Labour isn’t working

This PoliticsHome poll about ‘progressiveness’ hasn’t been picked up much, but it makes dreadful reading for the government. The Tories and Lib Dems were tied first for the prize of being considered the most progressive party. A mere 12% thought that Labour was the most progressive party, and they finished fourth behind the Greens.

It’s clear that Labour’s response to Progressive Conservatism isn’t working. The poll demolishes the government’s lazy assumption that progressive politics is exclusively the property of the left. That assumption informed Mandelson’s barbs about “political cross-dressing”, and his strategy that had everything to do with personalities and nothing to do with policy. Also, that these results were produced at the height of the Daniel Hannan fiasco suggests that few are buying the government’s claim that the Tories are “two faced” and will take a scalpel to the NHS.