On the generally poor performance of left wing parties in Europe:
This is why I believed despite all the negative polling that Corbyn would perform better than a more centrist Labour candidate, I just didn't think that had enough popular appeal left in the country.
Not sure the pro Brexit aspect alone really explains it.
It would be interesting to see how the Labour coalition would break down in terms of support were the UK to have a PR system. In Spain, for example, PSOE and Podemos combined have a level of support similar to Labour's here. A couple of years ago, Podemos was outpolling PSOE, but now that has been reversed. My guess is that you might see a similar dynamic in the UK - but until we get a voting system that actually gives people a positive reason to vote for parties we are not going to know.
Yes, I agree. I've always supported PR, and now that opinion is so splintered the FPTP system is not fit for purpose - it forces quite disparate groups into artificial alliances defined mainly by who they jointly dislike, so you get fractious and negative politics, instead of people arguing for what they'd actually like.
My guess is that there is at the moment a left-of-centre majority in Britain, but it's difficult to win with it because the centrists are wary of the left and the left retain unhappy memories of some of Tony Blair's policies. Wheher an Umunna-Corbyn coaliion in a PR world would work is another matter...
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My guess is that there is at the moment a left-of-centre majority in Britain, but it's difficult to win with it because the centrists are wary of the left and the left retain unhappy memories of some of Tony Blair's policies. Wheher an Umunna-Corbyn coaliion in a PR world would work is another matter...