The 'report' (and I use the word in the loosest possible sense) is a farce. One of its most singular feats is to essentially ignore that Corbyn did (far) worse in 2019 with a loyal coterie surrounding him than he did in 2017 when he was supposedly being undermined right, left and centre.
Those two UK elections ought to the something that progressives across the world should be picking the data apart to avoid making the same mistakes. Anecdotes are not data but I can tell you that in 2017, I voted for Labour. I did so because I felt them winning overall was an impossibility but there was a chance that my constituency MP could be unseated. Across the UK, thousands of people- particularly those keen to try and halt or at least arrest Brexit- did the same. This phenomenon of Liberal Democrats and pro EU Tories going with the lesser of two evils, combined with the worst Conservative campaign in history, meant Labour came unusually close, far surpassing expectations.
Labour's leadership team proceeded to draw a huge series of wrong conclusions about 2017. My vote was loaned to them, they decided to bank it- and the thousands of others. As it became clear that their Brexit strategy made as much sense as an episode of
Twin Peaks, the pro EU contingent left, while the pro Brexit side coalesced around the Conservatives (although, Labour were saved in some North Eastern seats by votes being split to the Brexit Party). Beyond Brexit, Labour was still a shitshow. I quote the right honorable
@Joe Mac from earlier in this very thread;
Their manifesto was shite; a smorgasbord of committee thinking that promised the Earth but somehow maintained it didn't cost it. Throughout the run in, we were bombarded by the idea we were somehow obligated to vote Labour because their sandwich had less dogshit in it than the Conservative one did. On the day of the election, despite despairing that their leader had stumbled over searching questions like "what is a woman?", I voted for the Liberal Democrats. I have no guilt in this- such was the collapse in the Labour vote here, the Lib Dem vote added to the Labour one doesn't add up to the Conservative majority.
Now, as I said this morning, US exceptionalism grants you a two party system of unusual durability. There are no Liberal Democrats or Scottish or Welsh nationalists to muddy the waters for the DNC. A degree of compromise with those tedious centrists could see them over the line. Or, they can be the proverbial two bald men fighting over a comb while the ridiculously coiffured one takes another win.
Letting him do so in the belief it will be easier to win next time strikes me as geniunely suicidal. The last ninety days alone should be enough to suggest the next four years are unknowable.
