Labour could be extinct within a decade says Labour's Jon Cruddas

[claig]

Cruddas is a very good free thinker in Labour. He is not one of the Oxbridge set, he is not a luvvie, he is not metropolitan elite, he is of the people, he is brave and looks at the reality.

"The Labour Party could be extinct within a decade, one of Ed Miliband’s closest advisers has claimed.

Jon Cruddas, Labour’s policy co-ordinator, said the 115-year old party could simply “disintegrate in real time”.

The remarks are particularly noteworthy, given Mr Cruddas’ job description is often given as rebuilding the party in the wake of New Labour.

During a debate about digital democracy, he was asked whether Labour might to the same way as social democratic parties in Greece and Spain which have been outflanked by radical anti-austerity movements such as Syriza and Podemos.

Asked whether the Labour Party might "not exist" within ten years, Mr Cruddas, a reknowned free-thinker, replied: “Yes, yes.”

“There is no safe ground for any orthodox parties and the stakes could be high potentially. They could just disintegrate in real time. And I include in that the party that I represent."

May’s General Election could offer a breakthrough in Parliament to parties that were in the fringes five years ago: the Scottish National Party, the Greens and UKIP."

[[http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11473827/Miliband-aide-Labour-could-be-extinct-in-a-decade.html]]

Tis shows how bad the situation is for the Establishment. Can the Oxbridge PPEs hold it together, can they save the Establishment's sinking ship, can they fend off the people's insurgency over the coming decade?

Sorry, correct link below

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/labour/11473827/Miliband-aide-Labour-could-be-extinct-in-a-decade.html

it makes sense to me.

The old classes have been replaced by new classes.

It is no longer a working/middle/upper class system.

Current classes consist of (amongst others):

immigrants (like me),
benefits families (2nd, 3rd generation on benefits),
the old working class, most of whom consider themselves middle class now
middle class,
oligarchs/rich immigrants/the famous
the old upper class (often with no money, and the family estates sold)

I live near an old working class town, lots of builder, tradesmen and women, people who do the hard work. The town is UKIP. Labour gets 5% of the vote.

As a foreigner, I mix with people form different classes, and of my "working class" friends and acquaintances, none would vote Labour.

Does Labour still represent the working people? I doubt it.

They now represent a non-cohesive mixture of people on long term benefits (many won't vote), immigrants who work here (many can't vote, like me), and North London style champagne socialists (they will vote but are a small group) and the wonderful old-style labour voters, who vote on ideological principles (fewer and fewer?).

Just my kitchen tabel analysis , I am sure other people (journalists) can explain it better!

Cruddas is a visionary, a brilliantb thinker. He foresaw Labour's crisis, he understood where they were going wrong. Their problem is they are Establishment and do not represent the people. That is why they have left the door open to the real people's insurgencies of SNP, UKIP and Green. And of course it is likely to get worse as more PPEs are drafted in by the Establishment to try and halt Labour's decline.

This was Cruddas writing in 2009

"The Labour Party has faced two periods of real crisis since 1900 and now stands on the verge of a third. The first followed the crash of 1929, when the second Labour administration collapsed and Ramsay MacDonald formed the National Government. The second came with the party's defeat in 1979, the ascendancy of neoliberalism, or Thatcherism, and Labour's possible eclipse by a new third party in the early 1980s. If the decline in Labour's fortunes since 1997 continues, a third crisis will occur after next year's election. It took nearly 15 years for Labour to return to power after the first two crises and the resulting election defeats of 1931 and 1983. The stakes could not be higher.

We have lost many millions of voters since 1997. We have lost hundreds of thousands of members. We have become reviled by younger generations that view us as the party of the Establishment, war and insecurity. Our orthodoxy has defeated our radicalism."

www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/09/labour-party-liberal-hardie

Their politically correct metropolitan orthodoxy and Establishment consensus has cut them off from the people and that is what has led to their decline.

