John Harris Articles

Twenty-nine per cent of the vote – and it could have been worse if Cameron hadn’t run such a rubbish campaign. Twenty-nine per cent! Barely one point more than Michael Foot’s Labour party got in 1983, and we didn’t even have a historically-long suicide note as an excuse.

In a recent article, Neal Lawson and John Harris argue that the Labour party must take up a ‘New Socialism’ that better fits the times we live in. To be sure, times have changed since the early days of New Labour and particularly since the recession, and we must adapt accordingly. But New Socialism isn’t the solution.

Twenty-nine per cent of the vote and it could have been worse if Cameron hadn’t run such a rubbish campaign. 29 per cent! It’s up there (or down there, if you like) with the Swedish Social Democrats on 30 per cent, the German SPD on 23 per cent and the Dutch PvdA on 20 per cent. This is not coincidence.