Cheers - the point here though, and both SP and Oldfordie have touched upon it, is that the Brown government was blamed for the crash of 2007. They were blamed by the Tories and were also blamed by the right wing press. But why didn't Labour make a convincing case for not causing the crash? Well, I think that, whilst the crash did start in the US, it was inherent and fundamental flaws in the neoliberal system that caused the crash. And Labour did not even begin to make this case at all. Why did they give up so easily? To compound this, they appeared to go along with this austerity nonsense and no case was made against austerity (which, as we all know, has devastated many peoples lives) at the 2015 GE. And this is one of the main reasons why the Labour Party are simply not trusted by the electorate on the economy.
A month before the GE, Rachel Reeves said that Labour did not want to represent those who were out of work and that they were going to be tougher than the Tories on people on benefits. Two years on, Labour still can't figure out why many in the Labour 'heartlands' are now potentially looking elsewhere. When you are backing further cuts solely because you believe that this is what people want, I think it is fair to say that you have lost direction. 'Cutting the deficit every year' is an absolute nonsense and it was on Page 1
The Labour Party is a mess, the Left is a mess, the centre ground has been rejected and is no longer a suitable response to the lurch to the right that we are witnessing. My fear is that Labour would have gone further to the right after the last GE if somebody more 'moderate' had been elected. I'm not a huge fan of Corbyn and if there was somebody else to take over and continue the direction that he is going in (anti-austerity, anti-neoliberal, support for public services, increased nationalisation) then I would be happy to see that person step in. But the direction is the correct direction in my opinion. We've had almost 40 years of destructive and unchallenged neoliberal policy and it is not going to be turned around over night.
The centre ground is over and was as good as over in 2007 with the crash and there will be no return to it in the near future. Labour's vote has fallen steadily since 97 until it was finally decimated in 2015. That was as good as rejection of the centre as you can hope for. Labour then had a choice, more left, more right or more of the same. The membership chose more left and the PLP appeared to choose more of the same. And here we are now.
The reason I ask about the crash of 2007 and Labour not being able to make a case about being blamed for it by the press is that there are clear similarities here now to the current Labour Party. Labour were the standing government then with a full decade of government behind them, with friends in high places, yet the press ensured that they were slaughtered for the crash even though we all know that the crash was caused by much bigger forces. Labour were unable to make this case in 2008 onwards because they knew that they would not win the argument. What has changed since then?
And I agree, Labour are clearly not the Tories and those hit hardest by the cuts would simply not be hit as hard no matter what strain of Labour government was in charge. But Labour weren't clear enough about this and deliberately muddied the waters when it came to some of the most needy in our society. That can never be allowed to happen again. There are huge issues to face up to from the rise of the right, to automation and joblessness, the ever increasing amount of tax evasion and, the biggest of them all, climate change. And for this reason, we cannot continue sleepwalking towards a neoliberal led catastrophe - Labour has to be clear and confident about what it does and offer a real alternative.
And I didn't mention Iraq once