And I will make the point again that I think 2024 should have been another big realignment election, but the split of the right-wing vote meant we gained lots of our former seats on tiny vote shares – and that has played into a destructive socially conservative 'Labour heartlands' narrative

I got this particular analysis from @stephenkb.bsky.social , but I like to think I've injected it with the venom that comes from actually having to exist inside this bloody party

Most of the liberal centre/centre-right voters moved over anyway out of disdain for the Tories' drift to the right.

But 'what does this mean for the voters of Rushcliffe?' never seems to feature in the narrative. A whole swathe of groundbreaking '24 Labour gains just completely overlooked.

This government's platform is 2015 Milibandism, warts and all: anti-immigration, anti-aspiration, excessively statist, drunk on industrial nostalgia, endlessly prevaricating on tax and spend

What was so odd about the Powell–Phillipson deputy leadership race, on reflection, was that the two candidates basically had the same political philosophy.

So you have Powell doing 'this isn't what we wanted' while Phillipson protests 'but we're doing everything you said you wanted'.

I do think we've reached the point now where this stuff is going to backfire on them massively within the party.

They've taken it too far, they've lost all pretence of being pragmatists or electoralists.

Notable how many Blue Labour figures have spent all their adult lives in London and their assumptions about what the core Labour vote elsewhere is and was is based primarily on ignorance and snobbery.

I suppose, the difference is that Wilson's approach did have roots in how Labour's voters actually felt at the time, rather than being a hallucination

Idk, the first Wilson government's approach to immigration was a lot like this!

But you're right insofar as this government is all very 'class of 2010'

The UK is still the end of the line though. If you've risked everything to get to the UK, why would you then risk the same journey again to go back to France?

That's just geography. If you want to get to the UK from the south the easiest way is to go through France. There are no regions of humanitarian crisis or extreme poverty to the UK's north.

It's also a brilliant showcase for Julie Walters as a serious actress – two years prior to Educating Rita

It asks the question: what if you met the love of your life, but your own inner sadness made living with them too painful to bear?

'traditionally' – i.e. only since 2015!

Agree on your other points though

Look, I'm in favour of creating a new department to absorb the short-term expenditure review function of the Treasury and the Civil Service management function of the Cabinet Office (like Canada, Australia and Ireland) – but that's not the same as abolishing the Treasury

And in the Runcorn and Helsby by-election the Lib Dems only got 2.88% of the vote