Owen Jones is spot on about Labour’s polling: Just not for the reasons you think.
Labour are doing badly in the Tory owned polling and Owen Jones has repeatedly pointed out that Labour need to be doing better. He is absolutely correct. Labour are suffering in the public’s minds because they look at Labour and see it is chaotic. The only Labour faces they see on TV or voices they hear on the radio are those of Labour MPs, and whatever Peter Mandelson is, talking disloyally about the party and the leadership. It is no wonder the public say they no likey. The figures in Labour who get the most media time are those who will, at the drop of a hat, slag off the party and the leadership and also, coincidentally, happen to be the same MPs who espouse the retrogressive, debunked, neoliberal politics that people instinctively know is utter codswallop and have been rejecting in increasing numbers since 1997.
The polling for Labour is bad and the people representing Labour to the public are not its shadow cabinet or leadership but those running the party down at every opportunity. The public do not care for them. Labour’s polling will climb once those faces are removed from TV screens and radio broadcasts. Polling figures will climb once those sporting the caption ‘MP’ after their name, no longer sport it. The public don’t like people like Peter Mandelson, he’s thought as something that scraped its way out of Mordor. The public don’t like Tony Blair, he’s the liar who took Britain to war in Iraq chasing the shirt tails of Bush, and kicked off all the ‘Islamic’ terrorism that blight our lives now.
Labour is afflicted by a group of MPs and associated dross who drag it down in the public realm of the media and the public don’t like them. It really is that simple isn’t it. Sure, they want us to say it’s Corbyn. The media say it’s Corbyn but we know they’re lying to us. If Labour has MPs talking it down in public, issue them with warnings for breaching the parties rules. Ensure CLPs all have the right to deselect their MPs and ensure that local members all have the right to vote. After the recently exposed campaign orchestrated by a foreign government to undermine Britain’s opposition, Labour needs to shore itself against attack from outside the party and the leadership should seek appropriate changes to ensure that.
Owen Jones often talks about the problems Labour has with getting its message out and he’s spot on about that too but the reason is the same as the problems with polling, too many flying the Labour flag as a flag of convenience. We witnessed two such MPs quit their seats for pay days, one of which was directly facilitated by Theresa May’s government. It is no wonder Labour struggle to control how its message is received or perceived.
I’m not sure why Jones has not made as much of these two obvious conclusions, maybe because he knows how difficult it is to dig out entryists when they can manipulate Labour’s democratic structures. We certainly witnessed the extent to which these ‘wreckers’ can go to in gerrymandering Labour’s structures in last years leadership ‘challenge’. Shameful and the gerrymandering has not ceased. It should be a simple thing for those found doing such to be expelled from Labour and banned from associating with the party. It is what Labour must do if it is to start getting its message out to the public and start raising polling figures.
