Do you remember this from 12 months ago? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIH-2lZF2yw The Un-credible shrinking man. 12 months before a General Election they spent an entire broadcast slaughtering us and letting the Tories off scot free!
Labour spent most of the previous parliament calling us "Yellow Tories", traitors, and diminishing everything we did in Government. They forgot to attack the Tories allowing them to take credit for the economic recovery while we got no credit.
It was miserable, dreadful and appalling night and partly we have to look at what we did wrong. However, one thing I know is that Labour spent 5 years destroying us and look where it got them.
Labour could have spent 5 years been a constructive opposition that campaigned on a centrist platform. They could have been seen as a Government in waiting. Yes, they were right to stand up over the bedroom tax and the NHS and Social Care reforms, but they could have been more reasonable about the economy and numerous other policies. Instead they adopted a class warfare, hard left stance that may have energised their activists but scared the proverbials out of anyone in the centre.
They lost the election for two main reason 1. The Economy and 2. Strategy. On the economy they made a massive strategic error. They fell into a gigantic trap. For the first two years the mantra was too far, too fast, while the country was in recession this argument resonated. In 2012 the Coalition slowed up on austerity and the economy started to recover. Labour could have congratulated the Government on following Labour's Plan B and then there economic ratings may have ticked up a bit. Instead they were petty and pathetic claiming that the economy was still rubbish. Most people actually realised the economy was improving and it damaged Labour's economic credibility, which was fatal.
On strategy, Labour pursued a 35% strategy. To achieve this they needed to destroy the Lib Dems, even discounting Scotland, this was a flawed policy.
Firstly the Lib Dems can reach Tory swing voters in areas that Labour can never touch (particularly in the South West). All that happened was that the Labour squeeze voters voted Labour and the Lib Dem/ Tory voters switchers switched to the Tories. This handed seat after seat to the Tories as far more Lib Dems seats were Tory facing than were Labour facing. You only needed to look at the 1950s to see that when the Liberal were destroyed, you get the Tories in Government.
Secondly as we are a centrist party they had to attack from a further left standpoint. It pushed them to the left and made them unelectable to the Mondeo Man (Soccer mum) group that decides election. It was utterly crazy.
I'm sure they enjoyed destroying it but the British people are now going to see what a Tory Government is really like!
