Philip Collins in today’s Times -
“Frankly, anyone who ever thought Jeremy Corbyn would be prime minister doesn’t know what they are doing. The mysterious one-off election of 2017 blinded the Labour left into the belief that all the rules of British politics had been repealed and that it was now possible to win from the left. They haven’t and it is not; the Labour Party never wins when the left is in control.
In fact, the Labour Party does not win very often no matter who is in control. Since 1979 there have been 28 years of Tory government, which will stretch to 32 by 2024, and only 13 years of Labour, all of which were won by Tony Blair, the unperson. By 2024 Labour will have been out of power for 14 years.
In peace-time Labour has only found, in Harold Wilson and Tony Blair, two winners. Since 1945 Labour has had 11 leaders, of whom three have won elections (Attlee, Wilson and Blair). Attlee and Wilson also lost elections and so join the seven other losers (Gaitskell, Callaghan, Foot, Kinnock, Brown, Miliband and Corbyn) in Labour’s roll call of failure.
The only two who were unbowed were John Smith, who died before fighting an election, and Tony Blair. Of the 13 leaders of the Tory party since 1945, only three have not become prime minister. They were William Hague, Iain Duncan Smith and Michael Howard, all seen off by Blair.”
This is why choosing RLB would be an idiotic thing to do, unless Labour really is content to sit in opposition for the next 10 years.