"Once great ruling parties have become hollowed out and are in danger of shrinking into professionalised political elites"

www.socialeurope.eu/2014/09/one-nation-labours-political-renewal/

They serve the elite and not the people and they are made up of servants to the elite, from elite schools and universities who live in elite neighbourhoods in million pound metropolitan mansions with kitchens on every floor.

Very good analysis BabyGanoush. You are right. The class system has fractured, it is not what it was and Labour's elite Oxbridge PPE class are playing the wrong Establishment tune because times have changed, people have changed and people are demanding more social mobility, more justice, more politicl representation rather than the same old backroom deal stitchups of sofa governemnt carried out by PPEs in our publicly funded buildings who ignore the public will and think they can hire teenage Oxbridge whizz kids to nudge, spin and lie to the public instead.

Here is what Cruddas says about the disintegration of the old class system and how the people feel ignored by their politicians, who at the top nearly all come from the same universities and attended the same lectures in the same halls with the same chums that form the servant class to the elite.

"The industrial class system which shaped the identities, prospects and ways of life for millions is being reshaped around new post-industrial models of production and consumption. In the last 30 years, the shift from an industrial to a service economy has caused dramatic changes in the nature of working life, from full-time work mainly done by men to increasingly decentralised and more flexible forms of employment. In little more than one generation, women have entered the workforce in dramatic numbers and millions of skilled jobs for men have gone.

The traditional class cultures that sustained Labour have changed or been devastated. The institutions and solidarities workers created out of long, historical struggles to defend their livelihood, homes and families against the power of capital have disappeared or become outdated and ineffective. There is a fear amongst millions that they are losing control over their lives and that government ignores the things that matter to them."

www.socialeurope.eu/2014/09/one-nation-labours-political-renewal/

"There is a fear amongst millions that they are losing control over their lives and that government ignores the things that matter to them."

This is what has led to the rise of the people's insurgencies. People have finally had enough, they have lost faith in the spinners trotting out the same old spin, being photographed in the same old parks and same old kitchenettes and saying the same old platitudes. People have given up listening, they are looking elsewhere.

That is why Cruddas is right that Labour could be extinct within just ten years. People have put up with them for years, but now they have had enough, they want change, truth and no more spin. They want the country fixed and they don't think the same old Establishment spin team (whether clothed in blue or red rosettes) can deiiver what they want or are even listening or even care.

If Labour get into bed with SNP, this will probably not work out that well for anyone in England (more money than even now to Scotland I imagine?), so that could kill them as well.

They might get this one last election, but after ruling with the SNP they will be out for a long time I think.

Yes I agree. A short-term agreement with the SNP would be a disaster for Labour in England. It would finish them off for the 2020 election in England and would wipe them out in Scotland too.

They are between a rock and a hard place. They haven't got many good options.

Are you worried for them, or pleased?

I am not sure...

I feel unhappy about Tories, Lib Dems and Labour!

Weird it's just you and me, thanks for the chat (am stuck at home with poorly child)

I think it is sad, I am not pleased.

All the parties are useless, none of them are in touch with the people.

The politics section is dead, hardly anyone ever posts anything in it. Even with an election coming up, so far the public is not really interested in the same old, same old spin the parties put out.

I think the kitchen thing was an example of being out of touch.

the public hates being taken for fools. It's insulting.

Come clean and say:" busted! we felt embarrassed to show our real kitchen" or whatever, Farage, dubious as he is, would have dealt with it better, he is a rare politician as he speaks off the cuff. The public want people who are not afford to speak freely, even if that means making gaffes. Witness Boris Johnson and Farage. Not people I would vote to get into power, but at leafs they are not so bloody wet

It is all so fake, everything is spin. I think Tony Blair really killed the Labour party more than anyone else. He poisoned its legacy.

Yes, I agree.
Spin has corrupted our political system, it has led to public distrust in our politicians. They thought they could hire people and spinners to con the public but it has led to their decline.

