Things keep getting worse for Labour | 4 September 2008

Martin Bright’s politics column in The New Statesman this week is absolutely essential reading. He points out that Miliband has to challenge soon or he too will be seen as a bottler, that Labour still can’t agree on how to challenge Cameron and that the Cabinet simply aren’t use to operating in such tough times—none of them have governed during a recession. But I think it is this point which is perhaps most important:

“The Labour Party is in an unprecedented crisis. If it carries on as it is, it will lose the next election by a landslide. The consequences could be worse even than those that followed the election defeats of 1983 and 1987, because no one realistically expected Labour to win them. The next UK general election should have been a closely fought contest and the recriminations within Labour for a heavy defeat will be severe.”