During the John Key led government we saw Labour here in New Zealand blame stupid voters for being hoodwinked into voting for that nice Mr Key. That behaviour led to ignominious defeat under Phil Goff and again under David Cunliffe.
National is now exhibiting the same delusion, that the voters were stupid and look what they’ve done.
Most voters know precisely what they are doing and only a fool blames stupid voters, yet that is precisely what is happening in the UK, as the blame game begins after Labour’s dreadful showing last week:
According to the Labour Party, the defeat they suffered last Thursday is far, far worse than previously imagined. Their leader, manifesto and policy on Brexit were not just comprehensively rejected, but in the view of virtually every Labour MP and grassroots activist, they were rejected in favour of an “extreme right wing” party.
Boris Johnson, so this consensus goes, heads the most extreme government, not just in the post-war period, or in living memory, but as Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell put it, “the most extreme right-wing cabinet we’ve ever seen in the political history of this country.” The problem for Labour is that this judgment applies not just to the new government, but to everyone who voted Conservative.
Such accusations have been made so regularly and so consistently that no one in Leigh or Wakefield or Bolsover could possibly be under any illusion about the true nature of Johnson’s Conservative Party. And yet they still voted for it. So the question must be asked: how did so many ordinary working class voters go from supporting Labour for generations to voting “extreme right wing” in such a short space of time? What made ordinary working class people – and this is according to Labour’s own assertions, mind – so intolerant and extreme, so right wing? Why do they want to sell the NHS to Donald Trump?
If asked, Labour will say that the voters were duped by clever marketing men. They were too stupid to see Boris Johnson for what he is. As more sensible voices are pointing out, lecturing the very people whose support you need about their stupidity is very rarely a path to electoral glory. But is it really credible to claim that the country has opted to sign up to a new iteration of the British National Party? Most people who voted Tory last week, especially those who did so following a lifetime of voting Labour, would respond none too politely to such an accusation, if those making it had the courage to make it personally rather than via Twitter or TV interviews.
[Sigh] It seems that the morons in Labour have still not realised that a terrorist-hugging, anti-Semite, communist idiot isn’t the best choice for leading a party.
It is, of course, palpable nonsense to suggest that Boris Johnson’s government is further to the right that its recent predecessors, and even more ridiculous to claim it’s more Thatcherite than Thatcher. This all hails from the “Everyone I disagree with is Hitler” school of Leftist thought.
I’m not sure how protecting the NHS, spending more in education and embracing climate change myths is hard right-wing, but there you go that’s what Labour is saying.
So why the constant claims of extremism? Partly it’s a defensive, tit-for-tat reaction to the accusations levelled against Corbyn and his closest advisers. The result of the general election has pretty much drawn a line under who believed what in that respect. But it’s also a sign of Labour’s – and the wider Left’s – lack of imagination and, perhaps, an even more worrying lack of vocabulary.
It is easy to attack extremists. Any of us could do it in our sleep. We know what extremists believe and we know we have reasons to fear them. We can flick through any history book and easily identify those whose views were dangerous and which caused the greatest damage to humanity when left unchecked. But how to attack and undermine opponents who are much closer to you on the political spectrum than you care to admit?
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If the results from last Friday morning haven’t convinced them, then I’ll put it in black and white: voters don’t believe Boris Johnson is an extremist. Is that plain enough for them? Maybe they’ll be proved right in time. Maybe Johnson is a secret fascist, just waiting for his chance to instal [sic] an unelected junta.
But while we wait with bated breath for that peculiar turn of events, what will Labour do? Continue with this pointless stream of invective and insult towards a man who is much more popular than any single individual on the Labour benches? Continue to imply that not only did the working class “betray” Labour but are probably measuring themselves up for black shirts as we speak? Or will they catch themselves on and start opposing the government for what it does rather than for what Labour, without a shred of evidence, thinks it might one day do?
A new approach is obviously needed. And it should start by not treating us as fools. We knew what we were voting for and it was not extremism. For a party whose leader supped with terrorists and anti-Semites throughout his career, for MPs who sought to install that leader in a Number 10 despite their reservations (reservations only being aired now, safely after the polls have closed) the accusation of extremism is both poignant and deeply ironic.
The Telegraph
In New Zealand John Key was widely mocked by Labour, yet he maintained a higher approval rating than St Jacinda can manage. Labour still think John Key was evil despite him keeping every single welfare initiative implemented by Helen Clark in place, and even extending some of them. In the UK the same demonisation of Boris Johnson will see UK Labour consigned to the opposition benches for a very long time.
Will our own National party see the folly in this sort of behaviour themselves, or will they continue to egg on supporters with the mistaken belief that voters were stupid? Time will tell.