Thread by @RFewtrellUK

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There is an argument now that Labour moving to the centre will help Labour get elected next time, like Blair did.

But how sound is this reasoning?

As the Tory party has gone so far to the right, there is now a space in the centre more than there has been for a very long..

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Time. The trouble is, the centre isn't like the one we saw before Blair came to power. The Lib Dems are different and Scotland is different. The 'Labour heartlands' are different. The Blair era changed opinions. The Financial Crash changed things.
When Blair moved..

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To the centre, it worked briefly but the progressive vote split. The left fractured with Labour voters switching to the Lib Dems & Greens, and many traditional Labour voters not bothering to vote (see 2005 very low turnout). In 2005 I did a research project at uni to find

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Out why the turnout was so low. We called our project 'A Greyer Shade of Grey'. Says it all really. It even got a mention on the regional news. Too many people now believed politicians were 'all the same'.

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The only positive movement the left has seen since the landslide of Blair in 1997, is the massive Labour vote increase in 2017. Corbyn, in 2017, was quite successful (in a cynically times snap election) in reuniting the left half of the electorate. The Lib Dems did not

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See a resurgence, just like they didn't in 2019. Their brand is now firmly rooted to the right of Labour, when, in its heyday, many saw it as to the left.

So where should the centre of gravity be for Labour now?

Given the 2017 success, the future for Labour is to

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Embrace 'the centre' by winning them over to Labour's current direction of travel - in particular Green Industrial Revolution, state investment, scrapping tuition fees & NHS marketization.. future focused policies.
This is working with those of working age. The future

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Electorate is with us. The older half is not.
We win the argument through getting into our communities and campaigning on these issues that matter. By pushing simple messages about the economy, NHS, education etc straight away.
The mainstream media will attack us, we

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Know that, but events over the next 5 years will be very hard to spin.
The fragmentation of U.K. Politics means the bell curve of voters that Blair exploited no longer exists. Cross sectional issues like Brexit and Scotland have changed that.
If Labour moves rightwards

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It may feel like it's getting an easier time in the media, there may be a feeling that the seize has eased, but it will be fake, because Labour will lose what makes it Labour - its soul, its ideas, its collectivism and solidarity. It will lose the young. The teenagers on

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Climate strikes, many of whom will be able to vote in 2024, facing huge tuition fees if they want to study at uni. It will lose their highly motivated activist base, the enthusiasm.

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Labour won't win by moving to meet some voters in the centre, it will win by moving the centre. It will win by winning the argument and by capitalism on events that show we need Labour's future orientated solutions.

2017 showed us that.

/END

Ps please excuse the typos, the toddler was trying to climb me!