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#107 Corbyn Crumbles
This week my friend James returns to the show to talk about his experience of being a Labour member, Momentum canvasser, and radical marxist during the election. We also discuss our opinions on the fallout from the election, what were the strategic and tactical failings, and a return to Marx’s critique of politics.
The articles mentioned are:
The Ipsos Data:
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2019-12/general-election-2019-poll-aggregate-v8.pdf
The Ashcroft Data:
https://lordashcroftpolls.com/2019/12/how-britain-voted-and-why-my-2019-general-election-post-vote-poll/
The Datapraxis Data:
https://www.dataprax.is/tory-landslide-progressives-split
LSE Media Analysis:
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/bbc-election-night-and-systemic-media-bias/
Loughborough University Centre for Research in Communication & Culture Reports:
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/general-election/
These two journal articles, both published before the election, are helpful in terms of analysing the longer term sociological and class factors at play and contextualising what happened in the so-called ‘Red Wall’ seats:
Brexit and the working class on Teesside: Moving beyond reductionism - Luke Telford, Jonathan Wistow:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0309816819873310
The class politics of prejudice: Brexit and the land of no‐hope and glory - Mckenzie:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-4446.12329
Edmund Griffiths in three parts - very good stuff:
http://www.edmundgriffiths.com/greatleap.html
http://www.edmundgriffiths.com/brexitwqwa.html
http://www.edmundgriffiths.com/notmentioningwar.html
Boffy in three parts - as ever - some keen insights:
https://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/why-labour-lost.html
https://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/healing-no-hope-part-1-of-2.html
https://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/healing-no-hope-part-2-of-2.html
The Lewis Baston piece that nuances the narrativised ‘Red Wall’:
https://thecritic.co.uk/the-myth-of-the-red-wall/
Interesting analysis from Callum Cant:
https://notesfrombelow.org/article/understanding-our-defeat
Adam Ramsey in Open Democracy with a good overview:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/dont-blame-corbyn-or-brexit-labour-failed-to-fight-our-broken-politics/
Useful Graund piece from Aditya Chakrabortty:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/14/labour-meltdown-decades-govern-votes
Chakrabortty also discussed many of the issues he highlights in his Graund piece at length just prior to the election with the comrades at Desolation Radio:
https://soundcloud.com/desolationradio/assessing-corbynism-with-aditya-chakrabortty-chakrabortty
Useful reflections from the Doorsteps of Bridgend, a seat that fell:
https://medium.com/@DrDanEvans/reflections-from-the-doorstep-e4337513d909
Tietze on his anti-pol beat, as usual - some very perceptive stuff:
https://left-flank.org/2019/12/13/anti-politics-the-last-gasp-of-british-labourism/
One of the clearest, most concise, and persuasive pieces articulating this position from Paul O’Connell:
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/why-we-lost-how-we-win
Phil BC on the working class politics of Brexit:
http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-working-class-politics-of-brexit.html
Andy Beckett trying to positive spin it in the long view:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/19/left-labour-michael-foot-tony-blair