Options
Feels like Labour are struggling for a campaign narrative?
OvertheUnder
Posts: 4,764 Forum Member
✭✭✭
After watching Ed's speech yesterday and then seeing the analysis from various commentators it does feel that something is very much amiss within the campaign. For one thing there was no passion from the ranks and the foundation of the election narrative just isn't there.
Labour in my view are very weak on:
The Economy - Tepid argument about the deficit and debt with clear holes on how Labour will make Britain live within it's means. It just doesn't stand up to scrutiny when discussed. In my view the economic argument has shifted to the right on this and 'Investing' 'Borrowing' etc bring up very negative connotations.
Welfare & Immigration - Not actively wanting to tackle welfare dependency leaves them open to attack from their traditional core voter i.e White van man C1 etc who takes a simple line on benefits. Same goes for Immigration. Biting at the sides will not win them the argument from George Osbourne.
Anti business & Wealth Taxes - Popular ideas no doubt but somewhat backward when trying to achieve a balanced economy. They need to move to centre ground on this asap as it's the main remedy to reducing broad unemployment and boosting the economy long term.
Labour in my view are very weak on:
The Economy - Tepid argument about the deficit and debt with clear holes on how Labour will make Britain live within it's means. It just doesn't stand up to scrutiny when discussed. In my view the economic argument has shifted to the right on this and 'Investing' 'Borrowing' etc bring up very negative connotations.
Welfare & Immigration - Not actively wanting to tackle welfare dependency leaves them open to attack from their traditional core voter i.e White van man C1 etc who takes a simple line on benefits. Same goes for Immigration. Biting at the sides will not win them the argument from George Osbourne.
Anti business & Wealth Taxes - Popular ideas no doubt but somewhat backward when trying to achieve a balanced economy. They need to move to centre ground on this asap as it's the main remedy to reducing broad unemployment and boosting the economy long term.
0
Comments
They can if they think the voters are stupid. Lets not forget how safe the North Staffs hospital was in labours hands
That's the interest bit in all this. It's discounting the silent percentage of the electorate who do vote for Tories. Labour playing it very close to edges in May 2015 and who knows how soft their poll lead actually is - I suspect when it comes down to it the polls will narrow like in the Scottish vote.
Ignore common sense and what actually is needed or works, and simply appeal to the headline writers of the Daily Mirror.
A very good point, they need to be a bit more consistant.
Yes, it's clear that they are going for a 35% strategy to win with a small majority. The most important part will be to get their voters enthused enough to turn out to vote. They aren't interested in trying to attract floating voters.
It's the opposite to the New Labour approach where they ignored their core (as they had nobody else to vote for) and targeted centrist and soft-Tory votes.
That is Axelrod, the American strategist, in a sentence.
That's something I didn't think about. I suspect that the bulk of the Labour MP's will be Scottish in fact, if Cameron doesn't move with the devolution in England. They will have to rely heavily on the Scots - Dangerous move as you said.
8% swing from RedTory to SNP will see 25 Independence MPs.
a third of labour voters voted YES
Labour domination of Scotland is not to be taken for granted
Given the disarray of the Labour party in Scotland, especially in working class areas of Glasgow, I wouldn't bet on them retaining or increasing their 41 seats,
They seem to be very complacent on this which might cost them dearly. I can see a surge in the Scottish Nationalists grabbing seats from them as I think, following the referendum, more people will vote who haven't bothered before.
Im of a similar opinion. Two points: Firstly .The Heywood and Middleton by election will give some basic idea of what inroads, if any, UKIP are making in the labour vote. Secondly If it is a hung parliament Cameron gets first shot of forming a government. At this point he might be able to bypass the libdems entirely and strike a deal with the Ulster unionists and other small partys. Depending on the numbers.
I think Cameron will probably aim for a coalition with the Lib Dems. As much as people want to believe, I suspect the working relationship between the Tories and LD's is pretty strong. However that's a discussion for another time.
The SNP abstain from England only votes.
Won't stop them keeping the socialists in power though and probably demand even more goodies for the Scots for the privilege
Are the Tories launching their election campaign next week, or whenever their conference is?
As I understand it, the Conservatives want to offer more powers to Scotland than Labour, want to go further with devo max.
Could have the stranger position of a Con/SNP coalition.
True. They're not even pretending that they want to be a mass party with a cross-section of support.
I don't think Labour have a clue how to fight the election. On the one hand they're telling us that Britain was a paradise under their 13-year rule but on the other hand, they're trying to act like it never happened.
They've also been running through a load of slogans and themes - "too far too fast", "predistribution", "bringing socialism back", "triple dip recession" etc. None of them have stuck because Osborne (just about) avoided a triple dip whilst Labour now admits that it won't reverse the cuts. So in practice, what is Labour going to do differently from the coalition?
I expect Labour to be the largest party (and possibly with a narrow majority) but a Miliband government will be very weak because it's not rooted in any theme or idea.