The problem is that Labour won those elections by being ‘Tory Lite’. As the mask slips from the Corbyn’s ‘a new kind of politics’ he will be viewed more and more as hard left, and many on here support him in that. However, back to the problem though, the people of England do not want a hard left government, and I suspect neither do Wales nor Scotland even though they are more likely to wish so. But Labours conundrum is that besides doing well in England, they need all of the SNP seats, and they primarily are nationalists, but not necessarily socialists. If Scotland ever becomes independent, you will never see the current Labour Party win an election outright. It’s these little regional rivalries that keeps us on the straight and narrow.........
I think there's a lot of sense in that Pete. There's no doubt Labour won elections convincingly and were also "tory Lite". I am not sure one leads to the other automatically though. I think by 1997 there was enormous discontent with the Conservatives and a big appetite for change. I think that had a far bigger role than Labour moving to the right. (though I do fully accept under our electoral system, you win by being in the centre as a general rule).
I personally think people increasingly do actually want a government of both the hard left or the hard right. People seem to be moving to increasingly "extreme" measures, in no small part because the institutions that provide stability are fraying. The same is true within the Conservatives, your bog standard, centrist politicians are finding themselves increasingly out of touch with members and voters. Populism around migration, welfare and on the other side nationalisation and egalitarianism remain increasingly popular.
That jars though, against our system which is win elections in the centre. It's a contradiction nobody has solved an answer too. May and Corbyn won't solve that contradiction, I doubt Johnson or Umuna will either.
It's an extremely fluid situation. I don't believe a "tory lite" Labour would win the next election full stop. Going for a full on reverse Brexit would be very damaging. So too would be adopting an "austerity lite" model that Balls/Miliband tried too.
Labour energised it's base very effectively at the last election. Outside of Scotland it was the biggest vote it has had in decades. I am of the view, a repeat of this performance will likely see Labour win, because I can see the Conservatives slipping support in most directions (particularly towards UKIP). The issue for Labour is going to be how they govern effectively. Thatcher never really had a massive mandate because she won because the centre left vote was split. The same lack of legitimacy affected Brown (but in reverse) and could well affect Corbyn.
