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Originally Posted by Damien
True also the Tories are relatively moderate anyway so it's not quite clear how they could position themselves to be different enough. I think that while the SDP didn't quite work New Labour showed that there is room for that kind of left-wing party (or 'Red Tories' as their critics dismiss them as) and if Old Labour won't provide it then maybe the new party could?
It's difficult though because the conventional left/right axis isn't there anymore imo. In England it seems to come down to minor quibbles over the exact amount of public spending that we should make but other than that are there any major dividing lines in English politics? No one is threatening the concept of the NHS seriously. No one really wants to raise taxes to a radical degree. No one cares too much about military spending. Education doesn't seem to cause division. The EU causes issues but there will be a referendum on that and i don't think it moves many votes.
I think the biggest issue is Scottish Nationalism and actually Corbyn might actually help us there. I think it would be interesting to see how the SNP deal with Labour coming at them from the left. There is a big difference between the SNP's rhetoric and their policies. They might find themselves unstuck if they lost the perception of being the left-wing heroes of Scotland.
Maybe Labour's best hope is to elect a moderate and hope the Tories lose the election themselves. That's pretty much how the Tories got in anyway. We just seem to elect parties on competence rather than ideology....
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That's what happened in 1997 when we were all hacked off with sleazy Tories and accordingly voted for 'whiter than white' Bliar who promised to be better. Maybe we have to get used to the idea that elections are lost rather than won. As much as I detest Labour, I also hate the idea that another party might be able to stay in power simply because there's no credible opposition.