I was on Radio Leicester on a semi regular slot I have with Jonathan Lampon to comment on his interview with Andy Burnham. Two things worth highlighting.
Burnham is probably the only one who (albeit indirectly) identifies Labour’s most proximate difficulty which was the last failed campaign. He notes Labour didn’t have enough to say to make the broad appeal needed to get into government.
In recent times we have had a more shallow form of politics, retail politics its called. We were offering little gimmicky policies designed to change a couple of days headlines in newspapers but not actually designed to change the world around us.
And that is the problem with modern politics. Challenges have got bigger in the 21st Century and politics has gone in the other direction. It’s got pettier and smaller.
We’ve seen for instance the dream of homeownership die for many people up and down the country and Westminster has done nothing about it. And that’s why people feel fed up with the whole thing actually.
Concrete example of how to epigrammatically frame the whole housing problem in a way which connects those suffering at the bottom (who often don’t vote) with the interests of those in middle whose kids cannot afford a house till they’re forty.
The other is, as I note towards the end of this piece, he has an Irishman’s understanding of the working of single transferable vote system whose golden rule, never directly attack the people on the same ballot.
So, no attacking Corbyn (whom he has said he will serve if he wins) and no insistence on Liz Kendall withdrawing.
Mick is founding editor of Slugger. He has written papers on the impacts of the Internet on politics and the wider media and is a regular guest and speaking events across Ireland, the UK and Europe. Twitter: @MickFealty
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