Categories
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Looking at conference rhetoric – the politics of fear and the
politicalbetting.com » Blog Archive » Looking at conference rhetoric – the politics of fear and the politics of hope
It has become a truism that political campaigns based on fear are doomed to fail. Positive visions, hope and excitement are what we want, apparently. And there is some evidence to support this: Corbyn’s genuinely inspiring campaigning for what he has said and believed these last four (five?) decades, the increasingly desperate Remain campaign and, of course, May’s abysmal GE campaign, which wholly failed to explain why Corbyn’s choices and what they say about his character, judgment and, therefore, how he would govern would affect voters and in ways which resonated with them.
0
This discussion has been closed.
Comments
The public is in the mood to keep rolling the dice. The Conservatives need a positive message of their own. Right now, they haven't got any kind of message at all.
Meanwhile, I see that today's criticism of the PM from Labour is that she isn't close enough to Donald Trump. Politics is endlessly amusing.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2017/sep/27/brexit-labour-tories-corbynites-right-labour
Corbyn as pm worries me in a way ed m or brown never did, but even if my worry is justified merely explaining the worry without credible alternative does not help if people are sick of what's in place.
I watched an interesting interview with Jordan Peterson the other day in which he talked about this issue across the West.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v7gKGq_MYpU
All that people will remember about the Tory GE campaign was dementia tax and that is it.
I still can't believe that didn't even get out in front and announce say £200-300 million extra for the NHS by 2022...i.e yes we are doing what the bus said....in real terms it wouldn't have cost that much and would have allowed bungling Boris to do his thing, while with an aging and growing population also the right thing to do.
Negatives are we're not building nearly enough houses still, and generational wealth inequality is high enough that the likes of Corbyn have a ready audience.
The point being it might be hard for the Tory party to mount the campaign Cyclefree suggests.
It is why Trump had an audience and Brexit....the most striking thing I remember was the video that John Harris did from Stoke and he interviewed an Asian guy who when Harris said, yeah but what about the financial impact of leaving the EU, he said (to paraphrase) look around here, its a shit hole, its been a shit hole all my life, how could it get any worse.
However it is true it seems hard for the tories to offer what they need to.
Boris Johnson will host the launch of a think tank which is pushing for a hard Brexit at a Foreign Office event in the latest test of cabinet unity.
Liam Fox, the international trade secretary, will also speak at the launch of the Institute for Free Trade in the map room in the Foreign and Commonwealth Office this evening. The reception will not be open to the media.
The think tank says it wants to change policy by calling for Britain to abandon European product standards, even though this could jeopardise a softer Brexit.
The Institute for Free Trade is chaired by Jon Moynihan, a member of the board of the Vote Leave campaign, and led by Daniel Hannan, the Conservative MEP. It wants to influence the final Brexit deal by approaching businesses and government ministers independently of the Department for International Trade.
In CycleFrees terms as Brexit consumes it's own children the Tories will provide the Fear and Corbyn will provide the next simple and compelling story.
The seamers will work with former New Zealand pace bowler Shane Bond, who has been appointed as fast bowling consultant for the tour after former bowling coach Ottis Gibson's departure to become South Africa head coach.
http://www.bbc.com/sport/cricket/41409370
To change the PLP sufficiently, and implement Bolshevik-style socialism, Corbyn needs more than one term, something he wont get.
Corbyn needs to change the rules. If he can do that, his successor will be similarly equipped with obsolete intellectual equipment.
Labour MPs need to stop singing "Oh, Jeremy Corbyn" and get their party back into the hands of the sane.
Radical anti-establishment movements have gained ground in most western democracies in recent years, without the benefit of Brexit. We have Trump in the US after all.
Behr's argument is a false one that confuses cause and effect.
https://order-order.com/2017/09/27/corbyn-boycotts-israel-mcdonnell-avoids-business/
Corbyn backed (in the GE) leaving the single market and customs union. And he's a unilateralist friend of Hamas and Hezbollah. What's the upside?
Perhaps he will just decide that these pesky elections are no longer needed, after the final victory of socialism....
Together, they were the safer option.
I am no Corbyn fan, but he was the better of the two.
I may have to move even more assets out of the UK than I planned to do ...
If they really cared about the economy they'd abandoning the madness or doing BINO.
N Korea
Iran
The Media
Black footballers
Canada
Bombardier
It was a f##k it, whats to lose.
A Corbyn-led Labour government would not improve matters but it's not obvious that it would be worse than what's currently on offer.
There is at present no positive option on the horizon.
I very much hope he loses, and loses badly. If he wins, I fear he'll do more damage to the UK than any event that has happened during my lifetime.
It's much easier to fuck up something good than to create something good. Just look at the collapse of Argentina's economy some decades ago, or Venezuela more recently. Consider how the good and capable flourished under the Golden Age of Imperial Rome. From Nerva to Marcus Aurelius, men of talent were fostered, protected and respected by emperors, to the benefit of both the men and the emperors themselves.
Then Commodus culled them for sport. Civil wars resumed, eventually leading to the Crisis of the Third Century.
A unilateralist who is planning to copy the economic policies of Venezuela, and who I'm sure is very culturally sensitive, stands alarmingly close to power.
May is lacklustre, uninspiring and mediocre. But the alternative is far worse. As history teaches us, just because a leader may be poor doesn't mean the alternative can't be absolutely disastrous. Just look at Maurice and Flavius Phocas.
The Tories can't though, they are stuck in the vortex of Brexit.
