Facing the Flak
Rafael Behr had a thoughtful piece in The Guardian the other day in which he argued that the Labour will never find its way back into government until the party faces up to its obvious problems in terms of public perception.
Some of the more glaring problems suggest that Labour is regarded as:
- the party of benefits
- the party of uncontrolled immigration
- the party of left-liberal tastes
- the party of sectional interests, irrelevant to the majority
Which is something that Jeremy Corbyn and the new Labour leadership seem unwilling to concede.
http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/may/25/labour-answers-lie-in-losses-not-victories
Labour’s answers lie in its losses, not its victories
By Rafael Behr - The Guardian
For years the party has been stuck in a torpid Edzone. It must break out and listen to those who feel it’s abandoned them
For years the party has been stuck in a torpid Edzone. It must break out and listen to those who feel it’s abandoned them
‘Naushabah Khan, Labour’s unsuccessful candidate in Rochester, writes eloquently about the party’s loss of relevance to many of its former voters there.’ Photograph: Antonio Olmos for the Observer
Abraham Wald, a mathematician by trade, knew nothing about aviation or the British Labour party when he fled Austria in 1938. But he did know about numbers and his insights there can posthumously help Her Majesty’s opposition in 2016 – via a problem solved for the US Air Force in the 1940s.
The problem involved defensive armour. Planes needed it, but too much weighed them down. So officers surveyed battle-scarred aircraft returning from European sorties and tallied the bullet holes on different sections. They saw that the fuselage was taking the most flak, more than the engine, and were poised to stick the armour on accordingly – and erroneously.
Abraham Wald, a mathematician by trade, knew nothing about aviation or the British Labour party when he fled Austria in 1938. But he did know about numbers and his insights there can posthumously help Her Majesty’s opposition in 2016 – via a problem solved for the US Air Force in the 1940s.
The problem involved defensive armour. Planes needed it, but too much weighed them down. So officers surveyed battle-scarred aircraft returning from European sorties and tallied the bullet holes on different sections. They saw that the fuselage was taking the most flak, more than the engine, and were poised to stick the armour on accordingly – and erroneously.
