The body of evidence showing that when centrist parties adopt the priorities and talking points of the far right, they torpedo themselves is vast and powerful. Yet Keir Starmer's Labour Party seems determined to ignore it. A few examples in 🧵: theconversation.com
theconversation.com
www.cambridge.org
www.cambridge.org
Across Europe, when centrist parties have adopted far right themes and sought to appease far right voters, they go down in flames. Why? Because: 1. They alienate their own base. 2. They tell other voters that the far right is correct. The determination not to learn this lesson is a wonder to behold. I was sceptical of Keir Starmer's Labour Party, but willed it to turn things round and build a fairer, greener, kinder country. I was suspicious of its policy vacuums, but thought "well at least it understands strategy". But what we now see is that it is as weak on strategy as it is on ideals. When faced with the most basic challenges, it flounders. It keeps ceding the ground to its opponents. It trashes its own base while pouring political effort into appealing to people who will never vote for it. It treats us like idiots, so makes people feel like idiots if they voted for it. In short, if Starmer's Labour Party had set out to destroy its chances of re-election, and roll out the red carpet for Reform, it could not have done a better job. The thread on one page: skywriter.blue
skywriter.blue