Boris is just a showman, he hasn't got real conviction in my opinion. The reason Farage is so liekd by many voters is because he is real, he has courgae to go against the consensus and say what he feels. The reason the public like that is because the public are no longer listened to by the Establishment Oxbridge elite who decide what is and is not politically correct and what will and will not be discussed. Freedom is being curtailed, the truth is being supplanted by spin and people understand that this might lead to a system that ignores the public and tells them what they are allowed to think, believe and feel.

Farage represents a challenge to the entire Establishment way of thinking which has marginalised and excluded ordinary people. That is why people vote for him. They think he is the last one left who is on their side. He is standing up for the ordinary person against the elitist system, their think tanks, their consensus, their Etonians and their Oxbridge spinners. He dared to say "the EU has blood on its hands over Ukraine". None of the others would dare say such a thing for they are mere servants and Farage is a leader.

This is a brilliant article that explains what is at stake. If Farage loses longterm then it is bad news for the people, as liberty and free expression and the popular will will be more and more curtailed by a professional class of politicians who serve the Establishment, the banks and the hedge funds above the people they claim to represent.

'I’m taking on the establishment, and they hate me for it'
...
And we are challenging the establishment — we are challenging their very thought; we are challenging the very basis upon which they exist and operate'

www.spiked-online.com/newsite/article/im-taking-on-the-establishment-and-they-hate-me-for-it/16758#.VQbx-qJyaic

That is why everything will be thrown at him by the servants of the Establishment, the luvvies and the lackeys and the teenage think tank whizz kids from Oxbridge they employ.

I agree. The old system no longer exists. If Miliband has a fancy expensive kitchen why lie about it. He could have said they were in the utility room. Lots of quite modest houses have them now. But no he couldn't do that could he. Farage is what he is. That's why he appeals.

'Farage is what he is. That's why he appeals.'

Yes, it is his genuineness that is so important, his courage to dare to tell the truth because we are constantly lied to as a people over wars, weapons of mass distraction, abuse inquiries, Establishment coverups, backhanders and lobbyists and expenses and maybe even kitchens and chairs and tables and ovens and bath plugs and moats and duck houses and who knows what else - maybe our NHS, our care homes etc etc

And unless the spin stops and the truth prevails, unless someone with courage says "I shall not spin, it is one of the seven sins", then what will become of the people in the future, what sort of democracy will we end up with, what sort of lying leadership will lord it over us, what sort of luvvies and lackeys will laugh at us?

Tory leader after Cameron may decide how they do. Osborne, Boris,
Mrs May (of "nasty tory party" quote) They were arguably daft to reject Ken Clarke . He seems to have some cross class appeal

Funny old game politics. I suppose most of us wouldnt touch it with a disinfected bargepole

Jon Cruddas has missed the point. It's not just Labour that is in crisis, but political parties generally. Labour and the Tories used to have memberships in the millions. Possibly the Liberals did too. They have all lost something like ninety percent of their membership.

What this means is that political parties now draw from a very limited talent pool that is disproportionately made of people who deliberately aim for a career in politics. That is why so many more senior politicians seem to go from PPE at Oxbridge > party strategist > local councillor > MP, and why there are so many less teachers, scientists, self-made business people, and - most of all - people from trades or low level clerical work. If you can't see the younger Tebbits and Skinners in Parliament, it's because they aren't there.

If it wasn't for the bankers and lawyers on the Tory benches there would be no variety at all.

And what this means it that all the major parties have comprehensively lost their roots in local communities, and have become glorified activist groups for the ambitious. Without these roots, parties have to rely on focus groups and strategist in order to work out what's "authentic".

The only exception to this group is the SNP who - surprise! - have a mass membership, although even there's is on the small side, historically speaking. It's much easier for the SNP to work out what people in Scotland want, because they have an awful lot of members to tell them what it is.

Points taken Toad.

I used to go to dances for major political parties years ago. Now most of them could not organise a 12 people dance in a disco.

People have lost faith in the system The turnout at this election may be 68 to 75 per cent. That means 1 in 4 not bothering to vote.