The last time Labour fought a general election campaign on a true ‘left-wing’ manifesto was in 1983. It was an unmitigated disaster.
The manifesto itself was dubbed as ‘The longest suicide note in history’ by the Labour MP the late Gerald Kaufman and other commentators.
Now in 2017, Labour is fighting this year’s general election with the most ‘left’ manifesto since then. But will the result be as disastrous for Labour this time round as it was in 1983?
Firstly, the reason Labour lost badly in ’83 was not necessarily because of it’s manifesto but perhaps more because it was seen as a divided and disunited party at that time.
Sounds familiar? Well, yes and no. There has certainly been plenty of division in Labour’s parliamentary party this time round before Teresa May called the election, but not so much since then in the party’s election campaign itself.
As I remember it back in ’83, Denis Healey, James Callaghan and other party bigwigs were, in the middle of the election itself, openly challenging the party’s manifesto policies, notably the cancellation of Trident and the like.
Michael Foot 1983
This time round there is no policy of nuclear disarmament to criticize, but there are plenty of other policies which totally buck the trend of what the political establishment regard as acceptable, including some of those Labour MP’s who tried to remove Corbyn and stop the left not so long ago.
Why is this? Maybe because the alternative of Teresa May’s own particular brand of Toryism really is that much more frightening? Or because they can see Labour’s new manifesto has proved to be quite popular?
Corbyn 2017
Whatever the reason, it does not look like Labour is heading towards the kind of disaster it did the last time it stood on a Left-wing platform all those years ago. At least at the time of writing this, it does not look like it.
Equally though, Labour may not actually win either. If there is any clear winner at all.
But then these days in the world of politics it seems like anything could happen….
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