Where I think they haven't yet made much progress is on working out what to do about it, and when, and under whose leadership. To an extent this is inevitable, given that we are stuck with a lame-duck leader, probably for the next couple of years. Obviously there is a grave risk from the Conservatives' point of view that this leaves space for Labour to continue to take the initiative, and a further risk that it could all come crashing down before the party has got its act together. On the other hand, there's a good case for holding our nerve until we have delivered Brexit, both in party-political terms but more importantly in terms of getting the negotiations done.
It's undoubtedly a very dangerous situation, for the party and the country, but that is where we are.
Mr. Ace, that's a damned foolish argument. Deliberately buggering the country to get your own back on a party because the electorate voted a way you didn't like in a referendum is demented.
Mr. Meeks, that's palpably not the case. Corbyn's policy is to tax and spend (not 'invest', and the Conservatives [and media] should be pointing this out constantly). Hundreds of billions are already earmarked for frittering away on socialist wet dreams. Nationalise! Tax the rich! Provide free stuff for everyone!
https://twitter.com/P_G_Thompson/status/912739304820154369
https://order-order.com/2017/09/27/journalists-heckled-questions-banned-labour-venezuela-event/
Sounds like Alex Wickham is having a lot of fun in Brighton this week!
I cannot beleive they haven't now got a coherent line on Brexit. Even if head's had to roll one way or the other.
The Home Office needs to seriously get it’s act in order, any letters suggesting deportation need to be removed from the automated systems and sent out only by senior managers personally. Rudd needs to appoint a minister to oversee this, or else take charge of it herself.
Carrying icons of the dear leader and chanting Oh Jeremy Corbyn is unusual behaviour, even though it isn't a really a cult. Perhaps the followers are still looking to build a mausoleum at Highgate, with enough gold leaf to cover the short side with Here Lies Jeremy Corbyn.
The Tories and Lib Dems must to look at their leaderships, policies and campaign methods to defeat Corbyn. Labour learned from Miliband's poor use of social media in 2015, the Tories outflanked him, but sat complacently on their haunches in June.
I think it is unbelievable in a mature democracy and maybe particularly from the Left (aren't these journalists technically 'at work' when they are being abused - where's the union solidarity now?).
It's a f**** disgrace.
Shame on Labour.
This shows how far the party has totally lost its moral compass.
First they came for the journalists...
Do you have any examples and links to comments from, say, 2015?
Oh, sorry. I meant "Stalin" banners, not "Hitler". And "rightwing", not "leftwing". But hey, if your moustachioed mass murderer of choice was on the left, it seems nobody cares... *sighs*
Dr. Spyn, not mere complacency, May was actively incompetent, with the worst manifesto since Herod promised a free grave for every firstborn, and refusing to do things just because Cameron (who was quite good at elections) had done them. Damned silly woman.
But, he had also gotten the better of Kendall, Burnham, Cooper and Angela Eagle & Owen Smith.
May made exactly the same mistakes as the Labour centre-left. Everything you have written can have the words "Tories" deleted and the words "Labour moderates" put in its place
https://twitter.com/georgeeaton/status/912972613709963265
The transition to 2021 is instructive on that but it requires (a) the A50 deal + transition to go through in time for March 2019, and (b) the permanent deal to be in place before that transition ends, so that HMG can declare some measure of political victory upon, and start to build a new consensus around.
It's still odds against, but they can then go into that election as the 'safe' option with (one hopes) a more competent, optimistic and inspiring leader than May.
I'm sure all the other EU27 equivalent departments are 100% accurate, efficient and perfect all the time.
We may be the worst, we need to improve, but it will never be perfect and error free, humans are involved (on both sides of the equation).;
2) What an idiot, have you seen the shoes he's wearing? Red and white, they should be red only, as all the stylish people wear red shoes.
It has been a depressing time for Tories like me since June 23rd 2016.
The Shadow Chancellor actually said he’s preparing for a run on the pound if he gets elected, and that he’s not afraid to implement currency controls. We all need to think about that for a moment.
When those same people try to make a doom-laden case based on economics, it is always worth bearing that in mind.
Of course, that works both ways as well.
He has managed to reawaken and empower a load of hard left marxists and anti-Semites.
Instead we got Corbyn’s rhetoric that appeared to say everyone can buy cheap houses yet inherit expensive ones - when the only housing he would actually build would be council housing for rent.
Theresa May 'asleep at the wheel' as US slaps 220% tariff on Bombardier jet imports.
Jeremy Corbyn - Prime Minister In Waiting #Lab17
Though actually I was one of the few posters here who thought their social care scheme an improvement. Not as good as the work that the LDs had done in coalition, but progress.
Alastair describes Brexit as a second order issue. I don't quite agree but the Tories need to show they have a wider and positive vision for the country they aspire to rule.
In other news I am just off to the Oval for the ODI as a birthday treat to myself.
1) The run on the pound that follows a Corbyn Premiership.
2) Emma Dent-Coad's bull poop on Prince Harry and others wanting to guillotine The Royals.
Oddly 2) seems to be more damaging for Labour than 1)
But Emma Dent-Coad's not all bad, she got rid of the horrendous Victoria Borwick.
However, what is surreal is the thought that a hard line Marxist like Corbyn with his cult following is anywhere near to power, especially with a best PM rating yesterday of 29%.
We have to accept that the existing political crisis is going to continue for at least the next 2 to 3 years and hope that the conservative party does not act so stupidly to trigger another election with all the risks that would entail