[Arrowhead]

I've only just noticed that North Warwickshire - a seat which the Tories claimed from Labour by a margin of just 54 votes in 2010, and which was therefore Ed Miliband's #1 target seat as recently as 2015 - now boasts a fully gammonised Tory majority of virtually 18,000. Absolutely desperate stuff for Labour.

And therein lies the great existential threat to Labour, as evidenced by the sort of numbers we saw recently in places such Mansfield and especially in their former Scottish heartlands; namely that once voters get a taste for voting for a different party, they often stick with their choice from that point onwards.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Hard to see what shifts the Tories from that position in North Warwickshire. Even going over the No Deal edge, which I don't think is likely anyway. With Farage out of the game, they can get any old bollocks through and make it out it's a triumph. Poor decision making is a slow burner, and Johnson can stick the shortfall on the national debt and tell Labour "you lot wanted to spend £500bn more" or something.

[The Red Arrow]

Could have dropped this elsewhere, but here's an interesting post mortem perspective from the New York Review of Books.

The Center Blows Itself Up: Care and Spite in the ‘Brexit Election’
David Graeber
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/01/1 ... -election/

[youngian]

Could have dropped this elsewhere, but here's an interesting post mortem perspective from the New York Review of Books.

The Center Blows Itself Up: Care and Spite in the ‘Brexit Election’
David Graeber
https://www.nybooks.com/daily/2020/01/1 ... -election/

A lot to unpack there. He doesn’t reflect on Corbyn’s inability to do his job and leaves out Theresa May and her pitiful role in this national tragedy. Her refusal to lead and reach an EEA compromise over Brexit is what has left the nation at loggerheads. And contempt for the irritating pen pushers is nothing new.

[The Weeping Angel]

Having read it strikes me as an attempt to let Corbyn off the hook, ignores his personal failings and just how toxic he was on the doorstep and instead lays the blame on the Centrists.

[youngian]

It’ll be useful to know why they stayed at home before everyone paints their viewpoint onto a blank canvass. I’ll have a go anyway; Labour Leave voters who can’t stand Corbyn but Brexit’s not a deal breaker enough to put a twat like Johnson into No 10. And Labour Remainers who can’t stand Corbyn but are going nowhere near the LDs who are a wasted vote in their seat anyway.

Confidential Labour election report reveals 1.2m party voters just stayed at home

The Labour Party lost 2.6m voters between the 2017 and 2019 general elections, a major internal report has found.

Around 750,000 former supporters switched to the Lib Dems while a similar number went to pro-Brexit parties, primarily the Tories. https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/politics/ ... s-21389293