correct groupthink.

Maybe they should stop thinking about how to win elections and focus on their core values and ethics. There is no shame in being an effective, strong opposition with integrity, standing up for what they believe in and representing the people who share those values.

I think they will gain more respect in the long run than trying to be all things to all people and pandering to the DM.

It is not the Daily Mail wot won it, it is Middle England, and Labour can never appeal to them unless it offers something really remarkable, not just second best.

"This was YOUR victory: How Middle England rose up to humiliate pollsters and save the nation from Red Ed

The roar of the voters of Middle England delivered David Cameron a stunning election victory yesterday and forced his three main rivals to resign.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-3074115/How-Middle-England-rose-save-nation-Red-Ed.html

'If Labour wants to win again they have to appeal to middle England'

But Middle England is Daily Mail and they don't like the progressives. But if they solved the real problems that ordinary people faced, offered secure jobs, higher pay and a security against the forces of globalisation and could really deliver it not just talk about it - by taking radical actions that inspired confidence, then they could win ordinary people over. But without that, they will never win Middle England over.

'the Scots ain't never coming back to Labour'

Yeah it seems that it will take tears and years before they do. I think the Establishment will offer more power and fiscal inependence to the SNP, hoping that the SNP will mess things up and make Scots angry because of that, in which case the Establishment hopes they will come back. But whether that works or not, we will have to wait and see.

I have had worse struggles than being a member of a losing political party.

I think anyone who cares for others could be a labour voter. It is not about money, education or lack of. It is ok for a party as it is a person to be who they are and to avoid being a fake.

Ken Livingstone? are you having a laugh?? He was going on about how Labour should win the election by showing more support for manufacturing. Er yeah Ken, what manufacturing would that be? It's 2015 and most people work in services nowadays, not manufacturing- and anyway what would Ken know about life outside London?

Wake up and smell the coffee: the Scots ain't never coming back to Labour. If Labour wants to win again they have to appeal to middle England, which is naturally conservative and loves to vote for posh boys.

Good luck Joan, but I fear it is going to be a very long road back and Labour, unfortunately, are going to be in the wilderness for years to come. Now they will have to work out which direction they will go - left or back to Blairism. I think they will choose Blairism and that will be a disaster. But either way it will take years to recover from this.

I joined the Labour party a few weeks ago and helped out.

I take it I get to vote For a new leader?

Our local party are interested in new members views and why we joined.

We have a Mum of five, a criminal barrister, myself and a chap who recently retired, who joined and helped out. They were so inclusive and grateful.

Yep. Livingstone said he had been all over the country and people who have been Labour for generations are angry and turned to the SNP and UKIP because Labour isn't speaking to them and solving their problems.

The country is not Tory because Tory is inherently right, but because it is better than Tory-lite. There is nothing else on offer but if there was then it would be a completely different story.

Labour as you say needs to stop trying to be something it is not. There is nothing wrong with labour being labour and electing a Ken/Alan Johnson character.

Ken Livingstone was on Newsnight tonight and is exactly right that Labour must go real left wing - not the phoney Blair hand gesture, pointy thumbs, pregnant pauses, words and spin about "fairness" but real actions. Some Blairite type Labour MP, Jonathan Woodcock, chair of some politically correct type group, probably a teenage think tank type of thing, laughingly called "Progress", was advocating taking Labour back to the centre while old school Ken Livingstone said take it left, build homes and invest in manufacturing again.

Their proposed leadership candidates are full of the usual progressive crew - Liz Kendall (Oxbridge), Yvette Cooper (Oxbridge), NHS Warrior Andy Burnham (Oxbridge), Tristram Hunt (Oxbridge), and then Chuka Ummuna (progressive champion) and Dan Jarvis (whom they think will appeal to the people).

They haven't got a clue and they will lose and lose again.

Their think tank types think that they have to appeal to Middle England. They can never ever appeal to Middle England because they are politically correct and Middle England isn't. Middle England is Daily Mail. Their problem is that they are spinners who want to sell their "message" to the people, to Middle England. We are not interested in their "message", in their "spin", we want solutions. Instead of getting their think tanks to try and sell their "message", they should try and work out what is wrong with the country, what we want fixed. Ken Livingstone has a gut instinct, a street instinct not learned at Oxbridge that understands what people really want fixed.

You can't beat the Tories by being Tory-lite because Middle England prefers the Tories and the Daily Mail to that politically correct Labour crowd from Islington, But if they offered a solution that fixed the country's deep problems - housing, opportunity, social mobility, the chance to make a good living and have a good future, secure employment and respect for the people - then we might listen to them. But they have to offer something real and radical to win Middle England over from the Daily Mail and that would have to be a common sense but radical left wing agenda that was real and not just progressive fluffy words about "fairness" and that type of spin.

The reason people vote Tory is because they think that is the best there is. Only a radically different version, not Red Tory, not Labour Tory-lite, can ever hope to win Middle England over from the Tories.

Yvette Cooper is in the running

I agree, Tom Watson is excellent. Lots of courage and a sense of humour too. Decent guy.

Actually, I would like Tom Watson to stand. Not a woman, obviously, but I think he's decent, brave, and genuinely cares.

I like Rachel Reeves, but I think she once said that she does not want to be leader

Yvette Cooper?

I think labour need a female leader.
I wonder who will stand?

In April 1992 Major had a 21 majority which whittled to good-as nothing after 5 yrs.
As near as I can tell, Tories now have a working majority of 12 or 15.
How long will that take to whittle to nothing??

Ed M has just resigned.

Harriet Harman to be caretaker leader.

've read some shit on here but this snippet is right up there with the best of it.

Thanks.

Murdoch won this election. Him and all other Non-Doms with claws in the press.

I've read some shit on here but this snippet is right up there with the best of it.