There are 37 million reasons why Labour lost the 2015 General Election. Or 37,006,893 reasons to be exact. That’s the total number of eligible electors who chose not to vote Labour. Right now, the Party should be reaching out and listening to them. Instead, we’ve wasted months on a never-ending, but rarely interesting, Leadership election.
Leadership elections are the worst possible time for considered thought. People demand snappy, persuasive answers. Instead of listening to the millions of people who chose not to vote for us, we’ve egged on the Leadership candidates to provide diagnosis by soundbite. First it was a failure to understand aspiration, then it was a failure to inspire non-voters. All the more frustrating is that stimulating research is going on behind the scenes, but no-one is listening. Continue reading
Michael Pavey 