#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.pdfThe 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/10.1177/0309816819873310The class politics of prejudice: Brexit and the land of no‐hope and glory - Mckenzie:https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-4446.12329Edmund Griffiths in three parts - very good stuff:http://www.edmundgriffiths.com/greatleap.htmlhttp://www.edmundgriffiths.com/brexitwqwa.htmlhttp://www.edmundgriffiths.com/notmentioningwar.htmlBoffy in three parts - as ever - some keen insights:https://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/why-labour-lost.htmlhttps://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/healing-no-hope-part-1-of-2.htmlhttps://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/healing-no-hope-part-2-of-2.htmlThe 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-defeatAdam 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-votesChakrabortty 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-chakraborttyUseful reflections from the Doorsteps of Bridgend, a seat that fell:https://medium.com/@DrDanEvans/reflections-from-the-doorstep-e4337513d909Tietze 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-winPhil BC on the working class politics of Brexit:http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-working-class-politics-of-brexit.htmlAndy Beckett trying to positive spin it in the long view:https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/19/left-labour-michael-foot-tony-blair