Not the Messiah: Why Labour Lost

More than any UK election before, this election was a contest of personalities, or rather avatars. Bombastic British Bulldog Boris Vs Calamitous Commie Corbyn or Obiwan Conorbyn Vs Jabba the Shite.

While I agree unequivocally that serial liar, shameless coward and moderate sociopath Boris Johnson is more unsuitable to the role of prime minister than any candidate from the two main parties in this or the last century, the Disneyfication of the contest did the progressive cause no favours.

It was the cult of Corbyn as much as a fantasy version of the Brexit Boris might deliver which lost this crucial election. An election which has rewarded the Tories for nine years of appalling stewardship, ideological austerity and ripping the social fabric apart over the once purely internal party dispute over EU membership. Labour and the country needed a progressive pro-EU leader from 2016 to counter the fantasy narrative Leave voters were sold and to represent Remainers who were by 2018 a majority. Instead we had Eurosceptic, 7/10, Article 50-triggering Corbyn and a fan-base who refused to acknowledge this was a significant problem.

Fantasy and tribalism fuelled the cult of Corbyn as well as creating a mythology around Brexit and the EU which bore little in common with reality. Facebook facilitated both of these and as one simple step to improve our…