Poll: Should Labour turn left or right?

[George Hincapie]

Blair and the rest of his cronies should **** off back under their rocks.

Won't you get struck by lightning for saying that?

 

[Tunney]

Here's an unpopular opinion - I miss Tony Blair. Yes, he isaflawed character but he was - and still is - a wonderful communicator. He had a message and told it with confidence. I think that confidence rubbed off on the rest of Britain following the 1997 election.

Someone commented that Ed was too left-wing for England and too right-wing for Scotland. That's probably true. The other problem is that anyone with any experience of government, anyone who may have made mistakes and learnt from them is now tainted by the Blair-Brown years in the eyes of the public. It's a tough place to be.

 

[Monkeynut]

They need to look at their whole team. It's just a bunch of identikit career politicians. I think the public has a lot of respect (except maybe Scotland because of better together) for Alistair Darling as Chancellor, as he was steering the country through what was seen as Brown's mess and did pretty well. It would be sensible tbh to make him a Lord and put him back in the cabinet if he wants the job. He is literally better than anyone else they could pick.

 

[Dark Light]

Move left, it will mean that they will never get in power again, which is a very very good thing.

 

[Hades]

I never agreed with Tony Blair's policies but respected him as a leader. Now here's an interesting comparison; put TB up against EM for leadership of the party and that explains why Labour lost. Their leader was simply not up to the job when you compare him to others.

"Hell yes I'm tough enough" <-- anyone who has to tell us that simply isn't tough enough.

 

[Outcast]

It's funny that all those people who voted Labour wasted their vote !!

I think they should be disbanded if only to stop the "Brain-Deads" from voting Labour in the future coz "that's the way we vote oop ear"

 

[Stretch]

The game is up for the Labour party. They've taken their traditional supporters for granted for years, but in parts of the country, they're just not buying it any more.

There clearly isn't a national appetite for a Labour party more left wing that Eds. This leaves them only one place to go. That's to the right. However, they risk losing more of their core vote, and the right is already pretty catered for at the moment.

For the Labour party to move forward, they need a very good leader. They don't have one. All the dross being talked about at the moment are clearly unelectable.

They should have chosen David, but it's too late now.

 

[Dark Light]

The game is up for the Labour party. They've taken their traditional supporters for granted for years, but in parts of the country, they're just not buying it any more.

There clearly isn't a national appetite for a Labour party more left wing that Eds. This leaves them only one place to go. That's to the right. However, they risk losing more of their core vote, and the right is already pretty catered for at the moment.

For the Labour party to move forward, they need a very good leader. They don't have one. All the dross being talked about at the moment are clearly unelectable.

They should have chosen David, but it's too late now.

They did, it was the Unions that chose Ed.

 

[ThePirateHulk]

To win in England they need to move right. To win in Scotland they need to move left.

...so they will obviously shift to the right and even further alienate the Scottis voters. But hey, who gives a **** as long as England gets her way, eh?

 

[Efour]

All the Labour party need to win the next election is 5-10 more years of Tories.

I'm old enough to know how the system swings.

British politics is utter and completely flawed.

 

[Cosimo]

A rebrand to the Aspiration Party might help although they should just lean right and call themselves the New Tories...

 

[Raumarik]

To win in England they need to move right. To win in Scotland they need to move left.

...so they will obviously shift to the right and even further alienate the Scottis voters. But hey, who gives a **** as long as England gets her way, eh?

Nah, I voted SNP but only to clear out the old labour idiots up north and get some fresh faces in, if that happens and some new ideas come I and many others will move back to them and the lib dems (also wiped out).

The SNP have been given enough rope to hang themselves with, expect them to lose some support next year and take a beating in the 2020 general election if they are seen to be misbehaving down south. Bottom line is that they were elected to represent us, not represent the SNP so if they bang on about another referendum they'll suffer.

I voted YES last year, once in a generation means that. They need to get on with working in Westminster and Holyrood, end of.

Labour just need to sit and wait, I don't see any leader in their ranks just now that is up to the job.

 

[the_r_sole]

The labour party need to return to their roots imo - get a set of values and beliefs and actually stand for something - the problem is that the more the big parties are dominated by career politicians they will pick and choose policies based on opinion polls rather than a set of values.
No point in trying to out-tory the tories, a genuine centre left party could do well

 

[elmarko]

All the Labour party need to win the next election is 5-10 more years of Tories.

I'm old enough to know how the system swings.

British politics is utter and completely flawed.

This tbh.

Time will will the Conservatives, in the short term as an unfettered Conservative party turns the public against them & in the long term as this generation of grey vote dies.

 

[godinman]

They should turn left, otherwise what's the point in them?

 

[scorza]

This tbh.

Time will will the Conservatives, in the short term as an unfettered Conservative party turns the public against them & in the long term as this generation of grey vote dies.

While you're probably right that memories will be jogged after 5 years of unfettered Toryism, Labour must no be complacent and think that will be enough. They need to offer a viable alternative and get that message across - no mean feat given the state of the British press.

 

[Schlong&Stable]

To win in England they need to move right. To win in Scotland they need to move left.

I think this is a common misconception. The SNP are not more leftist than Labour. If you compare their policies, there was actually little between them.

I think the success of the SNP in this election had far more to do with a independence and an alienation from Westminster's career politicians in Scotland than anything to do with policies.

Labour needs a charismatic, working class, man of the people. Someone who can actually stand up to the SNP.

 

[mid_gen]

Personally I think the main reason for the swing to conservatives from 'quiet' voters, is people sick of hearing the following from the left such crap as "people only vote tory because they are stupid mindless daily mail reading sheep", "tory voters are scum". etc etc.

The election result was a giant FU from people fed up with having these labels thrown at them. If Labour don't want a repeat they need to concentrate on putting forward a plan for running the country that is somehow more convincing than the tory one...they abjectly failed at this.

 

[Trifid]

If they move to the left they need to sweep up the more left wing parties and make them irrelevant. A Scottish pro UK leader will also be greatly beneficial.

 

[elmarko]

They require leadership, direction & defining policies - all of there were lacking.

The only reason I'd have preferred them over the Conservatives was a lack of negative policies, but in reality a stuffed animal on the PM seat would be just as effective at preventing new & undesirable policy changes.