This is a fair point, but sadly, in today's media environment, the manifesto is just about the only thing that makes the headlines, and virtually the only time the media stops talking about Czech conspiracy plots, or appropriate posture, or the pronunciation of 'Epstein' long enough to cover actual policy ideas.
In an age of widespread cynicism and disengagement -
another 'Third Way' gift that keeps on giving - boldness is the only way to get most people to take notice, and to signal that your party is different, and serious. Marginal tweaks to boutique tax credits do not resonate with people on overlapping zero-hours contract jobs trying to raise children. It is unfortunate that that's the world we live in now, but that ship has long since sailed - and not on the left's watch.
Labour's manifesto is a gamble, to be sure, but it is a calculated one, whereas the failure of more timid and insipid centrism is certain. If Labour loses again, it will likewise be due more than anything else to Brexit - Leavers are united, Remains aren't. But, the notion that once again handing everything back over to
the geniuses who came up with this will produce better results is far more delusional and utopian than anything the Labour left has come up with.
And (in the manner of Thatcher hailing Blair), Labour is winning the war even if it loses the battle (not that that's an acceptable outcome, mind). The Liberal Democrats have promised to both tax and spend more than Labour did in 2017, and there is not a Kopite's-odds-of-modesty in Javid's budget coming into being without Corbyn having put the almighty fear of god into them.
The difference is that precisely because of messaging which upsets centrist sensibilities, target voters - whatever they think of Corbyn - all actually believe that he will sincerely try to deliver, whereas the other two have no credibility whatsoever, now that chickens of taking 'left behind' voters for granted have come home to rest.
