#107 Corbyn Crumbles - a podcast by Tom OBrien

This week my friend James returns to the show to talk about his experience of being a Labour member, Momentum canvasser, and radical marxist during the election. We also discuss our opinions on the fallout from the election, what were the strategic and tactical failings, and a return to Marx’s critique of politics.

The articles mentioned are:

The Ipsos Data:
https://www.ipsos.com/sites/default/files/ct/news/documents/2019-12/general-election-2019-poll-aggregate-v8.pdf

The Ashcroft Data:
https://lordashcroftpolls.com/2019/12/how-britain-voted-and-why-my-2019-general-election-post-vote-poll/

The Datapraxis Data:
https://www.dataprax.is/tory-landslide-progressives-split

LSE Media Analysis:
https://blogs.lse.ac.uk/politicsandpolicy/bbc-election-night-and-systemic-media-bias/

Loughborough University Centre for Research in Communication & Culture Reports:
https://www.lboro.ac.uk/news-events/general-election/

These two journal articles, both published before the election, are helpful in terms of analysing the longer term sociological and class factors at play and contextualising what happened in the so-called ‘Red Wall’ seats:

Brexit and the working class on Teesside: Moving beyond reductionism - Luke Telford, Jonathan Wistow:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/0309816819873310

The class politics of prejudice: Brexit and the land of no‐hope and glory - Mckenzie:
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1111/1468-4446.12329

Edmund Griffiths in three parts - very good stuff:
http://www.edmundgriffiths.com/greatleap.html
http://www.edmundgriffiths.com/brexitwqwa.html
http://www.edmundgriffiths.com/notmentioningwar.html

Boffy in three parts - as ever - some keen insights:
https://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/why-labour-lost.html
https://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/healing-no-hope-part-1-of-2.html
https://boffyblog.blogspot.com/2019/12/healing-no-hope-part-2-of-2.html

The Lewis Baston piece that nuances the narrativised ‘Red Wall’:
https://thecritic.co.uk/the-myth-of-the-red-wall/

Interesting analysis from Callum Cant:
https://notesfrombelow.org/article/understanding-our-defeat

Adam Ramsey in Open Democracy with a good overview:
https://www.opendemocracy.net/en/opendemocracyuk/dont-blame-corbyn-or-brexit-labour-failed-to-fight-our-broken-politics/

Useful Graund piece from Aditya Chakrabortty:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/14/labour-meltdown-decades-govern-votes

Chakrabortty also discussed many of the issues he highlights in his Graund piece at length just prior to the election with the comrades at Desolation Radio:
https://soundcloud.com/desolationradio/assessing-corbynism-with-aditya-chakrabortty-chakrabortty

Useful reflections from the Doorsteps of Bridgend, a seat that fell:
https://medium.com/@DrDanEvans/reflections-from-the-doorstep-e4337513d909

Tietze on his anti-pol beat, as usual - some very perceptive stuff:
https://left-flank.org/2019/12/13/anti-politics-the-last-gasp-of-british-labourism/

One of the clearest, most concise, and persuasive pieces articulating this position from Paul O’Connell:
https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/why-we-lost-how-we-win

Phil BC on the working class politics of Brexit:
http://averypublicsociologist.blogspot.com/2019/12/the-working-class-politics-of-brexit.html

Andy Beckett trying to positive spin it in the long view:
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2019/dec/19/left-labour-michael-foot-tony-blair

Further episodes of From Alpha To Omega

Further podcasts by Tom O'Brien

Website of Tom O'Brien